Unwanted Halloween Candy

I'm the first to admit that Halloween isn't my favorite holiday. BUT...our jello worms did turn out amazing. The idea came from Divine Dinner Party, which I found via Pinterest. 

Daddy took the kids Trick-or-Treating, while I handed out candy to a fairly small trickle of little neighbors. I opened a huge, Costco-sized bag of chocolate bars just in time for the very last Trick-or-Treater. So, the next day, let's just say, I was less-than-thrilled by the sugar overload around here.

So today, for our morning Mini-Lesson, we did some Candy Experiments. (I'm pleased to announce that we got rid of quite a lot of candy before the kids realized what I was really up to.)

For this first one, you simply put M&Ms or Skittles (the more, the merrier) letter-side up in a bowl of water. Can you see the floating Ms in there? It takes a few minutes for them to separate, but it's very cool.

 Then we mixed candy colors.

Yellow candies+Blue candies=

Red + Blue=

And finally, Yellow+Red=

Tastiness, apparently.

Then, we tested tons of candies to see if they sink or float. That was Y's favorite. He must have put 8 packs of M&Ms in there. (Yes!)

Bubs and Welly had a competition. They each chose 6 candies. Whoever had more floaters was the winner. And the winner is...

Bubs did float a few wrappers, though.

It turned out to be a very fun Mini Lesson, made a small dent in our candy (Oh My!), and wrapped up our fun Halloween festivities.

Intro to Fractions

Even the youngest of students can learn some basics about fractions with this mini lesson.

Orange Fractions

1. Peel an orange and separate it into two halves. Discuss how there are two parts of one whole orange, thus two halves make one whole.

2. Split the orange into four parts and discuss.

3. Separate all the orange pieces. Ours had twelve parts. Hold three pieces in your hand and ask, "How many parts do I have?" 3. "Out of how many?" 12. "3 parts out of twelve parts is 3/12." If kids are grasping the concept well, explain that 3/12 is the same as 1/4 of the orange.

Liquid Fractions
1. Fill a 1 C measuring cup with water or beans. If using water, you may want to put a cookie sheet underneath.
2. Allow kids to experiment with various measuring cups. Help them reach the discovery that 4 1/4 cups make 1 C and 3 1/3 cups make 1 C.
3. Explain why it works that way. Because 3 parts out of 3 make a whole, etc.

Sub Zero Ice Cream Field Trip

Our Sub Zero Ice Cream field trip was AWESOME. Honestly, it was up there with my favorites. Playing with liquid nitrogen was exciting and educational...and something I never would have attempted with the kids at home...even if it didn't cost hundreds of dollars.

The manager, Royal, gave each group a small bowl of liquid nitrogen, which was placed inside a bigger stainless steel bowl. Everyone took turns touching it. You have to be quick. If you touch it too long, it will hurt, and then freeze your finger off...literally.

We froze some little candies and marshmallows and then threw them to make them shatter.

This picture was right after Bubs spilled liquid nitrogen on himself. Um, yeah.

Did you know that liquid nitrogen boils below room temperature? It's crazy! While it sat there in the bowls, it slowly rose to a boil...although it was still cold, of course. 

When we were finished, we just poured the bowls of liquid nitrogen out onto the floor. They didn't even leave a wet spot, the liquid just vanished.

Then, we got to the kids' favorite part of the field trip...Eating! They ordered mint with gummy bears and strawberry with gummy bears. Mmmm.  :)

At the end, I gave Royal a donation jar to keep there for their baby that needs heart surgery. My heart was warmed by all the generosity I saw. Thanks, everyone!

It was a great success! If you missed it, and you live near a Sub Zero in AZ, ID, or UT, definitely go check it out. Better yet, if you're in the Provo area, go support Royal and Jenn.

The Usborne Science Encyclopedia

You are probably familiar with Usborne Books. Have you seen their Science Encyclopedia? It is a beautiful book that has gotten lots of love around here. It's basically a textbook, but one that is pretty enough and interesting enough to just sit down and read.

This book covers the basic topics of Materials, Mixtures & Compounds, Energy/Forces/Motion, Earth & Space, Light/Sound/Electricity, Plants, Animals, and the Human Body in a friendly way that will appeal to elementary age students. Then, when one of the topics strikes your child's interest, he can visit the websites recommended to go along with the topic or try one of the experiments.

We recently grew our own crystals out of alum, based on an experiment in this book. 

After letting them grow for a few days, we chose the biggest one, and using it as a 'seed crystal', put it in the jar and watched it grow some more.

It was a fun experiment, and though the Usborne Science Encyclopedia seemed a little expensive for this cheap mama, I'm really glad we have it.

Homeschool Science Experiment

This is Bub's idea of a science experiment. I don't know if it was more about the scientific process or about tricking mom into buying a bunch of candy, but we had fun. Here's what we did:

1. Bubs wrote out his hypothesis, materials, and procedure.

2. Using saucepans, he melted 1/4 cup of each candy. He tested Junior Mints, Dots, Nerds, and Jolly Ranchers.

Bubs hypothesis was that the Jolly Ranchers would need the most heat to melt. He turned out to be incorrect. Which candy do you think took longest to melt?

For ease of cleaning, we melted the last candy (the Jolly Ranchers) in foil. Learn from my mistake and do them all that way if you try this.

(After the experiment, this became a bike reflector. Crazy creative kid.)

Science Experiment: Baking Soda and Vinegar

Here are a couple twists on an old favorite science experiment. We did the experiment of mixing baking soda and vinegar to make a small explosion. Then, Bubs got curious. Would the reaction be powerful enough to fill up a balloon? You can see in the picture what he thought of that...

Then we tested to see if we could get a toy car to move, powered by a baking soda and vinegar rocket. We didn't get it to work, but we're still working on it. That's what science is all about, right? Making predictions and testing them out. We tried a smaller car. That didn't help. Next we will try making a smaller opening for the reaction to go through.

What simple science experiments have been hits at your house?

School Inspiration

I love how good books inspire us. They inspire us to ask questions, to dig deeper, to learn more, and to be better people.

Bubs recently read a book about volcanoes at his friend's house. The next day became volcano day. We made a vinegar and baking soda volcano as well as a flour volcano. We watched clips of volcanoes erupting. We studied and colored a diagram of a volcano. Seriously, with a library and the internet, one can learn anything and everything.

Books open our minds to new ideas, stretch our brain power, and help us become greater than we could otherwise be.

The Snake Chronicles, aka Skip this post if you are snake-aphobic

Daddy took Bubs to the reptile show this weekend and came back with this (friendly, but still frightening) King snake.

Have I mentioned that Daddy is quite the tease?...And that I am one of the most gullible people on the planet? (No, really. Try to sell me beachfront property in Kansas. Actually that won't work. I'm too cheap. Anyway...)

So, on the way home, Daddy called and said that Bubby had just absolutely-positively fallen in love with this huge python...so huge, in fact, that it would have to live in one of our 2 bathtubs. I kept saying I didn't believe him, but I did. At least that's a step in the right direction for me...saying I don't believe.

Needless to say, this little-ish, well, medium-ish snake was a big relief. Although I wouldn't go as far as Daddy as to say it is part of the family.

Simple Molecular Science Experiment

Don't be intimidated by the title of this post. Seriously. Science couldn't get easier.

We did an experiment demonstrating that molecules move more quickly in hot water than cold. Here's how.

1. Fill one jar with boiling water and another with ice water.

2. Drop one drop of food coloring into each jar at the same time.

3. Observe which coloring spreads faster.

That's it. Easy, huh? And quite fascinating.

Pumpkin School

Today, we went to Grandma Jo and Grandpa Ron's to study the pumpkins in their garden. First we counted how many there were (20!), then we chose three pumpkins to measure. We measured height and circumference. We plan to go back a couple times to see how much they grow.

I love homeschool! It is such a joy to be part of their learning process.

Bubs' Catapult

Here's a simple little science project we did.

Bubs LOVES this second picture because you can see the ball as a yellow blur if you look closely.

PS. We totally heart science and art projects.

PSS. I know this post is short on words, but I have to go waste My Bebe at our new favorite game, Monopoly Deal. So fun. You have to try it.

Balloon Rockets and Newton's Laws of Motion

Here's an easy science project that was a big hit with the Bubs.

1. Cut a 4 inch piece of straw and a 4 foot piece of fishing line.

2. Put the straw on the line.

3. Tie the fishing line (plenty of that around here...) to two chairs, pulling it tight.4. Blow up a balloon, but don't tie it closed. Just twist it slightly.

5. Using masking tape, tape the balloon to the straw.

6. Let go!!

7. Chase it down and giggle with delight. :)
This experiment demonstrates Newton's Third Law of Motion because the air blows one direction, and the balloon goes the other.