I like to Make Things: Science Week

I am just now getting around to blogging about this, and I kind of wonder if there's a point to it, but I think it could be useful for future science weeks, so here we go.

We ended the summer with science week, which was also informally "Slime Week" because we made lots of different kinds of slime, among other cool science things.

We started out by learning about the weather.

We made it rain in a jar.

We also tried to make lightning with static electricity, but we couldn't get it to work. It just made our hair frizzy.

Then we reflected light off a CD to make an indoor rainbow

And we caught sunlight outside with a prism to make another rainbow.

Before lunch, we gazed at the clouds and talked about what they looked like.

Then we used the sun to make art on special paper.

This day's slime was color changing heat sensitive slime, and we had a blast making it change from green to yellow and back again.

The heat of their hands turned it yellow.

A box of frozen waffles and then ice cubes turned it back to green.

Our next day was rocks and minerals. We read from a National Geographic book about rocks and minerals, then we made magnetic slime. Super cool. My favorite slime. Kind of messy on the hands though.

We used a crystal growing kit to make some crystals.

We painted rocks, and we also painted with paper clips and magnets under the paper.

That afternoon, we chalked outside. Chalk... it's a rock!

Our 2 next days we learned physics. So we tested the laws of physics at JumpNJungle. Haha. Some of these activities are a stretch, but we had fun, and that's what counts!

We talked about Newton's laws of motion, and we made a balloon rocket.

Anthony loved chasing it.

Then we did a "parlor trick" science experiment. The pencil in a plastic bag of water. The kids were amazed that the water didn't leak out.

We made some rainbow loom bouncy balls to test out some more laws of motion.

And we learned about centrifugal force with spin art.

Build-your-own crazy straws taught them teamwork and water pressure.

Anthony got in on the action too.

Then we made marshmallow shooters... and shot goldfish crackers.

Our last day was "random experiment day." They love mixing things to see what happens.

I gave them cornstarch, vinegar, oil, water, food coloring, dish soap, tapioca maltodextrin (from our molecular gastronomy nights), peanut butter, and a few other ingredients. They made a huge mess, but they loved every minute of it.