Author: Liesl - Homeschool Den
Today we went to the local science museum. I let mydaughter (4) take the photos. The pictures below includeancient sea life (trilobites, etc.) and meteorites. When we visited the scientist’s lab back in October, hetold us that he and three fellow scientists put togetherthe entire exhibit in just eight weeks (to get ready forsome dignitary’s visit). They worked from early morningtil midnight to put it all together. Here’s the links...
LD’s friend learned how to do this in school;he called it a “tom boy.” I remember doingthis as a girl. To get it started you put a slip knot aroundthe outside of the popsicle of the firststick, above the slip knot. Pull the bottompiece of yarn over the top piece of yarn andslip it off the end. For the first row only,you place the yarn behind the second Popsiclestick. On...
Hopefully this helps you see more clearly how you laythe yarn above the other one. Then you grab the lowerpiece of yarn and pull it out, up and over the end of thestick.
This simple experiment is courtesy of a goodfriend of ours (thanks Mr. M!). All you needis a very strong (earth) magnet, a copper wireand a battery. The wire doesn’t need to touchthe magnet at the bottom, it just needs to beclose. The wire will spin very quickly aroundthe battery (and will get quite warm to thetouch, which also fascinated the kids). The kids thought it was interesting that ifthey flipped...
Honey over at Sunflower School House always amazes me with the free downloads she provides. She has had some website problems and has redesigned her website. I was over their taking a look when I had a moment this morning. She has a First Creativity Journal that has writing assignments that will be perfect for LD. [Scroll down her download list, it’s in alphabetical order.] I’ll definitely use those along...
We actually do this experiment fairly frequently. Wefirst did this last January. Then we made volcanoes againfor our Natural Disasters unit (when we studied hurricanes,volcanoes, tornadoes, tsunamis and things like that). Wehad the perfect opportunity to do this experiment againalong with the Bubble Bombs when a friend was over fora play this afternoon. I’m sure you know how, but if not: A few days ago, we made the volcano from...
The kids had a lot of fun with this experimentas well. 1) Add vinegar to the bottom of a ziploc bag.Ours happened to be red because of the volcanobut plain vinegar is fine.2) Place baking soda into a tissue, wrap it upand hold it near the top while sealing the bag.3) Mix the baking soda and vinegar, drop andrun.4) The bag will POP much to the delight ofthe kids!
Today’s experiments (8 & 9) both investigated surfacetension. In this milk experiment, we watched as dish washingsoap broke the surface tension of the milk and sent dyeracing away. So, here’s what we did:1) Pour a small pitcher of milk onto a plate2) Place 1 drop of each color — red, yellow, blue and green3) Dip a Q-tip into dish washing soap 4) Place the Q-tip gently in the center of...
Now you can continue altering the surface tension, dippingthe dish-soap covered Q-tip in various spots in the milk.
We had some really interesting movement when weadded a drop of blue and red food coloring and then leta couple drops of soap drip into the milk. The kids really, really enjoyed this experiment! I highlyrecommend this one. I’ve seen this experiment in a number of places, but there’sa good explanation of the science behind it all at:http://www.abc.net.au/science/surfingscientist/pdf/lesson_1_amazing_science.pdfon pages 6-7.
Grandpa sent us a wonderful science video clipabout water drops. So, I set up this experiment togo along with the two minute video (which wewatched afterward). The experiment wasquite simple, but the kids were at it for at leasttwenty minutes! 1) Pour a pitcher of water into a dish2) Place some colored water into a small dish3) Using an eye dropper, pick up some coloredwater.4) Drop ONE drop into the...
This week I’ve been putting a letter sorting activity in DD’s workbox. I chose a small toy/item, wrote that word on a piece of paper and had the first letter of that word (in lower and upper case letters) that she had to sort into rows. She’s also been finding the letters to make words and has been quite motivated to do that. Other related posts you might be interested...
I wasn’t quite sure what to call this post, buthere’s an activity we did today. Part I: I put letters on some cards and hid them aroundthe yard. DD (4) had to find the animal worker lettercards. LD (6) had to find the stars.
Part II: DD had to sort her hard hat animals into different colors.Then she had to put the letters in the right order tomake the words house, flower and teddy bear. LD had to take his letters, make as many words as hecould and write them in his notebook (men, cent, pin etc). He’s been unhappy about his journal writing, but hereally enjoyed this activity.