Living in Harmony » unplugged project

Toddler Science: Smell

AttachedMama — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:21:00 +0000

I had wanted to keep up with the weekly Unplugged projects, but through the summer we spent a lot of time outdoors and it fell to the wayside. This last week Meredith wasn’t feeling well and had no interest in going outside, getting dressed, or really doing much besides cuddling on the couch. In my search for some quiet, easy indoor activities, I went and checked out the Unplugged blog and saw the theme for the next week was “smell”. It reminded me of an activity I’d read about and filed away for a later time. Now seemed perfect.

The idea is to create your own homemade perfume. We don’t actually use perfume, and I had no intention of actually wearing it, but I thought it would be something fun for Meredith to help out with. The only downside to doing this now is that our garden is pretty much dead. At the time that I had first seen it, we had lavender and roses and other yummy smelling things out there. But we were able to make due.

We filled three jars with a cup of water each. In the first jar, we put some orange peels. The second one had cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice. I chose the spices but she dumped them in. The third I let her go to town a little bit on. I gave her some jars of spices and let her smell them all and told her she could put some in the last jar. She put a whole lot of rosemary, and smaller amounts of basil, thyme, and oregano. We put lids on the jars and then she shook them up and we sat them aside to sit over night.

The next day we pulled out the jars and I pointed out to her how the colour of the water had changed in all three jars. She unscrewed the lids, and we used new jars and poured the mixtures through coffee filters into the jars. She loved this part, as she was able to do it mostly on her own. I did do the oranges, but when I realized the filters would stay put on their own she did the rest. She poured a little too fast for the first jar, which was the rosemary one. (Excuse the funny cropping/painting in these, once again she was pants-less.)

But she realized quickly on her own that pouring slowly would result in less mess and more of the liquid getting into the jar and didn’t end up spilling any of the cinnamon one.

Then we waited for them all to strain and I squeezed out the filters a little bit.

Now we had three jars of strained “perfume”. The orange and rosemary one turned out really well, but I don’t think we used enough cinnamon in the third one. I kept the orange peels aside and brought out the jars of cinnamon and rosemary spices and had her smell them and then the “perfume” jars in turn, and asked her if she could tell which ones were used in which perfume. She figured out the orange one quite quickly, though she pointed out that the water was yellow, not orange. She didn’t seem to get the cinnamon and rosemary ones though.

Overall I think this was a fun project to demonstrate some different scents to her. I think it would be fun to repeat it when she’s a bit older and can understand better how the scents transfer to the water, and also when we have some things in our garden we could use for it. One unexpected benefit at her age though was watching her pour the jars out. I could see her noticing how the water went pretty slowly through the filters, and adjusting the speed of her pouring based on that. She experimented with faster and slower pouring and seemed quite intrigued by the whole thing. I think I am going to think up some sort of pouring experiment for her involving different filters, as well as different substances to pour. I have even had some ideas for some simple diffusion and osmosis experiments, though those ones might have to wait a year or two. It’s neat how so many ideas can come out of one simple project though!

Unplugged Project: Science fun with toddlers

AttachedMama — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 03:21:38 +0000

This is another idea I got out of the same book as the transportation project. It’s an experiment most people I know of have done, but I’d never thought of doing it with dish soap before. We mixed vinegar with food colouring and glitter, squirted in a squirt of dish soap to each jar, and then gave each toddler a spoon and some baking soda. We all had a blast! The dish soap makes it really foam up and the food colouring is just pure fun. The glitter was a bit small and light so not very noticeable, but it would be fun to try with shaped or darker coloured glitter. This is definitely an experiment we’ll repeat every so often as the kids get older.

The kids waiting to find out what would be going on

They quickly got the hang of it and had tons of fun making bubbles

Fun with bubbles!

Abhy figured out that he could mix the colours and make patterns

The pan filled up and almost hid the last couple of jars

This turned out to be a very cooperative activity. Both kids could scoop into (or out of) either jar.

The colours created a cool pattern at the end (until the kids got their fingers/spoons in there and started the pouring/stirring).

Afterwards, the pouring/stirring was almost as much fun as the experiment itself.

The toddlers weren't the only ones making bubbles.

And for anyone curious about what happens, here’s a little video too. (Because, you know, there weren’t enough pictures in this post.)

Unplugged Project: Transportation

AttachedMama — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 19:14:02 +0000

I’ve been following this blog with interest for a long time now, but never had the inspiration to actually participate in any of the weekly Unplugged Projects until now. I can think of lots of fun things to do, but none that might interest an almost two year old. Last week’s theme was transportation. I happened to have this book on my desk and flipped through it to find a helicopter and an airplane project. It’s maybe a loose interpretation of the theme, but hey, it works, and we had fun. I actually did this and took pictures last week, but am just now getting the post up.

We did the “helicopter” first. I gave her several sheets of paper as well as crayons and stickers, but she chose to decorate solely with a pencil. She had a lot of fun helping me measure for cutting.

The helicopter was made by cutting a strip of paper, and then some folds and cuts, and a paper clip gets put on one end. I did that part and I didn’t get pictures of it in progress. Once it was done, I showed Meredith how to use it and she had a blast throwing it up in the air and watching it spin slowly to the ground. I gave her some other things to try and throw, and pointed out that the helicopter fell a lot slower than something like her bouncy balls.

Meredith holding the finished helicopter

Not sure what to do yet

Getting ready to throw it

Watching it fall to the ground

Dismantling it afterwards was half the fun!

Next we made an airplane from the same book. She wanted to use the same paper we had used for the helicopter. Basically, you make a regular paper airplane, and then thread an elastic band through a hole under the wing. It is supposed to demonstrate different types of energy. Meredith couldn’t really fly the plane on her own, so I did it for the most part. I showed her what happened when I threw it with and without the elastic band. I think she just had fun watching it go flying and then running after it. Kris had more fun than she did when he got home from work later.

The finished airplane

Playing with the elastic

She pulled the elastic tight and snapped it back a few times, as well as experimenting with what happened if she let go of the plane instead of the elastic.

I have an idea for something I’d like to try for this week’s theme, which is science. I think it would be fun to do with someone else though, so I’m going to see if Kyre and her son want to join us for that one.