Winter Birds Science Shelf

A very kind and generous reader sent us the book, Science is Simple, a couple of months ago. One of my favorite things about the book is the idea of having science tables. I set up a science shelf (it replaced our playdough shelf since O prefers to play with playdough at the table rather than the shelf) in our kitchen.

Our first subject was winter birds. We've enjoyed making art using bird rubbing plates. I set up a sensory box using birdseed, and O LOVES it! We watch birds with binoculars and listened to birdsongs on our Backyard Birdsongs book. We made a bird feeder using a pinecone, peanut butter, and birdseed. We put it on the railing of our deck and predicted whether the birds or squirrels would get to it first. Then we sat down to wait. We waited and waited and waited. Evidently our birds and squirrels are well fed because they didn't eat the birdseed for almost a week!

We've enjoyed taking daily nature walks in the woods, and we spotted a woodpecker a few days ago...that was very exciting! We're loving the wonderful weather we've been having lately, and I'm so glad that my girl loves playing in the woods as much as I did as a child :)

Fun with Goop!

O and I had fun making goop last weekend! She loves anything messy, and I thought ahead and made the goop down by the lake which made clean-up VERY easy :) To make goop we mixed cornstarch and water. It works better to use equal parts water and cornstarch, but O insisted on adding much too much water. That was ok...it still worked, and we had fun. We also added in food coloring. We started with yellow and blue to make green. Then she added in red and green and ended up with brown. Eventually, she took the goop down to the beach and experimented with adding sand to the mixture. We were both excited when Elliott joined in on our fun with goop!

How to Make an Air Blower...

O and I made an air blower on Tuesday for our weekly science project. To make an air blower, you need a ziploc bag, 3 or 4 sponges, a straw, and masking or duct tape. O put the sponges in the bag and put the straw between the sponges. We zipped the bag closed, and I taped it closed around the straw. Then we took turns hitting it with our hands and stepping on it to make it blow various objects. It works better with a shorter, straight straw.

We collected several objects from around the house and predicted whether or not they would move when blown. This was a fun and easy experiment :)

Hammered Leaf Prints

O LOVED making hammered leaf prints this morning! (She loves anything involving a hammer. I guess all those hours spent with with Elliott fixing boats and cars have paid off!) To set this activity up, I found an old board in the garage (there's a never ending supply out there!), 2 tacks, and strips of an old sheet. I cut the sheet into small rectangles and tacked them to the board. O and I collected leaves and flowers this morning after our morning swim. To make the print, place the leaf or flower under the cloth strip (the leaves worked better when they were upside down), cover the leaf with the fabric, and hammer the leaf! It smells like freshly cut grass as you hammer :) We took turns hammering, and we were happy with the results!

Painting with Magnets

Painting with O's magnetic "rocks" was another fun extension of our book of the week, Let's Go Rock Collecting. To do this activity, she dropped a magnetic rock in a cup of paint and then dropped the magnet onto a sheet of cardstock that was on a tray. I held the tray while she moved another magnet underneath the tray to make art. This was a lot of fun, and it was a great way to combine art and science!
We quickly found that it worked better to just squeeze a blob of paint onto the paper and drag the magnet through it. O had fun mixing the colors of paint on her paper. Also, make sure your tray is not magnetic. We tried this activity with a cookie sheet, and it didn't work very well since the cookie sheet was magnetic and therefore held the rock still :)

Collecting a Rainbow of Nature's Colors

This activity was on many, many blogs last summer, and I've been wanting to do it ever since! I painted a cardboard egg carton with different colors of the rainbow. O and I went on a nature walk/scavenger hunt to find items of various colors to match the colors in her box. We had a great time, and I'm sure this will be a summer long activity :)