One of our homemade musical instruments was filling bottles to different depths with coloured water and then striking them to make a xylophone type of sound. When we saw the idea of using glow sticks to add interest to the bottles we thought we’d give that a go too.

Same great sound …

 just a different, fun angle.

We didn’t want to waste the glow sticks so put them to another use – to jazz up some very ordinary balloons for our littlest friend.

and as some funky jewelry for the big fella.

It was interesting trying to blow up the balloons and get the glowsticks in as well!!

The children took them into a darkened room and just loved the slightly spooky experience.

Even with the balloons deflated (as they did overnight), the glow sticks still looked really fascinating!

While reading other people’s blogs, particularly those from the United States, we regularly come across a product called Ivory Soap. We Googled it (as we do) and discovered that it is a soap which has been whipped and is full of air bubbles, which makes it quite light.

Now we don’t have that soap here in Australia and haven’t been able to find an equivalent, but our lovely friend Amy Ahola from Child Central Station sent us a bundle of cakes of soap for us to have a play with …

Our first experiment was very simple. We have been told the soap does amazing things when heated up in the microwave and we just had to find out for ourselves.

We popped a block onto a plate and put it in the microwave on high for two minutes …

and then there was a bit of movement at the station.

We kept popping it back in for a minute at a time and we all, one year old included, were totally fascinated by the transformation.

From a small hard block of soap came this luscious cloud …

which reminded us of the meringue on top of lemon meringue pie …

or a good old Aussie pavlova!

It cooled down very quickly and we were all keen to feel it.

It looked very soft but was still quite firm.

Ideas of imaginative play hurtled through our minds but unfortunately the day had come to an end and we ran out of time. We sent the cloud of soap home with the children to use in their bath. Hopefully they only broke off a small piece at a time and didn’t dunk the whole lot in!

Thanks to Amy we still have pleanty of soap left to try this with the children again … and again … and again!

We noticed on a couple of our favourite blogs, The Chocolate Muffin Tree and Teach Preschool a while back, what fun they had making robots out of tins, magnets and bits and pieces.

We thought our children might like to have a go too, so pulled out a tub of bibs and bobs, small magnets, a glue gun and a few tin cans.

We are always blown away by how careful children can be when it comes to handling the glue gun – some adults tend to panic about children using dangerous tools, but they don’t want to get hurt anymore than we would want to.

A careful selection of bits was made …

and magnets carefully glued onto them.

We had assumed robots would be made …

but it became a lot more open ended than that.

We don’t know why we ever assume anything.

It was just a wonderful experience of discovery.

An individual scenario was played out with quite a complex story to go with it. You just have to love that!

It started to rain on us, and we headed back inside. Luckily these new magnets were just perfect for using on the fridge door too!

Amongst the pile of stuff we had left over from the presentation on Irresistible Ideas for Water which we did at the Yarra Ranges Early Childhood Conference a while back, the glitter was by far the children’s favourite find in the clean up.

Some of it they used, with some of our left over bottles, to make the tornado/vortex tube but looking through our photos they noticed we had been having fun with glitter jars too, like the ones we made last year.

They immediately wanted to give them another go too, so we talked to them about remembering to put glycerine in the water. The glycerine just changes the viscosity of the water enough so that the glitter and ‘bling’ that goes into it moves a little slower through the water, making it look a little like a snow dome.

 So they each filled a bottle with water and a few squirts of the sticky glycerine. We loved the teamwork happening!

They added the bling …

screwed the lids on nice and tight, then taped up the top of the bottles with electrical tape,  just to be sure they didn’t leak.

Then they shook and tipped …

and shook some more – how simple and how fascinating!

We saw a science experiment (somewhere??) exploring the speed at which ice melts, depending on the conditions.

The children placed an iceblock in one bowl and left it natural.

They tipped salt on one in another bowl.

One they wrapped in aluminium foil …

and the last one in newspaper.

We asked them to hypothesise which one they thought would melt the fastest and which one the slowest then left the iceblocks to do their own melting business.

We checked now and then. The one with salt seemed to be melting quickest. We couldn’t tell which was the slowest.

When the salty one had completely melted they discovered that the plain iceblock came in second …

the one wrapped in foil came next  and the one wrapped in newspaper had hardly melted.

What a wonderful conversation we were able to have, not only about the effect of salt on ice, but also about the properties of insulation.

Whoever would have thought newspaper was such a good insulator?

Wonderful opportunities for everyday science is all around us – Don’t freeze it out!

Do you know what these creatures are?

Our children love discovering mini beasts in the garden …

but we’ve yet to come across a stick insect. Then again, being the masters of camouflage that they are and the speed at which we move around the yard, we’ve probably just been missing them!!

Stick insects make very interesting pets as we discovered when we visited Syndal Preschool, Holy Trinity Preschool, Croydon West Primary School, Dover Street Preschool and Healesville Sanctuary.

On a recent visit to Chifley preschool in the A.C.T …

their children had been learning about …

and making their own stick insects.

So simple, using pipe cleaners and sticks from the garden …

Irresistible indeed!

We have been talking to teachers’ groups about everyday science and having discussions about simple experiments.

We all do floating and sinking-type experiments, but it is good to be able to think outside the square a little. Deborah at Teach Preschool showed us an experiement just using balloons and water.

 Have the children fill some balloons with air (differing amounts) …

 and some with water (again, differing amounts).

Let them hypothesise which will float and which will sink.

We tried this with our children and they were actually very on the ball with their predictions.

They knew that air was lighter than water!

This of course moved onto them hunting around for anything they thought could go in the water …

but we kept them on target by encouraging a prediction every time something was about to be tossed in.

Many teachers are afraid of science but …

science can be easy and spontaneous …

when you simply use whatever is at hand.

We saw the children enjoying I Spy Bottles at Kurburoo Preschool …

and thought we’d like to put our own spin on it – Magnetic I Spy Bottles.

We had some of those little dots of paper left over from our No Sew Tails so popped a pile into a glass jar to use as the camouflage.

Then we found some paper clips and bulldog clips and hid them in amongst the paper.

Fortunately our magnet was strong enough to attract the metal.

Next we added some metal nuts which were much heavier …

and that worked well too … whew!!

We have a friend who works in an engineering workshop and he is able to give us iron filings, which are fabulous for this sort of magenetic experimentation.

Next we added some of them to the paper …

and the result was really interesting!!

If you don’t want to use a jar, popping these bits and pieces into a tray works really well, in fact is probably a bit easier to do for young children.

You just have to love the combination of iron filings and a magnet.

Endlessly fascinating!!

Ahhh, science is a magical thing.

We have talked now and then about the joy of light boxes.

We were lucky enough to have been given one, but we know they are not cheap and also not easy to make. Deborah Stewart over at Teach Preschool showed us an idea of hers using plastic tubs as a quick and cheap alternative and Scott from Brick by Brick has also had a go, as did Amy from Child Central Station.

We thought that we would give it a go ourselves and make mini versions of the light box with what we had at hand so that we could have one each for a group of children when they wanted them.

First of all we needed a light source so bought one of those cheap camping lights from the discount shop. It is better than a torch as the light is broader and spreads out more and they are really easy for the children to operate themselves.

Then we used a clear plastic food container which we lined with black card …

a kitty litter tray with a glass chopping board on top …

a basket with the chopping board …

and a large wooden box with the chopping board.

We also had a tiny wooden box with a clear lid which worked well too.

We just had an assortment of ‘stuff’ for the children to choose from including some left over erasers they had been having fun with in the sensory bags.

The children had a lovely time making patterns with all the bits and pieces …

and then we were intertested to see them grouping the objects …

and not thinking about the light boxes as such any more.

Don’t children always take an activity off in a different direction …

  when they are allowed to?

An activity the participants at the Yarra ranges Conference did with us was to blow bubbles, but think outside the square with how they formed them.

We’ve blogged a lot over time, about different implements the children have used to make bubbles, from hands …

to blowers made out of wire …

to using just one one straw …

sometimes double length straws …

and at other times bundles of straws!

For our recent Water Workshop, the participants used bottles with the bottoms cut out which we picked up from Resoursce Rescue.

They created huge bubbles!

Naturally we thought the children might like to give it a go too.

They managed very well … The shape of the bottles was ideal!

We also mentioned to them the bundle of straws our kinder children made last year and they thought they’d like to give that a go as well.

When they were dipping the bendy straws into the bubble mixture they flared out due to the concertina part …

which created a wonderful, random bubbly effect!

The bubbles went off in all directions, to everyone’s surprise - what fun!