Ice and Salt Exploration

Paper Towel Absorption

We decided to test paper towel absorption. First Kaia colored circles on the bottom of a paper towel.

We then used double stick tape to attach it to the inside of a container. We filled the bottom with water maybe a 1/4 of an inch perhaps less.Just enough for the paper towel to touch it and start absorbing the water.

We then sat back and watched as the water crept up the paper towel. 

It was really neat to see how the water was pulled up the paper towel. And how some of the secondary colors started to separate. Check out the orange and the green.

Rainbow Explosions

We made rainbow Volcano explosions!
Ingredients Needed:
Baking soda
Dawn Dish soap
Vinegar
food coloring or liquid water colors
Kool aid if you want it to smell super exciting too

I wanted the color to be hidden so first I poured some baking soda in the bottom of each glass than I added a squirt of dawn dish soap so the bubbles would be extra frothy.

I then covered each with a big heap of baking soda

The boys grabbed their bottles of vinegar and started squirting

Pretty soon they got some awesome colorful bubbles

After the colors came out and the vinegar was all gone the fun continued

It became about catching bubbles and finding baking soda clumps to squeeze and squish between their fingers

Mixing colors and scooping and pouring

I love that they were engaged for a full forty minutes playing with this

They had so much fun. And my cups and the container were super clean afterwards. The dawn, vinegar, and baking soday made everything shine and sparkle when I rinsed it all out!

Lets Make it Rain

We decided to make a jar that let the kids understand and see the process with which rain is created. We used boiling water in the jar. And a bowl of ice on top. Super easy.

Clouds are formed when water vapor in the air is cooled and condenses as part of the water cycle. Clouds consist of billions of tiny water droplets (and even ice crystals) floating in the sky.  The rain is then formed when the water droplets are too heavy to be suspended in the air.

The ice at the top represented our Cloud.

Our rain droplets are forming and dropping

Mikey was upset because he wanted to see the droplets falling. It was a little hard to see when each droplet fell.

So I tried coating the bottom of the bowl with powdered tempera paint (Kool-Aid would have worked too).

This did make it easier to see the raindrops falling but the water also got cloudy and I didn't really like it so. We tried again.

First with washable markers. Just coloring the bottom of the bowl

We also tried watercolors

They were to light so I went over them with food coloring

We ended up making a rainbow with the markers

We left each bowl out in the sun to completely dry before trying our rain experiment again.

The food coloring one worked great. It immediately started raining. First from the center.

And then from the sides

It was fantastic! Definitely the winner as far as showing how the rain falls

The markers were just to light and barely showed up. They were still fun though!

Ren Fair 2014

We love Ren Fair. The kids have a blast every year.

This guy made amazing bubbles with his hands. THe kids were here for probably about 30 minutes. I wish I had taken a video. Mikey was actually running around attacking and popping the bubbles with his axe. And Liam was running around screaming with delight attacking and popping bubbles as well.

Liam loved the baby pig

Kaia found her favorite Fairy!

This year she made sure were prepared. She had us bring a flat of strawberries, dried apricots and dried apples, and a large bag of glass beads a.k.a. fairy money

She made everyone's day by sharing all her goodies with all the fairies as well as anyone who bowed to her.

It was amazing she had the beast time

You can't tell but Mikey was actually super excited that there were boy fairies this year. This one he called Fish boy fairy. He fed him an apricot

And gave him a glass bead

The fairies were fantastic this year

They also had fun at the petting zoo

dsds
Mikey was so excited about this boy fairy he is a puppy fairy. Mikey fed him by hand

Awesome!

This was the best year yet. I should have taken more pictures but we were just having so much fun it was hard to remember to grab the camera often enough.