Easy and Fun Science

When the air in these items is heated, the air starts to move quickly and in turn the items expand! Super fun exploration before and after my the Prince.

Simple Science Experiment

Here's a blast from the past that I'm just now blogging :). To the best of my estimation, we did this about 1 1/2 years ago... My Prince looks so young.

On with the experiment:

What you need:
2 similar size clear glasses
Water
Salt
2 raw eggs
Spoon

What you do:

Fill both glasses with equal amounts of water

Put 1 Tbs of salt in one of the glasses and stir until dissolved

Place one raw egg in each glass

Observe, discuss and enjoy :)

FLUBBER!!!!!

Science is one of the most enjoyed subjects around this Academy.

So let's make some FLUBBER!!

Here's the recipe we used, adapted from a post on the fabulous Pinterest!

Mixture 1:

3/4 cup warm water

1 cup Elmer's glue

food coloring of choice

Mixture 2:

1 and 1/2 teaspoon Borax (found near the laundry detergent/bleach in stores)

1/2 cup warm water


Stir mixture 1 together in 1 bowl.

Mixture 2 in another bowl.

Make sure both are mixed well.

Pour mixture 1 into mixture 2.


****There is no need to stir the mixture, but you can if you want. It is the chemical reaction that actually makes the flubber. When it is in a glob work it for 2-3 minutes. Initially it feels wet but it eventually dry up to the final product.

LOOK WHAT THE PRINCE MADE:

The Prince continually used the phrase "chemical reaction" and couldn't wait to show his daddy after work. We kept it in a jar with a lid and it was still "workable" when the daddy arrived home.

Now go make yourself some FLUBBER :)

Rewind.....science, christmas...life

This morning I woke up and decided to recreate two science activities that we previously created...simply because they sounded fun! Here are my two guys...one gearing up for work and the other with his hands in GOO! ...I don't know if the technical name is GOO, but that's what the Prince calls it..so let's go with it. It's simply 3 parts corn starch, one part water and a few drops of food coloring....everything is better with food coloring.

Prince: "Mom is goo nutritious?"
Me: "No."
Dad: " Go ahead and try it!!"
****He didn't try it.

 Solid...liquid ...gas! Easy yet fun.
Ice/solid.
Melt/liquid.
Evaporate/water vapor/gas.

Okay, now let's discuss this no-shirt boy! About a year and a half ago I was getting the Prince's clothes ready while he was still in his PJs...I asked "Do you have underwear?" as he was in a no underwear at night stage (well, not really a stage as it continues) and he responded "In my jammies?" "Yes", I said......the Prince replied, "Nope, just butt and penis!"....this continues to be one of my favorite stories...well he has now evolved into a lil man who is anti-shirts....SO BE IT, I reckon....

 The weather has warmed...you can see the Prince is sitting on rocks with snow in front of him. It was 36 degrees. He has no-shirt and only one croc on, because he couldn't find the other :? He was too cute playing with Stormee, so instead of adressing his craziness....I snapped a few pictures!

Isn't it crazy how much we love our kiddos??...I could eat him up!

Finally back in the warmth of our house we reread (get it rewind?? reread??) If You Take A Mouse To The Movies....that is one needy little mouse. I have a needy little mouse, sometimes. Actually, I have a big needy mouse sometimes too!

I saw this super cute Christmas mouse project on The First Grade Parade blog and really wanted to do it...but it didn't happen before Christmas. I thought "Why not do it today??"...so we did!

I realized that when folks look at pictures of lessons on my blog everything looks smooth as silk, but I wanted to show you a couple of pictures of what really goes on during lessons....

Stromee was eating the table!

But somehow even with dogs, shenanigans, snacks and coffee breaks....we typically meet our daily goals and this momma is usually pooped by the end, just like Thunder Love!

It reads "If you take me to the movies, I'll ask you for some POPCORN!"

Off to make dinner....Happy Thursday, everyone!

Oh wait! One more thing. I recently stumbled onto a blog that is so entertaining to me that I must share. It is a "teaching" blog, but I must tell you that the author is a great writer and very funny. I want you to check out her blog and you MUST read her True Halloween Ghost Story!

A crowded drop of BLOOD...A Quick Flasback

A week or so ago the Prince said he wanted to learn about the body again. We explored his suggestions and narrowed it to blood. The Prince is fascinated with the body and for a while now he has known the various parts of blood, however he continues to be fascinated with exploring it and of course you know what that does to this mommy/teacher...yep, it makes me smile.

Here are a couple of projects we completed:

First we read a little book on the parts of blood, the I drew and cut and the Prince colored and pasted. VIOLA!

After we completed this the Prince said, "That's not what I was talking about?" I was confused and replied "I thought you wanted to make a drop of blood?" He said "Yes, but for real not on paper."

YIKES...I was stumped, so quickly I came up with a really basic idea of how he might get a visual of a red blood cell in plasma and this is what I initially came up with....red food coloring dropped into oil.

The Prince thought that was really cool, BUT THEN...I found something WAYYY better on Pinterest! Check this out...

Ingredients: empty container with a lid, 1/2 c. corn syrup (plasma), 1/2 c. red hots (red blood cells), 1 tbls lentils (platelets), 5 dry lima beans (white blood cells).

MIX!

And this is what a drop of blood under a microscope looks like! I think this is so super cool, even if that makes me a dork ;-)!

*****Angela’s blog, Satori Smiles, has beautiful photographs of this experiment.

Clouds: Big and Puffy or Long and Wispy...Clouds

This week one of our many fun and educational lessons focused on Clouds. First, I must thank my inspirational blogger, Cara! Honestly, I recreated the the same lessons she did with her students and it was a blast! So let the pictures and descriptions begin:

I recreated Cara's poster introducing four separate cloud types and practicing adjectives to describe clouds!


The next day we began by reading the non-fiction book, Clouds by Ann and Jim Merk and then I introduced the "cloud people" that I created to help reinforce each cloud's features. Of course, this too is from Cara.

After being introduced to our classroom cloud people, we created our own cloud foldable book.

We then moved onto two fiction books; Little Cloud by Eric Carle and It Looked Like Split Milk by Charles Shaw. These cute books led use right into the Prince creating his own puffy cloud, in the shape of his choice, with a mixture of Elmer's Glue and Shaving Cream! The Prince then had to write about his created cloud shape.

The Prince wrote, "My cloud is a mud puddle. I made it because I like to jump in mud puddles." He really enjoyed his cloud that dried into a soft puffy "cloud."

Throughout the week, the Prince looked up at the sky and identified the clouds....this momma/teacher was a happy girl!

Lessons and activities for/with the Prince

If you haven't heard of File Folder Fun for fun lessons, then you should check it out :) You can search by grade, subject, etc.

Here are pictures of a couple of file folders I made for the Prince:

The turkeys look a little wrinkly; I glued them so they created a pouch for the addition feathers (see next pics)

Here are the words that I cut out and the Prince will insert in the "pots" pictured above

This  afternoon I was in the kitchen and it suddenly hit me that I had all the items needed to make this cool homemade bird feeder that I saw on a newly found homeschooling blog - The Crafty Classroom

So this is what we made :

AND THEN....we remembered that we hadn't completed on of the Bill Nye science projects we learned about on Friday.
What happens when you put a raw egg into water?
vs
What happens when you put a raw egg into salt water?

Results below:

First add salt to one glass of water...

Then...

 Discussion followed :)

The end.