#toddlerscience

[adventureswithtillyturnip-blog]

"Kids are never the problem. They are born scientists." @neildegrassetyson . My little scientists gave their homemade field journals a go this morning on our nature walk at Duran Eastman Park. We learned all about trees- what they give us, who lives in them etc. They made some amazing discoveries & rubbings of bark, leaves and (because we just had to) dandelion seed puffs. 😍 #becausescience #toddlerscience #preschoolscience

[bobben]

Crystallisation 💎 #toddlerscience #stem

[simplefunforkids]

Dinos, baking soda, shaving cream, and vinegar - so simple and SO much fun! 🐉🐲😍#simplefunforkids #kbnmoms #kbnmomsoninstagram #momsoninstagram #playmatters #bakingsodaandvinegar #totschool #toddler #toddlerscience #preschooler #preschoolscience #preschool #scienceforkids #watertable #step2

[realmexquisite]

Water, Water

Today the Monkey, his Dada and I did some experiments around water.  

The first sticky step was to make water molecules out of marshmallows.  Note to anyone who tries doing any activity with marshmallows other than making s'mores, buy new ones.  These ones had been in our cupboard for, I think, about a year from some treats we planned to make for a party that eventually had to be canceled.  Apparently, marshmallows get stickier, and stickier with time.  Sticky or not, we forged ahead, and using one large marshmallow for the oxygen atom, and two small ones for the hydrogen atoms, plus two halves of a toothpick, we made ourselves some sweet water.  Putting these together can form an ice crystal model (also, very tricky the stickier the marshmallows are).  

The idea was to see how water is shaped, and how ice is shaped.  With that under our cap, we tried some various ways of showing how other kinds of molecules, with different shapes, can fit in between the water molecules. Combining equal parts water and rubbing alcohol gives you less than the sum of those original parts.  This was one approach.  My husband, with the chemistry minor, did another approach spontaneously with water and sugar.  That solution is now sitting on the counter to form sugar crystals.  We'll see how that experiment goes.

The last bit of the water lesson was my favorite.  We put hot water in one bowl, and cold water in another.  With just the prick of a food-coloring dipped toothpick into each, we could easily see how the cold water molecules were moving compared to the hot water molecules.  Try it!  The hot water reaction was so cool to see.  And the little Monkey wanted to dip the toothpick in the water again and again.  

We also let those two bowls sit on the counter for a while and came back to see how the water eventually stirs itself to spread the food coloring throughout the bowl.  

These lesson ideas all came from a book by Kenda & Williams, "Science Wizardry for Kids."  I think I've had it since I was a kid.  Seriously.  This might be the first time I'm really using it.