Valentine Science: Cupid's Target Practice

This fun investigation is the last of the five in the Valentine Science pack. (You can read more about the other 4 activities in earlier blog posts from this week.) This one plays on the idea of Cupid and the arrows he uses to help people fall in love. Since helping people fall in love is a pretty important job, Cupid should probably do a little target practice, right?

The Investigation

This activity provides a hands-on opportunity to talk about energy, force, motion, and air pressure. Through repeated trials, students learn how different amounts of air affect the balloon’s speed and distance when moving along the fishing line. If you have time to extend the activity, you can set up racing lanes, challenging student teams to hit their “target” first. It’s a lot of fun!

Lesson Materials

Teacher directions, student recording sheets, a science explanation sheet, and photos are all included in the pack of investigations.

Related Resource

It dawned on me (after several kids with confused expressions asked, “Who’s Cupid?”) that I needed a simple book about the tiny little mascot of Valentine’s Day. I created this text with 1st and 2nd graders in mind. It includes two pages that invite student interaction, several traceable sight words, nonfiction text features, and key vocabulary such as legend, proved, and celebrate. You can preview the pages by clicking the image below.