Art and Science Camp Day 3

Chemistry!
The theme of today was that things in our world basically come in 3 states- solid, liquid and gas. When we add heat or cold, or mix things together, our objects can change. That is what we played with on Chemistry day!

To get their brains going on this morning, I gave them a squiggle, and asked them to turn it into something to do with Science. It was a super quick and easy activity and I loved the results!

snake

magnet

"I Love Sciens!"

mountains and fireworks

Shrinky Dinks!

The favourite activity of the day was making our own Shrinky Dinks.

Milk Art! Another favourite was mixing homogenized milk, food colouring and just a dab of soap on the end of a toothpick. The liquids don't blend, and it creates a colourful kaleidoscope that is continually moving. (Don't stir them - just poke with the toothpick).

Chemical Reactions!
I have some special paper from SteveSpanglerScience that reacts when it comes in contact with  a base. I believe it has the spice turmeric in it. When we dipped a Q-tip in a baking soda/ water solution, it turned the paper bright red

It's hard to tell in the picture, but the
difference between the boys and girls in
this activity was... interesting! One group
was quiet, sitting, drawing nice pictures.
The other was making huge messes and
haphazardly colouring most of their papers
red. But both were totally engaged!

Ice tunnels!

I tried a few different ways, but the best way we found was to pour rock salt on top of the ice blocks (previously frozen in 500mL yogurt containers), and then add food colouring on top. As the salt melts the ice (by lowering its freezing temperature) it forms tunnels in the ice. Adding the food colouring allows you to see the various tunnels in the ice. Not as much of a "wow factor" as all the other things we did this week, but some kids really enjoyed it. A great lazy afternoon activity to keep 'em busy for a while.

 Bubble prints!
Equal parts soap, paint and a bit of water. Blow bubbles and then place a piece of paper overtop to make a print of the bubbles. We tried the paper underneath, too, which can get really watery and it takes away the bubble prints completely. But if you leave them to dry with the bubbles on top of them, (see pics below) the bubbles will eventually pop and the paint will dry in cool patterns.

Disclaimer- We were so busy having fun that I forgot to take pictures.
I stole this pic from the internet. Ours weren't as dark as this.

Being crazy boys! I'm pretty sure K. is about to make an armpit fart.

Art and Science Camp Day 2

BUGS!
The theme for day 2 was bugs. Those who know me well know that bugs are some of my favourite things. I love their colours and interesting shapes- which was a perfect thing to focus on for an Art and Science camp!

We started off with a bug hunt around the house (plastic bugs, of course), and then some directed drawing. I modelled some drawing on chart paper and the big kids followed.

This was one of the kids' works of art!

I brought out a mural I made for my classroom. It's the size of flat bedsheet. Well, actually, it IS a flat bedsheet.

Then I turned them loose to make a bug that would hide on the mural somehow.
Betcha can't find them!!

These were done with a black and brown Smelly Felt and a coffee filter. Make a line about 5 cm from the bottom, and put it in a shallow dish of water (2 cm deep). The black line should not be submersed in the water. As the water is absorbed by the coffee filter, it travels up the filter and starts to separate the black/brown into all the colours that were used to get that pigment. Apparently black is an expensive colour to make, so they use every other colour to make it! Different colour pigment molecules are different sizes and travel different distances - the science of it is called chromatography. And ta-da! A cool art and science project.

The bug connection? If you cut them apart and add some pipe cleaners, they become butterflies.

 The younger ones were working on their own bugs with teacher Makena!

Paint one side of the paper and then fold and press- instant symmetry.

Next we attempted paper mache. We used lots of things from the recycling bins to form the shapes and then covered them in masking tape. 

THANK GOD FOR ALL THE HELP I HAD FROM MY TEACHER FRIENDS!

Then began the messy part...

Our completed sculptures, drying and waiting for paint and details.

 We even found a super spotted lady bug at the end of the day. Interesting fact: the number of spots actually determines the sub-species, not the age, like tree rings or rings on fish scales do.

Art and Science Camp

Art and Science Camp

Hard to believe it's been a year since last year's science activities. This year I decided to hold a week long, 3 hour camp for my boys and some of their friends. The age range was 3-9. I held it at my new house, which was perfectly suited for 20 kids... except for all the mess!
(PS- just a disclaimer... if you didn't get to come or didn't know about it, it was only because it filled up to 20 kids before I could blink. I wasn't leaving you out intentionally!!!)

A huge passion of mine is the concept of combining SCIENCE and ART. Fundamentally, they have the same roots- exploration, observation and experimentation. This week, each day had a different theme of a specific science topic, with art projects (Ohhhh... so many projects) tied into the theme.

Most of my ideas came from my experience working at the Vancouver Aquarium, or of course, every mom and teacher's favourite resource, Pinterest.
Specifically, you can look here for most of my ideas. (My Pinterest Science Board)
or my Camp board as well.
While you're at it, my Kiddos board has lots of good stuff too.

DAY 1: Nature

We started with a mural and I made animal track prints for the kids to stamp. Super easy- just draw on craft foam, cut out and glue onto cardboard or styrofoam. The kids paint the stamps and then tell a story with their animal footprints.

I sent the kids out to the forest for a scavenger hunt, so we could use our found items for the stations we did next:

1. Leaf prints. Just paint the leaf and press onto paper.

2. Air dry clay. Start with a ball and press down onto your object.

3. Fossils! Here's how.

4. Painting crayon onto rocks. Put the rocks in the oven at 250' for 15 mins. The press the crayons onto the rocks in cool patterns.