Science Experiments: Coloring Flowers and Sense of Smell

Well, ever since Serenity's birthday last week, we've been doing science experiments nearly every day!  (I promise I'm going to write and post about the party very soon!  I just have to catch up on their baby journals first)  Anyway, today we had two experiments, mostly using our great test tube set from Oriental Trading. The first was the Sense of Smell!

I went around the house collecting different smelly things, like perfume, coffee, vanilla, almond extract, lemon zest, cinnamon, curry, etc.  The liquids I squirted onto a cotton ball, and then put each thing in a test tube.  Serenity and her Daddy took turns guessing the scents with their eyes closed.  Of course, Daddy was better about keeping his eyes closed, but they both enjoyed the experiment!  I turned Serenity loose with the ingredients for the rest of the day, and she had a blast adding water, mixing spices, and creating all kinds of crazy concoctions!  She did taste some, so next time maybe I'll make them all edible as I just hope she didn't drink any of the water she added to the perfume vial. 

The next experiment we really just set up tonight, hopefully we will see interesting results in the morning!  I picked up a bunch of carnations and a stalk of celery.  We filled test tubes and beakers with colored water and put one flower or stalk of celery in each.  Tomorrow we can talk about how plants absorb water!  I LOVE this experiment!  I almost made it as a centerpiece for the science party, and then I remembered that we weren't really planning to ever sit down for the party. =)  I know, I'm a tease, but I'll share party details soon! 

Science Signage

I've finally settled on the experiments for the party!  We're going to start with Glittery Volcanoes (vinegar and baking soda), then do Glitter Jars (we can discuss viscosity and surface tension, and play with glitter and sequins =)  If we have time, we can do Marker Chromatography and make Sparkly Gak.  We'll finish up with some Mentos and Diet Coke.  Here is the signage I made for each experiment.  After the party I promise to post how each experiment works!

I used the Candice font and Girls Are Weird.  The papers are from the same set I got for the Invitations. =) 

Fourth of July! Golf Cart Decorating

We celebrated our fourth of July a little early this year.  My mother has a cabin by a little lake that has a great fireworks celebration and fun family games!  The kids had a blast, literally!  They were both fascinated by the fireworks, which was very cool, especially since last year they fell asleep during the show.  Yes, both of them slept in my laps with booming fireworks all around. 

I wanted to share our entry into the golf cart decoration contest.  My plan for the cart pretty much centered on what was available at the dollar store.  We had such fun wrapping streamers, taping flowers on the cart, and playing.  We won second place.  First place had turned their cart into Uncle Sam, complete with a face and hat!  It was awesome, and I'm already brainstorming next years entry!

Experiments for a Sparkly Science Party

The party is coming up in less than two weeks, and I STILL have not settled on the experiments we will do!  The internet can be too much of a good thing, I keep finding great ideas and options!  Here's what I have so far:

1.) Sparkly Explosions.  I definitely want to do the vinegar and baking soda experiment.  We've never done it for Serenity before, and she'll especially love it if we give her the option of personalizing it with a little glitter and food coloring!  I expect a lot of pink and purple volcanoes from her =)  We've playtested this one so we know exactly what we will need to have on hand, which is basically a giant bag of baking soda, gallons of vinegar, food coloring and glitter.  Plus I plan to have clean soda bottles for each child to make their own, and possibly trays to contain some of the spills.  Supply wise I also got some plastic squirt bottles to make it easier to get the vinegar in the bottles, funnels, and beakers.  I know we need a lot of vinegar because when we play-tested it I kept pouring more and more vinegar into mine, it was such fun!

2.) Glitter Jars.  This will be a fun take home for all the kids, with the benefit of a little science.  I still need to test and figure out which method is best.  The one I'm leaning toward uses distilled water and glycerin, plus glitter and sequins to make the glitter jar.  The science part is that the glycerine is denser than water so it slows down the glitter and makes it settle slower.  From the pictures I've seen, this may be quicker to settle than the other option. 

The other recipe I've found involves glue, or possibly glitter glue and food coloring.  I love the look of these bottles, but you need warm water to melt the glue and I'm not sure how easy that will be to work when I'm making 13 or so bottles with kids ages 3 and up.  Hence the play testing.  I do have funnels for getting the glitter in the bottles, and maybe I'll get little tongs or tweezers to transfer sequins.  Everyone can personalize this with their own color, glitter, and sequin choices.  I also need to hot glue the lids shut or duct tape them.

3.) Mentos and Diet Coke.  I immediately thought of this when we decided on the science party, but then I worried it would make a huge mess in my yard.  But I saw pictures of one family that managed to do it in their driveway without even getting slime on their car so I'm going to go for it.  Now, I just want to find out if this will work with diet Cherry 7-up, because neon pink geysers are perfect for our Sparkly Science Party!

Other possibilities I'm still considering:
4.) Homemade Gak.  With glitter.  Possibly just as a favor instead of an experiment.
5.) Marker Chromatography.  Serenity's Grandma actually does Chromatography experiments for her real job, so this would be really cool!  If it works.
6.) Peeling the S off a skittle. Fun!
7.) Balloon Rockets 

For Science! :ID Badges

Tonight's project for Serenity's Science birthday party was to make ID badges.  After a little Photoshop experimenting, I ended up with these! 

Thanks to the lovely Oriental Trading, I have ID badge holders, so everyone will have appropriate identification to enter the lab. =)  Took awhile but I think I found id pictures for everyone that rsvp'd to the party =)  It's the first time I've ever asked for an rsvp instead of just asking everyone I invited... we'll see if it works! 

Easy Class Birthday Treats

Serenity is a summer baby, so the last month of school her teachers let us pick a day to bring in treats.  They sang Happy Birthday and she was SO happy!  She asked for donuts, so here's what I did to make it super easy for me and for her teachers!

I bought donut holes, and put individual servings into these little plastic cups along with a napkin.  That way everyone got the same thing, it was easy to pass out, and they had a napkin for clean up right there!  One of her teachers commented that it was the fastest birthday treat ever.  =)  The kids got more time at recess to run off the sugar.  To make it cute, I printed little labels that said "Serenity is almost 4! that I cut out with my circle cutter.  I really need a circle punch.  Maybe for my birthday =) 

Our Teacher Gifts

I was in charge of a group gift for our teachers this year!  So I decided to make little flower arrangements and wrap the vase with colored pencils.  My daughter has five teachers so I bought a bulk pack of colored pencils from Amazon, and they're just attached with rubber bands and ribbons so they can still be used!  I love a useful and cute present.  They also got Amazon gift cards, and I made a little card in photoshop using all the kids pictures that I received.  Here it is in case you want to use a similar idea!  Next year, since I'm so late posting this =)

 Just little circles on a grid in photoshop, so easy and they loved it =) 

And here are the flowers