Easter Crystals

The kids had so much fun making the Shamrock Crystals that we made for St. Patrick’s Day, we decided to make an Easter version.  I love how they turned out, they make my kitchen window so cheerful!

We made colorful easter eggs and chicks out of pipe cleaners.

Then placed them in a solution of 3 cups of boiling water and 1/2 cup borax. (Detailed instructions can be found here.)

So cute.  I love how they sparkle in the sun, although it has been a bit grey and cloudy the last few days so I could not get great pictures.  I am in LOVE with these sweet chicks the kids made!

 

I will be linking to these parties.

April 6, 2011 | | Tags: , , | 27 Comments »

Packing Peanut Play

What to do when you score 2 giant bags of packing peanuts for FREE!

Craigslist is a great place to look for free packing material.  I scored this set from a local health food store.  This bag was full of 2 different kinds of biodegradable packing peanuts and a few Styrofoam ones at the bottom.  LOVE IT!

The kids love playing in the peanuts.  I filled a large under the bed storage container with them and the kids had a blast.  Even my “big” ones loved jumping in.  I left this up for a few weeks, defiantly a hit!

Notice the cute colored people that Bree is holding.  The girls really enjoyed coloring their packing peanut creations, so cute!

Cornstarch packing peanuts do wonderful things in water.  We decided to conduct an experiment to see how many cups of packing peanuts would dissolve in 8 cups of water.  Kaleb made the chart and wrote down all our guesses.

We started out shaking the jar, but soon realized that we were creating too much foam.  We ended up mixing them in with a spoon which seemed to work better.  The end result was amazing.

We ended up being able to dissolve 135 cups of packing peanuts in 8 cups of water.  I am convinced we could have kept on going if our container was bigger.  It takes very little moisture to break them down.

Next we created wonderful structures.  Simply dip your finger in water, touch it to the packing peanut and then press 2 peanuts together.  The kids had a blast doing this.  You can buy special packing peanuts at kid learning stores, but these free peanuts work the same way.  You can also purchase packing peanuts at office supply stores.  Hours of endless fun building and creating.

After they finished building they had this great idea to see how fast it would take to dissolve in water.  I was excited that they wanted to dissolve it because I was getting worried that I wold have to fit this wonderful structure in with my spring decorations:)  If you look closely you can see a man (no face), a giraffe, a large spider and a creeping Caterpillar.

Squishing slimy, gooey packing peanuts.

Kaleb enjoyed making flying “worms” by squishing his hands together.

Next the kids wanted to know what the difference between the Styrofoam and biodegradable peanuts so I set up another experiment.  The jar on the right contains the biodegradable peanuts and the jar on the right is the Styrofoam peanuts.  After some fun shaking the kids noticed that there was no change in the Styrofoam jar.

Since the Styrofoam peanuts don’t dissolve in water they are perfect for using as beanbag filler.  They are larger than the regular bean bag filler, but the kids don’t mind and it squishes down pretty quickly.  The perfect cheap fix to fluff up those flat beanbags.  Simply unzip the beanbag cover, there is usually 2 zippers and dump in the styrofoam packing peanuts.  It is important to make sure you are using Styrofoam.  If your beanbag ever gets wet, you would end up with a sticky gooey mess with the biodegradable variety.

Grab your sunglasses, your favorite book and go enjoy the spring sunshine!

All this play took place over a few weeks.  The kids love it!  We are giving the leftover peanuts to my sister-in-law to use in her preschool classroom sensory table.  When I was picking up the bags, I’m sure the lady thought I was nuts.  She was probably thinking “who wants 2 large bags of packing peanuts and 2 large bags of bubble wrap?”  I do!  She defiantly blessed our house!  Now what to do with all the bubble wrap!  LOVE IT!

I will be linking to these parties.

March 31, 2011 | | Tags: , , | 15 Comments »

Dancing Oobleck

Oobleck is a great, and kids LOVE it.  My kids are no different.  If you have never made it before Oobleck is a mixture of cornstarch and water.  When played with fast it acts like a solid and when allowed to relax it acts like a liquid.  When we saw a few youtube videos that involved dancing Oobleck we decided we needed to take our play to the next level.  You will need to make the Oobleck a bit thicker than usual.  We used about 2 cups of corn starch and 1 cup of water.

Once your recipe is ready let the kids play for a bit while you set up the next step.  You will need a subwoofer, a thin metal cookie sheet, a MP3 of an audio test tone and food coloring.  Place the cookie sheet onto the speaker of the sub, and pour in the Oobleck.  You can download different test tones and play to see what works best for you.  We used 40 Hz, 50 Hz, and 63 Hz, and found that we needed to turn the volume way up.  We tried a number of different frequencies but these three seemed to work the best.  We did a search for subwoofer test MP3.  There are a number of different sites that you can use.  Before you play the MP3 you will need to place your fingers on the edge of the cookie sheet with gentle pressure.  It took a bit of playing to see what worked the best, but the results were amazing.

We decided to add food coloring to see what would happen.  I love how the colors dance together and you can see all the layers of each color.  This was the kids favorite part!

After we were all done I let the kids play with the colored Oobleck.  They loved it, but a word of caution if stained colored fingers are not your thing.  We giggled at the kids as they tried to wash the color off.  I’m sure they will be sporting grey blue hands for a few days.

I will be linking to these parties.

March 22, 2011 | | Tags: , | 76 Comments »

Submarine Fun

Spring break week!  I am so glad to have some special time with the kids this week.  Love it!

This morning I asked the kids if they could construct a simple submarine.  My little ones often experiment with different items to see if they will sink or float, but todays challenge was focused on the older ones.  All you need is a large glass container, numerous small items, an empty plastic spice container and water.  The kids ran all over the house collecting things that would fit in the small vessel that would become the submarine.  Here are a few ideas of some things that we used.  Silly bands, marbles big and small, Lego’s of all sizes, beads and buttons.

The kids found that it took quite a number of items to get the submarine to sink to the bottom.  They also thought it was interesting that objects that would normally sink would float inside the sub.

We talked about density and how the air inside the container made the heavy objects buoyant.  Kaleb decided he needed to remove the air out of his container to get it to his sub to submerge.  It was fun watching the kids figure out the problem.  Eventually they decided if they filled the sub with water there would be no room for air.  I love watching the process kids go though when left alone to explore.  After their brilliant discovery of using water, I explained to them that real submarines also use water to submerge themselves.  After numerous attempts using different amounts of water and a combination of different objects, they each finally created a perfect sub that stayed in the center of the jar.

I will be linking to these parties.

March 21, 2011 | | Tags: , | 4 Comments »

Shamrock Crystals

This is something you HAVE to try!  The end result is amazing and they sparkle beautifully in the sun.  I have seen a number of blogs around Christmas time that use these as ornaments, but we are now March and I am just getting around to making them so we made Shamrocks.  I am tempted to make shapes for every season!

You will need Borax, boiling water, a wide mouth glass mason jar, green and white pipe cleaners, string, a pencil and food coloring.  Borax can be found in the laundry isle.  It is natural, but that does not mean it is safe.  Borax should not me inhaled or ingested, so be careful.

First, twist  your pipe cleaner into the desired shape.  I set out a few templates of shamrocks (printed off the internet) for the kids to look at.  You will need 3 cups of boiling water per mason jar, 1/2 cup of Borax for each jar.  The more saturated your solution is, the larger your crystals will be.  Stir until all the borax is dissolved and the solution is clear, add food coloring if you desire.  Tie a string around the tail of the shamrock and tie the other end to a pencil.   Gently lower the shamrock into the solution making sure that it is not touching any sides or the bottom.  Set the jar in a safe spot that will not be disturbed.  We let ours sit overnight and the kids were amazed to find the pipe cleaners were transformed into crystal-encrusted decorations.  Gently cut off the string and display in your window.

These crystals are so simple to make.  Kaleb loves to experiment so this was the perfect project for him.  I loved that he added his twist on the experiment by coloring one pipe cleaner with markers to see what would happen.  Next time I will encourage him to use sharpies instead of washable markers.

These shamrock crystals were so easy to make.  I am not convinced that the food coloring changed the crystal color by much.  The color that you see is the pipe cleaner showing through.  I love them and the sparkle beautifully in the sun.  These would be fun to make with the kids and give as gifts for grandparents, teachers, neighbors and anyone special.  Just change the shape of the pipe cleaner to suit the occasion.

I will be linking to these parties.

March 1, 2011 | | Tags: , , , | 35 Comments »
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