scientific development

Orchard Toys: Who's In Space? (Review & Giveaway)

September 6, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 105 Comments

'Who's In Space?' is without a doubt one of my favourite Orchard Toys products produced in the last year or so. And I am a big fan and we have a lot of their games and puzzles, so that statement is not made lightly.

The 25 piece jigsaw puzzle is aimed at children aged 3+, and depicts a scene of three astronauts (mixed gender and race, as with all Orchard Toys illustrations) on the moon completing some research. In the background are five of the planets in our solar system, the International Space Station, a comet, and a small green alien in a purple spaceship. Because after all this is a puzzle for children!

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Seashore Sensory Table (Learning Through Play)

August 14, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 10 Comments

A few weeks ago we went to Oxwich Bay with my brother and his family for a day on the beach. It was a brilliant afternoon, and one that will definitely go up there as a highlight of the Summer due to the relaxed free-range play that The Boy and his cousin enjoyed, while my brother searched my cockles on the water's edge. However, for me the best part was exploring the rockpools with my sister-in-law who works in outdoor adventure activities and has received training in 'Beach Schools'.

The lesser known 'Beach Schools' don't seem to have the recognition or accreditation that 'Forest Schools' do in the UK, which is a particular shame as the entire country is surrounded by the most wonderful coastline. My sister-in-law was eager to pass on her training to us and show The Boy all about the wonderful creatures which live in rockpools. He was fascinated, as was I, and so I decided to take our learning home with us.

I half filled a bucket of water, collected a variety of shells and seaweed specimens and set them up in our trusty Step2 water table which has two tiers. Into the bottom I placed sand and the shells, the top level had seawater and the seaweed.

Then I invited The Boy to play, and learn.

Seashore sensory table

The cockle shells completely fascinated him! He compared them to castanets and tried to play music with them. He noticed that one hadn't opened properly and examined the creature inside (brought home in error!). Then he made imprints in the sand with the cockle shells and noticed the ridges, and how they joined together perfectly.

Next I presented The Boy with a shell identification sheet and he started trying to match up the shells to the animals which have them as homes.

Seashore sensory table

The sheets which my SiL gave me are aimed at older children (who can read), however the illustrations are so clear that it's easy for younger children to use them with an adult to read to them. The Boy was fascinated with the identification sheets, and quickly noticed the one for seaweed trying to work out which seaweed was bladder wrack etc.

Seashore sensory table

This was an excellent learning experience for him, and one which will be easy to repeat in situ next time (as we've laminated the guides) we go to a beach. We happened across one last week while on holiday, and he was fascinated with the limpets and muscle shells we saw covering the rocks.

Seashore Sensory Table

Identification Sheets:

Pre-School Science: Absorption & Colour-Mixing

January 30, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 14 Comments

I first saw this idea on the marvellous Pinterest, and it originally came from a children's Australian TV Programme.

As far as The Boy was concerned we were about to perform magic, but then what else is Science if not a complete and utter mystery. It is to me anyway! So I posed him a question, showed him the equipment and waited to see what he'd say.

How can we make the coloured water travel from one glass to another, without touching it?

You'll need:

equal quantities of blue and yellow food colouring (although any two primary colours will work)
two glasses half-filled with water
one empty glass
two sheets of kitchen towel (absorbent but those with thirst pockets might not let it drip out again!)
two spoons for stirring

Place the three glasses in a row with the empty one in the middle.
Pour yellow food colouring into one end glass, and blue into the other end glass. Give them a stir with separate spoons so as not to mix the colours prematurely.
Fold the kitchen towel strips into quarters, lengthways.
Place one strip into the yellow food colouring and one into the blue. Fold the free end over into the empty glass in the middle and tuck it down to the side so they aren't touching.
Wait and watch the results!

Colour-mixing

The Science Bit:

Kitchen towel is highly absorbent and the coloured water travels up the kitchen towel slowly defying gravity. It happens due to a force called 'capillary action'; a force of attraction between the paper fibres and the water. How does the water actually move up through the paper towel? The water is pulled up into the open spaces between the fibres in the paper, soaking the paper as it absorbs the water. When the weight of the water in the paper is equal to the upward attraction, then the water stops rising. In this case, gravity kicks in and because the kitchen towel is hanging down, the coloured water drips down into the empty glass.

The colour-mixing is basic science: blue and yellow makes green; red and blue would make purple; and yellow and red would make orange.

(In actual fact, The Boy asked what blue and red would make, and is desperate to try it out. I'd have obliged, but I'd bought up all the blue food colouring in our town yesterday with our playdough and preparing this!)

Colour-mixing

The end result is absolutely fascinating, even Mr. TBaM was enthralled.

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Playing With Ice

January 9, 2013 by TheBoyAndMe 13 Comments

On Friday afternoon I was feeling a little low and wishing that I could have gone to the thanksgiving service of a friend, when inspiration hit me. As a former science teacher and co-founder of Science Sparks, Kerry loved making it easier for children to understand science and so I felt what better way to honour that, than get to grips with a science 'experiment' with The Boy.

I'd seen this activity on Pinterest which, while intended for Christmas, gave a great bank of ideas for playing with kitchen and craft materials to see what happens. I prepared the activity while The Boy napped and then we were ready to have fun with some ice!

I used a takeaway container and filled it with water, food colouring, glitter, sand, and sequins and then placed it in the freezer. When it was set I removed it and placed it into a tray, giving The Boy a pot of table salt and rock salt, a spoon and a water spray bottle.

playing with ice 1

He had brilliant fun making holes in the ice block with the salt and the jet of water. After a while the salt dissolved into the water and ran down the side of the block causing channels to be melted in. The Boy spotted these and picked off the ice crystals. The look of wonder on his face when he held the ice crystals in his hand, and they then subsequently melted, was amazing; sheer amazement!

Following on from this we decided to make some coloured ice cubes using food colouring. I used ice cube bags for this as I wanted to try and get the food colouring to slowly merge with the water creating ice cubes of slightly different shades. I filled the ice cube bags with water first, then inserted a straw and poured the food colouring down the straw.

coloured ice cubes

Once these had frozen, I again gave The Boy the tray with the coloured ice cubes, table salt, rock salt and a water spray bottle. The effects were even more immediate because the ice cubes were smaller and therefore melted more quickly.

playing with ice

He was fascinated with the ice crystals that were formed by the salt water solution melting the ice, and kept pouring more and more salt onto one red ice cube to try and create a hole through the middle of it. We discussed what coloured water would appear once the ice melted, and we talked about where the salt had gone. We then discussed the colour of the water once all three different coloured ice cubes had melted and mixed together.

Science Sparks has got a fantastic selection of ice play activities which are great fun for this time of year.