December 11th

We missed a couple days, so I’ll double up the rest of the week.

Today we read If I Were an Astronaut, by Eric Braun.  We talked about aliens, and how they could be out there in the universe, but no one had met one yet.  Violet proceeded to argue with me about how aliens were real.  She saw ET and he was an alien.  I tried to explain to her that ET was a movie and that he was pretend, but she wouldn’t listen.  

For today’s activity, we were going to make really cool aliens with cut paper, yarn, googley eyes and sequins.  After all that ET talk though, Violet refused to make a fun alien, and just drew ET.  She’s really proud of it!

December 6th

Today we read bits and pieces of Stink-O-Pedia by Megan McDonald.  It was more geared towards older kids, but it had some fun facts in it 🙂

Today’s experiment was to make slime!  This was definitely Violet’s favorite so far.  She played with it for over an hour.

Ingredients:

Borax

Full bottle of school glue

Water

Food coloring (optional)

Empty the bottle of glue into a bowl.

Fill the empty bottle with water, shake, and pour into the bowl.  Stir it up really good.  Add your food coloring now.

Stir 1/2 tsp of Borax into 1/4 cup of water.  Slowly pour into the glue mixture and stir!  It’ll clump up and turn into slime.

Play!

It bounces too!

Even Isaac got in on the fun!

 

December 5th

Sorry for the delay!  Violet had a sleepover with Grandma and Grandpa this weekend 🙂

Today we read Meet Einstein by Mariela Kleiner.

We did the paper towel experiment.  It’s really simple!

Fill 2 cups up to the top with water and add some food coloring.  Fold up 2 paper towels and put one end in the water and one end in an empty cup.

 

The water will wick up the paper towels and fill the middle cup.  We asked Violet if she added the water to the middle one, and she said, “NO!!!  It did it all by itself!”  She was really excited 🙂

 

December 4th

Today we read Older Than the Stars by Karen Fox.  This is one of my favorite children’s books 🙂

For our activity we made amoebas to hang on the Christmas tree.

Supplies:

Yarn

Glue

Muffin Pan

Googley Eyes

Bowl with a little bit of water

Step 1: Stir equal parts of glue and water together.

Step 2: Cut up a bunch of yarn.

Step 3: Saturate the yarn with the glue mixture.

Step 4: Wind the yarn in the muffin tray.

Step 6: Pour some more glue over each one and add eyes.

Step 7: Let dry.  If you want speed up the drying process, bake in the oven at 250 for a couple hours.

Step 8: Thread more yarn through a loop and hang on your tree!

December 3rd

Yesterday we read Oh Say Can You Seed by Bonnie Worth.

Violet was really excited that there were kidney beans in the book, just like our experiment.

Supplies:

Ziplock bag

Wet paper towels

Beans

 

Put the beans in between the wet paper towels, put in the ziplock and tape them in a sunny window.

December 2nd

Today we read Volcanos by Dana Meachen Rau.  Violet thought it was hilarious that there are volcanos underwater at the bottom of the ocean!

For our activity today, we made a baking soda and vinegar volcano!

Ingredients:

Baking Soda

Vinegar

Old Play-Doh (stuff you don’t mind throwing away)

Small container

Step 1:  Hug your ingredients.

Step 2: Mash Play-Doh around the container.  We did a layer of newspaper first to make it more mountain shaped, then did the Play-Doh.

Step 3: Hug your volcano!

Step 4: Pour baking soda into the bottom of the volcano.

Step 5: Pour the vinegar into the volcano and watch it explode!!

Step 6: Make a mess!

December 1st

The book today was Where Does Food Come From? by Debra Stilwell.  When Violet heard the title she said, “It comes from the fridge!!”  I asked her where it came from before that and she said, “The grocery store!  Then it comes home to the fridge!”

The book talked about where different kinds of foods come from (fruits, veggies, meat, processed foods) and how they all end up at the market or grocery store.  Violet was concerned about the little girl in the picture having strawberry juice on her pants.  She also wanted to eat the apple out of the apple orchard picture 🙂

The activity we did today was the colored celery experiment.

Ingredients:

Celery

Cups

Food Coloring

Water

Put a cut stalk of celery into each cup, add a little water and a few drops of food coloring.  We did green, blue and orange.

Stir!

Wait!  Talk about what’s going to happen when the celery stalks “drink” colored water.

We’ll update you with the results later this week!

 

UPDATE!!  It worked!

The last 2 were taken with our microscope camera.  Aren’t they awesome!?!

 

The Calendar is Finished

The calendar is done!  Didn’t it turn out awesome?

Each card has a book title written on one side and an activity listed on the other.

 

My favorite part!  Violet asked me, “Who is that guy in the birthday hat?!”

Calendar

I’m in the process of sewing our calendar. I’m pretty excited about it! I’m not quite finished yet, but here’s a sneak peek!

Book/Activity List

Here is a list of the books we will be reading and the activities to go along with them.  I’m not sure of the order yet, I’m thinking we’ll do the more complex ones on the weekends, and leave some easily transported/not messy ones for when we’re traveling.

Magnets: Pulling Together, Pushing Apart  – Rosinsky, Natalie

Magnet Jar

If I Were an Astronaut – Eric Braun

Make a Rocket & Alien

Roaring Rockets – Tony Miltton

Milk Paint

A Drop of Blood – Paul Showers

Pendulum Paint

Gravity is a Mystery – Franklyn Mansfield Branley

Gravity Drop

What is Science – Rebecca Kai Dotlich (reading this one twice)

Density Jar

Egg in a Jar

Planets – Elizabeth Carney

Planet Ornaments

Newton and Me – Lynne Mayer

Ball Ramps

Meet Einstein – Mariela Kleiner

Paper Towel Colors

Oh Say Can You Seed – Bonnie Worth

Grow a Bean

Gingerbread Pirates – Kristin Kladstrup

Cookies

Looking for a Moose – Phyllis Root

Animal Resist Painting

There’s No Place Like Space – Tish Rabe

Make a Constellation

Let it Snow – Maryann Cocca-Leffler

Snow Painting

Galactic Goodnight – Susan Ring

Sun Topper

Older Than the Stars – Karen C. Fox

Yarn Amoebas

Where Does Our Food Come From – Debra Stilwell

Colored Celery

Stink-O-Pedia – Megan McDonald

Gak

Sound – Natalie Rosinsky

Cup Phone

Volcanoes – Dana Rau

Volcano

Pepper’s Special Wings – Mary Anne Farah

Adaptation Coloring Sheets

Clouds – Alice K. Flanagan

Cloud Jar

This is the Rain – Lola M. Schaefer

Rain Jar