Rainbow Science

I have been singing the Rainbow Song to the Butterballs since Sunday!

They totally love it and sing along at the top of their voices,

I think that that's a great start!

The next thing I wanted to show to the Butterballs, was how a rainbow is made.

Yes, they know that God made the rainbow as a sign of his promise to man but they still need to know the science behind it...  or a very simplified version

We started of with a CD. By holding it at different angles, the Butterballs were able to see a rainbow.

WOW!!! What a response! 
Why didn't I do this sooner. 
They were so amazed!

Explaining about about light being made up of different colors, and each color moving on a different wave-length.... 
well that just went over their heads.
So on to the next activity. 

I dusted off our rainbow umbrella and played a quick game of 'color spin' with the Butterballs.
Each Butterball had a turn to spin the umbrella,
 they then stopped the umbrella and tapped a chosen section. 
The other Butterball has to name the color of that section.
What fun! 

Spinning the umbrella gave me another idea on how to show the Butterballs that white is made up of all the colors of the rainbow, 
so we began to spin the umbrella as fast as we could 
hoping to see it turn white.
Sadly things didn't go according to plan.
 While the Butterballs could see the colors blending together, 
they didn't see a white umbrella!

 
Next we tried rainbow colored pinwheels.
Bring on the Wind Power!
I thought that the wind would surely spin the pinwheels fast enough!!

It almost did work...Ah well, they will just have to take my word for it.

Ice Science

Sometime I wish I could sit in the freezer!!! 

It's been unbearably hot these last few days but the ButterBalls aren't complaining! They are simply loving our various keep cool activities.

After having so much fun with the Ice Monsters, I decided to try out another Icy activity, this time, one that I saw on beingreece.

This super-simple activity requires blocks of ice, salt, food colouring and a medicine dropper.

After playing with the ice-blocks for a while, the ButterBalls were finally ready to begin.

First they sprinkled a little salt onto each ice-block. They were amazed that the salt melted the ice-blocks. They could actually hear the ice cracking and see the crevices forming as the salt set to work!!

Ethan gleefully dumped half the container of salt onto his ice-block hoping that it would make a loud bang instead of the softer cracking sounds we had been hearing.

 He was so disappointed when all he heard was another 'crack'!!

Next, they used their little medicine droppers (fine motor practice !!!) to suck up some food colouring. 
They squirted the food coloring onto their ice-blocks.

 Besides making pretty patterns on the ice, 
`the food colouring highlighted the cracks, craters and crevices created by the salt.

Cool, pretty, messy science!!!

Kitchen Science- Baking Soda(bicarb) and vinegar

For some strange reason, each time I went shopping this month, baking soda has been on my grocery list. As a result, I now have 2.5kgs of baking soda on my recently-tidied pantry shelf!
So...time to use it up!

MINI ERUPTIONS
This Science experiment, that I found at Creativelyblooming, was super easy to set up.
Just spread out some baking soda on a tray/cookie sheet/shallow dish and add colour to some vinegar.
The ButterBalls loved using the medicine dropper to suck up and squirt the coloured vinegar...great for fine motor skills.
The ButterBalls were so impressed with the tiny eruptions, they only paused for breath when the last drop of coloured vinegar had been squirted.
500g of baking soda gone, 2kgs to go...

RAINBOW VOLCANOES
This experiment is a slightly different take on the normal baking soda volcanoes.
Place small glasses onto a tray...or place it in the sink or tub (so much easier to clean up!)
Half-fill each cup with baking soda and add a few drops of food colouring.
Add about 2tbls of bubble-bath to each cup (bubble-bath makes the reaction last longer...also creates more fizz)
This time, the ButterBalls used ketchup bottles to squirt in the vinegar. Ketchup bottles are so versatile...
perfect for squeezing paint, icing, vinegar...

Watching the little volcanoes erupt was exciting! Seeing the colours mix together was pretty amazing too.

BLOW IT UP SCIENCE
I found this activity at momto2poshlildivas. My ButterBalls adore balloons so I knew that this experiment would be a hit.
The ButterBalls poured vinegar into plastic bottles, then using a funnel, they spooned baking soda into their balloons.

Next, the tricky bit-stretching the balloon over the neck of bottle without dropping any baking soda...(*Help mama, help!)
Once this was done, the ButterBalls lifted their balloons, sprinkling the baking soda into the vinegar below.
With lots of bubbling, fizzing and hissing, the balloons slowly expand. Awesome!

The Science behind it.
The baking soda is a base and the vinegar is an acid. When combined, their reaction produces carbonic acid which is extremely unstable. This carbonic acid breaks down instantly into water and carbon di oxide which fills the balloon as it expands.
Try explaining that to a 2 year old!!!

All in all, lots of bubbly, fizzy fun... and I have just enough baking soda left to whip up a batch of RVC!!