SOCIAL MEDIA

Thursday 22 January 2015

Lets talk about floating M's..

Alright this one is for the kiddies!
I am constantly on the hunt for new activities to do with the girl guides,
you have no idea how hard it is to please eight 9-12 year olds.
I am not a teacher I have no training for this
I try and whip things up but its hard when my brain is a pro-crafter
but not so pro-song singer or game player.
 
So having had their fill of crafts in 2014 I could tell the girls were
itching for a fresh idea.
 
*INTRODUCING SCIENCE NIGHT*
 
We have done science night in previous years
and it was really cool science things like
figuring out which of your hand, foot, eye, etc. is dominant
and making lava lamps.. etc etc etc
(google or pinterest ^^ if you're interested in those experiments)
 
However those things required a lot of preparation,
this year I'm really struggling to find a balance between
good girl guide leader and tired mom.
 
Hence SCIENCE NIGHT 2.0 was born
but tamed down to experiments I could quickly throw together and didn't need
much scientific explanation.
They were just cool and fun and would please a wide age range of kiddies.
 
1. MILK RAINBOWS
 
You've probably seen this one floating around the Internet
 
you grab a plate
pour some milk
drop some food colouring
and then drop some dish detergent in the middle
 
the milk and food colouring then starts
spiralling and spinning
making a tie dyed milk rainbow
 
The girls loved adding more and more food colouring and
extra dish soap to keep the colours moving.
 
This ones hard to grasp the coolness factor unless you see it in action
but see photos below.
 

 

 
2. WALKING WATER
 
We had done this in a previous year but we only used one empty cup
and one cup of water, we watched the water travel up the paper towel into the empty cup.
 
This year I decided to try it again but add a third cup and add food colouring to the water
because every kid knows things are more fun with food colouring!
 
3 cups
food colouring
 2 pieces paper towel
 
Drape paper towel into one cup of food colours water
place other end in empty cup
Do the same to other side
Watch the water walk up the paper towel and create a new colour in empty cup!
 
*Note: Do this experiment first so you can keep coming back to check in
the water can take a while to 'walk"


 
 
3. DANCING RAISINS
 
It doesn't get much easier than this one
 
a bottle of light coloured pop - sprite, mountain dew
(we tried both)
cups
raisins
 
pour a cup of soda
drop raisins in
 
The bubbles will grab hold of the raisins and
make them 'dance'
meaning they will float up and down in the cup
 

 
 
4. FLOATING M'S
 
This one was personally my favorite because I had never seen it done before and
thought it was super cool (when it worked).
 
bag of regular m&m's
bowl of water
 
We tried this experiment twice
the first time we filled a bowl of water and dropped the m&m in.
 
The second time we placed the m&m in the bowl then poured the water over top
we had success and failures both times.
 
You place your m&m's in the bowl with the M side facing up
and then you wait.....
 
First the coloured shell will melt off
then if your lucky, very slowly the 'M'
will peel off the chocolate and float to the top of the water!
 
We had about 50% success,
it does take a little patience you cant rush science!
& sometimes the M was perfectly intact
sometimes it would turn into more of a N or even a L
hahaha
but none the less a super fun activity!
 


^^^^ How neat is that!
 
So that was our excitement for the week,
if you are really eager you can look up the technical science
behind each of these experiments.
We just enjoyed the fun and didn't dig too deep into the
who, what, where, why side of things.
 
 Afterwards we even had time to sneak in some songs and a game of telephone
so t'was a good night to be a girl guide if I do say so myself!
 
Do you have any simple kids games, songs, crafts, experiments
share your knowledge with moi!!
:)









5 comments :

  1. 9-12 is such a broad range, it'd be hard to find activities everyone will enjoy. Great job finding activities all ages can do and have fun with :)

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  2. My kids would love these! thanks for the great ideas! Also, I agree that sometimes it's tricky to find a balance between fulfilling your obligations and being a good/fun/attentive mom; I know I struggle with that.

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  3. The floating M is so awesome! I love cool science experiments.

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  4. Great ideas! It is so important to emphasize science at such a young age...said the science teacher! LOL

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