E is for Electricity!

Our preschoolers LOVE science experiments!  This was a great one to review our previous discussions on the scientific method, talk about electricity and write down our observations.

We started by talking all about electricity.  What is it?  What does it do? A fun way to demonstrate this is to turn the lights on and off.  How does the electricity get from the switch to the light?

Electricity needs a power source.  In our experiment this is the battery.  We then created an electrical circuit using alligator clip wires, a battery and a christmas lightbulb.  It is so exciting to see the light bulb light up! Then we added another set of alligator clips that we could add different objects into.  If the light bulb went on, then electricity could go through our object (it was a conductor).  If the lightbulb wouldn't go on, the electricity couldn't go through the object.

 After each test, we recorded our observations--because we are scientists! Then we could observe what did all of the conductors have in common? They are all metal! 

Want to try this?  Here's a recording sheet for your observations . . .

preschoolelectricalconductors

U is for Up!

A Letter U Science Experiment . . . 

The supplies (each child was also given a paper to record their observations) . . . 

Like the giant sized vinegar?
We use a lot of that stuff in preschool! :)

Step 1: Use funnel to fill balloon with Baking Soda 

Step 2: Observe how the U is sad and upside down

Step 3: Carefully put balloon on top of bottle (containing vinegar and food coloring) 

without spilling any of the baking soda into the bottle. 

Step 4: Slowly turn the balloon up while saying the u sound . . . /u/ /u/ /u/

 and watch as the chemical reaction creates CO2 gas that fills the balloon. 

The U is now Up and happy :)

Step 5: Blow up a balloon with the regular air you breathe.  

Hold the CO2 balloon and the regular balloon next to each other and drop them at the same time.  

The CO2 will fall much faster and not bounce as much because it is heavier then the air around us (and the air in the other balloon).  Show a helium balloon--because helium is lighter than air, it floats!

Step 6: Record your observations! 

Freeze & Melt

Our science focus for the month is temperature. 

Today we explored it through the freezing and melting properties of water/ice.  

Oh no! Look! Yellow and Red Bears are frozen in the ice!

How did they get there?

How will we get them out?

We remembered that ice starts out as water that gets super cold
so the bears must have been put in the water before it froze.

We brainstormed lots of ways to get them out.
The most popular involved some sort of busting-up action :) 

Hit them with a hammer! 

Throw them at the wall! 

Throw them on the floor super hard! 

My personal favorite: Put them on the track of a speeding train--it will smash the ice and turn it back into water! 

Then we remembered that for the water to turn to ice, it had to get super cold--

so we could warm them up! 

We brainstormed ways to do this too-- 

Put them in the oven! 

Put them in the microwave! 

Put them out in the sun! 

Feed them to the baby! :)

We tried an experiment.  

Ms Tamra covered one of the ice-cubes with salt (lowers the melting temperature) 

and pretty soon yellow bear looked like it was in a pile of snow instead of ice.

We played a game passing ice-cubes around to the music 

while we waiting for the salt to do it's magic . . .

The heat from our hands warmed the ice-cube and it started to melt (we could feel the water!) 

and the coldness of the ice-cube made our hands colder!

Brr! Cold hands! 

Getting smaller!

and smaller . . . 

Almost gone!

Then like magic--the ice was gone! 

Nothing was left of it but our cold wet hands.

And look! 

Because of the salt, yellow bear is out of his ice-cube, 

while red bear still has lots of it on his back.

  

Wow! It's temperature magic!!

C is for COLD

C is for Cold and we had fun learning about how Cold things melt with this experiment . . .

I showed the kids two toys that had been frozen in ice and asked them to brainstorm ways we could get them out.  Responses ranged from putting it in the microwave (that would work quickly!)  to leaving it outside in the sun.

I asked them to hypothesize what would happen if we put salt on one of the ice cubes.  We tested our hypothesis.

It was a lot of fun to watch the ice turn to slush and even more exciting when the dinosaur's (on the green plate) head peaked through while the other dinosaur was still completely covered with ice!

It is hard to tell from this picture, but the green plate is so full of melted water it is about to overflow while the pink plate only has a small puddle of water.

This created a great opportunity to talk to the kids about how temperature changes the various states of water (gas, liquid, solid) c and how salt lowers the temperature at which water freezes, causing the ice to melt.

The kids really got a kick out of this "Magic Melting" trick and the fun Cold Ice can be!

Sink or Float?

We used this fun activity to make discoveries about how objects act in water.

1)We talked about things that sink or float and discussed how if the water pushes up against the object harder than the object pushes down, the object floats.  But if the object pushes down harder then the water can push it up, it will sink.

2) I showed the kids a variety of objects and they hypothesized what would happen.

3) We tested our hypothesis by putting an object in the water.

4) After observing what happened, each child drew their observations on a paper that had a line drawn to represent the water.  If the object floated, they drew it on top of the line.  If it sunk, they drew it under the line on the bottom of the page.

5) The object was then removed and placed in the appropriate category.  Here are our results:

6) We then dropped a ball of clay in the water.  It's hard to see in this picture, but it sunk.

7) The children watched as I stretched it out and shaped it into a boat shape.  I asked them if it would sink or float.  They all thought it would sink.  It was an exciting surprise to see this happen . . .

It floated!!

Why?  Because the clay is now taking up more space so more water can push/hold it up--just like a boat.

Isn't science fun?

S is for Seeds and Sunflowers!

S is the perfect letter for exploring SEEDS!

Some of today's highlights include:

We made predictions about which food has seeds and which do not . . .

and then cut them open to test our hypothesis

(and had fun snacking on them all!)

We planted seeds and cut open beans that had soaked over night so we could examine the inside parts (we could even see the baby plant ready to grow!)

We sorted seeds. Group one chose to sort into piles by size . . .

While group two decided to line them up by color. . .

We even sorted crackers by shape!

And practiced our fine motor skills with these sunflower crafts . . .

Seeds, Seeds, everywhere SEEDS!