Science Project: Homemade Lava Lamp

Well, if my child does not remember that "oil and water don't mix" by NOW, there's nothing I can do for her....

You will need:
a plastic 2-liter bottle
food coloring
a cup
vegetable oil

Here's how to make your own lava "lamp":1. Fill any cup, like a large plastic party cup, with water.

2. Add food coloring of your choice until you have a nice, vibrant color.

3. Take a nice, clean 2-liter bottle. Fill it a little over halfway with vegetable or canola oil.

4. Add your cup of colored water to the oil.

5. Add more oil if necessary, to fill about to the top.

6. Put the cap on your 2-liter bottle. Gently tilt the bottle onto its side. What do the oil and water look like now? (We drew a picture in our workbook, for future reference.)

You can roll that bottle around all you want,

you can even shake the thing like a maniac; while the oil and water may temporarily look like they have combined, just give them some time.....they will always separate out again!

Even if you shake it up this much!! (We called in the big guns, my husband, and had him shake it up for us. I thought he was going to pull something. The oil and water later separated into 2 totally different layers, even after appearing combined.)

If you leave your lava lamp out for any length of time, you will notice that the oil and water molecules separate almost completely. Interestingly, the water is denser than the oil, so it will sink to the bottom; the oil will rest on top.

(Density is how much an object weighs compared to the space it takes up. So if you have the exact same amount of water and oil -- say, 2 liters of each -- the water will weigh more than the oil. It is denser.)

save those cardboard thingies

This cardboard insert once held some punch-out game pieces. It's the kind of thing my husband would chuckle at me for saving, but....

it finally came in handy! Nora colored in all the shapes during "rest time" and came out with a cool pattern. She always enjoys peeling covers away and seeing the patterns underneath. I'm sure you could use something like this is more creative ways, but it worked great for one of those "Oh boy, it's rest time and I'd really love to keep you up in your room for half an hour, and preferably not tearing white paper into tiny confetti shreds" moments.

Tissue Paper Art

I apologize in advance for the poor-quality photos in this post. My "good" camera was in the shop!

Here is a simple way to make tissue-paper collages....

1) Take a piece of cardboard and wrap the front of it with aluminum foil.

2) Cut out shapes of tissue paper -- or just rip them with your fingers.

3) Mix a small bowl of diluted glue and brush it over the surface of the foil. Lay pieces of tissue over the foil in any arrangement you wish. Keep layering tissue, brushing a layer of glue over each piece to hold it down.

4) When you feel you are finished, let your artwork dry for a couple of hours. These make very pretty pieces. It was hard to capture here (especially with my "backup" camera), but the tissue pieces sort of melt into each other for a lovely, tie-dyed, almost batik effect.

This was an easy craft, very inexpensive (mostly recycled), and enjoyed by my 4-year-old and 2-year old. Cleanup was minimal -- just some stickiness here and there from the glue! (And, as you can see, I have totally given up on the kitchen table. I don't even put down newspaper any more. Bad me!)

Theme: Vision / The Eye

One day, my daughter started asking me all about our cat's vision.  Could our cat see color?  Could she really see in the dark?  Her curiosity made me think that we should do spend a little time learning about eyes and vision.

Given that my daughter had just turned 4 1/2 at the time, we did not get too technical about eye anatomy.  But we explored our own vision in simple ways, and learned a lot about the vision of animals.  (Animals are always a hit around here!)

The whole theme took about 2 weeks. We usually do one activity a day, depending on what's going on and how everyone is feeling!

ONLINE EYE RESOURCES:

The Weird and Wonderful World of Animal Eyes


Animals With Stunning Eyes

Simple Diagram of the Eye

A to Z's Cool Homeschool: Eye Activities

How many eyes?...

While doing our "vision / the eye" theme, we did this little activity to work in some math with learning about eyes...

I printed a few pictures off the internet of various animals with more-than-the-usual amount of eyes. Then I gave Nora a big ol' pile of googly craft eyeballs. Her "job" was to decorate the critters however she liked, and then put on the number of eyeballs that each animal has. Together, we counted them.

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Here are some animals you can use for this activity.....
Spiders: 2 -8 eyes (most have 8)

Box Jellyfish: 24 eyes

Scallops: can have 100 eyes (okay, don't really make your child glue 100 eyes onto a piece of paper!!) :)

Flies: Actually have 5 eyes -- two huge (relatively speaking) compound eyes and three simple eyes

Giant squid: Two eyes -- the largest eyes on earth!

Crabs: Two eyes

European wasp: Five eyes

Starfish: Most have 5 eyes, one on the end of each arm

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My daughter was exactly 4 1/2 when we did this activity. It seemed to be a good level for her. Counting out items above 20 was a good way to help bigger numbers become more concrete. It was a nice little mix of science, math, and art all in one simple activity.

Of course, we usually finish off by getting goofy!

Science Activity: Magnifying Glass

For part of our unit on eyes and vision, we took several nature walks "armed" with magnifying glasses and kid-sized binoculars. Both items take some practice for young viewers, but can be rewarding. The kids enjoyed getting "super powers" via the simple aids of binoculars and magnifiers!

Our second nature walk took place when it was much warmer. Look, we even had a tomato!

 

This time of year, there were ants aplenty on the peonies.

 

You may not think it, but small children will have to be taught how to use a magnifying glass. Their tendency is to put it to their eye, not over the object they want to see. So they may be oohing and ahhing and acting all thrilled -- while really seeing only a blur! Thier excitement reaches a whole new level when they actually figure out that placing the glass just above your object will help you see in much more detail!

 

 

On our first (late-February) nature walk, we found some hopeful signs of spring...signs you really did need a magnifying glass for!

Crocus emerging

We found a poor, frozen little ladybug. She made good viewing, though (and I thank her for her donation to science).

Even the little guy could get in on this activity...

We discovered that there is lots to see, but sometimes you have to look hard for it!

Science Lesson: Eyes Made for Day and Night

For part of our "Vision" theme, we talked about how eyes look, and how the way they look tells us something about what they do.

-- We looked at pictures of different animal eyes (I had printed them off the computer and cut some from our monthly zoo mailing). Some animals have big, round eyes with very round and large pupils.

-- Other animals have almond-shaped eyes with smaller, or even horizontal, pupils. Why is that?

Here's a very basic answer for young children: The huge, round pupils of nocturnal animals help them to gather more light. The long, flat pupils of animals like deer and horses give them better depth perception on rocky, uneven ground. Such pupils also help them to see more around them, such as a lion crouching in the grass.

-- Some animals who live underground or in caves have no eyes at all! Can your child think of an example? (Worms are animals without true eyes!)

Simple Activity:

After talking for a day or so about animal eyes and how we can tell the special things they can do by looking at them, I printed several pictures off the Internet and had Nora sort them by whether they belonged to Day-seeing or Night-seeing animals (diurnal or nocturnal animals!). She didn't find this activity difficult. It was a concrete way for her to evaluate the things we had been talking about. Plus, it's just cool to look at all those different animal eyes!

There are so many other aspects of vision that could be taught...but due to my young audience, I kept it simple.

Here's a "master list" of vision / eye activities you might want to do with young children:

EYE ACTIVITIES for preschoolers:

-- Take a few minutes to pay attention to your eyes.  How far can you move them?  Do you "see" anything when your eyes are closed?

-- Let kids explore their world with magnifying glasses, binoculars, and a simple microscope if you have access to one.

-- Let kids look at their eyes in the mirror.  Point out a few basic parts of anatomy.

-- Use this unit as an opportunity to talk about eye care: not scratching or rubbing the eye; using cool water to help an itchy/inflamed eye; being careful never to spray anything in the eye.

-- Look at photos of your pets and other animals in the dark.  Why are their eyes shiny and glowing? 

-- Look at pictures online of various animals and their weird, wonderful eyes!  (See my links list at the end of this unit for a few good places to start.)

-- Give your child a small, safe handheld mirror and let her draw her eye on paper, using her reflection as a guide.

-- Play the ol' Halloween game.....feeling various objects in bowls...blindfolded!  (Spaghetti, peeled grapes, baby carrots, Oobleck, etc.) 

-- In the car or out the window, play "I Spy." 

-- let your preschooler observe eye dilation

-- Play "Pin the Tail on the Donkey."

-- Play hide-and-go-seek.

T.P. Tubes as Card Holders

I know, I know. The very title of this post is giving you heart palpitations. If you feel giddy about composting; get chills on your child's birthday not because of the gifts but because of the cool boxes the toys came in that you just know you can turn into some vague kind of "art"; and save glass food jars because you think that some have a particularly pretty pattern, well, here is a little idea for you.

 

I didn't think of this myself.....I got the idea from the very cool blog maya*made. Anyway, this Maya lady has a strong affection for empty T.P. tubes and security envelopes; I admire her. She uses empty T.P. tubes -- painted, of course, and dressed up a little bit -- as holders for handmade cards. I saved up a bunch of tubes for just this purpose, but then got sidetracked when some internet order of my husband's arrived in the mail stuffed with these crazy-awesome little rectangles of corrugated cardboard. I snatched them up, with the devilish glint in my eye that probably makes my daughter sigh to herself, "Oh, no. Mommy's gonna be makin' me paint THAT thing."

She was right.

Actually, she was engrossed in another project, so I did most of the painting, and then she helped me affix a bunch of paper and felt hearts to the card holders, and she glued on the buttons. And then she wrote her name all over the place like crazy, 'cause she just likes to do that.

 

We used scraps of felt from other projects, so we didn't have to buy a thing for this project, and we still got to show some friends a little V-day love.

So, why am I showing you a project for a holiday that's a month past?....Well, because it's endlessly adaptable. You can use little rectangles of cardboard as holders for any card, gift card, or token of your affection. St. Patrick's Day, a birthday, Administrative Assistants Day (although, if you are at home making things out of scraps of cardboard like me, then you probably do not have an administrative assistant...and if you do, make sure she gets some real nice gift card inside your old T.P. tube, okay?). These are admittedly more charming with the touch of a child, although I made my husband a recycled-cardboard Valentine myself, and he at least pretended to be pleased with it, which was nice of him.

Oobleck!

 

What is this stuff? Is it glue? Is it yogurt? Is it some particularly low-budget brand of Play-Doh? No...it's Oobleck!


This is a story activity based on Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss. In the story, a page named Bartholomew Cubbins must save the day when the king decides he's tired of all the "usual" things that fall from the sky, and asks his magicians to conjure up an all-new substance: "Oobleck." The gooey Oobleck starts clogging up everything and wreaking all kinds of havoc, until Bartholomew comes up with a very simple solution to end the whole mess.....

You can make your own "Oobleck," and it is strange, intriguing stuff. Technically, it is a "non-newtonian fluid," which means that it acts like both a solid and a liquid. When you pour it, it is liquid, but if any force is applied to it, it acts like a solid. So you can squeeze it, and it will feel completely dry; but the second you release your grip, it becomes liquid again!

Or you can run a fork through it, and you'll get dryish scratch marks,

 

but the second you lift the fork, all the Oobleck will ooze back together as if the scratch marks were never there : a little like that wet sand right at the water's edge on the beach.

According to my friend Wikipedia, this is "due to polymers, which are long chains in the structure of Oobleck. When you hit Oobleck hard, the polymers tangle and resist the force. When you push something in it gently, the polymers have time to move, and it acts like a liquid." So there you have it.

We read the book and then made our own Oobleck; it is messy, and you may hyperventilate slightly during the activity, but you will be pleased by how easily it cleans up with water.

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Recipe for "Oobleck"

-- 2 cups cornstarch in a large mixing bowl
-- About 1 cup of water (add a little more, bit by bit, if you want a runnier Oobleck)
-- a few drops of green food coloring so it will be green like the Oobleck in the book

Drop a few drops of food coloring into your water. Then, stir the water into the cornstarch with a fork until it is about as thick as pancake batter. I preferred ours a little on the thicker side.

Set your kids up with a bowl of Oobleck and some spoons, forks, whatever you like -- they will be pretty surprised -- this ain't their mama's Play-Doh!
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Further Oobleckiness:

Here is a rather entertaining, 4 1/2-minute clip from the show "Mythbusters," in which an Oobleck-style experiment (though not mentioned by its literary name) was done on a larger scale, using 200 gallons of water and 1,000 pounds of cornstarch. The segment includes a good explanation of how a non-newtonian fluid works. Adam (a "mythbuster") is able to run back and forth across the surface of what looks like a regular ol' liquid. Older kids (maybe 4 and above) will enjoy this.

"Fast Food"

In recent years, for whaatever reason, funny little pictures made of produce seem to have become popular. I guess there are certain trends you just can't anticipate. Anyway, a friend gave us this book "Fast Food" from her donation pile.

 

and the second Nora saw it, she said, "We should make some 'fast food,' Mommy!"

She especially liked the little tangerine-in-a-banana-boat, shown in the middle of this page:

 

So that was what she asked to make first.

[As a side note, this book's reading level is more for ages 2 or so, but older children can enjoy the pictures, which are very cute. Also, many of the vegetable figures are actually not that complicated, like the cars shown below.

 

So your child can replicate them successfully, while adding her own touches.]

 

We didn't buy any "special" produce for this craft, we just used what we had on hand.

We started by splitting a poor banana down the middle.

Nora added a face to the tangerine/clementine (are they the same thing?) with a Sharpie pen.

Nora's imagination was piqued by this activity. I knew it would be a successful "craft" because she was so insistent on doing it, while I kept dragging my feet (not wanting to waste good produce!). The fact that the banana was half-dead and we only used carrot tops made it easier for me.

She wanted to make a canoe (banana), buoys (carrot tops), person (clementine), hat (bell pepper top), and a crab (slices of bell pepper). Then she asked to make a "celery man" with "ice skates" (strips of bell pepper). This concentrating face makes me giggle -- I think it's the face I make sometimes when getting shoes onto the kids:

Then her imagination kind of went wild and she wanted to make a "big field of grass" using broccoli stems and some old(ish) celery. That lime (below), which looks like an evil horned creature, was my own attempt at a bunny...so I think I'll leave the "fast food" to Nora.

Finished! A wacky craft, but fully compostable! Nora started eating it halfway through -- the little crab disappeared first -- or, at least, its claws, but I wouldn't let her eat the body because she had drawn on it with Sharpie.