One little pumpkin

Pumpkins abound this time of year with Jack-o-lanters, pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins and even pumpkin coffee! Before carving up your pumpkin, take a few moments to just observe it with all your senses. This exploration reinforces the five senses and premath skills such as estimating and counting.

Science words: Observe, Describe, Color, Senses, Touch, Taste, Smell, Hear, See, Texture, Temperature

What can you figure out about a pumpkin before carving it up? Before diving in, take a moment to make some predictions. What can you observe about the outside of the pumpkin. How does it feel? How does it look? Can we listen to the pumpkin? Does it smell?

What does the inside of a pumpkin look like? Is it mostly full of seeds or empty? How many seeds do you think are in there? What are our predictions about color, texture, temperature etc.? How can we describe the inside? Cut open the pumpkins. What did you find?

Paper plate pumpkins: Paint one side of a paper plates to match your observations of the outside. Add stems or leaves as needed. While they are drying, dive into the inside of the pumpkin. When the plate is dry, flip your pumpkin plates over and create the inside. You can use paint, yarn, and the actual seeds to show you observations.

How things change. Make Pumpkin pie or pumpkin cookies together. Try the pumpkin from the can before adding anything. What does it taste like? How does cooking change the pumpkin?

Try Pumpkin explorations with apples. You can record your observations on a paper plate as well. Explore the outside and paint or draw what you see. Then cut open the apple and paint or draw what you observe. You can use the actual seeds from the apple or raisins on your creation.

Estimation – You will need a pumpkin and some string or measuring tape.
Ask your child how big they think they are around the middle (their waist) than the pumpkin. Take a string or measuring tape and measure. You can write it down for number recognition if you want. Then ask them if they think they are bigger or smaller around than their pumpkin. What else could they measure around? Are you bigger or smaller than the pumpkin?

Counting – Dry some pumpkin seeds. Write the numbers 1-20 (or 1-10 for younger kids) on small pieces of paper. Pick a number and ask your child to put that number of seeds into a small plastic pumpkin or other container.

Books to explore:
From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer
Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White

Shadows

Shadows are spooky and fun to play with. Candles in pumpkins and flashlights, not to mention glow sticks each cast different sorts of shadows that are great to observe and explore. Candles tend to cast softer shadows that move and dance and Jack-o-lanterns are famous for the shadows they cast from inside a pumpkin. (No need to remind parents to be careful around open flames.)

In the daytime, grab some sidewalk chalk and trace shadows outside. You can trace your own shadow or that of other objects. How do they change over the course of a day (or a playground session!)?

You can capture the shadow of an object by placing it on photosensitive paper or even dark construction paper. Draw what you expect the shadow to look like. Place the paper flat and put a flat object on it - keys, leaves, toys, paper clips, combs, or even paper shapes all work well. Don't move it once on the paper. For photosensitive paper, this happens quickly - just wait for the paper to change color and follow the directions to set. Construction paper (use non-fade resistant) may take longer but watch for the fading on the exposed section. Carefully take the objects off your paper. How do the actual shadows compare to your drawings?

In our Messy Fingers session this week, we also explored the idea of translucent objects. Most objects make solid shadows because the blocked the light completely. Some objects had colored shadows because they let some light through. We tried tissue paper in front of a flashlight and it gave a green shadow - very cool! What other objects are translucent?

Here are some other fun ways to play with your shadow!

Science Words: Light, dark, solid, big, small, translucent

Make a translucent sun catcher: You can purchase a kit at craft stores or make your own. Take two pieces of wax paper, cover one with small bits of tissue paper that overlap, then iron the sheets together. You can hang this as is, cut it into a sun shape, or make a “frame” by cutting a sun shape out of black paper, stapling the wax paper on to it and hanging your sun catcher.

Effects of light: Take a piece of newspaper and cut it in half. If you put one piece outside in a sunny spot and one piece inside in a dark spot, what will happen to them? Check in an hour, in a day, in a week…. What could be making the papers change color?

Shadow tag: Can you tag each other’s shadow? This game is fun to play with a few very bright light sources. You can do the flip and play flashlight tag – can you tag each other with a flash light? Remember: no flashlights in faces.

Shadow Shapes: Before bed, turn out all the lights and pull out a flashlight. Try to make funny shadows shaped like birds or planes with your hands in the light. How does your shadow change when you are close to the light compared to farther away? What if you have two flashlights?

Make Shadow Puppets: You can make different characters cut from coloring books or hand drawn and glue them on to craft sticks. Hold up a sheet or even large piece of butcher paper and shine a bright light toward it. Hold the puppets in front of the light and put on a play with their shadows. You can use colored cellophane or candy wrappers to make colored parts to your puppets.

Books on Shadows:
What makes a Shadow? Clyde R. Bulla
Bear Shadow by Frank Asche
The shape of Me by Dr. Seuss

Along came a spider...

This was one of the participants in today's Messy Fingers class. We looked at some real live spiders and discovered many cool things. We learned about the body parts of a spider - Abdomen, Cephalothorax (head), 8 legs, 2 Pedipalps, and 8 eyes.

We also made our own webs. This was really hard. Each child got a paper plate with 8 holes punched along the outer edge and a piece of yarn. We taped one end to the back of the plate and then wove our structural strands to form a star. Then we took another piece of yarn, tied it to the star and wove. Keeping your web together was tricky.

To check to see if we remembered our anatomy, we made thumb print spiders with our thumb as the abdomen, a finger print cephalothorax, 8 legs, and 8 eyes.

If you are in the area, check out our web in the craft room!

Science Words: first, second, more, less, weave, predator, prey, spider, insect

What do spiders eat? Not all spiders spin webs. Some are hunters like tarantulas. Go on a bug hunt and pretend to be a hunting spider. Search your back yard for yummy insects to eat! Who can find the most? Who can find the biggest bug?

Webs: Make some fun spider webs using glitter glue and construction paper. You can draw or trace a web onto black or dark colored paper with chalk or a white pen. Then trace over it with glitter glue. Wait for the moisture in the glue to evaporate and you have a sparkly web. You can add a plastic spider before the glue dries.

Go on a Web hunt: Search your yard for spider webs. If you mist a web softly with water from a spray bottle, a web will pop into view. Try –ever so gently- tickling the web with a piece of grass. A spider might come out to see what they’ve “caught” in their web.

Song:
Itsy Bitsy Spider

Books:
Itsy Bitsy Spider by Iza Trapani
The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle
Charlotte’s Web by E B White – this is great read aloud

Snacks:
Marshmallow Spiders For each spider, use one large marshmallow for the body and one small marshmallow for the head (attach with 1/2 a toothpick). Make eyes from mini M&Ms, legs from pretzel sticks. Cover with chocolate sauce, if desired.
This came from a great website with other fun snack ideas: http://www.kinderkorner.com/spiders.html

Seeds

There are three ways that seeds travel: air, water, and animals. Seeds that travel through the air are lots of fun to play with and this time of year is a great opportunity to check out seeds together. We usually think of seeds in the spring when we plant our gardens, but trees and many wildflowers make large, easy to find seeds right now!

As the trees stop making food and prepare for the winter, acorns and helicopters like those above will come down along with the colorful leaves. Try dropping some maple helicopters - do they spin better with one or two seeds? Here's one you can make at home. You can try different types of paper or adding more paper clips to make it spin better.

At the library on Tuesday, we dropped them from the balcony much to the delight not just of the participants, but of the library patrons as well. Then we constructed our own seeds using recycled materials. We made seeds that floated on air like dandelions, seeds that had hooks like burs and even one that was supposed to float like a boat.

Science Words: Magnify, Grow, Outside, Inside, Float, Similar, Different

Here are some ideas for you to try at home.

Go on a Seed Walk – put an old pair of socks on over your shoes or put on bracelets of tape with the sticky side out. Take a walk thru a meadow or meadow-like area. What seeds attached themselves to you?

Plant a seed together. You can plant some Indian Corn seeds or bean seeds on damp paper towels. This is a fun way to watch a plant grow. What different parts of a plant to you observe? You can also sprout birdseed on a sponge. Sprinkle birdseed on a sponge in a small container. Keep the sponge moist and the seeds will continue to grow.

Make a seed mosaic. Grab some glue and a few beans, rice, grains, and even pasta to make a picture with the seeds. What is different about the seeds? What is similar?

Seeds for dinner? What seeds do you eat? Can you make a meal of them? Some ideas:
Corn is a seed – corn bread, Johnny cakes, polenta
Most nuts are seeds – cashew butter, walnuts, sunflowers
Grains are seeds – wheat, barley, oats

~Thanks to birds eye view at flicker for the great photo!

Corny Fun

Don't let the word science hold you back. While you are worried about science, your preschooler is already discovering, making observations about the world, and collecting information about how everything works. Join them in their discoveries and make a few of your own.

As fall harvests come in, we are seeing an abundance of corn - for eating and decorating. This is a perfect opportunity to encourage your child to explore with all their senses with a safe and easy to find subject: Corn! If you can find corn stalks with the corn still attached, this makes for a really interesting and noisy exploration of the parts of a plant. The silk on the top of corn is the flower - collecting the pollen from the wind and transporting it to the embryos or corn kernels (seeds).

Science Words: More, Less, Magnify, Grow, Outside, Inside, Float, Similar, Different

Pop Corn - measure out an amount of unpopped corn together. Make a prediction about how big the pop corn will be after it is popped. For example, if you start with a half of cup of unpopped corn, how many cups will you have after it has popped? What made the corn pop? (The moisture in the kernel is heated up and expands - popping the outer kernel when it gets too big to be held in.)

Go on a Seed Walk – put an old pair of socks on over your shoes or put on bracelets of tape with the sticky side out. Take a walk thru a meadow or meadow-like area. What seeds attached themselves to you?

Plant a seed together. You can plant some Indian Corn seeds or bean seeds on damp paper towels. This is a fun way to watch a plant grow. What different parts of a plant to you observe?

Make a seed mosaic. Grab some glue and a few beans, rice, grains, and even pasta to make a picture with the seeds. What is different about the seeds? What is similar? This will help kids improve their fine motor skills and sharpen their observation skills.

Corn comparison - Cut in half both a kernel of canned corn and a kernel of Indian corn (you many need to soak it first) and add a kernel of popped pop corn to the pile. Grab a magnifying glass and compare the structure of both kernels. Can you draw what you see? Using a magnifying glass can be tricky - sometimes starting with a bug box can help.

If you want a diagram of the corn kernel - check here: http://bioweb.sungrant.org/NR/rdonlyres/C8D9EEEF-C88E-4FE1-88B5-AA5A59B9CDC1/0/DiagramofCornKernelcopy.gif. The actual names of all the parts is not important but this shows the structure very nicely.

Have a corny dinner. What foods can you eat that come from corn? Polenta, corn bread, Johnny cakes, corn chowder, and more can be made into a corny meal. Try Indian pudding for dessert!

If you have a moment, share what activies you try and how they worked out!

Color

Let's face it, we are visual creatures. We love the shape, shadows and color of objects. Our eyes are build for color vision and given all the colors we wear, paint our houses, choose in our cars, and plant in our flower beds, we love color a lot.


Kids love color and it is an easy way to explore some pretty darn cool science with your favorite preschooler. At the Messy Fingers program at the library we put food coloring into milk (above) then added one drop of soap. The colors mixed and mingled creating a new design each time we looked.

We also used bath color tablets to make primary colors. We used clear egg cartons on white paper to see them nicely and droppers to mix two primary colors at a time to form secondary colors. To record our observations, we put drops of primary colors on to coffee filters and watched where they merged into ... none other than our secondary colors (orange, purple, and green).




Here are some ways to explore color at home.

Eat a rainbow – you can talk about how we should eat all the colors of the rainbow each day to be healthy. What are some of the colors you all like to eat? Can you make a rainbow meal with something from each color?

Jello Rainbow – you can make a rainbow snack with layers of jello. You can get just the primary colors and mix them, but remember that you have to let each layer fully set before adding the next one.

Rainbow Streamer – cut the center out of a paper plate. Add construction paper streamers off of one side in the colors of the rainbow. You can staple or glue them on. Hold it like a tambourine or turn it into a windsock by putting a string thru the hole and hanging it up.

Color Scavenger Hunt – take crayons or small pieces of paper on your next walk. See if you can find something that matches each color. Are primary colors easier to find?

Books:
Mouse Paint by Sue Walsh
Planting a Rainbow by Lois Elhert

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