Our momstown Milton Little Scientists Explore What Dissolves When Wet, Wet, Wet!

Our momstown Milton Little Scientists had fun experimenting in the kitchen, trying to determine what will dissolve when it gets wet, wet, wet! 

We started off with talking about what it means to "dissolve": when you add water to something and the little particles become so tiny that you can't see them anymore - they become part of the water; you may not see them but they are still there.

The kids were excited to be conducting experiments with common things that they see in their kitchens:  salt; instant coffee; pasta; quinoa; jello powder; and sprinkles.  We made a hypothesis for each item - would it dissolve in water, or would it stay the same?

Each Little Scientist chose a cup.  We then took turns putting a scoop of the food into a clear glass, then pouring warm water into the glass and stirring.

  
Kids love scooping and love pouring water, so this in itself was pretty entertaining for everyone!  It was fun for them to guess what would dissolve and what wouldn't.  

Seeing the coffee dissolve, the kids could see that something that dissolves is still a part of the solution.  We then moved on to the salt.  It dissolved into the water and the water is clear.  Everyone got to taste the water with a spoon to show that the salt didn't disappear, it changed form and became a part of the water.

 

The jello powder and the sprinkles were fun for the kids.  The water turned bright blue with the jello powder and our Halloween sprinkles turned the water black, though they didn't quite dissolve completely.  Not surprisingly, the sprinkles didn't dissolve completely off of little Sky's face after she sneaked a handful.

 

This is a fun and easy experiment to do with preschoolers.  They are able to participate by scooping, pouring and stirring, and they have fun guessing at the outcome (forming a hypothesis).  My daughter spent part of the afternoon walking around the house putting things like magnets, pens, a spoon of sugar, etc into a cup of water to see if they would "disappear".  It is nice to know that they think about these learning experiences once you have cleaned up the mess and moved on!

Thanks to everyone who came today for some basic science fun! Join us next month at our Little Scientists program  when we explore how to make music with bottles and water! !

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Submitted by Paula Porter, a momstown Milton member and

 mother of two children.

momstown Milton Little Scientists Explore the World of Birds!

Our momstown Milton mamas and kids had fun exploring the world of birds at our Little Scientist program recently!  I think it is safe to say that we are all breathing a sigh of relief that warmer weather is on the way.  After a long winter it is exciting to celebrate the return of Spring, and we are always happy to see the robins return to our back yards!

We had a big group of Little Scientists, and we started off by talking about what makes a bird, a bird!  The kids had many ideas about what a bird is!  We narrowed down their ideas to a couple of traits that all birds share:  Birds have feathers covering their bodies; and birds are hatched from eggs. 

I asked the group: “Do all birds fly?”.  Our smart little ones knew that all birds do not fly.  We talked about how all birds can walk, most can fly, and that some can even swim.

We read a book about birds called Sparrow, Eagle, Penguin and Seagull – What is a Bird? by Brian P. Cleary.

After the book, we talked about how Spring is nesting time for birds, and how they are very hungry after migrating back from their warmer winter homes.   Our Little Scientists got busy making pinecone bird feeders to bring home and hang outside in their back yards. 

Moms helped tie strings onto the pinecones (less messy to tie it on BEFORE the peanut butter and bird seed is applied).

Everyone had fun using butter knives to spread peanut butter on their pinecones.

 Once the peanut butter was spread on, the kids took turns shaking their pinecones in a Ziploc bag half filled with birdseed.

Voila!  A wonderful treat for our feathered friends!

After our bird feeders, our Little Scientists worked on colouring a Bird Watching list.  This was a page filled with birds that our little ones will see in our area – robin, chickadee, blue jay, cardinal, duck, goose, etc.  We named each bird and looked at a photo of each bird.  They enjoyed colouring the birds, and all were excited to start looking for the different birds as they left for home.

Thank you all for coming out to the Little Scientist group today!  See you next time!

To learn more about what momstown Milton is all about - Click Here

To register for a 6 week FREE trial membership - Click Here

If you are a business that would like to sponsor our events or advertise with us please contact info.milton@momstown.ca

 

Submitted by Paula Porter, a momstown Milton member and

 mother of two children.

  

Little Scientists - Discovering Shadows and Light with Shadow Puppets

Our Little Scientists explore Light & Shadows!

In honour of Earth Hour when we will all be turning off our lights, our momstown Milton  Little Scientists had fun learning about light and shadows.

We started off with a short video about a hippo who discovers his shadow when the sun shines, and notices it goes away when the sun goes behind the clouds. The kids had fun doing an experiment with a toy tree and a flashlight. We saw how the tree cast no shadow without light shining on it, and then how the shadow appeared when we shined a light on the branches.

 

The group headed to the basement for some more fun with shadows. To play with shadows in the basement, I hung up a white sheet from the ceiling. The little scientists had fun making shadows with their hands and bodies, illuminated by flash lights. By turning on a bright light behind the sheet, our basement was transformed into a shadow puppet theatre! We used shadow puppets cut out of black paper in the forms of flying saucers, aliens and planets. We saw how the shadows got smaller and bigger as we moved them farther from and closer from the source of light.

  

Playing with shadows is a fun and free activity that can be done anywhere. Kids are fascinated by shadows, and teaching little ones about how shadows are formed can be helpful in reducing bed time fears.

Thanks to our Little Scientists for bringing their curiosity to our group today!

See you next month when we will be Little Explorers, exploring the world of birds!

 

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