Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Mixtures

We have not zoomed through the Science Lab, like I had hoped.  We just got to day 3, which is all about mixtures.  I've had the discovery bag out for quite a few days now, opened and ready to dive into.  But our days have been busy.  Finally I decided to set out all the activities on our colorful trays and put them out on the counter.  I haven't done this in a while.  I seem to do this more during the summer because it's more of an open invitation and they can choose when they are ready to stop the summertime play and do a little experimenting fun.  

Prepare yourself, this is going to be one of those "picture stories" I often write because I have 37 awesome pictures that walk you through our day.  
These bath tub color tablets were recommended by another parent or blogger, I can't remember.  But they have been a lot of fun in the bathtub and worked perfect for this experiment.  A lot better than food coloring or paint. 
Here is the whole counter set up and ready to go.
I wonder who will notice the fun on the counter first?



No one noticed.  Can you believe that?  I had to invite them over to look. It was later in the afternoon and the kids were getting a bit tired, I could tell because they were arguing more frequently.  I thought a led activity like this would be perfect.  Even though I had to bring attention to the counter, once everyone saw it all laid out, they were immediately excited. 

The first two at the counter were Peter and Cody.  But by the time we started pouring, everyone was there.
We started with the discussion questions.  I asked the question from circle time first, "what can you mix together then separate?  What can you mix together but not separate?"  I just love the expression on Peter's face as he really gets into answering.

Now we begin Inventing Colors.  Peter chose to mix red and blue.  



 Cody chose to mix yellow and red. 
 Crooked pouring.
 He thought this was so cool!!!!  Look at that excitement. 
 I asked him to hold his orange and smile. 
 Grant chose to see what color he would invent by mixing yellow and blue. 
 Look at that face. 
 Thrilled with his invention.
 Green!
Next we started on our Color Mixing activity.  I had to walk them through this activity so I did not have my hands free to take pictures as we went.  Not until the end when they got the idea.  These beautiful sheets were given to us by Mother Goose Time.  First they dabbed one of the primary colors on the top and then mixed the two colors they had shown in the bottom.  I chose to use q-tips instead of paint so that the colors would not be mixed in the bowls, but only on the paper.
 Blue and red make purple.
 Red and yellow make orange.
Here is Cody's finished sheet. 
I had to take a quick picture of the finished tray from the Inventing New Colors activity.  It was just so pretty. 
The last experiment that I had set out was the Mixing Experiment.  We first talked about what tools we can use to mix things and then we talked about how we can mix things by shaking them too.  Like any good science experiment we first hypothesized by discussing what we thought might happen to the sugar when we put it in the water.  They weren't quite sure what would happen, but they didn't think it would disappear.  Lachlan lead this activity, which I like to let him do now and then. 
 Glad I had him pour over the tray because quite a bit of sugar did not make it into the bottle. 
 I made sure to point out that we could still see the sugar.  That it had settled toward the bottom. 
 Then we shook it up. 
 Everyone took a turn. 

By the time it got to Peter it was pretty well shaken up and he looked to see if he could find the sugar at the bottom anymore.  I swear, it was like I was putting on a magic show!  It disappeared.  Where did it go?  We learned a new word, dissolve
 Since we couldn't see it anymore, I asked them if we thought we could taste it. 
 Of course we had to test that theory and I poured them all a cup of sugar water. 
 Grant says "It's sweet" with his usual expressive face.  I love it!!
 Happy scientist. 
Next we hypothesized what would happen if we mixed oil with water.  Of course, now we know things can disappear in water, right?
 We paid special attention to what it looked like when it was newly poured into the water. 
 Then we started to shake. 
 Lachlan noticed the bubbles that it made. 
Everyone took a turn again, then we set it on the counter.  We watched as those bubbles all slowly floated to the top.  Even when the bottle of water was tilted, the oil stayed at the top.  We could shake it, and bubbles would appear again, but then to the top they would go. 
I explained to them that water and oil do not mix.  Oil will not dissolve in the water like the sugar did. 

I had the tray by the sink, getting it ready to pour out and my boys wanted to continue the experiment.  They were pretty sneaky, and poured all the colors together.  It's black, it's black they exclaimed.  After this I turned my back and this beaker full of colored liquid was poured into my bathroom sink and splashed about.  :)  Another experiment.  Will the colored water stain Mommy's bathroom sink.  The answer, YES! 
I am sure a little bleach and elbow grease will fix it right up.  All in the name of science!

No comments:

Post a Comment