A Day of Science

Following our sensory day, we had a day of science.  I cannot remember for the life of me why Pierce sudden;y became interested in volcanoes, but he asked to watch a movie about volcanoes on the computer.  Thankfully YouTube had some really awesome movies, and he was able to see how the volcanoes work.  This then lead to us making our own.

We had a ton of leftover play dough from our play date, and I had a plastic water bottle sitting on the counter.  The boys and I got to quick work making our very own volcano.  I had Pierce tell me how to shape it so it looked like the volcanoes he had just seen in his movies, and Carter had a blast trying to help us put it together.  Before we worked any magic on our volcano, I wanted the boys to be able to see just what would happen inside the water bottle.  I had Pierce put vinegar in a cup I had in the sink, and I had Carter dump the baking soda in.  They were both amazed at how it bubbled up and exploded outside the cup.

After I explained that it was a chemical reaction that caused the "lava" to bubble out, we went over to our volcano and added red food coloring to the bottle first.  I mean, lava is a red/orange color right?  And with Pierce in control of this, we had to make it look realistic.  Pierce added the baking soda, and I did the vinegar part.  I wanted them to sit back, relax, and watch the magic happen.  They loved it!  There was even a part where it honestly exploded out of the water bottle and covered them in lava!

Instead of napping that day, Pierce wanted to say up and do more science and art.  So, to mix them both together, we created some bubble sculptures.  I used regular dish detergent, tempera paint, and water to make colorful bubbles for him to play with.  I also gave a strict remember to not suck anything through the straw, and to only blow air in it.  He had a blast seeing how high he could make his sculpture before it would fall over.  Then we tried to make bubble prints on white paper, but that was a fail.  Our bubbles were not colorful enough, no matter what we tried.

Now my challenge is to have the boys see that there is science in almost everything we do.  From measuring ingredients that we use to bake with, all the way to the obvious bubbles we play with on a daily basis.  I want to foster the love of science and art as much as I possibly can.  Pierce and Carter, love you both to the moon and back.  Keep exploring, keep learning.  You are both doing fantastic!  And thank you, for making my days fun and exciting, with never a dull moment.  :)