Rubber Egg Experiment

A lot of pinners of this Rubber Egg Experiment commented that this was an experiment they loved doing back in school.  I never did this when I was in school, or maybe I was absent that day, so this was my first time experiencing a rubber egg.  I may have been more excited than the kids.

The blog that I pinned, and is linked in the first paragraph, gives good directions on HOW to do the experiment, but it doesn't explain WHY or HOW the egg turns rubbery.  I found this site with a great explanation in to the how's and why's which just happened to tie in perfectly with the acid/base discussions and experiments we've been doing recently.

When we first poured the vinegar over the egg, there was a lot of bubbling and fizzing and cool action going on.  It was fun to watch for awhile and then the rest was a lot of waiting until 7 days was up to check on the final results.  The kids were anxious to see the egg-they kept asking if it had been 7 days yet and, finally, on the 7th day they were quick to remind me that it was time to take our egg out of the glass of vinegar.

I will fully admit I'm a bit of a wimp when it comes to touching anything remotely questionable, which I found the egg to be.  Thankfully, the 9 year old doesn't have my squeamishness so he happily was the one to take the egg out.  I did bring myself to touch it, though, and it was pretty darn cool.

The 6 year old takes after me and, while he didn't want to hold it, he did touch it.  The kids were both curious as to whether it would bounce ( a google search tells me that a hard boiled egg turned rubber will, in fact, bounce) and how hard we'd have to drop, or throw, it before it broke.  They were also curious if the shell would "grow back" if we left it in an empty glass for awhile.  Since we only had one egg, I gave them the choice to experiment with how much force it would take to break the egg or if the shell would grow back and they chose the shell option.  We left it in the jar for about 2 more weeks and the shell never really quite came back.  It did get a slightly bumpy surface again and then just started looking nasty and rotting so we threw it out.

This was a fun, easy, educational experiment.  We may do this again soon with a hard boiled egg to make it bounce and maybe even another regular egg to see how strong the naked membranes are.

Sight Word Shooting

When I saw that this pin involved Nerf guns, I knew it would be a hit.  Add Nerf guns to pretty much anything and my boys will enjoy it.  I wish I could come up with a way to sweep, dust, and pick up the house with Nerf guns.

Yesterday I taped some sight word cards on our sliding glass door for my Kindergartner and I would say a word, then have him shoot it.  The sight word cards I had were a bit too easy for him but he still really REALLY enjoyed this activity.  An added teaching moment was when I showed him how to use the sight on the gun to aim at his target.  This will be very useful should he decide to become a sharp shooter someday.  A well rounded education, that's what we're all about here.

I'll be doing this project again for sure.  I want to make some cards with more difficult words on them and I would love to try it outside at varying distances like the original poster did.  I'm thinking it would be great for math practice as well.

Lung Model

We've been continuing our study of the human body this week and today we focused on the lungs and how they work.  We made this model of a lung and diaphragm after reading about lungs in a couple of our body books.

The model was easy to assemble with minimal time and supplies needed.  My boys were especially happy to drink some Root Beer so we could get the bottle for this project!

It was actually really cool to see how moving the "diaphragm" up and down would make the balloon lung fill and deflate.  You could also put the mouth of the bottle up close to your face and feel the air coming out. The 9 year old said "I really like this!"

I'm sure we'll be revisiting this project in the future with the younger ones!

Cerebrospinal Fluid Experiment

Going along with the anatomy lesson we did yesterday, today's Pinterest activity was a cerebrospinal science experiment.

The boys really liked this one! The 9 year old and 6 year old were both really interested in it and enjoyed trying different ways to shake around the unprotected "brain".  They tried doing jumping jacks with it, skipping, "acting crazy", and then dropping it from different heights to simulate a fall.  We weren't able to break, or even crack, the egg but I also didn't let them drop it from higher than 4 feet since the cover wasn't super secure and I didn't feel like cleaning up splattered egg today.  But there was a lot of brain rolling around and knocking into the sides of the skull so they got a good general idea.

They were quite amazed by how well Mr. Egghead was protected by the water being added.  They tried all of their same activities and were literally open mouthed with how different it was with the water there to cushion the jostling around.  We talked about what it would be like if we didn't have cerebrospinal fluid to protect our brains during activities like wrestling with their dad, playing football, exercising, or falling.

This one was a hit!

Life Size Body Map

Now that the holidays are officially over (sniff, sniff, sob) it's time for us to switch focus from crafts, baking and gifts to school projects and home projects.

Today the boys and I did these Life Sized Body Maps for school.  The 9 year old really enjoyed this activity and, after initially saying he only wanted to draw on his organs and keep it simple, he got into being creative and was really interested in the different organs and how they functioned and why they were important.  The 6 year old was only semi-interested.  He, of course, thought the function of the large intestine was hilarious and he was also quite intrigued by the bladder.  I helped him find where his own bladder was by pushing gently in the area to give him the sensation of having to go to the bathroom and he had a major bout of giggling when I told him how he and his brothers used to use mine as a punching bag when they were in my tummy.  Boys! ; )

The 3 year old wanted his body traced and then drew all of his "organs" on his own...look Mama, my belly button!

I helped the 6 year old with the arm and leg bones, and we talked about what they were called, and also helped him with the bones in the hand and a bit with the large and small intestine but he took care of the heart, liver, stomach and bladder.  He's excited to show his dad and said, "I bet Daddy will be really impressed by this!"

The 3 year old was being helpful and telling him, "There's your stomach and your heart and your liver!"  We'll work  on it more with him. ; )

The 9 year old did everything himself, with a little help on the bones from me while he was gluing his finger bones (otherwise known as carpals, metacarpals, and phalanges!).  He also was very particular about using a sparkly crayon for his brain.  When one of the packing bag thingies we used for the lungs had a hole in it, we talked about punctured lungs and how our ribs protect our lungs.

This was a fun, hands on way to learn a bit more about where our organs are located in our body and how they work and what their functions are.  It inspired more creativity in the kids as well.  After we were done with the insides of our body, they wanted to be traced again and drew the outsides, complete with costumes!