There’s an old saying you might remember.
“March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.”
I think that means March is unpredictable and may have some intense weather. Perhaps even some wind! So we decided to harness that wind power with some wind-powered projects!
First- Wind-Powered Cars
This was somewhat more challenging than you would think! Kids really had to work hard to make the axles and wheels work. They had to turn and catch the wind- from a fan!
Once their cars were working they decided to decorate them. We had race cars, a car driven by Mr. Mustache Man (he’s in one of the photos above), the Pirate Clipper, the Fuzzy Lemons, and so many others. Wind-Powered cars! One of the things the kids had to record on their lab sheets was why on earth you would ever need a car powered by the wind. My favorite answer was,
“Maybe you had no more credit on your debit card to buy gas!”
Wind-Powered Boats
Now, I know what you are thinking…..isn’t that a sailboat? Well, yeah…. But, here’s the thing. I have tried sailboats with kids and we learned a lot and they loved it. But, the focus of that sailboat task was building the boat and the sail. Many of our boats did not float very well and that made the sail not work. So, with this challenge, I gave the kids an unsinkable material for the body of their boats…….
A POOL NOODLE!
That made the task all about creating the best sail! They had to test different shapes and sizes and then use their testing data to build the final sail. My favorite sail they made was called the Human Sail. It looked like a scarecrow.
And Windmills!
Holy WOW! This was so much harder than we thought it would be! I gave them a choice of lots of different round things to be the center wheel of the windmill and then they had to make the blades. Guess what, flat blades don’t work!
The pink one in the above photos worked the best of all of them and it was super cute! The blades were just the right size and bent in just the right way! This one got the prize for being the most color-coordinated and it also worked well!
Here’s a great little movie I made to show some of these challenges in action!
These three challenges work so well during the month of March, but they can be completed in any month of the year. Check the posts below to see more seasonal resources:
