Learning about solutions, saturated solutions and growing crystals

Eden covered dissolving, solutions, solutes and saturated solutions in her science a couple of weeks ago, so it was a lovely coincidence that our friend Tracy handed over a big box of Copper Sulphate to us, perfect for experimenting in solutions and growing crystals.
Such a lovely colour.
Mixing until the solution becomes saturated, and experimenting with what makes a solute dissolve faster in a solvent.
Put some of the solution on a saucer to grow a seed.
Wrap the seed around a piece of nylon/thread, and place this back in the main solution.
We took Tracy's advice of growing a big crystal fast. Boil the solution every day and add more copper sulphate. The crystal grew big really fast, very satisfying for a child.


The final crystal, the beauty of it I couldn't really capture on camera.

Temperature experiments

It was great doing a few mini experiments this week, and the girls performed a few more at their Brownies meeting for the Science Investigator badge. It reminded me how much children love experiments, and I must really incorporate more in.

This was a bit of a "trick your body" experiment, but it also shows how the body's thermometer is more of a relative gauge of temperature, ie if you walked into a room from outside in the freezing cold it would feel warm, but if you came into the same room after having a warm shower the same room would feel cold.

Arrange three bowls of water, one with very warm water, one with very cold water and one with room temp water. Put one hand in the cold water and one hand in the warm water. Hold it there a minute. Put both hands in the room temp water, and your two hands will send you very mixed messages on the temperature.
Ciara getting in there too.
The next was creating a mini watercycle. Place room temp water in a jar, place cling film on the top and top of with ice(we used an icepack). Place water near a heat source(signifying the sun), which will cause the water to turn into water vapour. This water vapour will come into contact with the ice(cool air high in the sky) and turn to droplets(like the clouds), after a while the droplets become heavy enough to drop back down again like the rain.

Making Christmas Cards

Niamh starting her Christmas cards.
Painting a pattern for the camels.
Ciara wanted to join in too.
Eden putting some finishing touches on.
The finished card.
We chose a text from Old and New Testament this year, and it ties in nicely with the design.

Busy hands

Niamh is really chuffed to be making her sister's Christmas present this year, she is trying her hardest to keep it a surprise from her sister.
The whole family has gone paper aeroplane making mad, and Ciara has been watching everyone make them, and came up with her own version all by herself, she even decorated it.
Ciara was so chuffed that she got to make a Mr Men Birthday card for her friend (the party was a Mr Men party).
She is learning how to form the letters correctly now, still following dotted lines, but moving her pen in the right directions.

Glue Resist Watercolour

First sketch your picture

Then go over the outlines with glue.

Then paint over with watercolour. The glue will resist the paint.
Eden's painting of Abraham looking up at the stars.
Niamh's painting.
Jude and Ciara wanted to do a wax resist watercolour instead.

Some stained glass techniques

We have been doing our Jesse tree readings leading up to Christmas. Yesterday Jude made a stained glass effect earth for our reading on creation, and today they all got stuck into making a stained glass snake for our reading on the fall.

Stained Glass effect Snake.
First add black acrylic paint to pva glue and give it a good mix until everything turns black.
Outline a picture of a snake (use watercolour paper, or thick paper).
Leave the outline to dry.
Paint in with watercolour paints, it turned out so well that everyone wanted to do one.
Jude coloured in this earth and then dipped cottonwool in oil and covered the picture with it.

We then put it on the window to let the light shine in.
I was so pleased that Ciara wrote this so well, she must be quite familiar with the shapes of the letters in her mind to be able to copy my dots so closely.

Viking Longship

The children have loved putting this together in stages and seeing how it all comes together. It is not quite finished as they have to put oars on, and finish the deck.