My Little Scientists

Last week we spent our time learning about various cause and effect relationships and doing several basic science experiments! 

We practiced:

1. Asking a question or wondering why

2. Predicting the outcome 

3. Finding out

The girls loved the Sink Float experiment where we filled a large tub of water and tried putting a variety of household items into it to see if they would sink or float. Some items I already had gathered for the purpose of the experiment and some they were able to go and gather themselves. We chose an one object at a time to put into the water. Before it could be dropped in, the girls got to feel it and look at it, then told me their prediction as to weather it was going to sink it float! We wrote our predictions down and then documented he final outcome! Here are aome of our findings!

We spent a whole day playing with magnets! We made a list if things together tht we thought magnets might attic to, then I have each of the girls a magnet and let them go aroud the house trying to get their magnets to stick to things! When they were done we went back to our list and highlighted what things were magnetic. 

Then we brought out the letter magnets; Avery and Emma thought the best place to play with them was on the cold air return vent! Perfect height for a two year old!!

Emma could not believe her eyes when the magnets would scoot across the floor to connect to one another! 

We also spent a whole day learning about viscosity, and that different liquids had different weights and could be layered on top of each other! We first drew a picture of what we thought our cup would look like when we dumped in oil, maple syrup, corn syrup and water (with a little blue food coloring so we could see it). Of course, they thought it would all mix together! 

Then, one at a time (it doesn't matter the order) we poured the liquids into a clear glass! The liquids layered themselves and the girls were amazed! We then drew what the glass actually looked like! 

To take it a step further we found some small objects to drop into the glass to see which layer they would float. Here are our results: on the very top of the oil a tooth pick, between the oil and water an almond, between the water and maple syrup was dried pasta and a grape and way at the bottom of the glass was a quarter! 

We also talked about the properties of water one day and explored solid ice cubes, liquid water "that we drink", and gas (we boiled water on the stove and watched the steam). We also made "oobleck" a fun type of slimy goo that is solid when you push down firmly on it but liquid if you softly touch it. It's made from mixing corn starch and water! 

We also compared fresh water versus salt water. We did a simple experiment to test the buoyancy. If you drop an egg into a glass of water, it sinks. Then we added salt to our water, stirred it up, and put the same egg back in. It was floating!!! Avery kept trying to push it back down, but it kept floating. 

We also did the experiment where you get a cup of water and shake some pepper on top. Then poke a toothpick coated in dish soap into the cup and watch te pepper repel and move away in the cup! 

We took some time playing with balloons and talking about static electricity! The girls had the most fun making my hair stand up and then sticking their balloon to the wall!

It's not a science week without baking soda and vinegar volcanoes!! 

Here are some great books for teaching young kids about science! They are worded just right for young kids!