Science Sunday – Water’s Surface Tension & Exploding Colors

 

We talked about water’s “skin” this week – the stuff that holds water together – also known as surface tension.

We used the following supplies:a bowl of water, food coloring, a small container of dish soap, two pipettes, wax paper, a sponge, a saucer, and some milk.

First to see surface tension, M chose to make the water in our bowl yellow, then he used one of the pipettes to drop the colored water onto the wax paper.  We watched how the water rolled up into little balls: 

Then M used the other pipette to place one drop of dish soap onto the balls of water: The soap broke the surface tension, causing the water to run.  This is how water washes laundry, dishes, dirty little boys, etc. ;)  The soap breaks down the water tension so the water can flow freely into all the crevices where dirt is. (We used the sponge to wipe up after this part.)

Then came the very cool part. :)  Exploding colors!  We poured a small amount of milk onto a saucer, then added one drop of each food color into it.  See how the drops of colored water just sit in the milk? 

Then we dripped soap into the saucer, and wow did the colors “explode” – really!  It was pretty neat to watch, and both M and I were amazed at how quickly the color ran through the milk.  It was lots of fun and M did this over and over again (that jug of milk was getting old anyway ;) ).

Have a beautiful day! :)

Books of the Week – Feb. 19, 2011

Library Mouse, A Friend’s Tale, by Daniel Kirk is a sequel to Library Mouse.  These are both cute stories about a mouse who lives in a library and writes books at night, leaving them out for children to read.  In this particular book, a little boy named Tom finds out that the mysterious writer is really a mouse and writes a story about his new friend.  Both of these books are great for encouraging children to make up their own stories, and even create and illustrate their own books.  We love almost any book by Daniel Kirk, by the way.

 Three Cheers for Tacky, by Helen Lester.  I’m not a huge fan of Tacky the Penguin, but in this story he’s much less irritating than he is in some of the others.  M loves him and his interesting personality.  Tacky is an odd bird, but he knows how to be himself and not worry about what anyone else thinks.

 Mattland, by Hazel Hutchins.  I first heard about this book when Natalie wrote about it here.  M definitely loves this book – it tells the story of a boy’s imagination in a really captivating way (honestly, Daddy and I love it too).  I love how the main character, through his creativity, resolves some not-so-happy feelings and also opens the door to new friendships.  

Fine Feathered Friends, by Tish Rabe is in the Cat in the Hat Learning Library series (I also got this one from Natalie’s post).  It was, hands down, the hit of the week.  This book does a great job with the rhyming, which makes it so much fun to read.  And there’s a really neat flying machine in it, which M wants. ;)  It also has a lot of great information about birds!

For more reviews of children’s books, check out Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

Have a beautiful day! :)