Our Science Fair/ Exhibit

Thursday night we held a "science fair".  

I was preparing to blog about the incredible success it was, but my boys decided to act out, I mean they were horrible little monsters. So the science fair ended in early bedtime and no dessert.  It also ended in me not blogging anything at all.  I was so disappointed, I just laid down early too.  So here I am, on a Saturday, sharing my post for Thursday.    

The Science Fair idea was fun, and it would've made a pretty impressive show.  I just wish my boys wouldn't have picked that time to misbehave.  But instead of blogging about the actual Scince Fair  failure, I am going to share the photos of iour incredible Science Showcase.  

All day I worked making the centers, and they were interactive.  The point was to show Jeffrey all the thing the boys know, and to review with the boys.  But the centers are good tools to use to teach as well.

The boys worked less than an hour, they colored three activity sheets while answering questions, glued one activity, mixed brownie batter, and picked up sticks outside, The rest of the set-up was my hard work.  We had , and even though it did not go as planned.  I am still pretty proud of the showcase.  In a few months, I'll definitely hold another Science Fair...a more successful one.  

  Not shown is my "Chemical Reaction".  That was my grand finale. I had a sign on the stove that said "Witness a Chemical Reaction. "  There was a bowl with a little bit of brownie batter on the stove, and I was going to pull out a pan of baked brownies at the end, and talk about how the heat caused a delicious chemical reaction.  Then I was going to thank everyone (Jeffrey) for coming out, compliment the kids.  and we were going to eat brownies before dinner.  
Only in a dream world, did any of that happen.  Reality? By time the brownies were done our science fair had turned into a catastrophe, and I was already starting dinner.  

Our displays. 
Skyland & Azariah colored the sun, Earth, and moon.  While they colored they told me all the facts they knew which included specific and extremely general facts like "the blue is water" for Earth, and "the moon belongs to everybody."
I cut out their pictures, pasted them on a sheet of paper, and wrote out the facts.  The one on the left is Skyland's Fun Facts and the one on the right is Azariah's.  
I printed out pictures of humans and they glued them in order.  I called it "How Humans Grow". So original, right?  My favorite part of this entire activity was when Skyland referred to adults as "actual humans".  Because everyone knows you're not an actual human until you're an adult. 

I hand drew these pictures myself, one is land/air and the other is water.  They were supposed to put the animals in their habitat.  

Yes, I used toy dinosaurs and printed out sea animals.  I did not feel like finding their elephants, sharks, and horses.  

 This is a game: Sink or Swim.  Everyone predicts whether the object will sink to the bottom or float and "swim" on top.  We drop the item in the water, and see who predicted right, and who was wrong.  Whoever predicted the most right, wins. And there's a bonus round where you tell why an object floats or sinks.  We were going to use a bottle cap, feather, straw, toy bug, and a button.  
The boys have played this game twice before, and they love it! We use different objects every time. Unfortunately, we did not make it to this station at our science fair, but it was still a cool center. 

I called this Which Stick? 

Answer questions like which is the longest, thinnest, shortest, etc. 

It's science-y because they have to observe, think, and organize.  

I almost used rocks for this, but we couldn't find a variety of rocks.  

The three forms of water: solid, liquid, and vapor. 
Yes, that's a humidifier.  Cool mist, so the kids could put their hands in it.  
Yes, that's a wine glass.  It was clean and clear, so that's what I used.  
And the far left is a bowl of ice.  
I asked the kids which was coldest, and that's when the entire Science Fair went downhill.  

The Science Fair itself was not as fantastic as I imagined it being, but I did enjoy making the interactive centers.  And it was a decent showcase. 

Kiddie Pool Fun

About 2 months ago, I got a little baby pool from Family Dollar for $8.  Summer's almost over, and we've only used it once.  Why? Because I really don't care for sitting outside by the pool and watching them waddle around for hours.  Today I joined them & we had so much fun together. 

We started out stomping, splashing, and cupping water on each other. We even shot some bubble guns.  I used this opportunity to practice counting with them: we'd stomp once or splash nine times. When you're in the water fun & education can go hand-in-hand, but splashing got old to me after five minutes (my attention span is short).

So I pulled out the baking soda, and let them dump it in the water.  If the oohs weren't satisfying enough, the squeals and giggles from when I added the vinegar were! I explained to them that we were inside a chemical reaction (which is science) that we called "fizz".  They understood that the water had changed; that was good enough for me.  This was so gratifying and intense, but very short lived.  The 20 seconds were definitely worth it though. 

After that excitement died down, I grabbed the food coloring to keep our water party going. My plan was too pour them in different sections of the pool to review colors, and slowly mix them to make colors. What actually happened, the boys got really excited, and I let them go rogue with the bottles. But they loved the colored water! Put some dish detergent in the mix, and... COLORED BUBBLES!  What kid doesn't love bubbles...especially if they're red?!  Mine love them so much they kicked me out the pool; They said they needed room to play (whatever). 

I was pretty psyched to find that the kiddie pool is actually pretty versatile: it can be as educational or fun as you want it to be. You can mix colors, test your sailboats, fish for shapes, do what we did (which I highly suggest), or anything else. It's really not a bore if you add to it.  And it's pretty easy on the wallet; that's always a plus.  We will probably be going outside again tomorrow.