Penguin Party

Soapy Science

This science experiment has been on my to do list for years.  We finally did it yesterday.  I gathered all of the bars of soap in our house and the bar of Ivory I bought just for this experiment.

 We began by smelling all of them, just for fun.

Then I asked the girls if they thought the soap would sink or float.  They both said the bars of soap would all sink; they were mostly right.  Ivory floats because air is pumped into it during the manufacturing process.

I then asked what would happen if we put the Ivory soap in the microwave.  Reagan hypothesized that since it has air in it, the soap would expand - bright girl.  She also knew that since the other soaps do not have air in them, they would melt in the  microwave.  We couldn't end with the hypothesis, so here is the Ivory in the microwave.

 Both girls enjoyed playing with the big cloud of soap, and they even brought it into the tub.

Later, for the sake of comparison, we had to microwave a marshmallow, of course.

Here Comes Jack Frost

Here Comes Jack Frost by Kazuno Kohara has been a winter favorite since Collin and Reagan were little.  All of the illustrations are blue and white; it is very appealing visually and almost demands some kind of art project to follow the reading.  A few years ago, I did this same art project with Collin and Reagan.

I used pieces of masking tape on watercolor paper to create trees and then let Kate paint over the tape with blue watercolor paint.

After the paint dried, she tapped a paintbrush dipped in white paint to create snow in the air of  her tree scene.  There was paint everywhere, but Kate loved doing this.  Here is a tiny video (you can also see this video on my Vine page).

 Once all of the paint was dry, Kate peeled off the masking tape to reveal her finished winter scene.

Painting on Ice

I tend to fill little containers with water and stick them in the freezer just in case I find some fun use for them.  Sometimes I put them in the tub with Kate and sometimes I give the kids salt and food coloring or liquid watercolors to experiment with on the ice.  Yesterday, I let the girls paint on ice.

 They started with watercolors.  The watercolors were fun, but very faint, so I gave them acrylic paints to try.

 With the acrylic paints, they could actually create vibrant works of art.

 Reagan's ice art is on the green tray and Katelyn's ice art is on the blue tray.

Of course, this was temporary art because the ice melted, but it was fun while it lasted.  Next time we might place a piece of paper on top and transfer the art to a permanent canvas!

The Snowy Day

We haven't had much snow at all this season, but last week there was a tiny bit on the ground while we were reading The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.  Kate requests this book often; I think she likes the simplicity of the text and I also think she can relate to the main character, Peter, in a few ways.  I thought she might enjoy extending the book a bit.  

We began with a sensory art project.  Together we made puffy paint using equal parts white glue and shaving cream.  Kate loves the way this paint dries, and it is perfect for "snow" art.

 I had cut a Peter shape out of red construction paper for her to place in the snow.  She sprinkled on a little white glitter to make her snow sparkle.

Kate grabbed a little snow from the deck and placed it in her pocket, just like Peter, to see if she could save it for later.

When she went back to check her pocket, it had melted, just like Peter's snow in the pocket.  She had already hypothesized that it would melt, so she certainly was not surprised, but it was still fun for her.

There wasn't enough snow on the ground for us to make snow angels or footprints/tracks, so we are still hoping to get a good storm soon!

Mittens and Pom Poms

One day this week, Kate and I looked at a few crafts on Pinterest, and she chose to make stained glass mittens.

I cut out the black mitten outline and stuck it onto contact paper.  She tore pieces of tissue paper and placed the pieces within the mitten outline.

 After finishing one pink mitten, she decided the other mitten should be a different color.

Then we moved on to mitten math.  I cut mitten shapes out of white card stock and added numbers with the corresponding number of dots.

Kate found the correct colored pom poms and placed them on the dots, counting each time.  She has known all of these colors for a long time and she is also pretty good at counting; we mostly worked on number recognition.

Our next activity was to help Kate develop fine motor skills and hand strength.  We have these neat tools she used with the pom poms.

 I enjoyed the most wonderful pom pom ice cream treats made just for me by Kate.

Hot Cocoa Cloud Dough

Kate and I mixed up a batch of Hot Cocoa Cloud Dough this week.  

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup canola oil

2 packets of hot cocoa powder mix

After mixing it together, we decided to add a few drops of orange essential oil.  The chocolate and orange scents blended together wonderfully.  Next time, we will add mini marshmallows!

Kate made me many cups of hot cocoa.

 In addition to smelling wonderful, cloud dough feels so nice.  It's fun to dig into!

Just a little mess.  It was worth it.