Marvelous Monday - Funky Fish and Blinding Them With Science

Wha?
....putrid fish?... science?...not a good sounding combination....I thought this was like, a fun, crafty day or somethin'...


Relax People! I mean Funky Psychedelic! And Marvelous Science that will amaze your kids! Both of these were activities the kids and I did following the Seuss post last week.

First up: The Funky Fish
One of the Seuss ideas we had was to make "mosaic "one fish-two fish-red fish-blue fish. At least, that was the plan - we made way more, didn't do the mosaic, and not one was "just" red or blue! We are dealing with kids here, so sometimes you just gotta roll with the punches ;-)

What we did do was make bleeding fish...
What!? And she said this wasn't going to be weird?


Relax :-) -  that refers to the way ink drops "bleed" on wet coffee filters! And see - despite the horrific name (which by the way, will thrill your boys if you have sons) - they ARE cute:

To make these little guys, just saturate a coffee filter with water, then drop ink onto the filters in a random pattern and with a selection of colours (don't have ink droppers? Use slightly diluted water paint in a medicine dropper). Allow to dry.

(If your kids are as impatient as mine - put the wet filters in a 150 degree oven with the door slightly ajar. STAY with them as they dry - you don't want them to burn! (Once they are dry, a slight breeze may blow them off the rack and onto the element if you are not careful-careful-careful!) - Takes about 10 minutes).

Then, after you and the children have marvelled at how pretty your "paper" is, fold a filter in half, and working from the left to right side of the filter, trace a triangular shape (for the tail when opened) and a half circle (forms the body). Open and draw on faces.... Done!

Next Up - Blinding Them With Science!


This activity is even more fun! I hadn't done it with the boys in a couple of years, and to be honest, I was SO excited to try it again. I love it!
Geek.
Now, now....So, remember the squirt bottles you filled with coloured water to draw in the snow last week? We wouldn't want that water to go to waste now would we? We added some of our red water to some plain tap water in a clear bottle:

Genius, I know. But that's not the good part...
Then, we added vegetable oil:

Lovely, pretty oil bubbles...But that's not the good part either....
Then, we put the cap on, and I got the boys to shake, shake, shake that water bottle!
It now looked like this:

OK, so the water is cloudy from the oil particles, so what?
Okay, the good part is coming.....

There are bubbles moving to the top!

And the water is getting clearer!

It is allowing light to pass through again!
And ewwww....

There is gunk on the top! It's... it's... it's the oil!

That's right folks! We have just shown the kids that oil & water do not mix! Prove it, let them shake & watch - shake & watch- shake & watch all day if they want to... it ain't gonna happen! Ask them what the bubbles were... would it matter if we changed the colour of the water? Why were we able to change the colour of the water (with the food dye last week) and we can't do it with the oil?

Now....Teach them why oil spills are so alarming: Pour the oily/dyed water into a bowl - there is sludge in the bottle; put your finger in the bowl, there is oil on your finger. That is what happens in an oil slick/spill when a bird or fish passes through the water: it is covered in oily goop. You can wash your hands... what would an animal do? We used vegetable oil, a bird would be covered in oil used for fuel- what do you think would happen to the critter? How do you think people can help animals when this does happen by accident?

Longest post ever! But, I hope you liked these ideas......And that you have a marvelous week!