Lava Lamp

An experiment from earlier in the year that I finally got round to posting.  We saw various pins on Pinterest raving about a "homemade lava lamp".  Using just coloured water, oil and Alka Seltzer you create your own lava lamp effect in a bottle.  Not sure what I expected but I was a little disappointed the effects did not quite live up to some of the photos in the pins.  B really enjoyed doing it though and has requested a repeat of the activity.

Change of state wordsearch and wordmat

Experiments with water and ice are always go down well with the boys -but sometimes it helps to have additional resources to reinforce vocabulary for A without it seeming like "lessons".  This wordsearch has been designed using topic words linked to changes in state; I have deliberately used the words list from Sparklebox to tie everything in together and to remind myself which words to concentrate on.

Make Your Own Word Search

If you would like the change of state wordmat which sparked the whole idea click here to go to the Sparklebox page.

stArt - Oscar and the Moth- KS1 Science

Oscar and the Moth by Geoff Waring

Oscar is a kitten who meets various animals who teach him about the world in this science story series for young kids by Walker Books specially designed to support the ideas introduced for KS1 Science (4-7 year olds).  In Oscar and the Moth he meets a moth who teaches him about why we have night and day, how some creatures make their own light and how we make shadows by blocking light.  Luckily for us the IPC (International Primary Curriculum) unit that A is doing at school at the moment is "Day and Night" so he was able to take it into school to share with the whole class.

Here are some of the things we did to support the book:

• Some animals like the moth are nocturnal others are diurnal.  We did an animal sort and stuck the pictures on the day background or the night background.  We also used the colouring pages on the Nocturnal Animals listing at Enchanted Learning, each page has a lot of extra information about the animals for older students.
• We made our own constellations on black paper using stamps and paint

• We went on a light hunt.  Arm yourself with a digital camera and go for a evening walk whilst the nights are dark. This is one we actually did last year when A was in Senior Kindergarten - we were able to go to the Christmas Market in Stuttgart and look at the the lights on the stalls but there should be other things to look at that make light even around your own home.
• We did a treasure hunt in the dark. Make your room as dark as you can find a favourite teddy or stuffed toy using a torch to see by.
• Shadow puppets.  Retell a favourite story or make up your own using shadow puppets.  Any silhouette cut from card and mounted on a straw works. 
• Nocturnal animal wordsearch for the older kids- here's one I made earlier
• Online match the dinosaur shadows game.
• shadow match game on a back to school theme - sorry don't know who this is by since it is on a free file sharing site - if you know pass it on so we can give due credit.

So there is what we have been up to this week.  For other arty projects linked to books don't forget to check out