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WONDERFULLY CRAZY

A space where family, friends and anyone else can follow our adventures. We are a homeschooling, crafting, music-making, back-flipping wonderfully crazy family living on the coast of Maine enjoying everything life has to offer us!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Science experiments

We had a messy fun time yesterday with a "guest student".  The kids have been excited to try this non-Newtonian fluid experiment also know as oobleck .  What fun is all I can say! 
This experiment really blew everyone away, I have to admit it was pretty darned cool.  You can see it here in the pictures just dribbling from Corey's hands like slime.  However if you ball it up in your hands or tap on it with your fingers it's solid...very strange and cool.
love the face you can "see" him saying "Cool"

rolling a solid piece
 This entertained the kids for a great deal of time and was sooo easy to make, it's nothing but cornstarch and water!  It is pretty messy for sure, but worth the clean up.  I love that they learned so much while having so much fun.  Our friend Theona was thrilled to participate with the big kids and really enjoyed the tactile portion of just feeling the goop in her hands. 
 Of course the girls adding some food coloring just to spice things up a bit.  I found this great natural food coloring called India Tree last year.  It's made from concentrated veggie colors.  The colors are wonderful for icing and cookies etc.  My one complaint with these is that they expired quickly.  I understand it's because they are not full of all kinds of chemical preservatives.  But, they were quite expensive and I only decorate baked products every so often.  We did of course use past the date on the box and never had a problem.  I guess this just means I need to figure out how to use the veggies directly to color in the future...hmmmmm....another science experiment?
In the end it was a fun afternoon well worth the mess and I'm sure they will want to make it again.  I however will be looking for more fun and messy science to try.

6 comments:

  1. I love oobleck! It always reminds me of my days as a preschool teacher, and of doing it with my own kids (of course).

    Have you tried goop? My kids made it last week- Borax and Elmers glue, it's kind of like Silly Putty and very fun.

    We used veggies to dye Easter eggs one year, it was a little extra work but a lot of fun. And some of the colors were surprising.

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  2. So cool, Little Yellow School House! I have a Navajo dye chart around here somewhere that I have used to dye yarn and flour sac dishtowels. Red onion peels, beets, etc. I will try to find it for you guys!

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  3. Cool! We are going to have to do this...I'll have to brace myself for the mess. Glad to see Molly has both arms free!
    Thanks for the info about the natural food colouring...too bad they don't last long. I have a boy requesting a robot b-day cake next month and I'm shuddering at the black food colouring it may require for grey...ugh.

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  4. love love oobleck. we make it often in preschool. It does always amaze me as much as the children. Just gave me a great idea to keep miss delaney busy tomorrow on our lazy, no plans type of day!

    enjoy

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  5. oops, don't know why that said Mike's name, but I imagine you thought it was me since mike doesn't teach!
    Jen

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  6. Oh Angie, a few years ago the kids wanted a "Mad Science" birthday party, but they wanted me to be the mad scientist. For favors, I bought magnifying glasses, magnets, and stuff like that.

    And for one of our experiments, we made Oobleck.

    I had cornstarch in between the cracks of my hardwood floors for several months.

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