Metamorphosis

As part of our spring nature study, we've been watching caterpillars become butterflies. We purchased a kit from FlutterBuys, although next year we'll give it a go with wild-caught caterpillars.

We brought home our caterpillars on May 17, and all of them had become chrysalides 11 days later. Two days after the last caterpillar had become a chrysalis, we transferred them to their mesh cage. We're now waiting anxiously for our butterflies to emerge!

May 20, 3 days

May 22, 5 days

May 25, 8 days

May 30, 13 days
Ready to be moved to their new home!

This is what was left behind in the container; very interesting!
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Science: Observation and description

Farm, Zoo, Beach, Aquarium!

We took advantage of a stretch of nice weather to visit some of our favourite places.

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Science: Observation

Endangered

Today the boys were organizing their Schleich animal figurines into habitats. They had forest, grassland, desert, and Arctic regions.

They weren't sure where their snowy owl would fit - Arctic or forest - so we looked it up in our Animals Visual Encyclopedia. Unfortunately, this not-so-complete encyclopedia didn't include the snowy owl, so we found some information online at Canadian Geographic Kids instead.

Once the snowy owl was placed in the correct area, we continued to browse through the animal encyclopedia. We noticed that each animal description included its status regarding whether or not it was endangered. This lead us to the IUCN Red List categories and criteria. We also explored both types of threats that cause species decline and possible conservation actions that can be taken.

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Science: Observation and description
Social Studies: Caring for the environment

Dinosaur plant

The boys received a Dinosaur Plant from one of their aunts this Christmas, and they were eager to get home to see what it would do.

According to the information that came with it, the dinosaur plant is one of the longest-living plants in the world. During the Carboniferous period, it grew to over 120 feet, but it mutated and became very small during the ice age. The plant is hygroscopic; when lacking water, the plant curls in on itself to "sleep", then blows around until it finds a source of water again. It does not need to bury its roots when it does find water, and the leaves and stems can uptake water directly. The plant can sleep for up to fifty years and still spring back to life within a day when placed in water!

The plant is currently native to Mexico and Texas, in desert and semi-desert regions.

We found that the plant did indeed open very quickly when filled with water. After a couple of weeks, we let the plant dry out and, as claimed, the plant soon curled up to "sleep".

A month later, we refilled the bowl with water and watched it wake up once again:

Adding the water

Starting point

Five minutes

Ten minutes

Twenty-five minutes

One hour

The center of the plant unfurled even further over the next couple of hours. This was fun to watch and discuss.

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Science: Observation

Lego water wheel

Today the boy created a water wheel out of Lego pieces. He wanted to test it to see if it was both strong enough to withstand the force of the water and not too stiff to spin without breaking.

Success!
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Science: Observation

Click!

After yet another read-through of one of their favourite insect books, The Beautiful Beetle Book, the boys became particularly interested in click beetles. We discussed their defense mechanism in detail and looked at pictures of the beetles.

The boys then spent the next several minutes acting out the scenario. One of them pretended to be the predator while the other laid down, pretended to be dead, and then jumped up suddenly with a loud "CLICK!" before scrambling away, leaving the startled predator behind. Then they swapped roles and repeated the scenario.

The boy is very interested in the variety of ways animals and insects protect themselves, including camouflage and self-defense, so this was a fun addition to that list!

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Science: Description
Fine Arts: Drama

Do clouds have shadows?

The question recently came up as to whether or not clouds have shadows. The boy thought that clouds would not have shadows, but his friend's mom told him that they did.

The next time we were outside, we were able to find a small cloud that was casting a shadow on a portion of the mountain, thereby confirming the information he had been given.

We talked some more about what shadows are, as well as whether or not a variety of other things would have shadows. In the end, we concluded that water vapour does indeed have a shadow even though it originally seemed to him that it shouldn't.

Naturally, shadow puppets followed the discussion!

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Science: Observation, description

Lego Robotics

The boy spent two hours this afternoon at a Lego Robotics class run by Bricks 4 Kidz. He had a great time and looks forward to signing up for another class.

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Mathematics: Shape and space
Science: Observation and experimentation

Dancing raisins

Okay, now this was just cool.

I've heard about the dancing raisins experiment many times and often wondered how well it really worked. Well, I can now heartily say, along with the boy, that it works really well!

We filled our glass containers with carbonated water, dropped a raisin in, and sat back to watch. Sure enough, the bubbles soon gathered around the raisin and carried it to the top of the water. Once there, the bubbles popped and the raisin sank back to the bottom until enough bubbles had once again clung to it to begin moving it upward again.

The kids asked great questions. "What if we put more in?" "Does it work with other things?" "What if we filled the glass with raisins?" "Will it keep doing it forever?" We discovered that it does indeed work with other things, including lentils, dried cranberries, and even beans! The beans were particularly interesting because, being smooth and heavier, it took longer for a sufficient amount of bubbles to collect on them and carry them to the top.

Who knew raisins and carbonated water could be so engaging?

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Science: Observation, description

Paper chromatography

We used coffee filters to do a basic chromatography experiment at a previous Science Club gathering, and the boy was so excited about it that he set up his own replica of the experiment at home. After colouring a picture with markers, he set it in a bowl of water and watched the ink separate as the water rose up the paper.

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Science: Observation

Grape construction

This week's Science Club adventure was a simple combination of grapes and toothpicks. The kids used them to create various shapes and objects, including pyramids, houses, tiaras, and even sea urchins!

Little brother snacks while big brother begins creating.

Making a grape-kabob fence.

His final creation!

Bonus? Instant snack time afterwards!

We will definitely repeat this activity with a more focused look at both two- and three-dimensional geometric shapes in the future.

(Thank you, Pinterest, for the inspiration!)

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Science: Observation
Mathematics: Shape and space

Fun with magnets

One of our most fun purchases recently has been a couple sets of strong magnets. We used them to test which objects were magnetic and which weren't, to make "temporary magnets" out of other objects, and to see how long of a magnetic chain of objects we could make.

We also had a lot of fun moving magnetic objects around containers of water. We placed paperclips, coins, and other objects inside a container of water, and then used the magnet on the outside of the container to move the objects within.

Using a magnet to lift a paperclip out of a glass of water.

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Science: Observation, description

Underwater Fireworks

This was one of those projects that was the perfect combination of low prep and high engagement. The kids watched the "underwater fireworks" for a long time, and then requested that we keep the remaining mixture in the vase "just to look at" for a couple more days.

(Thank you, Pinterest, for the inspiration!)


Supplies:

Oil
Water
Food dye
Clear glass containers


Directions:

We began by pouring about a half cup of oil into a glass, then added two drops of each colour of food dye to the oil. We noted that the food dye remained in small round balls at the bottom of the glass. For comparative purposes, we did the same thing with a glass of water and observed that the food dye mixed with the water instead of staying in little balls. How interesting!

We disposed of the water mixture and turned our attention back to the glass of oil. The boy used a fork to vigorously stir the oil.

Stirring complete, we noted that the food dye was now in many many smaller balls within the oil.

The boy then poured the glass of oil and food dye into a vase of water.

In she goes!

And now we watch.

It didn't take long for the show to begin. As the little balls of food dye sunk from the oil down into the water, they "popped" into colourful underwater fireworks.

Aren't they pretty?

This one was my favourite. That reddish clump on the right looked like a little fishy swimming in our water!

When all the dye balls had sunk down into the water, we were left with a dark mixture of water on the bottom and a layer of oil on the top. We talked a bit about the why's but mostly just enjoyed the observation process. Looking forward to similar experiments in the future!

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Science: Observation, description

Car Talk

Thursdays are our busy out-and-about days, with lots of time spent driving back and forth - to science club and back, to Bible study and back, to evening activities and back. All this driving leads to numerous opportunities for discussions. I don't know what it is about the car, but our best conversations always seem to happen there.

Today's lunch was a rare fast-food stop at A&W. From this we discussed the concept of healthy versus unhealthy food, why fast-food places exist (convenience for consumer, profit for company), and why fast-food places usually sell food that isn't very good for our bodies (cost, convenience). We talked about how a steak, potatoes, and salad would make a reasonably nutritious meal, but when you fry the potatoes in an unhealthy oil, put the steak and salad inside of a bun, cover it all in salt, and drink it with a sugar-filled soda, it becomes significantly less healthy.

After discussing nutrition, we ended up on the topic of careers. The boy's dad is currently an electrical engineering student in his final year, which means next year he'll begin full-time work in his field. The boy asked why people go to school, which led to a discussion on learning skills and working conscientiously, as people who either don't know what they are doing or don't do their jobs responsibly end up being told they can't work there anymore. The boy then asked what jobs you didn't have to go to school for. After I listed some examples, he suggested painting, which then led to a discussion on the concept of self-employment. Very interesting conversation all around!

Our final discussion centered around the idea of twins, as the boy has recently befriended a set of boy/girl twins as our weekly science group. Because the twins are different genders, the boy rightly observed that they didn't look alike. I explained the two different ways twins are formed and how that relates to whether or not they will look identical. After discussing those ideas back and forth, he then asked how a mommy's tummy would look if she was pregnant with twins. We talked about babies coming early or being born smaller, what that meant for the infants' development (primarily centering on lungs), and what might have to be done to keep everyone healthy (bedrest, respiratory assistance for premature babies, etc).

It's always fun to hear the boy's thought processes through his questions and observations!

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Health: Nutrition, careers
Science: Observation, discussion

Baking soda and vinegar trays

The boys both have colds this week, so being cooped up to avoid sharing their illness has left them a little bit squirrely. Fortunately, I've had a rainy-day project tucked away in the back of my mind for a while, and today was the perfect day to pull it out.

(Thank you, Pinterest, for the inspiration! If anyone knows the original source of the pinned image, please do let me know so that I can credit the owner properly.)


Supplies:

Vinegar
Food dye
Baking soda
Baking pans
Medicine droppers


Directions:

I gave each boy three re-purposed applesauce cups filled with food-dyed vinegar, a tray filled with half a box of baking soda, and a medicine dropper. A muffin tin is another option for holding the coloured vinegar.

Fill up dropper with vinegar and squirt it into the tray! Simple yet fascinating.

After watching the initial fizzes several times, the boy moved on to experimenting. He put the dropper underneath the baking soda before squirting the vinegar out. He built little baking soda volcanoes and squirted the vinegar inside ("It runs down the sides just like a real volcano!") He mixed colours, made rainbows, squirted vinegar on top of already wet areas, and more.

The biggest challenge for them was figuring out how to use the droppers most efficiently and effectively. The toddler never did quite get the hang of filling it up well, but it was great fine-motor practice anyway. Fortunately, big brother was happy to help (and Mommy helped too, of course!).




Then again, if all else fails, just pour it in directly!

Naturally, it didn't take long for the fingers to start poking around in there, touching, mixing, and squeezing the mixture. This made it an excellent sensory experience in addition to the scientific observation of watching the vinegar interact with the baking soda.

He was impressed with how hard and crumbly it got once it was full of vinegar.

A definite success! The boys played with the trays for a full hour and would have played longer had we not had to stop for something else. Clean up was quick and easy!


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Science: Observation, description, sensorial experience
Fine arts: Visual arts (creativity, artistic design)