Way to go Kindergarten!  You're our experts on materials and their properties!  :)

With Kindergartners experts the many types of materials and the unique properties they have, they are now beginning to design an outfit for a specific season.  If it's hot or cold, dry or wet, they must think about the type of clothing someone would wear and be able to defend why they made their choice!

What better way to see how all the different types of fabric are made than to take it apart?  Kindergartners first learned that fabric can be made from animals (sheep's wool or silkworm's silk), plants (cotton or jute), or oil.  Then they got a piece of burlap to see how it was put together through a weaving process.  They noticed there were threads that went vertically and others than went horizontally.  Putting two and two together, they learned how to weave the threads together to then make their own piece of fabric!

Mrs. Brinza set up the problem...that some kids in her neighborhood wanted her to make superhero costumes for them.  As a class, the kindergartners decided that superheros fly around and run/crawl around small places.  They decided that their costumes should be fitted and not baggy. And in order to make them fitted, they should be tight on their bodies, but stretchy enough to get over their heads.

After learning the properties elastic and inelastic.  Elastic materials stretch and inelastic materials don't.  Kindergartners compared materials that were elastic and inelastic and decided the best materials to make a superhero costume!  Who wants to now help Mrs. Brinza make superhero costumes?  ;-)

What types of curtains do you want in the bedroom where a baby is trying to nap mid-day?  How can we really figure out a way to figure out if we can see through a material or not?  By testing them, of course!

Using a paper that said, "Can you see the letters?" Kindergartners were able to see the differences between various materials.  They determined if the materials were transparent (we can see through it clearly), translucent (you can kind of see through it), and opaque (you can't see through it at all).  They graphed their results to see the quantities they had of each.  

Once Kindergartners determined that some fabrics are absorbent and others are waterproof, they knew Mrs. Brinza was up to no good.  Imagining one day that she would be so clumsy that she spilled her water everywhere, she would need to clean up the spill with the fabric that was the most absorbent!

Creating the absorbency test with Mrs. Brinza, Kindergartners determined that they could measure just how much water a piece of fabric could hold.  Squeezing pipettes of water onto three different fabric samples, they counted the number of squeezes of water the fabric could hold before it appeared in the transparent vial below.  

They graphed their results to see that one fabric could hold three squeezes, another two squeezes, and the last one only one squeeze.  If fabric can hold more squeezes of water, then the fabric is more ______________!  Can you figure it out?  

How can we determine which fabrics have absorbent or waterproof properties?  By testing them of course!  Using dropper bottles filled with water, Kindergartners experimented first hand what happened when various fabrics came in contact with water.  Check out our results!

Shiny, dull.  Transparent, opaque.  Red, blue, colorful.  Soft, rough.  Bumpy, smooth.  Kindergartners worked in teams to classify a set of ten different fabrics.  Each group classified them differently.  How cool!

Kindergartners continue to explore the many properties of fabric.  They are currently working on making fabric collages, highlighting the many types of fabrics there are and the unique properties of each one. 

"This one's bumpy!"  

"This one's rough!"   

"Look at this one!  It's soooo slippery!"

"And this one...it's transparent!"

We've started our next unit on fabric!  Fabric is a technology that is all around us.  It can keep us warm, cool, and even dry.  It also serves a multitude of purposes including help us clean up a spill or celebrate an important part of our culture.

Every type of fabric has its own set of unique properties and is made in a special process from plants, animals, or oil.  Fabric can be slippery, shiny, dull, opaque, transparent, waterproof, absorbent, bumpy, smooth, etc.  As we develop different investigative tests, students will discover why engineers design a particular fabric for a purpose.