activities for preschoolers

Little Scientists: How to Make Magic Mud and Silly Putty


Our momstown Victoria moms and kids did something incredible at our Little Scientists program last month! Science whiz and on-leave primary school teacher, Glenn Kachmar, demonstrated the amazing properties of both "Magic Mud" and Silly Putty!


Magic Mud is a suspension of cornstarch in water that has the bizarre property of being a liquid when it is resting or moving slowly, but solidifies once you slap, punch or squeeze it. The science behind it? “The cornstarch is ground into such fine particles that the molecules line up like little plates. The plates stay rigid when squeezed or slapped, but slide around when released and there is little or no pressure.” (Dianne Pratt, Hey Kids! You're Cookin' Now!)

 

Glenn mixed up a huge blue batch and let our lil' scientists dip their hands into it, squeeze it into a solid, and punch the surface which would become instantly hard. Amazing! You can also do a lot of other cool tricks with Magic Mud (also known as Oobleck,) like using sound waves to make it take on life-like movements, or running across a huge container of it!

 

little scientists at momstown

 

Magic Mud Recipe:


Stir together approximately:
3 or 4 parts cornstarch
1 part cold water
Optional: several drops of food colouring

 

how to make magic mud

 

Next we made silly putty!

 

Glenn gave each of us a cup and added Elmers Glue, water and food colouring. We mixed and mixed our ingredients, and then added a solution of borax and hot water. When the ingredients started to solidify, we took them out and started to squish and knead. Voila, silly putty!

 

Like Magic Mud, silly putty is another non-Newtonian fluid. It has characteristics of a fluid and will form a puddle if left to rest; but it has elastic properties and can stretch and bounce, or even break if given a sharp blow. Our kiddies had so much fun playing with these bizarre properties!

 

how to make silly putty

 

Silly Putty Recipe:

 

1. Mix 250 ml of hot water with 7 ml of borax powder until all the borax dissolves. Set this solution aside. It is called borax solution.
2. Get a cup and mix 30 ml of Elmers White Glue with 20 ml of water. (Elmers works best!)
3. Add two or three drops of food colour to the glue/water mix.
4. Once the glue, water and colour is mixed together well, ad 20 ml of borax solution. Stir this lal together.
5. Take the mix out of the cup and knead it in your hands (it's messy). Be sure to pop all of the bubbles of glue. More borax solution can be added if it is very gluey. Knead it until it has a consistent texture. You now have silly putty.
-Keep it in a closed ziploc bag when you are not using it.
-Experiment. Does it bounce? Does it stretch? Can you break it?

 

how to make silly putty
 

Kids, do try this at home!

Thank you, Mr. K, for this incredible momstown Little Scientists workshop! We can't wait to see what you have planned for us next!

 

 

Posted by momstown team on 11/13/2012 - 17:47
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Spider Web Science for Kids

Spiders are often associated with Halloween, but they are fascinating creatures at any time of year. This easy, fun, and active spider web science experiment is a wonderful way to teach your preschooler or kindergarten student about how spider webs work, and even toddler junior scientists will enjoy the sensory fun and gross motor skills challenge it provides.

 

Spiders produce a special sort of silk that is sticky and incredibly strong. If you were to compare an equally thick piece of steel rope and a spider's silk, the silk would be stronger. Scientists believe that spiders may have begun to spin webs to protect their eggs, but most spiders now use their silk to capture insects that the eat. A spider will spin a web, or even leave a "trap line" of sticky silk. Unsuspecting insects get stuck to the web, and are trapped there. Spiders themselves don't stick to the silk because of a special oil their body produces.

 

To learn more about how the strong, sticky spider webs work, we built one of our own.  All you need is masking tape and cotton balls!

 

 

First, we stuck strips of masking tape across a door opening, criss-crossing them in spider web fashion with the sticky side of the tape facing out.

 

Next, we gathered a bag of cotton balls to represent our insects.  If you want, you could even use a marker to draw eyes on each cotton ball.  After gently touching the "web" to see that it felt sticky, we stood back and tossed the cotton balls at the web.  Sure enough, many got trapped on the sticky tape.  We then got up close to the web to see just how everything was sticking:

 

 

This was a fun and easy activity that helped us understand a little bit more about the science behind spider webs. It was also a fun sensory experience and an effective way to incorporate gross motor movement activities into our day.  Deconstructing the web and playing with the resulting cotton ball and tape balls was pretty fun too. 

 

If you would like to learn a little more about the science behind spiders, make sure you watch the "Along Came a Spider" episode of "The Cat in the Hat" on Kids' CBC.  After the main characters in the show, Nick and Sally, discover that their soccer goal has a hole in it, the Cat in the Hat takes them on an adventure to see Mabel the spider, who teaches the kids how she spins webs and fixes holes. 

 

You could even finish your afternoon of spider science off by making these yummy chocolate rice krispy spider treats. 

Posted by momstown Teach on 10/25/2012 - 13:37
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Pumpkin Science for Preschoolers and Toddlers

It would not be Halloween without pumpkins and pumpkin carving. Part of the fun of the holiday is reaching inside a pumpkin to scoop out the gunk, and then in our house, roasting the seeds. While preschoolers and toddlers may not be able to take part in the actual carving, exploring a pumpkin is a great fall sensory and science activity.

 

Our little scientists got busy this morning learning all about outsides and insides of a pumpkin. First, we observed the way the outside of the pumpkin felt, and lifted it to see how much it weighed. If you have access to a scale, you can compare the weight of the pumpkin to other objects. A favourite book, a stack of blocks, and a carton of milk are great sorts of things to compare with the pumpkin. You can even have your kids weigh themselves, and then help them to figure out how many pumpkins it would take to equal their weights, sneaking in a little math.

 

Next, we cut off the top of the pumpkin (an adult's job), to see just what was inside. Placed inside a rubbermaid tote, the pumpkin became a perfect sensory bin, full of different things to see, textures to feel, and smells to discover:

 

 

Like all good scientists, we recorded our findings by making "What's Inside My Pumpkin?" collages:

 

 

Here is what you need to make your own pumpkin collage:

  • white construction paper
  • orange construction paper
  • brown construction paper
  • orange yarn, cut into small pieces
  • pumpkin seeds
  • liquid glue

 

1. Cut a pumpkin shate out of orange construction paper.  Glue it onto a sheet of sturdy white paper:

 

 

2. Glue on pieces of orange yarn to represent the fiberous strands (the "stringy stuff", or "goo" inside the pumpkin) and pumpkin seeds to show what a pumpkin looks like on the inside:

 

 

3. Glue on a brown stem to finish your pumpkin:

 

 

Happy exploring!

Posted by momstown Teach on 10/17/2012 - 22:58
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40 Fun Fall Activities For Kids

 

1. Jump in a pile of leaves.  Make sure you take pictures!

2. Make baked apples

3. Visit a corn maze

4. Make leaf rubbings

5. Make a things we're thankful for tree (more on this soon)

6. Have a bonfire or campfire

7. Make people, shapes, and letters out of sticks and leaves

8. Roast pumpkin seeds

9. Pop popcorn in a pot on the stove

10. Watch the geese fly south

11. Make apple cider

12. Plant paperwhite bulbs for Christmas gifts and decorations (plant in mid November for Christmas blooms)

13. Make a scarecrow

14. Visit a fall fair

15. Go apple picking

16. Visit a favourite park and observe how it has changed since the summer

17. Join in a turkey trot fun run for a local charity

18. Donate food to the food bank. Consider canvassing your neighbours for donations too

19. Read "Pumpkin Soup" by Helen Cooper, and make pumpkin soup of your own

20. Help a neighbour rake their leaves

21. Spot an owl

22. Bake pumpkin cookies

23. Take a flashlight walk through your neighbourhood

24. Make pumpkin pie smoothies

25. Make leaf prints by dipping leaves into paint

26. Go for a walk in the forest to see the fall colours

27. Visit a pumpkin patch

28. Make thank you cards and give them out to people just because

29. Pumpkin Lattes! (order steamed milk for the kids)

30. Go through last year's winter gear, and make puppets out of single mittens

31. Plant tulip bulbs outside so you'll have flowers in spring

32. Visit a local farm and buy produce

33. Make apple butter

34. Have an indoor campout: set up a tent in the living room, roll out sleeping bags, and have hot dogs, smores, and other camping foods for dinner. Turn off the electronics and lights and read stories and games by flashlight

35. Embrace the wind and fly a kite

36. Collect pinecones.  Try to find different types and sizes.

37. Make a bird feeder

38. Go on a hayride

39. Host a winter kids gear swap with friends. Trade last year's too small coat for one that fits, and let the kids have a fashion show.  Donate any extra gear to charity

40. Make pumpkin pie playdough

 

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Posted by momstown Teach on 09/14/2012 - 16:10
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On the Go Active Alphabet Activities and Busy Bag Fun

 

Learning the alphabet can be a fun, active play game with this set of alphabet activity cards that is easy to make. Many studies have shown that kids understand new concepts best when they are physically experienced. Moving cements learning, and also has a host of other benefits, including increased attention span, and better overall health.

 

If your kids are fans of Bo on the Go on Kids' CBC, you will know how easy it is to get them moving when the energetic blue haired host, Bo, asks them to swim like a shark or hop like a kangaroo. These cards work the same way, providing a fun movement activity for each letter of the alphabet:

 

 

We printed the list of alphabet activities out on computer paper, and then cut out each letter activity and glued it onto scrapbook paper printed with an alphabet theme:

 

 

Here is the list of activities:

a: put your arms in the air and snap them like an alligator
b: bounce up and down like a ball
c: crawl across the floor like crab
d: pretend you are digging like a dog
e: act like an elephant
f: flap your wings and fly like a falcon
g: gallop like a gazelle
h: hop like a hare (that’s like a rabbit)
i: ice skate across the floor
j: jiggle like a bowl of jello
k: karate kick your legs up high (just don’t kick other kids!)
l: lean to the left and right
m: march to music, or make music while you march
n: nod your head nine times
o: go over an obstacle (crawl over piles of pillows, or hop over a line)
p: pounce like a panther
q: quickly move as quietly as you can
r: roll round  the room
s: slither and slide on your stomach like a snake
t: tiptoe and turn around on your toes
u: up, up, up! See how high you can reach
v: vroom! Pretend you’re driving a van at various speeds
w: wiggle like a worm
x: x marks the exact spot – make an x with your arms and legs
y: yawn and stretch
z: zip! zip up a zipper from your toes to your nose

 

You can use the cards in a number of ways. Here are just a few:

  • Place the cards facedown, pick a card, and do the activity on the card
  • Place the cards facedown, pick a card, and point to someone else who should do the activity
  • Pick a card, do the activity, and have others try and guess what letter of the alphabet you are doing
  • Sort the cards into alphabetical order
  • Choose a simple word such as "cat", and find the card for each of the letters in the word.  Do each of the activities in sequence so that you are spelling the word through movement (e.g. CAT = crawl like a crab, snap your arms like an alligator, and then tiptoe and turn around on your toes).  Try spelling each other's names through movement too
  • Use the activity on the card as part of your letter of the day, or letter of the week activities

 

The back of the cards provide a shape and colour sorting busy bag activity. We cut out circles, squares, and triangles from purple, green, and yellow paper, and glued one shape onto the back of each card.  Younger kids can help with gluing, and preschoolers can practice cutting as well:

 

 

This pretties up the back of the cards and turns them into a perfect quiet time or on the go activity for your toddler or preschooler.. 

We started by sorting the cards into shapes:

 

 

Next, we worked on colours:

 

 

We practiced a bit of pattern making and pattern identification too.  So far, we have worked on a basic a-b-a-b shape pattern:

 

 

We tried the same a-b-a-b pattern with colours too:

 

 

Patterns are a great early math activity, and you can progress to increasingly more complex patterns.  See what your little one can come up with.

 

With this "Bo on the Go" inspired active alphabet and shapes and colours busybag set, you will have everything you need to get your child physically active, teach the alphabet, work on early math, and have a lot of fun too!

Posted by momstown Teach on 08/21/2012 - 16:09
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Simple Science: How to Make a Compass

"Are We There Yet" is a phrase commonly heard by parents on road trips.  It is also the title of a documentary style television show on Kids' CBC that features real life Canadian kids exploring different countries and places in the world.  It is a show that we enjoy as an entire family, and from watching it we have learned about several places that we would love to visit one day.

 

Of course, anyone headed out on trip, whether around the world or in the backyard, needs to know how to get there.  GPS systems are very useful, and maps can be a big help, but when you are out in the woods, in the middle of the lake, or without access to a map or GPS unit, sometimes you need to rely on a good old fashioned compass to show you which direction is North.

 

Learning how to use a compass is an important survival skill, and also happens to be a really neat activity.  What is even more fun (and perhaps more important if you ever were truly lost in the wilds) is being able to build your own. It's easy to do, and it's a great science activity for kids.

 

 

To build your own compass, you will need:

  • a magnet
  • a dish, mug, bowl, or other pool of water
  • a cork, piece of foam, or other lightweight item that floats (in a pinch, even a piece of paper will work)
  • a needle or other small piece of metal (a hairpin, straigtened paper clip etc. should all work)

 

1. Fill a bowl with water, and allow water to settle.

2. Stroke the magnet across your needle several times, going in the same direction each time.  Some people recommend using up to 60 strokes: a great chance to practice counting.

3. Place your cork into the water, and lay the needle on top.  The needle will spin, and come to rest with the needle pointing north.  If you would like to test the accuracy of your compass, try finding North with a commercial compass, and compare the results.

 

 

Compasses work because the Earth has a magnetic field. The North Pole and the South Pole, at the top and bottom of the Earth, are where the magnetic field is strongest. The magnetized needle in the compass spins towards where the field is strongest, the North Pole.

 

Notes: make sure the magnet you use to magnetize your needle is at least 60 cms from your compass or the two magnets can interfere with each other.  It also helps to make sure that you do not set your compass onto something that is metal.

Posted by momstown Teach on 08/02/2012 - 21:43
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