Screened Porch Science Lab

Our girls LOVE to create and conduct science experiments!  O(7) has been conducting experiments for years, and E(4) has recently realized the joy in this activity, too!

In the past, the girls done their experiments in the kitchen, but this week I realized that clean-up would be much easier if they worked on the porch (I'm not sure why it took me years to realize this!).

The girls were thrilled to measure, pour, mix, hypothesize, and discuss their experiments and findings for hours.  I love that they have the freedom to explore and create in such a fun and engaging way each day...hooray for homeschooling!

 
 

 

 

Insect Matching

I set up this insect matching activity for E(3) thinking she would really enjoy it since she loves insects, and she loves her toob figures.  I was wrong.  She doesn't care about this activity at all.  She is almost completely uninterested in choosing any of the work from her Montesssori shelves...she just can't be bothered with inside work when there  is so much to do outside :)

The insect cards came from Target.  We spread out the cards, and then E matched the figures to the cards.  We read information about the insects that is on the back of the cards.  O(6) really enjoyed learning more about the insects from the backs of the cards.

Both girls LOVE this book that we read shortly before we completed this activity.  We've all learned a lot about insects from this fun book, and E(3) asked if she can get waterbugs for her birthday after we read about female waterbugs cementing their eggs onto the male waterbugs backs.  She thought that was SO cool!  We went kayaking shortly after reading the book and completing the activity, and I had fun asking the girls questions from the book as we saw the various insects on the lake.  Fun times at Lakeside Homeschool!

Links to Amazon are affiliate links.  Thank you for supporting Chasing Cheerios. 

Life Cycle of a Frog

A friend recently gave us a jar of tadpoles, and we have enjoyed creating a habitat for them (a larger container with more water, weeds, and sand) and observing the tadpoles.

I bought these life cycle of a frog figures from Michaels, and the girls (especially E) love them!

The girls traced around the figures to draw the life cycle of frogs.  O(6) has plans to make a book.  Fun times!

Sorting Animals Work

Our toob works are some of E(3)'s favorites!

She really enjoyed this science work in which she sorted the figures according to whether they were birds, reptiles, mammals, amphibians, or fish.  O(6) and I had fun helping her complete this work.  (We used the labels from the animal sorting work from Montessori Print Shop.)

Links to Amazon are affiliate links.  Thank you for supporting Chasing Cheerios. 

Studying the Nervous System

We are studying the Nervous System in science this week.  Luckily, I won a giveaway from Montessori Print Shop a year or so ago, so we have some fantastic science work!  We had fun doing this 5 Senses work.



We read this book and loved it.

We spend so much time on history (due to the girls' extreme interest) that we neglect science...I'm trying to remedy that lately.

Here's the link to the 5 Senses work at Montessori Print Shop.

Here's a link to the book at Amazon.  (I paid 50 cents for it at a thrift store)  All links to Amazon are affiliate links.  Thank you for supporting Chasing Cheerios.

Homemade Lava Lamps

I've had making homemade lava lamps with the girls on my to-do list for almost a year, and we finally did it this week!  We had SO much fun, and this is definitely an activity that we'll do again soon.

The idea came from this blog via Pinterest.  To make a homemade lava lamp, you need cooking oil, water, food coloring, alka seltzer, and a bottle (we used glass Snapple bottles).

First, we filled 2 bottles (1 for each girl) 3/4 full with cooking oil.


Then, we added the water until the bottle was close to full.


The girls chose their colors and added in 10 drops of food coloring.

We watched the food coloring rain down through the oil and into the water.

Then came the really fun part!  I gave each girl an alka seltzer tablet, which they broke into 4 pieces.  They put one piece in the bottle at a time.  It was SO much fun to watch the bubbles go crazy in the bottle!


The girls shook their bottles up, and they were pretty excited by the thousands of tiny bubbles.




They wanted to keep adding alka seltzer, and they ended up putting 3 tablets into each bottle.


They added in different colors into their bottles to see what would happen. O(6) said "This is awesome!"


E(2) LOVES her lava lamp and wanted to carry it with her everywhere.  They are looking forward to adding more alka seltzer to their bottles when we get home from vacation :)

Fossil Cookies

We studied archaeology in our homeschool last week, so I thought it would be fun to make fossil cookies with the girls.  The girls were surprised (we rarely bake cookies) and delighted!

We made super easy peanut butter cookies...we mixed together 1 cup of peanut butter, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 egg.

We rolled the dough into balls and pressed imprint "fossils" into the dough using our playdough stampers.  We baked the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes at 350.




  Fun and simple!




(please excuse E's dirty fingernails...they are not actually dirty, but are dyed with tie-dye).






The inspiration for making fossil cookies came from here.

Excavating Dinosaur Bones

Since we are studying archaeology in our history program, I thought it might be fun to let the girls do their own excavation.  When I saw these dinosaur bones, I knew they would be perfect for my plan!



We walked over to our clay pile and filled a bucket with clay.



The girls had a wonderful time burying their dinosaur skeletons in bowls of clay mixed with water.








They were covered in orange clay by the time they finished!








We put the containers of clay in the sun to dry for a couple of days. We saved the excavation activity for a day that Elliott was home early from work, so that he could participate in this fun activity.



He gathered together a couple of hammers, flat head screwdrivers to use as chisels, and brushes to brush away the clay and dust.











They squealed in excitement when they finally saw their dinosaur bones!








After they finally freed their dinosaur bones, they had lots of fun making clay soup!




They requested that I read to them while they played, so we read LOTS of books about fossils and archaeology while they played.  Fun times at Lakeside Homeschool!