What happens to a birthday candle's smoke right after you blow it out?
Open for the projector Present it step by step
Classroom mode
A question for the whole room
One story to open. A room full of ideas to test.
Ready in three steps
- Open the story.Read and try the first pages together.
- Pause for a prediction.At the story’s question, read its choices aloud. Invite a vote and ask, “What makes you think that?”
- Run it. Watch. Wonder.Choose the class’s prediction, run the experiment, and compare what happened with your guesses.
Different guesses are welcome. The experiment gives everyone something to rethink.
Something to put on paper
A one-page prediction and observation sheet. No answers included.
After the experiment: discussion notes
Talk about what happened
- Predict first: when you hold a lit match in the fresh smoke an inch above the wick, what happens — nothing, a relight, or a big flare? Why?
- Predict first: if you wait five seconds before bringing the match in, does the trick still work? What changed about the smoke?
- Predict first: the flame moves DOWN the trail to the wick. What does that tell you about where the fuel is?
Where it shows up in real life
- Relighting a just-blown-out birthday candle by touching a match to its smoke
- A gas stove burner, where you also burn invisible fuel-gas, not a solid
- The wisp of smoke off a snuffed candle that smells like wax — that smell is the wax fuel itself
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