Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Science Fun!

(oops - I don't have my pictures right here....I'll post those later).

The boys LOVE to do "science experiments" - or "kitchen science experiments" with me.  Gabe asks all the time.  Gabe's idea of a science experiment is anything that you mix together and it makes a mess.  I guess in some ways he's right.  So when I asked what some of the things they wanted to do before school started next week were - their loud reply was to do a "Science Day!"  Since we were having some friends over to play today I figured we'd mix up the play-time with some science fun too. 

I looked over the web and asked some friends for some ideas.  I didn't want to spend a bunch of money, make anything dangerous, or make messes I couldn't clean up with soap and water.  (What can I say - I'm kind of a mean mom in that department....)  I didn't have the aim of teaching the boys much - but wanted to have a little explaination of why the experiments turned out how they did - trying to teach them something acidentally.  So I looked for some ideas on Pintrest, other friends blogs and asked friends on Facebook for their suggestions.  Here's what we did:



GAK/FLUBBER
This was by far the most popular.  Putting it together I'll be honest - it looked like boogers/snot and kind of grossed us all out.  But after we kneaded it together more and more we had fun with it!  I'd love to try it again with clear glue - we used white.  I think I'll go stock up on some bottles of glue while school supplies are on sale still.

DANCING SPAGHETTI
This wasn't overly spectacular, but the kids all giggled and thought the dancing spaghetti were funny.

HOMEMADE LAVA LAMP
We did this over and over again - adding more salt each time.  It was cool to watch!

MAGIC INFLATING BALLOON
I want to remember this one to do for a science fair someday - it was fun.  I pulled the balloon off because it looked like it was about to explode and I was afraid of the mess it could have made....next time I'll use a larger balloon.

MAGIC MILK COLORS
We did it differently than this - and it didn't work out.  I think if we do it again we'll use this exact tutorial.


MORE FUN LOOKING IDEAS:
Dancing Oobleck
Ivory Soap Experiment
Diet Coke + Mentos
Websites with lots of ideas
Glow in the dark food!
Edible peanutbutter playdoh
Incredible bouncing egg (my own personal Kindergarten science project!)

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