Last night we read the fable “The Crow and the Pitcher”
A crow, half-dead with thirst, came upon a Pitcher which had once been full of water; but when the Crow put its beak into the mouth of the Pitcher he found that only very little water was left in it, and that he could not reach far enough down to get at it. He tried, and he tried, but at last had to give up in despair. Then a thought came to him, and he took a pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. At last, at last, he saw the water mount up near him, and after casting in a few more pebbles he was able to quench his thirst and save his life.
Moral of the story: “LITTLE BY LITTLE DOES THE TRICK.”
The story in itself is a nice little lesson, but being the geek intellect that I am, I decided this was the perfect oppurtunity to teach the kids about displacement. Parker and Sophie thought it was very cool and wanted to repeat the experiment. So what all did we learn from this? Literature, a moral, history (Archimedes), science, and standard of error (repeating of experiments to see if we get the same results). Pretty good for an impromptu lesson!
