Monday, December 20, 2010
Sense Safari
We went on safari with our five senses - playing with sound and smell matching, color hunts, and making a texture collage. If you want to play along here are some fun ideas:
Touch – Go on a texture hunt at home. Try and find matching textures or try dressing in as many textures as you can .
Sight – Use blocks or cut out shapes from paper in geometric shapes like squares, circles, triangles, rectangles, or rhombuses. Go on a shape hunt around your house.
Taste – Try eating foods while holding your nose. Does that change the way food tastes? Most, as much as 80% of the “taste” of food is the smell. What happens when you have a cold – does food taste as good?
Smell – Try making play dough with different smells.
• 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 (4 g) packages unsweetened Kool-Aid powdered drink mix
• 2 cups boiling water
• 3 tablespoons oil
1. Mix flour, salt, Kool-Aid until blended.
2. Add oil to boiling water, mix with spoon until cool enough to knead.
3. Continue kneading until color is blended.
4. Store in air tight bag or container in the refrigerator.
Sound – Stand with your eyes closed and have someone else ring a bell. Point to it with your finger. Move the bell around and see how easy or hard it is to find. After a few tries, cup your hands around your ears and try again. Is it easier to find the sound now?
Bad Blogger
Yikes - I have been such a bad blogger. For those who don't know me well, I participated in a special writing project in November and perhaps Thirty Days and Nights of Literary Abandon were just too much for me! I haven 't been writing quite as prolifically since December 1. I think I am coming out of my writing fog and am ready to rejoin the blogging on a regular basis.
With great apologies!
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Thanksgiving Fun
While I was going to post about some experiments with air and tossing things off stairs, a lovely friend of mine reminded me that not everyone will be home for the holiday and not every one's in laws are open to traditional Messy Fingers activities! So I am listening to my wise friend and going to post a few fun experiments that have a low mess factor - even for mothers-in-law!
Dancing Raisins - you will need raisins, obviously and a clear carbonated beverage (ginger ale, club soda, champagne, etc.) of your choice and a clear uncarbonated beverage (like water). Make a prediction (guess) about what might happen and what might be different. Try dropping some raisins into each beverage. What happened? Were your guesses right?
Colored Celery - if you are visiting for a few days, snag a stalk of celery with leaves and place it in jar with colored water - try red or blue food coloring and make the water really dark. What is going to happen to the celery?
Friction - you will need straws, cotton balls, crumpled foil, marbles, etc. and an open space (like the table after it has been cleared). Start at one end of your space and try to blow the cotton ball across it. Was it hard or easy? Will a marble (or ping pong ball) be easier or harder? Try it! Generally smoother things have less friction and are easier to move, but a marble is a lot heavier than cotton.
This is a great activity when kids are getting a bit wild as it helps them breath deeply and calm themselves.
Water tension - in a glass or pie plate filled with water, sprinkle some pepper. Then drip a drop of dish soap in to the pepper. What happens? Soap breaks up the water tension on the top of the water.
Regardless of where you are and whose table you are at, have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Dancing Raisins - you will need raisins, obviously and a clear carbonated beverage (ginger ale, club soda, champagne, etc.) of your choice and a clear uncarbonated beverage (like water). Make a prediction (guess) about what might happen and what might be different. Try dropping some raisins into each beverage. What happened? Were your guesses right?
Colored Celery - if you are visiting for a few days, snag a stalk of celery with leaves and place it in jar with colored water - try red or blue food coloring and make the water really dark. What is going to happen to the celery?
Friction - you will need straws, cotton balls, crumpled foil, marbles, etc. and an open space (like the table after it has been cleared). Start at one end of your space and try to blow the cotton ball across it. Was it hard or easy? Will a marble (or ping pong ball) be easier or harder? Try it! Generally smoother things have less friction and are easier to move, but a marble is a lot heavier than cotton.
This is a great activity when kids are getting a bit wild as it helps them breath deeply and calm themselves.
Water tension - in a glass or pie plate filled with water, sprinkle some pepper. Then drip a drop of dish soap in to the pepper. What happens? Soap breaks up the water tension on the top of the water.
Regardless of where you are and whose table you are at, have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Monday, November 22, 2010
December Dates
We are going to be doing some fun things in December. Take a science break from all the holiday mayhem and frolicking and join us!
December 5 - Sense Safari
December 21 - Birds in Winter
Call the library to sign up: 508 865 1181.
Hope to see you there!!
Liquids and solids
Last week we explored Liquids at the library. It was a great time to discuss what are some of the characterists of liquids and solids.
One of the easiest to understand differences between solids and liquids is that solids retain their shape and liquids will take on the shape of the container they are in. If you put a liquid in a round container, they will be round; in a square container they are square.
You can check out what did in this blog here. I would HIGHLY recommend everyone taking the time to make Oobleck with your kids. It is a messy project - one of the messiest (and consider the source!). It is a great way to talk about solids and liquids.
I will post later on what the science plans are in our house on Wednesday. Many schools have a half day of school and for others like us who are not traveling, it is a gift of some extra science time!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Bats!
I love bats - they are so cool. Bats are a lot like people. Both people and bats eat fruit and other animals, take good care of their babies, and have different colors of hair like red, black, brown and gray. My favorite thing about bats is that they can two and a half times their body weight in insects every NIGHT! Go bats!
Bats have a spooky reputation in part because they are excellent fliers. They can swoop and dive in crazy patterns as they try to get their dinner. Vampire bats don't help the bad bat rep either. Vampire bats live in Central America and lick blood rather than suck it. They have sharp lips that make a small cut on the leg of an animal and they drink the blood.
Bats not only can eat loads of bugs, but many bats pollinate plants that we eat like mangos, peaches, and avocados.
Science words: mammal, insectivore, frugivorous, echolocation, nocturnal
Mammal – animals with fur, live young they nurse
Insectivore – an animal that eats insects
Frugivorous – an animal that only eats fruit
Echolocation – using sound waves to locate objects
Nocturnal – an animal that is active at night
Bat food – Bats pollinate lots of plants we eat. Some of them are figs, avocados, bananas, peaches, and mangos. They also pollinate chocolate! Eat a meal that was brought to you by a bat!
Bat headbands – bats have all sorts of ears. Look at pictures of bats and their ears. Make your own set of bat ears
Stellaluna – Stellaluna gets separated from her mother. This is a good story to talk about a plan for what you might do if you were separated. What would you do if you were separated from your mother? Would you eat bugs if a stranger offered you food?
Bats Are Sleeping
(Tune: Frere Jacques)
Bats are sleeping,
Bats are sleeping,
Upside down,
Upside down.
Sleeping in the morning.
Waiting for the night to come.
To fly around.
To fly around.
Favorite Books on Bats
Stellaluna – Jannell Cannon
Zipping, Zapping, Zooming Bats by Anne Earl
Bats have a spooky reputation in part because they are excellent fliers. They can swoop and dive in crazy patterns as they try to get their dinner. Vampire bats don't help the bad bat rep either. Vampire bats live in Central America and lick blood rather than suck it. They have sharp lips that make a small cut on the leg of an animal and they drink the blood.
Bats not only can eat loads of bugs, but many bats pollinate plants that we eat like mangos, peaches, and avocados.
Science words: mammal, insectivore, frugivorous, echolocation, nocturnal
Mammal – animals with fur, live young they nurse
Insectivore – an animal that eats insects
Frugivorous – an animal that only eats fruit
Echolocation – using sound waves to locate objects
Nocturnal – an animal that is active at night
Bat food – Bats pollinate lots of plants we eat. Some of them are figs, avocados, bananas, peaches, and mangos. They also pollinate chocolate! Eat a meal that was brought to you by a bat!
Bat headbands – bats have all sorts of ears. Look at pictures of bats and their ears. Make your own set of bat ears
Stellaluna – Stellaluna gets separated from her mother. This is a good story to talk about a plan for what you might do if you were separated. What would you do if you were separated from your mother? Would you eat bugs if a stranger offered you food?
Bats Are Sleeping
(Tune: Frere Jacques)
Bats are sleeping,
Bats are sleeping,
Upside down,
Upside down.
Sleeping in the morning.
Waiting for the night to come.
To fly around.
To fly around.
Favorite Books on Bats
Stellaluna – Jannell Cannon
Zipping, Zapping, Zooming Bats by Anne Earl
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Color Science
Rainbows and color mixing are lovely messy science and art blended together. Most of the work here is color mixing and this one can get nice and messy. You can use water color paints or bath tub tints to make different colors.
Color Mixing - using color bath tablets, make containers with three primary colors: red, blue and yellow. Primary colors cannot be made by mixing. Watch the tables. What happens when you put them in water? Pour some of the yellow into another container. What will happen if we add a few drops of red? (orange) Pour some of the red into another container. What will happen if we put in a few drops of blue? (purple) Pour some of the blue into another container. What will happen if we add a few drops of yellow? (green - tho this might be easier the other way around - add the drops of blue to yellow)
You can see how we did color last year here.
To take the lesson up to older students, we worked on tertiary colors - colors that blend one primary and one secondary color. While most color wheels have rather flat names for these like yellow orange and blue violet, you can make up lovely names for them like stormy ocean, or Arizona sunset.
Spectrometer - a spectrometer measures the changes in the spectrum and can be used to identify different materials. It is pretty simple to make one. Here are directions to making your own. You can use it to look at different types of light like flashlights and candles or try putting a bit of table salt in to a flame and see how the spectrum changes.
Why are rainbows curved? This is a great question to ask older students. On a sunny day, put a glass of water in a window and move it until you have a rainbow. You can also use a CD. Both of these will produce a straight spectrum -no curve. Why is a rainbow curved?
Light travels in a straight line. As it enters the raindrop (or any drop of water) it splits up into its color components (colors of a rainbow). Most of the light travels right thru the water drop. Some reflects or bounces back thru the drop. The sides of a water drop are curved so the resulting reflection is also curved. The CD and water glass are straight, so the resulting spectrum is also straight. (The light is reflected of the glass vertically so it isn't curved to the light. Knew you'd ask!!)
What have you been doing with color science? Post your thoughts and comments.
Color Mixing - using color bath tablets, make containers with three primary colors: red, blue and yellow. Primary colors cannot be made by mixing. Watch the tables. What happens when you put them in water? Pour some of the yellow into another container. What will happen if we add a few drops of red? (orange) Pour some of the red into another container. What will happen if we put in a few drops of blue? (purple) Pour some of the blue into another container. What will happen if we add a few drops of yellow? (green - tho this might be easier the other way around - add the drops of blue to yellow)
You can see how we did color last year here.
To take the lesson up to older students, we worked on tertiary colors - colors that blend one primary and one secondary color. While most color wheels have rather flat names for these like yellow orange and blue violet, you can make up lovely names for them like stormy ocean, or Arizona sunset.
Spectrometer - a spectrometer measures the changes in the spectrum and can be used to identify different materials. It is pretty simple to make one. Here are directions to making your own. You can use it to look at different types of light like flashlights and candles or try putting a bit of table salt in to a flame and see how the spectrum changes.
Why are rainbows curved? This is a great question to ask older students. On a sunny day, put a glass of water in a window and move it until you have a rainbow. You can also use a CD. Both of these will produce a straight spectrum -no curve. Why is a rainbow curved?
Light travels in a straight line. As it enters the raindrop (or any drop of water) it splits up into its color components (colors of a rainbow). Most of the light travels right thru the water drop. Some reflects or bounces back thru the drop. The sides of a water drop are curved so the resulting reflection is also curved. The CD and water glass are straight, so the resulting spectrum is also straight. (The light is reflected of the glass vertically so it isn't curved to the light. Knew you'd ask!!)
What have you been doing with color science? Post your thoughts and comments.
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