Color Mixing Experiment with Baking Soda

We’ve done a lot of color mixing activities in the past to learn about primary and secondary colors.  Last week we worked on color mixing with baking soda and vinegar.  It demonstrated not just the science of “what happens when you mix colors” but it was a great way to entertain kids!

How the Stem Works by Dyeing Flowers

I am so happy to share that we finally get to dye our flowers successfully! Meaning, ALL of the colors were visible unlike before wherein only a few of the colors took effect (red and yellow).    I’ve been wondering on how we can successfully color our flowers, with 100% coverage and we finally did it this time!  By the way, we worked on this activity because I was demonstrating to Vito the function of the stem in a plant. 

Science Project: How to Make an Erupting Volcano Model

We made this volcano to go along with our First Great Lesson: The Volcano and this is our first paper mache project at home.  I tell you, I tried to avoid these kinds of activities and projects because they are messy, and requires a lot of work.  But since it’s summer, I decided to try it and much to my surprise I enjoyed making this model more than the boys did.  This project was inspired by a post I read from Red Ted Art.  So read along and learn how we made our model as simple as possible for less work.

Color Mixing Activity for Preschoolers: Green, Orange and Purple

Vito is 34 months old.
After exploring colour shades and tints, we moved on to learning secondary colours.  We have a few books on colours but this book Colours My First Discovery Book got Vito hooked.  It’s the only book he ever cared about when were discussing colours.  I highly recommend this book for kids ages 1.5 years and older.  My first attempt of showing him the blue and yellow makes green was using tempera paints, but it was short lived.  His attention span was about 5 minutes and after that he wasn’t interested anymore.  So I went back to the one activity that he loves: colour mixing using water.

Understanding the Water Cycle

Last week I decided that Mavi and I should do a water cycle activity with Vito.  I prepared some materials and simple experiments to demonstrate this amazing science!

Sound Waves Experiment: The String Phone

I think is one of the best example of explaining to a 7 year old that sound travels.  I enjoyed playing with this as a young child. But instead of using styro cups, we were used tin cans which I think is more effective.

Fun Rain Cloud Experiment for Kids

Vito is 31 months old.

Still part of our study of the bodies of water, we tried the rain cloud experiment at home and it was a total hit!

Beginning a Plant Study with a Toddler

The perfect way to introduce plants to a child/toddler is through awakening their interest and love of flowers.  Kids love flowers naturally.  We love to look at them, and occassionaly name the flowers as we see them in the road.


Now that Vito appreciates trees and flowers, the next step is to inspire him with a desire to care for and preserve plants and flowers.  Here’s Vito’s early learning of plants!

Science Experiments: What Makes Ice Melt Faster?

This experiment is perfect for the winter season! Make use of the snowy days by performing this simple experiment on why we put salt on icy roads during winter.

Objective:

To determine which substance or what condition will make the ice melt faster.

Science Experiments: Making CRATERS

Such a lovely activity for my kids! We had fun dropping balls of all sizes here and there.  

Objective:
1.  To identify the type of surface where craters are formed.

Materials Needed:

an aluminum foil, the bigger the better

soft material like a newspaper, a rug or towel

balls or rocks

Procedure:
1.  Lay the soft material in the ground like a newspaper a rug or a towel.
2.  On top of it, lay the foil.

3.  Stand at the edge of the foil and drop the ball or rock at the center of the foil.  Note be decided to use the mini basketball because we realized that golf balls made a small impact.
4.  Repeat this process on a hard floor.  This time it was Vito’s turn to drop the ball.

5.  Examine both pieces of the foil.
Findings:
The ball that was dropped in the foil on a soft surface (first image below) made a larger impression compared to the foil lying on a hard floor (second image).  You can immediately see the impression when the ball is dropped in a soft surface!  Look at them, they look like craters!

You can barely see an impression here, but Vito did dropped the ball a few times.
What happened?
The ball that was dropped in the softer surface sank, allowing more of the ball to be pressed against the foil.  In effect, this created those “holes” in the foil.  This is similar to the case of a meteorite (stone or metal in space) when striking a soft surface, it creates a larger imprint that are shaped like holes called craters.  Craters are best formed when meteorites strikes soft, powdery surfaces like that in the moon!  Why not check out real pictures of the surface of the moon from NASA!

You might also want to check our previous science experiments:

• Why do stars twinkle?
• Solubility of different substances in water.

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Science Experiments: Twinkle Twinkle Stars and {Learn & Play Link Up}

I love simple and easy to prepare experiments.  That’s why when we received a Janice VanCleave’s book as present last year, I was so elated! I love her books of experiments!  So we are trying some of it and so far the boys are enjoying it!
Objective:  To simulate the twinkling of stars in sky.

Materials needed:

a large square foil

glass bowl (preferably 2 liters)

tap water

a torch/flashlight

pencil

Procedure:
1.  Crumple your square foil and place it on a table or on a floor.
2.  Fill your clear bowl with tap water and place it on top of the crumpled foil. 

3.  Darken the room by turning off the lights.  Hold the torch or flashlight above the bowl.  Distance from the bowl  is about 12 inches.
4.  Observe the foil through the undisturbed water.

5.  Now using your pencil, tap the surface of the water gently.  Observe the foil through the moving water.


What happened? 
The light rays reflecting from the foil when there was a movement in water appears to blur or twinkle. 

Why? 
The movement of the water causes the depth of the water to vary.  The light rays twinkle because they bend or refract in different direction when it passed through the different depths of water. 

This is similar to the light rays of the stars.  They appear to be twinkling when you are observing from earth because they refract differently as the light rays move through the different thickness of air in the atmosphere.  Scientifically, this twinkling phenomenon is called ‘scintillation’. 

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Source:  Janice VanCleave Astronomy

Welcome to the Learn & Play Link Party!

In relation to our activity this week, I am featuring space and astronomy themed activities!

Relative Size of the Sun Activity from Research Parent

The Earth, The Sun & Stars from Every Star is Different

Space Explorer Toolbox from Montessori By Mom

Sensory Play for Earth Day from Mama’s Happy Hive

Earth Day from Child Led Life

Now it’s time for this week’s link party! This is a BRAND new link up for all blog posts that include learn and play activities and hands-on education for kids. We are excited to read your blog posts and to see what you have to share! Please link up below and grab our button to display on your blog.

If you are a blogger, share your family friendly posts here. We are looking for things which include:

• Montessori Education
• Homeschool
• Sensory Play
• Tot and Preschool Trays
• Fine and Gross Motor Activities
• Kids in the Kitchen
• Healthy Recipes for Kids
• Arts and Crafts
• Natural Living
• Free Educational Printables
• Family-Oriented Activities
• Healthy Living

Your post will be featured on each of our blogs where we will pick our favourite posts every other week. That means there is more of a chance that you will be featured!

Everyone, please meet our link party hosts:

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Science Experiments: Solubility of Different Substances

Mavi and I got the chance to work on some experiments last weekend due to bad weather.  First we started off with a simple test of which substance dissolves in water. 

Objectives:

• Discovering which substance dissolves in water
• Why the said substance dissolves faster in water

Materials needed:

• salt, sugar, flour, chalk powder
• 4 bottles of water
• teaspoon
• stirrer

Procedure:

Findings:

1. Salt and sugar easily dissolved in water after stirring.  They have grainy texture and are crystalline thus making it more soluble in water.
2. Flour and chalk powder partially dissolved, most of the powdered portion resided at the bottom of the bottles.  They have powdery and dry texture, thus making it hard to dissolve in water.

FOR OLDER KIDS
Now, for older children who can grasp complex explanation… I prepared a visual and hands-on demonstration for Mavi to understand how the substance are more soluble, partially soluble and insoluble.  Make sure though that when you try to discuss this with your kids, he/she is already familiar with the elements in the periodic table and can understand what “attraction” means, similar to the concept of magnetism.  The link I provided is the one where I introduced the Periodic Table to Mavi in a fun and interesting way.

Anyway, here’s how the chemicals of the substance interact to water when mixed.

SOLUBLE SUBSTANCE
I used plasticine to demonstrate the chemical composition of salt and water to Mavi. 
Salt is composed of: sodium (Na+) in green  and chloride (Cl-) in purple.
Water is made up of H2O, hydrogen (H+) in white and oxygen (O-) in red.
When mixed with water, the salt molecules are easily “attracted” to the water molecules.   It’s like the positive and negative attraction in magnetism (polarity).  Thus, sodium (Na+) is attracted to oxygen (O-), while chloride (Cl-) is heavily attracted to the two positively charged hydrogen (H+).
Because of the strong attraction between molecules in the two substances, salt is easily dissolved in water.


PARTIALLY SOLUBLE
For partially soluble substances, the molecules that made up the flour or chalk have weak attractions with the molecules of the water.  Thus some have dissolved but most of it didn’t and the result are the residues found at the bottom of the bottles.

INSOLUBLE SUBSTANCE
For insoluble substances (don’t dissolve in water) like oil, the molecular contents are NOT attracted to water.  This means they do not mix with water and if you combine them, you will definitely see the separation.

Though some advanced students can explain that this is because oil is a non-polar substance and can only be dissolved with another non-polar substance, the way I explained it to Mavi is that oil molecules are just so heavy that water molecules can’t “bond” with it.

This was a fantastic activity for both Mavi and I.  More experiments coming up!
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Measuring Mass of an Object

Mavi and I started some activities for Applied Science. Here, math and science works together to solve problems. Applied Science enables the child to do critical thinking.

Experimenting and predicting Mass (Weight)

I chose this lesson because I’ve always wanted to use our bucket balance which I got from Learning Resources. I had this since last year but Mavi has been using it for play and have not used it as an educational toy yet.

Materials needed:

• Balance scale or bucket balance from Learning Resources
• Items to weigh ( we have rugby ball, a small book and box of Jenga toys)
• Items to serve as measuring unit. I used transportation and fruit counters from Learning Resources (make sure they’re all similar) and crystal pebbles.

Objective:

• To develop skills in predicting and estimating the mass of the an object.
• To use knowledge in science and math to come up with a mathematical conclusion based on the experiment.

Mavi will predict the weight of the materials without putting them in the scale. The prediction of how heavy an object is will be based on the unit material we are using. For example, how many unit trains does the rugby ball weigh? Then we will determine if his predictions are correct by testing it in the balance against the number of units he predicted.

As you can see we keep a notebook here to record his data. There should be three columns with labels: [object] [prediction] [actual]

Once he has tested all the materials, we will then come up with a conclusion if his predictions are correct or not. Then compare each object, from the lightest to heaviest using the number of units each has.

Results:

Objects	Prediction	Actual
Rugby ball	17 pebbles	35 pebbles
Book	20 pebbles	33 pebbles
Box	10 pebbles	11 pebbles

We concluded that the heaviest item was the rugby ball and the lightest was the Jenga box.

This was an exciting activity for Mavi.  After our lesson he continued playing with the balance in his room, with his brother.  He’s trying to test how will two different objects balance.  Of course, he has a little helper.

 

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Water Cycle: Ocean Deep

• Difference between the salt water and fresh water
• Discovering the properties of salt water
• Looking into Oceans, Sea and Lakes

Salt Water vs.. Fresh Water

Majority of the Earth’s water is in the oceans but the water here is not pure.  Ocean water contains components and elements that have been dissolved in the water through time (water eroded the Earth’s surface). 

From here, I started to discussing why water in the ocean is called salty water and those in the lakes are called fresh water.  Note that the term “fresh water” can be misunderstood.  Water in the ocean is not good for humans as it is salty.  Too much salt in our body is not good because the body cannot take it out.  Same thing as water in the lake, though it may be called “fresh” or may look clear, it may still  have something in it that can be dangerous to our body.

Seen below is our “salty” water mixture.  It’s made up of clean warm water, plenty of salt and a blue food colouring for the ocean effect.

Create a salty water mixture as mentioned above and let them taste the salty water and the freshwater for comparison.

Properties of Salt Water (Ocean)

Around 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by seawater (water, salt, and other substances and gases).  Seawater is more dense, meaning if you mix salt and fresh water without mixing, the salt water will stay UNDER the fresh water.  Other amazing facts about sea water includes:

• Easier to swim in salt water because it helps to keep our bodies higher in the water.
• It needs more heat to boil and more cold to freeze

To demonstrate this, we conducted a few experiments to see first hand the properties of salt water and fresh water.  Click on the image below to see our experiments!

 

Investigating Oceans, Sea and Lakes

Using our printed and painted map, we identified four major ocean bodies:  Indian Ocean, Atlantic ocean, Pacific Ocean and Arctic ocean. 

 

Also, we revisited our study of organisms that live in salt water and the fresh water and a refresher of our landforms (an island is part of the Earth, it doesn’t float in the water LOL).

Animals in the freshwater ecosystem: lakes, ponds and streams. Animals in the marine ecosystem which includes the seashore, temperate and tropical oceans.

Linking to:

Montessori Monday
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Teach Beside Me
Preschool Corner
Teaching Mama
I Can Teach My Child
Home + School = Afterschool!
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Simple Experiments: Sinker!

Objective:  This experiment was conducted to determine how density affects water movement. 

Sinker!

1.  Prepare your  materials: salt, 200ml of warm water for your salty ocean water and a half filled clear water (representing freshwater).

2.  Create a mixture of salty water for your ocean.  Make sure that your water is warm enough to dissolve all the salt.  Add more salt until it can no longer be dissolve in your water mixture.  Add food colouring, I used a blue colour to represent the ocean.

                        

3.  Pour your salty water in the bowl of clear water.

4.  Observe the bowl from the side as you pour the water (as your helper pour the salty water). 

                      

As you can see the coloured salty water sinks to the bottom of the container, forming waves under the clear water above it.  The salty water (ocean) is more dense than the clear water it will stay under the clear water.

Floater!

Now another experiment we performed was to test how the water density affects the ability of an object to float.  This case, we prepared another salty water (in a big bowl) and a clear water in a separate bowl.  We used a boiled egg, as our test subject.

Drop the egg in the bowl of clear water.  It sank into the bottom of the bowl right away.

Now we tested the same boiled egg in a bowl full of salty water.  Once dropped,  it sank for a second but then it started to float afterwards!! Mavi was in awe!!

 

In this case, it easier for humans to swim in the ocean because of the higher density of the salty water helps to keep our bodies higher in water :) 

Linking to:

Montessori Monday
TGIF Linky Party
Teach Beside Me
Preschool Corner
Teaching Mama
I Can Teach My Child
Home + School = Afterschool!
Share It Saturday
The Natural Homeschool