Colour Experiments

This was the other experiment we did over the weekend, Alexander enjoyed doing it at preschool and so we tried it again. I did not set it up as well as I usually do (ie a cover over the table and paint smocks over the kids so Emily ended up a bit splattered with food colouring)

The first experiment was a bit of a bust, I am not sure if it was the container or the euipment. I wanted to try the water one with boats. I had read that it worked with pepper but I wanted to have boat races with the kids. I found one web site which was using bread ties and I found a dusty collection of them and tried but one would work but the others didn’t. Perhaps a square container is better than a round one? Perhaps the bread ties were too bent and so were already breaking the surface tension of the water. We had a few shoot around but it wasn’t the most exciting. Will try again with better bread ties or perhaps boats cut out of card.

If you dipped the tooth pick with detergent at the “back” of the bread tie was (the bit that holds the plastic) they are supposed to shoot across the water.

Anyway onto the next experiment. I bought a small container of whole milk from the shops for this experiment. THe kids got to squeeze drops of food colouring onto the surface. The first time we did it we shared the dish but I ended up giving them a container each to play with. Alexander liked stirring his up so it became quite muddied. We used whole milk the first time but after we ran out we used a combination of rice milk and lite white milk.

This experiment reminded me of marbeling paper when I was a kid so I thought I would give it a try. We used paper towel and also plain computer paper. This was where I should have spread a tablecloth or newspaper across the table to protect us. I had some cake racks ready to dry the paper on.
It turned out quite pretty if the colours weren’t mixed too much, the paper towel soaked up too much.

Add the milk

The food colouring

Now using a toothpick (or match) dip in washing up liquid and then drop in the milk and watch the colours dance

And then start again

Next time I might try and do two containers of detergent so they don’t have to fight over it.

Now add the paper – see how muddied Alexander’s got mixed, he started stirring with his toothpick.

Put the paper to dry

Swirled colours

We did this experiment three times they loved it so much and we will probably do it again. I will post pictures of the finished papers we dyed but I don’t have any at the moment.

I found this site (http://www.ehow.com/way_5206298_paper-marbling-techniques.html ) that shows how to do paper marbling techniques. The one with shaving cream Emily and I have done at play group together and we might do that as a family craft one soon.

Science Experiment Photos

Going to give it another try..

Getting ready – putting the equipment together

Marking the cup we think will have the greatest reaction/explosion

Fizzing

More fizzing (this was when we gave up on the eyedroppers and poured the vinegar in)

Now onto painting with vinegar

More

I am looking forward to doing this with different colours – I bought some more vinegar today.

Here it is the sludgy mess – or relief map.

Alexander is tipping out the cups of bi-carb from the first experiment into the tray.

Bonus – nice clean pan now.

Another thing I have been wanting to try is now that it gets dark early glow sticks in the bath. Emily wasn’t feeling too well and I knew this meant she wouldn’t want a bath but I thought a nice warm bath would be just the soothing thing so I added glow sticks and it looked and worked great!

It also meant this morning I explained that inside the sticks was a reaction just like the one we created with the vinegar and bicarb and that is why the colours were fading as the reaction wasn’t as strong anymore. They both want to try this again tonight.

Science Experiments

This week at pre school they have been undertaking science experiments.  One of the mums (whose daughter Emily happily plays with at play group and preschool) went in to preschool and began the week off with a few experiments.  They then took the idea and continued it throughout the week, which was good as Alexander and Emily got to see some of the fun.  Alexander requested that we do some at home.  I have seen some on blogs that I have been wanting to do so it was a good spur to get going.  Today I bought some bi-carb and some eye droppers (unfortunately I didn’t buy any vinegar but oh well we had enough at home).

The first experiment I found the idea on No Time for Flash Cards where they investigated what made the best explosion here.

I found some plastic cups in the cupboard and labelled them 1, 2 and 3. One set for Emily and the other for Alexander.  I then labelled three cups A B and C.  In the numbered cups I put bi-carb in one, Self Raising Flour and Baking Soda in the other.  In the other cups I put lemon cordial, water and vinegar.  I knew lemon is acidic but wasn’t sure how the cordial would go but I had no lemon juice.

I can’t seem to add photos at the moment.  I made a list of what number was what powder and what liquid was which and then I added the children.  They predicted which one would fizz the most and then we gave it a go.  I was interested to see that SR Flour did fizz a little from the added soda.  The lemon juice did made the baking powder and soda fizz and of course the vinegar did to.  The kids emptied the liquid in. As we started I thought making a chart would be a good idea and I quickly drew one up and then forgot to give it to Alexander to fill it out.

Then it was time for painting by vinegar which I was inspired to do from here.

I covered a baking tray with bicarb and then filled a couple of cups with liquid.  Unfortunately I had more brown vinegar than white so we only managed to make one colour – a dark muddy green because Alexander dripped in lots of blue and Emily only a little yellow. I found red wine vinegar and brown vinegar and the lemon cordial again and the kids had fun creating with that.

They decided the green was the water and the muddled brown colour the land.

I’ll have to add photos another time.  Tomorrow’s activity which Alexander did at pre school but Emily didn’t is the magic milk paint where the colours swirl around.

Writing with purpose

Alexander loves when mum draws a bike track. Ever since he was three I’ve drawn him bike tracks, some fancy, some plain. When the rain washes it away it’s tone to start planning a new town. One of the benefits of living in a cul-de-sac.now Alexander is older he is wanting to draw the houses and shops himself and write the street signs.

Clouds

We love looking at the escarpment around here

In every weather it is beautiful. With the recent rain it had been covered in clouds. Since it is now winter Alexander has been waiting for snow but I had to tell him it rarely snows here and it is on bigger mountains it snows.
Today we looked at the different greens on the mountains which inspired today’s craft.
I found a mountain outline which I copied a few times and printed out. We coloured in the sky and mountains and my first idea was to use the sponge to stamp clouds but we had coloured the sky too dark for it to show up so we ended up glueing the cut up sponge on.

The clouds are a little square but Emily’s favourite game at the moment is finding different shapes in the clouds.

Autumn leaves craft

My kids have been very interested by the leaves falling. I have been explaining why some trees don’t lose their leaves and why others do. They enjoy pointing out the autumn trees to me.
Yesterday during our black out I read “dragon’s leaf collection” but actually Alexander and I read it together as it is an early reader. In the story dragon collects the falling leaves but ends up with so many he has no where to put them. He writes a letter to the trees to say stop losing your leaves. He then discovers all the trees have no leaves and he ends up tying the leaves back onto the trees.
We have been collecting some leaves and today we decided to make pictures with them. In one we even stuck some string pretending we were like dragon tying the leaves back on.

Alexander did a picture with a deciduous tree and one with an evergreen. The other two pictures are by Emily and I. I wonder which is which?
Emily’s favourite bit is applying and reapplying glue.

A rainy Sunday at home

Another day at home but we did manage to get out doors today. Alexander much better and no fever!
We went to the shops to buy potatoes for dinner and to the reject shop for some hair gel.
At home I attempted with the kids Mister Maker’s leaf prints.

 

Then we made some sensory colour bags with the hair gel. Emily is still playing with them. She keeps squeezing them and arranging them in different patternsI was not exact measuring the gel so some bags got lots and some the dregs. We added food colour and mixed different colours according to the packet directions. I added some marbles and plastic animals. The directions said packer’s tape but not having any I just used sticky tape which does not hold up to vigorous squeezing.  I found the idea here at teachpreschool and there are lots of fun ideas such as pressing our handprints in them or writing letters in them.  Or put them in the freezer for a cool pack.

Red and yellow make orange

Emily and Alexander looking through them to see if they change colours of objects around us.

Emily proud of her sun she has made.

Arranging the colours in a rainbow.

The children are now playing with them in the play room so I really need to find some tape to seal them up.

Entertaining sick children part deux

So when tired of thinking up ideas and tired of tv I headed to Grendy’s house.
Alexander was tucked up on the couch while Em helped Grendy’s make scones. Mozart playing in the background the kids decided to dance. Alexander’s fever returned and to rest we watched a DVD of the royal ballet school performing Peter and the Wolf.
A nice distraction for a couple of hours.

How to entertain a sick child

Alexander has been running a fever on and off over the last few days.  He perks up in the morning and then as the day wears on he gets tireder and tireder and the fever rises.  Not helping is also his lack of interest in food.  We took him to the doctor and he is not on antibiotics but this has thrown out our weekend activities.  Though since it is a rainy day it is not hard to stay snuggled up at home.  We went to the library yesterday on the way home from the doctor because he had some energy and we usually go to the library on Saturdays.

So what to do?

We got in some tv viewing after breakfast but I didn’t want the kids to stay glued to it.

So I wanted something quick while I researched for other ideas so I got out the cheerios and a piece of string and set them to making a necklace.  I didn’t care if they made it or ate it (wanted some food in Alexander).

Alexander was quite patient and worked at his for a while – Emily did a little and ate the rest and then ate what was on the string.

Emily lay on her back and kicked her legs in the air and ate cheerios.

Alexander wanted to show off his necklace, not sure about his smile though.  The necklace is a little smaller now he has been eating it during the morning.

While the children made their necklaces I put together a marble run which is not as polished looking as the one I found on the net but it entertained the kids while I thought up the next few activities.  Their playing got interrupted because “Mister Maker” came on TV (I had set the timer) and we do like watching him make things and being inspired.  I have an idea for tomorrows activity from watching it.

Anway I found the blog post here from Made by Joel

Here we are playing with the marble run – took a few modifications once I actually added the marbles.

Anyway after Mister Maker was finished I pulled out all the duplo/mega blocks we have and dumped them in the play room.  Usually we keep them in the bedrooms for a quiet time activity.  Now my playroom looks like this…

So while Emily I built a house, Alexander built a race track for his animals to run along underneath the tunnel.  It was lovely to see he was concerned for people’s safety (these were bears after all!) he had the lego people safely behind the barriers.

Alexander started to get tired after all this activity and retired back to the couch and I dosed him back up with his medicine.  After a little rest we went up to the table to do some cutting practise and gluing.

We LOVE the two books “I want my hat back” by Jan Klassan and “Little Owl’s Night” by Divya Srinivasan  and when I found this Woodland Pack on 3dinosaurs I had to download it.  I have laminated some to be used over and over but the children enjoyed cutting out the pieces and gluing them back together.  Alexander did a pattern sequencing and some puzzles and Emily and I looked at numbers.  I helped Emily with some of her cutting.

Emily’s number sequencing

Alexander’s patterning and puzzles

That was enough fine motor skills, time to change the activity – painting but I didn’t want a lot of bother of worrying about everything and the children getting paint on them so time for some container marble painting.

I found a plastic food storage container and a round storage container, I lined them with a few layers of old paper used on one side (cut down to size) I then found the paint and the marbles from the marble run and we had fun drumming, rolling, shaking and tipping.

Now shaking time!

Emily’s turn

Here are our beautiful results

Alexander used the lid of the box he shook to make the two prints on the left.

Goodness what a day.  Then some lunch, some TV time, then I reread Little Owl’s Night and I Want my Hat back, cuddles and then to their room for some “quiet” time.  I say quiet time because they did some of their reading on their beds and then ended up building tents in Emily’s room and then out here with me.  I managed to get them to pick up some of the lego with this sorting box (I was going to do a hunt around the house for shapes but just as good for sorting lego)

Notice his necklace now has not many cheerios on it…

Of course he got distracted and we made a marble run with his lego..

Alexander loves mazes at the moment. I did the basic design but he added the tunnels.

 

Anyway I’m exhausted and we need a break.  The house is a mess as I have spent the morning entertaining the children or using quiet time to write this blog post.

Noah’s Ark Part 3

So Emily was given her Noah’s Ark wall hanging for her birthday in February but it has taken me til now to start making the animals to go inside.  They are really quite easy just needed the time and temperament.

First find the animal shape I want to make, cut out and pin to a square of fabric, in the case of the zebra felt right sides in.  Sew around template, cut, remove template and turn right side out.

The ribbon was there to be a tail, most of it in the inside, just a bit left out for the hem but it didn’t work so I removed it.

I used stuffing to create the manes for the zebras and used embroidery floss for their tails.  The lions still need tails, might try more floss for them.  The lion’s mane was more felt.

Here is Noah’s Ark being stocked.

I’ve only made one giraffe and he needs spots but he’s got a toy giraffe to keep him companion from another play set.

The elephants were two different shades of grey wool.  Emily chose pink eyes for the dark gray one.

So only two more pockets to fill.  I was thinking Australian animals for the two small pockets but small means even more fiddly.  Pulling them right side out especially their legs is tricky which is why their tails didn’t quite work.  So only the zebras got tails so far.