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Everyday Machines

Everyday Machines opens up the machines a family touches every day. Each week is one object: how a zipper's hooks lock, how a key lifts the pins in a lock, what a faucet's washer does, how a toilet flushes, what a light switch opens and closes, why a fridge door seal grabs, how a fridge moves heat out, what a thermostat decides, what a pen's spring does, how a car moves and how an elevator lifts. Kids look closely, take apart one approved item, run one fair test, draw a cutaway and explain the machine in their own words with Rocket, Raven and Nova. For K to 5 with a grown-up reading along. Nothing is plugged in, and a grown-up handles anything hot, sharp or heavy. Saturday is Machine Day with the family.

• Name the parts of a home machine and the job each part does
• Explain how a shape or a material suits a job: a wedge, a screw, a washer, a magnet
• Describe a circuit as a loop that a switch opens and closes
• Explain that heat moves from warm to cold and how a fridge and a thermostat use that
• Run one fair test, record the result and say what happened
• Draw a cutaway and explain how a machine works in your own words