Fun Friday Science: Salt and Ice

For Christmas Nana bought Hudson a Magic School Bus Chemistry Lab.  We had sort of opened it and had a look around in late December, but today we cracked that baby open and actually did an experiment.
We didn't exactly follow the laid out instructions, but as often happens learning occurred anyway. 

I incorporated a Science Journal printable from  Ashleigh's Education Journey over at Teacher Pay Teachers 



I let each kiddo come up with their own question and hypothesis and we conducted individual experiments accordingly.

Meadow's question was What happens when you sprinkle salt on ice?
Hypothesis: The ice will change colour.

So she sprinkled the salt and observed...







Sorry to say the salt did not change the colour of the ice.

Hudson's question was What happens when you mix salt and ice?
Hypothesis: The ice will have cool patterns.

So he mixed and observed...








The ice sort of had cool patterns.

Then mommy turned Mrs. Frizzell showed the class what the original experiment was supposed to be.  Using salt to make the ice cubes stick together. The students were shocked and amazed!

What fun science have you been up to?  What are your kiddos questions?

2 Audiobooks We Loved Recently

We have at least a 30 minute drive to pretty much  anywhere we go from our house... so we use that time to listen to a good story.  We love audiobooks!

Here are 2 that we have really enjoyed (The kids begged me to turn it on even if we were just driving the 2 minutes to get the mail):

Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater Read by Rick Sullivan.

My kids are animal lovers (and so am I, hence the mini farm we have going on around here).  We all had a good laugh at the antics and inconvenience of having 12 penguins to care for.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz By L. Frank Baum Read by Brooke Shields.

I had no idea that Dorthy and her friends went on so many more adventures in the book than in the movie.  The book also ends a smidge different that the movie as well. Definitely worth the listen.

For some other audiobook ideas head on over to Homeschool Creations and see what they've been listening to as well.

*note affiliate links used in this post.

O'Keeffe Poppies (Playing with warm colors)

Taking inspiration from Laura over at Painted Paper we created some Georgia O'Keeffe inspired poppies.

Materials

• Red and Black construction paper
• warm colors of paint
• brushes
• scissors
• glue

The first step was to paint the red paper with the warm colors... mixing and experimenting as we went along.

Next we cut traced 2 sides of a cup to have a larger circle and a smaller circle.

Then we cut slits in the circle careful to not cut through the inner circle.

Last after gluing the circles to the center of the red paper we cut out poppy shapes and displayed them on the wall.

Georgia O'Keeffe inspired perfect poppies!

 

The Great Weather Unit... Part 5

The Experiment That Stole My Lightning...

What do you do when the science experiment you have planned... doesn't go as planned?  When you just can't get the spark or the shock that you anticipated .

You have your kid rub the balloon faster...

Then you switch kid heads...

Then you round up everything in the house that just might give a charge if you rub it.

And when nothing works you may yell frustrated gibberish into the toilet.

(Lucky for you folks there is no picture of that!)

Then in a flash (pun intended) of brilliance you will explain the inner workings of a lighter.  Comparing flint and steel to water and ice droplets that create friction and electricity in a cloud.  

Then haul your children back into the dark bathroom to flick the Bic.

And your teacher gives you an A for effort! 

Science is saved today at Scott School!

The Great Weather Unit...Part 4

Watching Warm Air

Materials:

string

construction paper

pencil

scissors

candle

matches or lighter

adult supervision

Process: 

1. Draw a spiral on the construction paper and cut it  out so you have a snake like piece of paper. punch a hole in the center end of the paper and attach a short string. (see photo below).

2. Light the candle.

3. Observe the paper dangling in regular room air.

4. Observe the paper dangling above the candle. ( maybe obvious but just in case... don't catch the paper on fire.)

5. Write down your observations.

3 Ways to Shake Up Your School Day

We all get into ruts don't you think?  It happens when your groove gets a little too deep and instead of rocking this homeschool thing... you end up enduring it.

 Here are 3 things I've done recently to shake up our school days:

1. Change Locations

Grab a sketch pad or even your math books and get out of the house.  On Monday we headed out to The Art We Are... a local coffee shop with the most interesting arts and crafts for sale.  I took the time to do some writing exercises with a friend and my big kids did some sketching, browsed the shop and snacked on a vegan gluten free brownie.  *note: I would not recommend preschool at the local artsy cafe... just sayin'

2. Dreambox

The Scott kids are seriously gaga over Dreambox.  It's a math adventure game that is a great way to break up the monotony of workbooks.  *note: I have no affiliation with Dreambox  just sharing what works for us.

3. Play

The same writing friend that I met up with on Monday introduced me to Story Cubes.  I had so much fun playing it I left the coffee shop and headed to the toy store to buy it.  My kids don't exactly love to write, but I am hoping that having fun telling a story will be a step in the direction of writing one.  Plus I am going to enjoy the possibility that this game is forging new creative pathways in their heads (how's that for sounding like I know what I'm talking about?).

How about you?  Leave me a comment with your favorite way to shake up a school day and chase away boredom.

The Great Weather Unit... Part 3

Today we made pinwheels... a fun little way to explore the wind and experiment with air pressure.  

It really is an art to figure out just the right balance of breath to make the paper spin around.

We used the pinwheel template from the free weather unit over at 123 Homeschool 4 Me. (Seriously this unit has printables for preschool to grade 4... Wonderful!)

After designing the pinwheel we attached them to pencil erasers with tacks.  (Which makes them not exactly 3 and under friendly)

The kiddos used a brief window of opportunity when it wasn't raining outside to run around and make their new toys spin in the breeze they created.