Ice Ice Baby

Can states of matter really change? To answer this question, Miss. M wanted to see if she could change a liquid (water) into a solid (ice), and a liquid (water) into a gas (water vapor). For the first part of her experiment she filled an ice cube tray with water and placed it into the freezer for 4-5 hours. The freezer lowered the temperature of the water below zero degrees Celsius, and walla, the water (liquid) froze into ice (solid). The next step of her experiment was to see if she could change the ice(solid) back in to water (liquid). To do this she took the tray of ice cubes out of the freezer, and placed them onto the counter top. As she observed the ice cubes she noticed that it didn't take long before the ice started to melt back into water. For Miss. M's final test she sprayed a plate with water (liquid) form a water bottle and placed the plate outside in the hot sun. After waiting a few hours she checked back one the plate, and much to her surprise the water was gone. It had turned into water vapor (gas).
Miss. M then concluded that you can indeed change the state of matter.

Reading & Spelling Game

While browsing the Internet one day I came across a fun way to practice letter sounds, words, and spelling. It is very simple to make and only took about 5 minutes to write the letters, and 10 minutes to cut some holes. If you have a square hole punch for scrapbooking it would take even less time. I can't wait to try it out. Here is the site where I found the directions. The materials I used were a utility knife, or exacto knife, paint sample cards, and a black permanent marker.

Rock Painting

If your kids are anything like mine they love to collect things. We have had a rock collection piling up on my front deck all summer. Instead of looking at a big pile of rock the kids had a great idea to make them into something. We got out the acrylic paints and let our imaginations take over. Here are the results. I think they are pretty impressive.

Gardening Update

It has been a few months now since we planted the garden, and all the hard work is starting to pay off. The kids and I had fresh peas with our lunch after a long hot morning of weeding last week. Reaping the rewards makes is so worth it. This gardening experiment has taught us many things about plants, and what they need to grow. Some of the things we have learned so far is that the plants will thrive when they have a bit of water everyday, and they are weeded so they do not have to compete for the water and nutrients.

Marathon Running

Mand B participated in a kids marathon today with some cousins and thier aunt, along with about 2000 other people. They started logging miles back in May and logged 25 miles, then all the kids joined together to run the last mile together. It was a great way for the kids to get out and get active.

Little Dancers

M and B enjoyed their dance lessons this year. The highlight of the year was of coarse the year end recital. They both did really well, and they both want to continue next year.

Learning Games

Cool Math Games is a really fun and educational site. One I strongly recommend if you are looking for a kids friendly games site. My kids are crazy about it. They love the games, and are unaware they are learning while they play. I enjoy the games just as much as the kids to. They have all sorts of games from math to spelling and problem solving.