Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Science-y Bubbles

We had a science-y sort of morning.


I mean, any teacher who dares to leave dish soap blended in the food processor next to a tray full of colors and droppers is asking for it! 


Asking for scientific discovery, that is!!!


We discovered that it is very hard to mix the colors that were dropped into the foam.

After experimenting with using multiple droppers in one hand (many kids tried this independently of each other--I guess they are ready for the next level of fine motor)...


Stirring was a must.


Making prints would have worked, but they were pretty bubbly.


Here is the stirred and non-stirred one.


We rinsed and refilled the bubble trays several times.

When these two got together, the scientific exploration took off! (De ja vu!)

They rocked and shook the tray, at first gently and then more vigorously:

And they observed the results.

Here are the results.  How would you describe them???

So, of course, they had to shake the other tray to test the hypothesis that shaking works!  

Eventually, every new child who came to the activity thought that shaking was just part of the process, leaving no tray unshaken from this point on.

My favorite part was hearing the children use the language that I normally use. "I wonder what will happen if we..."


That statement is a scientific mind in the making.


Oh, and in the above photo, they learned how to make crevasses. These don't come from standard dropping.  These require squeezing at a certain pressure and coming in from a certain angle.  Try it! 

And we made a good ol' Beansprouts Preschool Mess.

3 comments:

  1. What a fun activity! I'm definitely going to try this. Such a great idea! I love those plastic trays you used. Where could I find them?? They'd be great to have in the class for all sorts of things. Thanks!

    Priscilla
    Preschool teacher in San Francisco

    ReplyDelete
  2. priscilla,

    try Target in the $1 section. I saw a ton of those trays in the $1/$2.50 section of Target with all the odds-n-ends things for kids!

    laura
    Preschool teacher from Chicago

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great variation to what I usually do with the kiddos. I have never put dish soap/water in the blender for their exploration...will do soon!

    ReplyDelete

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Wrestling is good for children.

Originally published Sept 2010 Many of our parents seemed shocked when they came to pick up their children from Beansprouts and found the...