Float or Sink? Science Fun

Alhamdulilah we taught a lesson in floating and sinking.

 

 

 

 

We saw this idea on Irresistible Ideas For Play Based Learning.  Check it out ( http://www.playbasedlearning.com.au/2011/10/floating-sinking-and-predicting/)  

Before we started this fun science lesson, we talked about the words float and sink. First of all I was truly amazed that my newly turned three year old Tasbeeh read the words float and sink to me when I asked him what did the words say on the index card! He totally took me by surprise and I needed a minute to recover lol

After telling them what the words means and quizzing them on it, I asked the boys to find three objects in the house that we will see if it floats or sink. After they ran around the house, I picked three of my own and then we met up to discuss what we had and whether it looks like it will sink or float.. prediction time.

The boys filled our bin with water as far enough to make a difference that we could see what sank and what floated.

The boys took turns placing objects in the water and telling me if it  floats or sinks and this helped them to keep the definitions in their memory.

 

We laid down on the floor to get a better look at the items that went to the top and the ones that went to the bottom.  It was fun and afterwards our four yr old journaled about it, writing his new vocabulary words float and sink and then drawing in his journal what happened with our wet and fun science experiment.

A Lesson In Mixing Colors

We wanted to do the sink and float science lesson from Irresistible Ideas For Play Based Learning but today we went with learning about colors and mixing colors to make new colors.

 

 

 

We did this two ways, we used food coloring and water, then added the colors to it to make new colors and then we painted with them

 

 

It was fun for all of us and we did some finger painting too.

 

The children took turns adding food coloring to the water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The water displayed pretty cool colors after we mixed them and then painted with them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The boys enjoyed being able to squeeze the food coloring into the water, but before they did it they had to name the color they picked up and the color of the water, then they had to name the new color after they mixed it,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is our painting:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our wall after a day of mixing colors:

 

 

 

 

Jellyfish in A Bottle

Today part of our learning about the ocean we saw this great idea about Jellyfish in a bottle. A great idea from:

Bhoom Play  http://bhoomplay.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/diy_jellyfish_eng/

I must admit for a simple easy to do project the first time our jellyfish seemed to float at the top kind of limp!

The materials you need for this are: clear bag, food coloring, and a piece of thread.

We cut the handles off the plastic bag, then cut the sides of the bag and disregarded one side.

 

After we grabbed it from the center and tied the thread like it was a little balloon but not too tight because after it is tide and you cut the tentacles ..you have to place some water in the bag (the head) of the jellyfish.

It was kind of hard  to take a picture of it in the water so we made a video of it.

 

This was a fun to do project with the kiddos. We will continue to explore ocean life this week inshaAllah

 

 

 

You can see the video on our facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/habeebeehomeschooling

>Water Theme Challenge!!! Water Guns With A Twist

>We had a blast doing this project! I didn’t get to do one but I enjoyed watching the kids do it.
The first pictures didn’t come out that great as we put too much water in the paint but after we omited some of the water the pictures had a lot more pop. This project is easy but very messy so make sure you do it somewhere that is easy to clean up and put up a drop cloth like we did. I sent before and after pictures so that folks could see that my wall did not end up staying a permenant work of art by the little kiddies:-)

You need:
Water guns
water color paint
water
poster board or any heavy paper appropriate for painting
drop cloth (we used a plastic bag cut open)

Instructions:
Mix the paint with water but not too much or your paint will loose it’s vibrant color. You may not need to add water if your paint is watery enough to slide easyly into the water gun. We used the paint bottles to squirt the paint into the water guns but I think it would be easier to use a small funnel. Cut open a plastic grabage bag and tape it to the wall. As you see in our pictures we didn’t cover the whole area and then put the paper on top but I think that would have been a better way to go as we would have had less clean up. Once you tape your paper up your kids are ready to shoot! This project is fun for all ages. All my kids had a lot of fun from my 2 year old to my 15 year old.

-Jamila Alqarnain

Jamila Alqarnain is the author of the book The Muslim Family Guide To Successful Homeschooling and she also has a facebook group by the name Successful Muslim Homeschooling. This mom is full of advice, wisdom, and help. We are honored that she took the Habeebee Homeschooling Challenge.

>Water Theme Challenge!!! Homemade Aquarium

>My children and I recently visited the National Aquarium in Washington DC, and they just loved the fish and turtles and all the different things they had a chance to see, masha’Allah.  So, they were excited at the idea of making an “aquarium” of our own. 
 
We used felt to cut out the fish and seaweed shapes, blue tissue paper for the water and pink construction paper for the starfish, glitter glue for decorating and lots of craft glue!
 I cleaned off a big plastic jar (the type pretzels or snack mix come in) and we glued the tissue to the outside of one side of it (this would then be the “back” of the scene).  We used a little green glitter glue to make some small strands of seaweed directly on the tissue paper, this helped make it stick and then we glued the edges all the way around to completely adhere it to the jar. 

Then we put the glue on the felt seaweed strands and the girls reached into the jar and placed them around the background, we were kinda going for a 3-D look. 

I drew the shapes of fish on the felt and let the kids go crazy with the glitter glue to decorate them, then I cut them out, they tried, but the felt was a little difficult for them to cut with the kiddie scissors, so I cut it with my scissors.  They also cut several strands of yarn to use to attach the fish to the lid of the jar, so they would look like they were floating.  We cut out a front and back for each hanging fish, and just one side for a couple of other fish, which were glued to the inside of the jar near the seaweed. 

To hang the fish, they glued one end of the yarn in between the front and back sides of the felt fish,  when that was semi dry, the other ends of the yarn were attached to the inside of the jar lid with tape, then when the lid was screwed on, the fish looked like they are floating  🙂

They wanted a starfish too, so I drew a star shape and my daughter cut it out and her sister decorated it, then they glued it to the bottom of the jar (the ocean floor).  Then we set it up next to the table so we have a beautiful aquarium to look and and enjoy while we have our meals together  🙂

Masha’Allah, this was fun and easy, and I am glad to have taken this challenge, Jazak’Allah Khair for offering this to us and May Allah bless you with success in your endeavors, Ameen

~Kalimah

Kalimah is our guest writer who took the Habeebee Homeschooling Challenge. Kalimah is no stranger to getting active with her children, it wasn’t a surprise when she said she would join us in promoting a more hands on approach with our children!