Science Experiments Using Leaves

We have been experiencing uncharacteristically warm weather for the season which has encouraged a few extra beach visits, bike rides, and bubble blowing sessions.  However, from the looks of the piles of fallen leaves covering our front lawn it really is time for me to let leaves, pumpkins, and apples lead our learning before the lawn is covered with snow!  With that in mind, here are a few scientific experiments using fall leaves.

The Geek Mom put together an experiment to find the colors hidden in leaves.

The Homeschool Den also used fall leaves for an interesting experiment.

Little Austinite modified a high school biology experiment to explore why leaves change colors.

Tweet

Pin It Now!

Teaching with Ticia: insects

Welcome! New to ABC and 123? Please check out our FAQ in the sidebar.

I almost forgot to write my post for today, but realized I better get that done.

Here in Texas, Spring is in full swing.  Trees are blooming, birds are chirping, and insects are starting to come out.

I know most of us traditionally get caterpillars about now and watch them turn to butterflies.  I'd like to suggest an alternative, or additional study:

CRICKETS!


Why crickets you might ask?

1.  They're part of Eric Carle's insect books, so you're probably going to already have a literature tie-in.

2.  You can pick up about 50 of them for $2.00 at a pet store.

3.  They're fascinating to study.

4.  There are a lot of experiments you can do with them.

Here's a few that we did:


1.  Straight observation, it's fascinating to watch them and write down what you see, some of ours:

They can walk up the walls.
They make noise.
They climb on each other.

2.  Check their reactions to different temperatures.  Watch how active they are at different temperatures.  First check room temperature, then put them in the refrigerator and see how much they move around in there.  Next, see how long it takes for them to become more active.  And finally if it's warmer outside, then you can take them outside to see how active they are.

3.  A secondary one to go with the temperature is to record how often they chirp at different temperatures.  They tend to chirp more if it is warmer.  They also get pretty noise at night.

4.  Observe what type of mouth they have.  Insects have 3 different types of mouths, chewing, sucking, and lapping.

5.  What do they eat?  The suggestions I saw was to put dry dog food soaked in water.  You could try different kinds of dog food and cat food to see which they eat the most of.  As a warning, they will eat their each other, so if your kids might be squeamish about that, take the dead out immediately.


Of course, even better than buying crickets from the store is catching them.  Texas in the fall is teeming with them, but at that point in time I'm so grossed out by them that I'm not willing to do this experiment then.

Tweet

Pin It Now!

Teaching with Ticia: Groundhog's Day

Welcome! New to ABC and 123? Please check out our FAQ in the sidebar.

I traded days my post was supposed to come out, so I could write this one. This is a super fun science experiment for Groundhog's Day, and the great part about it is it's very simple.

First a few book recommendations:

Gregory's Shadow- Gregory's best friend is his shadow, and he loves to go everywhere with it, but one day he gets separated from it. He finds his shadow again just in time for Groundhog's Day, but realizes not everyone wants him to see his shadow then.



Extension activity: make silhouette pictures with flashlights or an overhead projector.

It's Groundhog Day!- Godfrey Groundhog at a fall picnic says he won't see his shadow this Groundhog's Day, and his friends are very happy. But, a local ski lodge owner isn't happy, and he decides to do something about this. Godfrey must find a way to escape before Groundhog's Day.



Extension activities: Draw how you would escape.

Gretchen Groundhog, It's Your Day!- Gretchen has to follow the family tradition of stepping out to see her shadow on Groundhog's Day, but she's very shy. She gets letters and emails from all over encouraging her to go out. Then she finds a box of notes from all of her family and many of them were afraid too. She decides she will be brave too.


Extension activity: write a letter to Gretchen.


Now that you've seen a few books you could use (by the way, the last one is my favorite); here's the experiment.

Supplies: a stretch of sidewalk or pavement you can draw on, a timer or clock, your student

1. Set up a control line at the start of this experiment. For us, I drew a box for each child to stand in each time we came out.

2. Then I drew a line where each child's shadow stopped and had them predict what would happen to their shadows the next time we came out. It was very mixed on their guesses. If you look at the picture you can see Princess and Superman both thought their shadows would shrink and Batman thought it would grow.

3. We came out again an hour later, measured their shadows again. And of course they had grown.

4. Ideally repeat this all day long every hour. You should see your shadow lengthen and shorten and change where it is. On the day of our experiment halfway through the sun was blocked by clouds, and it started raining at 1:30. Effectively ending that experiment.

I look forward to trying it again this year, and we'll read the books mentioned up above and probably do at least one of the extension activities I mentioned with those books.

Tweet

Pin It Now!

Spring Crafts, Activities, and Experiments

Welcome! New to ABC and 123? Please check out our FAQ in the sidebar.

The Adventures of Bear celebrated Spring will a fun study of birds.

They made edible birds' nests,

experiements with bird beaks,

a robin craft to accompany the book A Nest Full of Eggs,

and an art project based on the book Birds by Kevin Henkes.

Along the Way used spring as an opportunity to study the impact of water pollution. They suggest a couple useful books in the post explaining the experiment.

Our Crafts N Things put together some toddler friendly spring activities: a springcounting book, a spring tree, and a planting plan.

Inspiration Surrounds, Creativity Abounds made gorgeous butterflies out of paper towel and pipe cleaners.

We also love their rainbow felt flowers. Colorful creativity!

Mama to 3 Blessings made multisensory shaker eggs with her children.

Tweet

Pin It Now!

Experimenting with Water

Welcome! New to ABC and 123?
Please check out our FAQ in the left sidebar.

Happy Friday!
Wishing you have oceans of fun with all these water experiements.

Make a sunset in a bottle
Objective: Kids will learn about liquid density in a hands-on way.
Materials: Jars, food coloring, water, cooking oil, rubbing alcohol, beads, glitter and action figures (optional) and hot glue gun (optional).

Create a Tornado Tube with the instructions from Kristi at Orange Juice.


Here is a fun science experiment from The Attached Mama involving cornstarch and water.
The science behind the experiment is described here.



The kids at Growing Up Our Style experimented with color while painting with ice cubes.

Adventures with Kids tested the properties of water while making a Special Soup.

Delightful Learning played with many different objects to determine whether they would float or sink. Sharon from Teaching Tiny Tots shares the step by step instructions for an experiement on How a Plant Absorbs Water.
One Busy Mama submitted her experiement, Will It Float?
Put together a homemade lava lamp with frozen water.
You freeze rainbow ice cubes (with foodcoloring). Then you just drop the ice cubes into a big jar of oil, as they float and melt it’s a beautiful color show and looks like a rainbow.

Ten Kids and A Dog submitted her link to 3 easy to implement experiements using water.


Joann and her children also had great experiements for their lesson on floating.


Absorption Experiment

Learning Objective: exploring properties of water; actively engages in hands-on science activities

Materials: ice cube tray, medicine dropper, cup of water, small piece of wood, facial tissue, tissue paper, writing paper, paper towel, Unifix cube (or anything plastic), cotton ball, small rock, sponge, aluminum foil, any other materials which will/will not absorb water.

Procedure: Have the child squeeze a few drops of water into each section of the ice cube tray using the medicine dropper. Provide them with a variety of materials for the experiment, some that will absorb water and some that will not. Hand the child one of the items and ask him/her to predict whether it will absorb water or not. The child will place the item in one of the sections of the ice cube tray to see which items absorb water and which do not.

Tweet

Pin It Now!

Wondertime Wednesday: Easter Themed Experiments & Investigations

New to ABC and 123?
Please check out our FAQ in the left sidebar.


Practice the skill of hypothesizing with your pre-schooler.
Katie shares a simple scientific experiment that makes use of plastic easter eggs.

Sara submitted a Spring Nest activity. This activity opens the door for talking with your children about why birds build nests and what materials they use. As a variation, you and your children could search your yard for nest building materials to add to the craft.

Education World has an idea for Egg-sperimenting.

For more egg-ish experimentation check out A Dozen Egg-speriments.

Do It Yourself suggests a gardening experiment that uses leftover egg shells.

The act of coloring eggs becomes a science experiment in itself as your child observes the changes in the eggs. Have them record their observations. Talk about mixing colors.


Kids Craft Magazine lists several fun experiements with Easter eggs.



If you have older students, they may have a lot of fun re-enacting "official" experiments done on Peeps marshmellows.

Tweet

Pin It Now!