Cloud and wind science experiment

Sunny boy(3.6) is a curious child and asks a lot of why this and why that questions... I love these questions.. I try my best to answer them based on facts and correct information. Most of the times I know the answers and sometimes I need to find out .. I feel if a child is curious then a mom should try her best to explain and help him understand. When I tell him he absorbs the information and remembers it..So I want to encourage him!!! 

So this experiment is simple to do and basic. I wanted to do this experiment to satisfy his two why questions: How are clouds formed? Why and how the wind is formed?  

1:  Clouds are formed from the condensation of the water vapour/moisture. Due to cooler air ,the water vapour will condense and become clouds. I found this diagram helpful :

via

 2: The sun heats the land and thus the air above. The hot light air rises and cold air above sinks. Cold air then replaces the hot air. This air movement becomes wind. 

Things needed for this experiment are:

A vase or tall glass container

A plate or lid to cover the container 

Hot water

Ice cubes

Match sticks

I explained to him the "NO Touching " terms as it involves hot water and matchstick.

Start by explaining why you doing this experiment and what the result will be..All the science experiment I do at home have a "WOW"  end result, so little guy is always excited by the name of experiment.. sometimes when he tired of playing he would say Mamma I want a science experiment:) 

Collect all the material needed. I always ask Avaneesh to help collect the things needed. 

Heat up the water. Make it rolling hot. 

Pour it in the container. Instantly keep the lid on . Put some 4-5 ice cubes on the top. Wait and watch for a while. 

Put a lighted match stick inside and again quickly put the lid on. Now wait and watch as the cloud forms inside. Avaneesh was amazed by the matchstick and the cloud forming inside part. I asked him after a while if he would like to let go the cloud. He said yes so I opened the lid and we both enjoyed the cloud coming out..

we did this several times ( till the time I got tired of making hot water:)) 

Sun prints (science experiments)

Its really hot this summer in Singapore.. everyone says that but I think it is a bit too exaggerated .. So I said to Avaneesh lets find out for ourselves if Singapore is really that hot? 

Its a fun science experiment for hot weather!!

 All you need is bright colored construction paper or card stock , some coins and a place where you get direct sunlight for most times..

We found a bright red cardstock.. Avaneesh collected different sized coins and we placed it a place on our balcony which gets direct sunlight most.I explained to Avaneesh how this experiment works. 

Sunlight will fade the whole paper except the places where the coins are placed. Like a umbrella or roof the coins will protect the paper from fading. This will also help us to compare the results and we will get a nice design on the paper!! 

We talked about how Sun's heat is strong enough to melt ice, evaporate water, fade colors... I told him that we will check this every day.We checked it every day. Our balcony gets sunlight only few hours of a day.. so it took us a 5 days to see the change. 

It is interesting to see the results .. This explains how harmful or strong sun's UV rays are, how staying in shade or putting a sunscreen can help you stay safe!!!

Marbleized art print ( science experiment )

Sunny boy loves doing science experiment... I love them too- they are educational, fun and have a element of mystery, suspense and climax  to it which is so cool..I started science eperiments with him since he was 2.5 years old .. Then he just used to watch them ..now he can do them and is curious to know how and why this happened...All the science experiments that we have done have a lovely surprising result to it!!

So with this science experiment we made these cool looking glossy marbleized art prints!!! 

This project like our other projects has more than one benefit- educational, art and use of expired milk. 

A milk and food coloring experiment!!

Ingredients you will need are:

Milk - full cream ( I used expired milk but otherwise is also ok)

Cooking oil ( I use canola)

Food colors

Dropper

Toothpicks

I took a shallow dish( dhokla plate) I always ask Avaneesh to help me collect and arrange the material for the experiments. Once we had all the things required we were good to start. 

I poured milk in the dish. Then poured a thin layer of oil over it. Notice that both the liquids don't mix !! We discussed for a few moments about density of liquids.. why oil is floating over milk. 

Sunny boy was excited and impatient to use colors on the milk..I asked him which colors he wants to use.. He choose orange so he poured orange food color with a dropper. The color drops float on the oil..With a toothpick he popped the milk drops/bubbles to see the color explosion.. Swirl them around with toothpick making beautiful patterns !!!

After he had played for a while I put a square piece of paper on the milk and he gently pulled it out. We made many such prints. I kept them out for drying. 

We repeated the same experiment a couple of times with fresh milk  and other colors till

Sunny boy was satisfied!!

Once the color had dried I wrapped the prints in tissue paper for a day to absorb all the extra oil. Super cool prints are ready to be framed.. I framed them and hung in sunny boy's room!!

Science experiment : Volcano Eruptions

Every family has some or other family activity which they do as a tradition or regular fun activity on weekend. I have been thinking about it for quite some time, just couldn't think what to do. I definitely don't want it around food. I wanted it to a fun activity- something educational, exciting, fun for us(adults) and Avaneesh as well. I have found our family activity for weekends - science experiments!!!!

We did a volcano experiment. For this science experiment, I used a tall plastic glass and kept it on oval plastic plate( only shape in plastic plate I had) I taped the glass with the plate using a masking tape. We spread a plastic sheet on the floor and kept the 'volcanic mountain' in the center. Then I put a few spoons of baking powder and poured vinegar over it. Bubbles started rising and it started overflowing from its crater. 

Avaneesh loved it and was very excited to see the volcano eruption.  I told him abut lava-molten rock. Why and volcano happen, how the mountain expands, smoke, gas and clouds coming out of the volcano. My 2.5 year old got so interested in volcanoes and watched videos with great interest about volcanic expedition and eruptions. Now he gets excited whenever he sees volcano or anything in the shape of a mountain with a crater in center. He says I am going inside the volcano(expedition)

I did lot of research on the net before starting this experiment. 

I suggest reading these two detailed posts on this topic : sciencebob and chemistry.about

Be cautious with science experiments around toddlers, I let Avaneesh only watch the experiment.

Planetery science: Making a solar system display with clay planets

My son got interested in planetary science just after his 2nd birthday in January. It was end of his fire engine obsession and beginning of stars and planets obsession. He knows names of all planets, sequence,their colors and relative sizes, their moons etc. (I read planetary science websites and books everyday to keep up with his questions.. ooh these never ending questions..sigh) 

So early in June, I had made planets from air dry clay. I made them in relative proportion of their sizes. Over the coming days in our afternoon activities , Avaneesh had painted them as per their colors. Then I kept them in a box on his table for many days. He would play with them everyday.

After a month. I thought we should glue them on to a board so to make him understand how planets rotate around themselves and around the sun. So I cut a big circle from a Styrofoam board.It was hard to keep Avaneesh away. He was jumping with excitement. I drew orbit around a imaginary sun in the center. Avaneesh kept on saying Where is Sun? I told him that you will paint it later lets first just put these planets all in place.  

 I put glue drops on the orbit circles and told him to press the planets in place. He placed all the planets in sequence. 

Then I made a big ball from the extra clay I had and gave it Avaneesh that this is Sun. He was happy to finally have Sun in the solar system. 

We also talked about how planets go round and round around the sun and around itself. Then I told him that imagine this is sun and we are planets. Avaneesh and I went round around the table and then going around the table going round ourselves. Oh my God, my head started spinning. I stopped Avaneesh as well. 

Linking to Science Sunday!