Mud

This is a natural topic in the summer. Huh? you say! When we run sprinklers or play in pools, water and dirt just find each other and are a great way to explore many science ideas.

Also, clean up is a breeze with the hose!

Science Words: color, texture, wet, dry, evaporation,

Make Mud Bricks: Add a small amount of water to different kinds of dirt and dirt with sticks or leaves. Pack in to a brick mold or some sand toys. Let them dry in the sun for a day or two. Make some predictions about which bricks will be the strongest? How could you test your idea? Unmold them and test your ideas.

What is in the dirt? Put dirt in a kitchen strainer and pour water thru it. What happens? What stays and what goes thru? Now put a coffee filter in the strainer and do the same thing. What is left behind now?

Growing: Do a dirt scavenger hunt in your yard. Gather up some pots and put different kinds of dirt in to each pot. Then put in a seed or plant and see which soil is best for growing plants.

Eat Dirt: Make chocolate pudding and sprinkle the top with crushed chocolate cookies or chocolate graham crackers. Add some gummy worms and you have dirt for lunch!

Compare dirt samples. Make a list of how they are the same. What is different about them.

Soil Layer Discovery: Fill a jar half full of dirt. Add water and fill to full. Close and tighten the lid. Shake the jar vigorously. Set the jar down and let it sit until the dirt settles into layers. Carefully pour off the water and insert a clear straw to take a core sample. Observe the layers.

Mud Pie: Have children measure out different amounts of water to stir into same-size soil samples in pie tins. Observe and discuss the changes in consistency of the pies as more water is added. Note how much water is required before the soil can no longer absorb it and the water pools on top.

Sing:
Mud, mud, mud is fun
Watch us stir it up
Round and round and round and round
Mud is fun to make.
Mud, mud, mud is fun
Listen to it squish
Through our fingers, round our toes
Squish is how it goes

Bread

Any kind of cooking involves chemical changes. Bread is a fun cooking/science project because it involves all the senses and some great teaching opportunities with yeast. If you are of a mind to, you can also make this a cultural lesson as bread changes across ethic groups, social occations, and geographic location.

And you can eat the results!

Science words: bigger, smaller, most, least, rise, yeast, dormant, carbon dioxide, breathe

Make Pizza - make your own dough or buy a dough ball. Split the dough and put one in a warm spot and one in a cooler spot. Which one rises first? Which one rises the most? How does the dough feel when you spread it out?

Yeast - yeast is usually dormant when we buy it at the store. We wake it up with warm water and some food (honey, sugar). Without yeast, bread is a tortilla! How does yeast make bread puffy? Yeast breathes. Ok, they yeast doesn't have lungs like people but they give off carbon dioxide and that is captured in the bread as a bubble.

You can put some yeast, warm water, and honey or sugar in an empty 2l bottle and cover the opening with a balloon. The balloon will inflate, or get bigger, as more of the carbon dioxide is released by the yeast.

Silly songs – music and math stimulate the same part of the brain that is separate from the language centers. So make some music…

(This is from http://www.everythingpreschool.com/)

This Is The Way We Make The Bread
This is the way we make the Bread
Make the Bread, make the Bread
This is the way we make the Bread
To make this Bread for you

This is the way we knead the dough
Knead the dough, Knead the dough
This is the way we knead the dough
To make this Bread for you

Additional Verses:
Mix the dough
Shape the dough
Bake the dough
Eat the Bread

Bread

Bread is such an integral part of all cultures and a good way to explore geopgraphy. But we are here because we love science. So let's do some science!

Yeast is the critter that makes bread rise. Without yeast we'd have sandwiches on flat breads like tortillas or pita breads. Yeast are tiny one-celled fungi humans use to make bread rise and beer bubbly.

When we purchase yeast at the store, it is dormant. We wake it up with warm water and feed it with some sort of sugar.

Go try making bread together and explore the work on yeast!

Science words: bigger, smaller, most, least, rise, yeast, dormant, carbon dioxide, breathe

Bread tasting - gather a handful of different kinds of bread such as rye, pita, whole wheat, or tortillas. Which ones do you think used yeast to grow? Which ones would you guess are the yummiest? Use your sense of smell to explore your guesses - then taste them! Try them plain or toasted - do you still like the same one best?

Make Pizza - make your own dough or buy a dough ball. Split the dough and put one in a warm spot and one in a cooler spot. Which one rises first? Which one rises the most? How does the dough feel when you spread it out?

Silly songs – music and math stimulate the same part of the brain that is separate from the language centers. So make some music…

This Is The Way We Make The Bread
This is the way we make the Bread
Make the Bread, make the Bread
This is the way we make the Bread
To make this Bread for you

This is the way we knead the dough
Knead the dough,
Knead the dough
This is the way we knead the dough
To make this Bread for you

Additional Verses:Mix the dough
Shape the dough
Bake the dough
Eat the Bread

Books:
The Little Red Hen makes Pizza by P. Sturges – great for talking about sequencing – what happens first, second and so on.
Bread, Bread, Bread by Ann Morris