Bobo Gallery: preschool science fun

Showing posts with label preschool science fun. Show all posts

Frozen Paint Art - COOL Fun on a HOT Day!

I can hardly believe that our summer is coming to an end! :(

My big girl starts Kindergarten in 2 WEEKS! Yikes!

Although school may be starting - summer is as HOT as ever!

We had so much fun exploring our water & ice themed week -

the Lil Divas were sad to see it end!

I had promised them we would try our Frozen Paint Art again

since the last time we ended up with melted paint trying to transport it in this heat!

This time the paint went straight from the freezer to paper &

it was a HUGE SUCCESS!

I just had to share because the Lil Divas had so much fun &

created so many masterpieces!!!

Aren't they great? :)

It was so easy too -

Here's What We Did:

I poured tempra paint into an ice cube tray. The Lil Divas opted for rainbow colors. I did not dilute with water as we wanted bright and bold colors for our paintings. I put the paint in the freezer for about 20 mins and let it begin to harden. Then I added the popsicele sticks (so they would remin firmly upright) and let the paint freeze overnight. The next day we had our frozen paint & were ready for some fun!

The Lil Divas painted on white contact paper (it's nice and sturdy!)

The frozen paint lasted a nice long time since we were working indorrs.

They had the opportunity to create many, many works of art :)

While my Oldest Diva was busy creating

picture after picture of hearts, flowers, trees, etc....

My Littlest Diva could not resist getting in some fingerpainting.

She loved the cold paint on her hands best. :)

This really is a fun & easy project that is suited to many age levels.

I know we will be visiting this again sometime soon.

Just look at all the great Frozen Paint Masterpieces the Lil Divas created!

As a special treat after all their hard work we decided to make some
Frozen Fruit Pops. I blended some mixed berries & yogurt and froze it in small dixie cups w/popsicle sticks. YUM! These were a hit & we have made several batches since.

Happy Frozen Painting!

Bern

Preschool Science: "COOL" Ice Art for Little Hands

We had so much fun exploring ice & water last week!

The Lil Divas were sad to see our theme come to an end.

Of course even though we have moved on to our newest theme (zoo animals) - the curiosity, explorations & fun never end.

The last activity I would like to share was a "cool" one! :)

We combined a little Science Activity + Art and came out with some "Cool" Ice Art.
(This activity was inspired by a post I saw on The Artful Parent)

What You Need:

balloons

water

measuring tape

food coloring

paper & pen (for older preschoolers)

*For younger tots you can just skip ahead to the art part of the activity if you don't think they'd enjoy or get the experiment part. Honestly my Lil Divas had so much fun with this - you must try it!*

What We Did:

1. We filled up balloons with water and then measured them.

2. I made a simple data collection table and we recorded measurements for each balloon.

3. We put the water balloons in the freezer overnight

4. The next day the Lil Divas were running to check on their balloons!

They were so excited to see that they were frozen and so heavy!!!

5. We measured the water balloons and found that they were bigger!

The solid ice had expanded the balloons size!

The Lil Divas were most impressed with how much heavier they were in ice form.

I really wished we had weighed them so we knew just how much heavier they got!

That would definitely be an addition I'd suggest to anyone that is going to try this!

We had these large blocks of ice & the Lil Divas loved playing with them!

I just knew we had to do somehting with them and the Oldest Diva suggested we paint them. I'm sure our frozen paint activity had her mind going & I was wondering how we could do it.

Then I remembered an activity I'd recently seen about ice & salt! :)

So, out came the salt & the fun began!

6. Pour salt directly onto ice block.

Notice the Lil Divas were very generous with the salt. :)

Instantly the ice started to crackle & pop and lots of little craters were formed!

The Lil Divas were in awe.

7. Drop food coloring into the holes

Again, notice we were very liberal with the food coloring.

I tried to get them to just add a few drops but they were not to be stopped! :)

Can you blame them?

Look at how pretty this looks.

As the food coloring slipped through the holes and combined with the melting ice it created a wonderful work of art to behold. The inside of the ice was alive with color.

We left our works of art out for the entire day.

The Lil Divas enjoyed checking up on it and watching it melt.

A very "cool" art project!

Bern

Water Theme - Preschool Physics: Exploring Sink vs. Float

Will an object sink or float?

It's a fairly common science experiment that helps teach children about weight

and it was a perfect addition to our water themed fun this week.

What You Need:

plastic see through container that can hold water

objects of varying weights

optional: (this is best for older preschoolers):

a sheet of paper to keep track of findings

I folded a paper in half and wrote sink in one column and float in the other.

What We Did:

1. I filled a see through plastic container with water

2. We gathered household objects and toys of varying weights

3. I let the Lil Divas take turns picking an item to put into the water.

4. Each had the opportunity to hold the item and predict if it would sink or float.

5. I wrote their predictions on the chart and then

I let them place it into the water to test their predictions

They were so excited when they were correct!

The one that interested them (& stumped them) the most

was our small Dora & Diego figurines!

They felt like they were relatively the same weight.

Yet, Dora floated along the top & Diego sunk!

The Lil Divas were so curious.

They kept taking them out & putting them back into the water over and over again.

It was so cute to see them trying to resolve it.

Books:

Have you done any fun experiments using water with your preschooler?

Bern

Family Fun Friday: Lil Divas Bug Explorers Extraordinaire!

We have been watching our Ladybug larvae grow into Pink Ladybugs. This was my first time observing this as well so it was all the more fun for me to share it with my Lil Divas.

We used the Insect Lore Ladybug Land and received our 10 Ladybug Larvae in the mail in no time at all.

We put them into their Ladybug Land and began to watch! The Lil Divas were intrigued byt how they did not look like ladybugs at all. I reminded them how Butterflies started off as caterpillars and they could not wait to see what would happen to our larvae.

After less than a week the larvae began attaching to the walls of the habitat and forming the hard outer shell around themselves. The process of changing into ladybugs was underway!

Once they all hatched we observed them for a few days, crawling around and decided to have a Ladybug Release Day so they could be free.

Since we have been focusing on an Insect Theme it seemed like the perfect time to take our magnifying glasses outside and go exploring - in the hopes of uncovering some bugs in their natural habitats!

My Lil divas are not usually fond of being up close & personal with bugs but in this case the tools made all the difference. How can you turn down the chance to use such a cute magnifying glass? The best part - they only cost me $1.00 (via Target's Dollar Spot)!

So what did my Lil nature Explorers uncover?

Naturally, it was only fitting to begin our exploration with our newly released ladybugs. The Littlest Diva was afraid to touch them so big sis did the honors of bringing them up close and personal :)

Then we were off to see what else we could find.

We found lots of ants,

Lots and lots of worms (yuck!),

a few spider webs,

some bees which I refused to get near enough to photograph, a butterfly that flew away before I could take a picture and some flies that were too quick to capture as well!

The Lil Divas proclaimed themselves Bug Explorers Extraordinaire and we happily made our way home (and out of the blazing sun & heat!)

Activity: Insect Lore Ladybug Giant Life Cycle Puzzle (I was lucky to find this at our local Ross Store for $4.99 a few weeks ago! I was so excited!)