Mad Scientist Field Trip

 A few weeks ago, we had our last field trip.  Jenna, did a tremendous job with the field trips this year.  She put together this 'mad scientist' field trip, and the kids LOVED it.

 First was the cloud experiment.  All the kids got to add a big dollop of shaving cream to a cup of water.

 Of course, they all loved getting their hands dirty.

Once all the cups had plenty of shaving cream on top, Jenna started adding food coloring. 

 Once the 'clouds' (shaving cream) were full of 'moisture' (food coloring),

 It started to 'rain'. 

 The kids loved it, and thought they were so smart, because now they know how clouds and rain work.

 The next experiment was my favorite: Elephant toothpaste.

 The kids added some yeast to a little warm water,

 then when they added that mixture to the bottle of colored hydrogen peroxide..........

 

elephant toothpaste explodes. 

 You can tell from their expressions how impressed they were with this one.

 Of course, the temptation to play in it was too great.

 This was post explosion.  Stewart thought he would try holding his hand over the bottle after the yeast was added.  Needless to say, it exploded. It got all over, and Trevor was right in the line of fire, so he wasn't too thrilled about it.......Stewart however..........

 thought it was poor excitement! :)

 It was a perfect transition for the next experiment.  Baking soda and vinegar rockets. Jenna rigged up a cool bottle rocket and on the third try it was a success.

 Oh yeah, it was raining on us most of the time.  The kids didn't seem to mind and we were under a pavilion for most of the experiments.  We had a couple grandma's there to help with the chaos.

 It worked!  See the yellow bottle in the air?

 Next was giant bubble blowing.

 Bubbles everywhere!

 

 Then it was hands-on experimenting.  

Moon dough

Flour and oil (baby oil or mineral)

Feels like sand, but when you squeeze it together it holds it shape.  Fun to play in. 

(I don't think any of these links are the ones Jenna used, but I just thought I would add a link in case you ever want to refer back and use them again.)

 Oobleck

This stuff is so weird.  Basically it's cornstarch and water.  When you push on it or move it around continually, it's a solid, but the minute you stop handling it, it turns to a liquid.  

 Experimenting trays

All the trays had different mediums in them (water, soap, oil, etc.) and then they added different reacting agents (oil, soap, hydrogen peroxide, etc.) to the tray to see what would happen.

 

This field trip was so much fun!  The kids love just being together, but when you add explosions and wacky experiments it makes for a perfect day - even when it's raining.  

Thanks Jenna, you did an amazing job. 

Goldilocks and the Three Bears 3/20/14

The week of Goldilocks and the Three Bears continued. Journal time with eventful and informative, as always. It's so fun to see all of them get so excited about the things going on in their lives and hear about what is important to them. 

For the activity, we looked at emotion booklets. I made each of the kids a booklet of a bear face and a goldilocks face. They could flip through the different pages and see the emotions change. It was fun to talk to them about the different emotions the bears and goldilocks felt during the book and the different emotions the kids feel during their days. 

For the craft we colored pictures for a matching game the kids got to take home. We talked about the different sizes of the objects and who they belonged to. 

We had a great week with Goldilocks and the Three Bears! It was bittersweet knowing that it was my last week with the kids. It's so much fun to have them and play with them. They are such good kids I have loved having them for the times that I did!