Mondovi, Italy, “land of hot hair balloons”

Giorgia, a young girl of our class is now very passionate about balloons, as well as her mates. She asked her mum to take her to Mondovi, a town located 35 km form the school (it’sin the region of Piemonte, Northern Italy). In Mondovi, on the weekend of 4th-5th-6th January there was the 31st Festival of Hot Hair balloons.

She took many pictures and spent a lovely day with her family!

The attached video is from Youtube: the balloons “dance”with the music of the Queen. Fantastic!

Educational Layout ”Our Flying Town”

Educational Layout ”Our Flying Town”

While children perform the proposed experimental variants with flying balloons, they received scientific knowledge about the effect of air, helium and water in ballooning; learn about colors, sizes, and shapes that balloons can have; develop scientific language skills in telling stories about flying balloons around OUR FLYING TOWN.

Science in Stories with flying balloons

Science in Stories with flying balloons

We create stories with flying balloons and we descovered interesting things about the first hot air balloon.

About Hot air balloon
Source: Wikipedia, free encyclopedia

“The hot air balloon is a type of balloon, usually almost spherical, which, in order to float, uses the fact that the warm air (inside) has a lower density than that of the cooler air (from the outside). It’s the oldest flight technology developed by people. The first free flight of a hot air balloon took place on 21 November 1783 in Paris, France, and was made by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d’Arlandes in a hot air balloon built on December 14,1782 by the Montgolfier brothers. Currently hot air balloons can have the most diverse shapes, ranging from rockets to sausages and bears. Passengers or cargo are transported to a platform that also contains a heat source, most often a burner facing the interior of the tire, releasing flames of up to 6 m in length in order to heat the indoor air. The fuel used for this purpose is propane or a mixture of propane and butane. The normal working pressure is between 5-10 bar. The heated air is directed towards the inside of the balloon tire and causes it to rise because its density is less than that of the outside air.

 

Parachute Game

Parachute Game

Parachute game

Aims: Developing attention and orientation in space.

Required materials: A special colored “parachute” for the game.

Educational game description:
 
The colored material is stretched out and the children have to grasp the ends around it, forming a circle.

Variants of game:

Option 1. We’re under the parachute. At the start, all children raise the parachute, then fall under it and squat.

Option 2. Change location. When the teacher calls out two names, the nominated children must run under the material to change their places between them.

Option 3. Play toy. Above the material lies the Smart Smurf Mascot. The children will throw the saddle up and try to keep it on the material. The game ends when the Smart Smurf falls off.

Option 4. Cat and mouse.
In the middle of the parachute, which is stretched out on the ground, there is a child sitting on the knee with support on hands, which has the role of a cat. The cat runs after the other children, who play the mice, and who stand on the outside limits of parachute until they catch someone who will take their place.

Option 5. Birthday party parachute. The holidaymaker stands in the middle of the “parachute” and the invites sing it “Happy Birthday!”

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