Science Sunday: Discovering Fingerprints

During our police unit, we learned about fingerprints. Our BJU curriculum suggested we learn about how a detective can lift fingerprints, but I did not have all the supplies on hand. So, I thought we would simply learn about fingerprints themselves.

I often have to remind myself that science lessons that seem easy and mundane to me (we aren't mixing things, cutting up things, or blowing things up) are still very exciting to my little ones who had no idea your fingers had a pattern on their tips-and they are the only ones in the world with those prints!




Using a great little printable I found on homeschoolshare.com, Mustang and Charger made matchbooks of their fingerprints.




Then we used our magnifying glasses to see if our prints had a Loop pattern, Whorl pattern, or an Arch pattern. It was quite difficult to tell with our quality of prints, but the kids had fun trying.

The printable can be found here:

My fingerprints book

We are linked up at Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom.

Science Sunday-Playing With Fire

Okay, so no, we didnt really play with fire lol. But we did learn about fire. This experiment was from our BJU Kindergarten book. The point was to learn what causes a fire to go out.


Waiting to start-check out Mini Cooper's cheesin' it :).



The first part of the experiment was to learn that fire needs fuel to burn. The book suggested we watch a candle burn out-um yeah okay, even a small candle would not hold our attention. So, I took matters into my own hands and used a paper towel. It wouldnt burn!! It would burn for a few seconds and then burn out. Epic fail! I am quite sure the kids didnt understand this part of the experiment.



So on to part two. We (er um I) lit a candle.



Then, we took away its air by placing a jar over the candle-do you see their excitement? Uh huh.



We watched until the candle went out-it didnt take long at all.



For last experiment, we took away the candle's heat and poured water on it.

Then I found out why they had been sitting so quietly. They thought my ideas were all well and good, but they wanted to BLOW OUT the candle! So, we took turns blowing the candle out.





Even Mini tried, but wouldnt get close enough to the candle so we helped her.

All in all, I would the experiment was a success. Not sure exactly what they took away from it, but I thought it provided a good intro into the properties of fire.

To see what other did in their science class check out Science Sunday from Adventures in Mommydom.