Wednesday Activities updated

Volcanos

Last Wednesday, we learned about volcanos. I showed them some pictures and videos on the internet of volcanos and talked very basically about what they are.

Then, we made our own. I put an empty play dough container (this would work with a baby food jar or a plastic cup or anything like that) on a plate and we built up a mountain around it. We first put baking soda and red food coloring into the cup. We then poured vinegar in for the below results.

The kids loved it! We did it again and again and again and again...luckily, vinegar is cheap because we probably used half a bottle. I would definitely recommend this project. Don't use brand new play dough, however, because it is pretty much ruined afterwards. We used all our old mixed up stuff that was on it's way out anyways.

The Heart

A couple of weeks ago we learned about our hearts. I got the idea to do this when Little Man chose to check out a book for the library about our hearts and lungs. I wish I remembered the name of the book (it has since been returned), but it was great for young kids with lots of pictures and even some experiments, two of which I used.

We talked about how our hearts pumped blood through our bodies and that every part of our bodies needed blood. We then talked about how the heart pumped faster when we were active and slower when we were resting. We looked at a diagram in a book and then did three very simple experiments. The kids loved the ideas of doing a science experiment. Here they are.

1: One of the ideas in the book to demonstrate how blood flows downward was to stand with one arm limp at your side and your other straight out. The idea is that the hand hanging down will be red and the one you've held up paler. I thought this one was pretty lame. The difference wasn't that noticeable and neither kid held their hand up long enough to get any sort of difference (Kiwi didn't even try).

2: Little Man and I found our pulses and felt them. Then all three of us ran around the house, up and down the stairs, and jumped around the family room. We then found our pulses again. Little Man was so cute. Before we could even find the pulse, he said, "I can feel my heart beating Mommy!" This activity went much better then the first and I think that Little Man really got it.

3: Each child got a balloon that represented their heart. We then put water in them and they took turns pumping them. We would go slow for what it looks like when we were sleeping and fast for what it looked like when we were running around. The combination of balloons, water, and Mommy letting them sit on the counter made this an instant favorite. We repeated the experiment several times. Once Kiwi's shot water clear across the sink and and put a nice sized spot right across the chest of Little Man's motor cross costume. He started crying, but I cracked up and eventually he thought it was funny also.

We ended with making a collage (Grandma R. always gives us her old magazines and Little Man loves to cut them up) of things that help keep our body healthy.

I would recommend both the volcano and the heart experiments (minus that first one) for kids of really any age. They required very little planning and everything needed for them was already in the house. Most of all, my kids loved them.

I just realized tomorrow is Wednesday. I better think of something to do...