P2 - Learning Directions

Learning directions was the activity for yesterday...

First, I explained her about the four directions: North, South, East and West. 

I asked her that did you ever noticed the direction of the Sun... where it rise and how it travels. She said, 'Mummy, In morning it comes in our balcony and in evening it comes in the front door.'

Good that she noticed the direction the Sunrise. Then, I told her "Sun always rise from East and moves in East to West direction". So, now she knew the east direction in our house. With the help of direction chart, she can now tell all the directions. We started playing with directions. 

Like, I asked her in which direction our Kitchen is?  or which direction our study table is? 

She always replied with the correct answer. Very important learning that directions are always respective to your location. Same as left and right, if you change your position, left and right also change.

We bring the India map then. I marked the direction in the map. Then played one more game. I asked her which direction Mausi lives or which direction Nana-Nani lives. Again we both enjoyed the game with great learning.

The fun part to the activity was, I had compass. Matching the red line with N was really a fun activity for her. She also verified that sun tells us the right direction. It really rise from east daily... WOW!!!

We also did an experiment to learn about direction without using compass in a place where we have not seen the Sunrise. We took a water bottle in sun, put it on ground and noted the direction of it's shadow. After 20 min., we again noted the shadow of the bottle. The shadow moved. 

Learning: The shadow of bottle moves in opposite direction of Sun. This means the direction in which Shadow is moving is from West to East.

Now we both know how to tell direction with the help of Sun.

Kids always have lot of questions and after thinking for some time she asked how can someone know direction in night... we don't have Sun in night.

I explained her little about Pole Start / North Start / Dhruv tara. Little about big dipper. It is difficult to explain all that without showing. Unfortunately, we can't see all this in our city because of pollution. She is now more excited to go to Dada's place in July as she can see all this in clear sky there. 

I told her that if you stand facing the north star, you are facing North and behind you is South. 

Great learning for 5 year old. We both enjoyed this learning.