Firework in a jar - experiment

We have been spending time with our beloved whales lately and haven't been introducing any new topics but there is always time for some experiment, isn't there?!

Firework in a Jar - Experiment 

This is one of Teddy's favourite and mine too but to be honest for a completely different reason. Whereas Teddy is absolutely fascinated by the slowly spreading 'fireworks' and an occasional 'bomb' as he calls the large drops of colours that get through at a high speed, I like it as it is super fast and easy and I always have the ingredients required at home and so will probably you!

All you need for this experiment is:

• water 
• oil (any oil you have in your cupboard - we either use sunflower or olive oil and I think we have used rapeseed today)
• liquid food colouring (colours of your choice)
• glass jar (can be any jar, glass, see through container you have at home)

this is all so if you have it at home, lets get stuck in, no preparation really needed and all will be ready and executed within 5 minutes!

Get your jar or glass container and fill it up with cold tap water all the way to the top, just leave a little bit of space. 

now put a little bit of oil in different cup/beaker (depends on the size of your jar, we used 1.5 l jar of water and here we have maybe 40ml of oil)

decide which colours you use and put a couple of drop from each one into the oil (the food colouring with dropper will work the best, we don't have those so we used a wooden skewer to drop some in)

now the most important bit...use a fork and mix the colours thoroughly in the oil, the food colouring will not mix up with the oil but it will separate into looooads of tiny droplets and this is what you want!



That's all!!!

now you let your little one pour the oil into the jar of water and wait for the magic to happen!! within few seconds the droplets of the food colouring will find its way to the water layer as they are heavier than the oil and start to fall into the water. Some of them will travel slowly and curling around whereas some large ones might drop the the bottom faster and 'explode' with colours. These are Teddy's favourite 'bombs' and no matter how often we do this experiment he never gets enough!!

if you haven't seen it already there is a video of  the experiment on our Facebook page:
 Mama and Son time

So get stuck in and I'm looking forward to hearing how you got on and how your little ones enjoyed it!

What happens inside a volcano - Volcano in a glass experiment

You could already tell from our first post that Teddy really likes volcanoes. Our paper mache one is starting to look a tad tired from all the erupting it has been through the last two months but Teddy just doesn't seem to have enough.

All that has sparked more questions and deepen his curiosity. Therefore I decided to spend more time on this topic bit further and we started to look at what happens inside the volcano. As an inspiration and a learning tool I used nomenclature cards, I downloaded from internet (I'm happy to share if you'd like just get in touch with me)

To make it more interactive I had an idea and made him a sort of a puzzle of the different parts out of felt. I always let Teddy to get involved in the process of making different activities and preparing everything for an experiment rather than presenting him with a done thing and I think its the fact that he helped me prepare it what makes it special for him.

He really liked the idea and didn't hesitate  to fetch his crayons and started to work on his design of a volcano which had a great amount of flowing lava. When he saw me cutting mine out he quickly went to get his own childrens scissors and started to cut his own. We had loads of fun just making this activity and he really likes the final product and is proud of himself that he knows where the lava comes from.

Those who follow us know that we really like experiments and that I believe that letting Teddy try it, see it and touch it helps a great deal in making him understand better.  Therefore I kept searching until I came across this really great experiment

Volcano in a glass experiment 

its called a volcano in a glass and instead of looking at what happens outside and all the flowing lava it focuses on what happens inside which was perfect. It looks at what happens to the mantle of the earth when it gets too hot pushing the magma through the crust of the earth

so if you'd like to try it this is what you need

• glass jar, cup or any other container which can withstand the heat (we used a glass jar we saved from pickled gherkins)
• wax (we used a red tea candle, because magma has to be red, doesn't it? I just removed the wick)
• clean sand (dirty works too, you just have to wait a bit longer for it to settle down)
• watersomething to hold the glass jar above the candle (we used cooling rack as you can see on the picture above)
• candle (or other source of heat but we found that candle works the best, if the heat is too strong the glass is most likely to shatter

How to do it:

Place your wax in the bottom of your jar, right in the middle of it

cover it with sand, pressing it nicely around the edges and  making sure its levelled (we did this experiment a few times and once we left a gap by mistake and it was actually cool to see the wax underneath the sand melting and bubbling before it risen to the top but make sure there is no gap on the top or it will rise before the magma is all nice and cooked!)

now fill the jar with a water all the way to the top, we used a spoon to hold the candle down. 

You might need to leave the sand to settle down, when we used clean sand it took 5 min, with dirtier sand a bit longer but it always settled! When the water is clear enough for you to see through place it on your cooling rack (or whatever you are using) and light up the candle and just wait for the magic to happen!

I have to say its not the fastest experiment, we actually missed the first explosion as we waited for some time and nothing happened so we got busy with other things. It takes around 10 min if you use a tea candle, if you use more wax it will obviously take bit longer. once we used 2x candles to have more magma and it took around 15 min to melt and and coming through.

What we do is to set it up together and then I let Teddy play and when the time gets closer we get back to watch. He loves to talk about what is going to happen and doesn't mind being patient for a bit, its worth it in the end!

Good sign to look for are the bubbles which will start coming through the sand shortly before the eruption happens. 

If you haven't already seen it, there is a longer video on our Facebook page: Mama and son time

The science behind it:

The wax in this experiment represents a layer in the Earth called the mantle, the mantle is solid but at a certain point it  becomes hot enough to melt, like the wax in the jar, it melts changing its density and rising rapidly towards the surface representing the magma (which is actually a molten rock from the mantle)

Both sand and the water are representing the crust of the Earth

Learning more about whales

We just love the whales!! They are truly magnificent animals, the way they move in the water with such an ease and grace and the force they break the surface when they breech. I was fortunate enough to see a large pod of humpback whales swimming and frolicking in the waves of Californian coast, it was truly breathtaking. Teddy has never seen a life whale but he loves them never the less, maybe my love for these majestic giants somehow imprinted on him...who knows...whats important is that we have something else in common to share together.

We love watching videos, looking at their pictures, reading books about them or sometimes just play with them (Teddy has quiet few whales toy models) He is also keen always to try a new activity if the whales are involved and here are the activities we did today:

Activity 1 - Arranging whales by size

Teddy can already named quiet few whales and from those he knows he is also able to tell me which ones are toothy ones and which ones have baleen plates. Did I tel you that one of his first drawings was a humpback whale? And I make it clear I have never ever drawn one for him, not that he would be able to recognise anything from my drawings...but I also never asked him to draw one, he just did and then did it again and again. This has reinforced my views that this way of learning while having fun works for us as he has naturally developed his own interest in whales as well as to express his creative side. Anyway back to the whales!

So Teddy can now distinguish some types of whales and he knows that they are immense. We recently took him to a museum exhibition which had whale bones on display and he was fascinated by this as he could see the actual size of the whale's skull and baleen plates and even the real tusk of a narwhal. I believe that this has helped him to understand that whales are humongous but it is hard to guess if he realises their true size compare to us.

 This lovely activity, made by my friend Alexandra, for her also whale obsessed son, was a great way to show him their size in a comparison to us. Teddy seemed to have no problem with this activity and manged with ease and he seem to be truly astound by the size of a blue whale next to that tiny tiny diver.

Activity 2 - Location, Location, Location

in this activity we looked at where the whales live or rather are seen during their migratory journeys  We used one of our favourite books called MAPS (scroll down for a peak, its rather brilliantly done) and we looked through different countries and tried to spot the whale we know and talk about the location where it's found. We spent over and hour with this activity and he absolutely loved it while simultaneously learning about different continents. I think there might be a time to to explore this topic further as he was truly interested. 

                               

If you wonder where we got those beautiful wooden whales they were gifted to Teddy from my friend Alexandra from Suvy z drivi (you can see her beautiful handcrafted things on here: Suvy z drivi)

Activity 3 - How the the whales keep warm experiment

And last but never the least we did this very fun experiment. As we looked through the various continents Teddy was quiet taken by the the Arctic regions and and couldn't stop talking about the cold weather there. So I explained to him how whales and other sea mammals such as seals keep warm through their insulation called blubber and to help him understand how it works I showed him this experiment. 

if you want to try it you will need: 

• a large bowl 
• icy water
• looooooods of ice 
• some fat (lard works the best but any oil will do)
• plastic bag (if you are using liquid oil)

you need to fill the bowl with icy water and add the ice to make it even more icy. Then ask your child to put their hand inside (if you watched our video on Facebook you could tell that Teddy really did not like that. Then cover their hands in the fat as I already said the lard works the best but we run out so I tried it with coconut oil but I could not manage to cover his hand in perfect layer to give him sufficient insulation in the ice water. (I tried butter on my finger which worked fine too but did not fancy use all of our butter and having to eat a dry toast in the morning) so we tried vegetable oil in a plastic bag and it was perfect!

Just fill the small plastic bag with some oil and place it inside the ice water and ask your child to put their hand in there. Try it by yourself and you will feel the difference! 

Teddy couldn't believe that his hand submerged in and ice water is suddenly so  nice and warm. We had to try it few more times after that. 

If you like what we do you can follow us on Facebook for more experiment and educational activities: Mama and son time

 Here is a look at the MAPS book:

its absolutely brilliant, you can get your copy on here: MAPS

If you'd like to see some of our other books looking at ocean and its animals, check out our earlier post called What hides beneath 

Let's see the water move - sea currents

If you have kids you have probably heard about a cartoon movie called Finding Nemo, about a little clown fish crossing the ocean to find his son Nemo travelling on the fast East Australian current with a bunch of sea turtles. Does it ring a bell? Well, even though this movie is not really considered educational, we both love it and  while watching it we started to talk about the currents.

It wasn't actually the only children movie we have seen that tried to 'educate' the children about the movements of the Ocean by a coincidence we watched a short Czech cartoon the next day (Pane pojdte budeme si hrat) and there was a walrus travelling in the Gulf stream across the Atlantic ocean.

So we started to talk more about them, we looked at the map to try to see where the currents are forming and how far can they reach  and I tried to explain to him what it is that causes the water to move this way.
In the end I realised that he might be still too little to understand this and thought that a visual experiment he can be a part of  might be a better option.

So we decide to look at how the current moves

for this simple but effective experiment you will need:

• large clear plastic or glass container (we used IKEA box but glass baking try or white ceramic one would work too, the larger, the better!
• cold water
• ice
• hot water
• and some food colouring 
• you can add some sea animals for the visual effect

So lets get started

fill up your container with ice cold water (it needs to be very cold for this to work) we added some blue food colouring and Teddy has added his sea animals!

now add some ice to make it even colder brrrrrrr we used small cubes the first time but the next time we did decide to make it even more fun and we put in 'an iceberg' and some of his arctic sea animals (well apart from the poor green turtle but  he just loves how it floats in the current)

Let the ice to cool the water for a bit (Teddy enjoys playing in the water with his sea animals) and boil some hot water.

Carefully colour the hot water with some dark food die, We used red but you can use black or even just darker blue.

then slowly and carefully pour the hot water at one side of the container and watch the current move!

If you'd like to see the books that are about ocean and its animals, please check out are previous post :

What hides beneath...the layers of the ocean 

you can also follow us on Facebook for more fun activities and interesting experiments: 

Mama & son time

What hides beneath...layers of the ocean

Teddy has always been fascinated by the ocean and its creatures. I am not sure if it was because we live close to the sea and have been going to the beach since he was a little baby and instead of visiting a zoo we have been taking him to a local sea centre or because that one of the first 'big boy' books we read was my old encyclopedia, the life in the ocean.

Since then his favourite animals are currently a deep sea angler fish,  a manta ray, plaice fish and of course whales!

As his curiosity increased and  his constant questions got more specific I have decided it might be the right time to try out some activities such as Ocean Layers as shared with you below. He loved it!

Ocean Layers

This topic wasn't new to him we were already talking about the the layers of the Ocean and the various fish that inhabit them. As already mentioned, his favourites were the angler fish which lure their prey in the deep murky waters and also the sea turtles who love the clear and sunlit waters. 

I never want to overwhelm him with information but at the same time I like to tell him as things are and when I see his keen little face when I read him some new facts and more importantly his unbelievable capacity to retain those facts and talk about them even months after, I feel even more encouraged that the approach I've assumed has been the right one for us. 

So lets have a look at those layers!!

if you'd like to try these activities all you need for the first part:

• large paper (we used A3)
• some paint (we used brown, blue and white to help make different shades of blue) - all our paint is from the ELC - children friendly and washable - Early Learning Centre
• paint brush
• and some sea animals (we have most of our animals from schleich, mojo or collecta which can be purchased on Amazon or eBay and some wooden ones which were made especially for Teddy by my talented friend Alexandra from Suvy z drivi, you can see some of here beautiful work on here: Suvy z drivi (Wooden craft)

and for the second part:

• 5 glass jars or plastic containers 
• water 
• and some food colouring
• you can add animals or labels to each jar

we have read and named the five zones of the ocean (sunlight, twilight, midnight, abyss and trenches)

so we have decided firstly to draw them together and then we tried to place all of our sea animal to their rightful place.  

It was loads of fun but I though it might not really give him the idea and understanding so we decided to make the layers using glass jars!

we found five similar in size jars (most of them are from our favourite olives), Teddy filled them with water all the way to the rim and then we used  blue food colouring to colour the water. We started with the lightest one, adding more and more in each one.

we use again some of our animals which were small enough to fit in and placed them inside the zone they would live in in the ocean and then was time to layer them out!

If you'd like to do this at home I would recommend you to use smaller and wider jars like our trenches' jar (jar from salsa sauce) or even plastic tupperware as we found it bit tricky to stack them all the way to the top but Teddy did brilliantly supporting the 'tower' and I believe that seeing them like this has given him much better understanding. 

We still have the jars and he likes to look at them and place them in an order and adding more animal to them. 

Here are some of our favourite books about the ocean, the seashore and its animals:

these are the 'ancient' books that belonged to me as a child and I believe have sparked his interest in the ocean. They are written in Czech (we are rising Teddy bilingually)

These books are fab! both interactive, the secret of the seashore is a shine a light book (you need to place it in front of a light to see which animal is hiding there. We love reading it when its getting darker and Teddy can shine a torch from behind the page, you can get it here:  Secrets of sea shore

and under the Ocean is a 3D book looking at what is happening above the water and what lies beneath! very cleverly done! you can get it here: Under the ocean

These 3 are from Nature story series, they are really great. Beautiful and realistic pictures and they are written like a story to get children interested but they are based on the real facts 

you can get them on here: Seal story, blue whale story and the sea turtle story

And this treasure - Animalium - welcome to the museum, it covers all kind of animals, but we just LOVE it!

you can get it on here: Animalium

If you like what we do you can follow us on Facebook for more activities and fun experiments!

Mama & Son time

'Mammy, I really need a volcano!' - Exploding volcano

It was only a couple of minutes long footage of a volcano erupting and he was hooked.  All the  documentaries about cute animals we watched were forgotten and the only thing that he wanted to talk about was that hot lava spewing into the ocean.

So we had to build a volcano...

I think the first time and actually the last time I made anything from paper mache was a little bunny rabbit face mask when I was 7. Thanks to the internet you don't have to think too hard to remember how you made it.

Doing paper mache volcanoes is a very popular children's activity and YouTube is filled with videos and detailed tutorials but here is how we did it. Although it can take 2 - 3 days it can be used time and time again.

you will need:  

• some cardboard  for a base of the volcano ( ors is about 50cm x 50cm)
• empty 1 litre plastic bottle, the widest neck as possible 
• newspapers
• sellotape
• a small tupperware bowl to hold the glue mix
• PVA glue (we used washable children safe glue from the ELC you can get it on here: Early Learning Centre
• water for the glue mix
• paint to decorate your volcano (we also got ours from the ELC, you can get it on here: ELC
• See ingredients for making the magma which turns into lava below at day 3 

Now let's get started ! 

Day 1

place the bottle in the middle of the cardboard base and attach it with a sellotape to keep it in its place 

 Now get scrunching!!

scrunch up the newspaper into small balls and start placing them around the bottle

Make the base as wide as you like and start placing more newspaper balls on top, securing them in place with sellotape as you go

when you happy with the rough shape of your volcano lets get paper mashing!

in the bowl mix the PVA glue and water (we did it almost half and half, maybe little bit more glue than water)

 then cut the newspaper into wider strips, dip them whole in the mix and start placing them on the volcano both horizontally and vertically 

 

when you happy with the shape, seal it all with more glue mix and let it dry (we left it next to a radiator and it was ready to be painted the next day

    Day 2

Now you can paint it as you like, Teddy has chosen brown colour and we added together touch of grey to give it more authentic look. We also mixed in little bit of the PVA glue to make the paint more resilient and withstand multiple eruptions!

And don't forget to add some lava!!

we used red, orange and yellow paint and just squirted it down from the crater.

Day 3

And now finally the fun part LET IT ERUPT!!!!!

to make a magma for your volcano you will need:

 warm water (food colouring is optional but red lava looks much better than white one don't you think?)

bicarbonate soda (baking soda)

and some vinegar or 8% solution of citric acid 

fill the crater with the warm water almost to the rim,  leave just a little bit of space left.  We have added red food colouring, add 2-3 spoons of soda and add the vinegar or citric acid solution and see it go!

You can  follow us on Facebook: Mama & Son which gives access to more fun experiments