Science Sunday - Hard to Change Science Trick

Since we were stranded at home all of last week, I was trying to come up with more things to do than usual. Both of the kids asked for Pop Bottle Science, one of our favorite resources! The trick we found was "Hard to Change".

What you need: an index card, a pop bottle with the top removed (ours is a bottle with the top 1/3 cut off, but I bet you could any jar with a wide mouth), and a quarter

What do you do?: Put the index card on top of the pop bottle. Place a quarter on the index card.

Flick the card with your finger so the card flies out from under the quarter. The quarter should fall into the bottle (this took a little practice with my six year old).

What's going on? You are demonstrating inertia, a property of all matter, which is matter's tendency to remain at rest even when the matter is made of billions of moving molecules.

I left everything on the dining room table, and everyone has been doing the trick as they walk by this week -- I always throw out the word inertia, and I think it's burned into their brains by now!

Resource: Pop Bottle Science

It's pure bottled magic! A complete kit that ingeniously marries science and fun in the breakthrough vein of The Bug Book & Bug Bottle (1.7 million copies in print) and The Bones Book & Skeleton (1.65 million copies in print), Pop Bottle Science presents 79 easy, hands-on experiments that probe the worlds of chemistry, physics, biology, geology, weather, the human body, and even astronomy.

The Pop Bottle bottle is a perfect miniature science lab--see-through, flexible, air-tight when necessary, made out of a durable, shatter-proof plastic and designed with a removable top that doubles as a funnel. The Pop Bottle book is a lively, fully illustrated 96-page guide to astonishment. Each experiment begins with a challenge and ends with an explanation of the scientific principles involved. Kids can design a volcano and watch it erupt. Create a tornado-maker and see how twisters work. Make quicksand--is it solid or liquid? Observe photosynthesis in action. Simulate Jupiter's giant red spot, investigate buoyancy, demonstrate inertia, and discover the Bernoulli principle--which allows planes to fly. Plus, turn the bottle into a barometer, a thermometer, walkie-talkie, trombone, compass--or groovy lava lamp.

Please check out other science experiments at Adventures in Mommydom - and try a fun science experiment with your kids today!

Pop Bottle Science - Share Your Resources!

Funny what can happen when you let your kids lead the way the with learning (dare I say UNSCHOOLING?). While shopping at the wholesale club a few months ago, Miss B found this great little Pop Bottle Science Kit. It looked great -- and the price was $10. (I'm noticing while writing this post that it is $5.98 on Amazon now - GREAT deal!) Included in the kit is the bottle, measuring spoons and cup, balloons, a cork, and a lesson book. You might need a few other household items, but they are things you would already have around the house. Here's the description:

It's pure bottled magic! A complete kit that ingeniously marries science and fun in the breakthrough vein of The Bug Book & Bug Bottle (1.7 million copies in print) and The Bones Book & Skeleton (1.65 million copies in print), Pop Bottle Science presents 79 easy, hands-on experiments that probe the worlds of chemistry, physics, biology, geology, weather, the human body, and even astronomy.The Pop Bottle bottle is a perfect miniature science lab--see-through, flexible, air-tight when necessary, made out of a durable, shatter-proof plastic and designed with a removable top that doubles as a funnel. The Pop Bottle book is a lively, fully illustrated 96-page guide to astonishment. Each experiment begins with a challenge and ends with an explanation of the scientific principles involved. Kids can design a volcano and watch it erupt. Create a tornado-maker and see how twisters work. Make quicksand--is it solid or liquid? Observe photosynthesis in action. Simulate Jupiter's giant red spot, investigate buoyancy, demonstrate inertia, and discover the Bernoulli principle--which allows planes to fly. Plus, turn the bottle into a barometer, a thermometer, walkie-talkie, trombone, compass--or groovy lava lamp

We have completed a few experiments from the bottle this week - and what I love is that my nine year old gets all of the supplies and pretty much can do the experiments for she and her younger brother, and if she needs my help it lets her know in the book. You really get a lot of knowledge for quite a small time investment with these little experiments.

The concepts are short and easily illustrated. They are perfect for my nine and six year old! Earlier this week we learned about how everything is made of molecules and how molecules are always in motion. When we put food coloring into a bottle of water, the molecules diffused throughout the water.

Yesterday we made a prediction about whether paper balled up in the bottom of the open bottle would get wet when it was submersed in a bucket of water. We had to follow the directions exactly - and discovered that the paper was MAGIC! The force of the air from the bottle kept the water out and the paper dry. Simple, really.

On today's schedule is a lava lamp made with vegetable oil and food coloring. I'm so glad we purchased this book and are having fun with it now - a perfect way to do quick and fun science with multi age children!

If you have a favorite science resource, can you let me know? I'd love to add to my resources!!

Exploding Cranberries for Play Dough - and Some Fun Creations!

We had lots of fun today! Thank you to Homeschool Mo for giving me the idea to make Cranberry Play Dough! I recently discovered her blog and I know you will like it, too!

First, take a bag of cranberries and boil them (in about 4 cups of water)....

Wait until you start seeing and hearing them pop open.... we just had discussed yesterday in math what the boiling point of water was... so this was a good connection. The kids LOVED watching the cranberries explode!

Strain the berries so you have 2 cups of cranberry water you can use in the play dough recipe:

Let the water cool for a little while (probably long enough to complete your math and grammar lessons for the day!).

Then, over medium heat, combine 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt, 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, and the cranberry water. Stir CONSTANTLY (about 5 minutes) until the mixture pulls away from the sides and turns into play dough.

We added gold glitter to make it a little more festive:

We pulled out the Christmas cookie cutters and lots of beads:

I was so proud of the children's creations - they sat at the kitchen table for nearly two hours. (The darker play dough you see if left over Apple Pie Play Dough from the Fall!) We listened to lots of Classical Christmas music, so we got in our music lesson for the day as well.

Here's a close-up:

The kids want these to set out and dry and then give them to Santa as a gift when we pay him a visit on Saturday. They also want to use them as decorations around the house.

It was a GOOD morning... I love it when that happens!