pipe hype

What you need:

• PVC pipe of various length (a pipe cutter helps)
• connectors (elbows, Ts, etc.)
• marbles, balls, or cars (depending on the diameter of pipe you have)

Just let them at it. =) If it is warm out, add water for even more fun!

Add a box for stability (cut out holes for pipes) and make a marble run!

Some curvy pipes.

Giant pipe wooden ball run!

Exploring Momentum with Marbles and Balls

Hands-on Force and Motion Exploration 

This is a fun activity I set up one morning for my kids; it's one that requires little input from you because they will quickly come up with many ways to set it up.

What you need:

• marbles or balls
• scale
• train tracks, car tracks, etc.
• tape measure (optional)
  

I gathered marbles and small balls and we weighed them on a kitchen scale to see which ones had the greatest and least mass. We then set up two heavy marbles of different mass on the wooden train track (you could use car track, or something like clear tubing, or whatever else you think of!). We put the lighter marbles of the same mass on the incline and let them go and watched what happened when the lighter marbles hit the heavier ones. We then lined up a lot of marbles close together and let a heavy marble go and collide with them. Ask your children what they think will happen. They might be surprised to see the transfer of momentum.

Weighing the different marbles and balls.

Setting up the experiment.

We used a tape measure to see how far the different marbles would go.

We tried it with lots of marbles!

You can set it up any way your child wants to try it.

We even tried with a huge wooden ball.

This was such a big hit that they asked to do it over and over again!

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This activity was something I did with my children when they were quite young (preschool age), but what a GREAT activity for learning about force and motion in a hands-on way. The physical activity is fun for younger and older kids alike, and you could even ask upper elementary school children to predict how far different marbles will roll based on their mass.

Nature Activitiy for Kids: Leaf and Bark Rubbing Journal

Create a Leaf and Bark Journal

I ordered some blank books in advance of this project, but you could easily do this on paper. Autumn is the perfect time of year to do this in the northeast! We gathered leaves for rubbings from our immediate neighborhood and did bark rubbings while we were out walking around, labeling the bark rubbings if we knew the kind of tree.

What you need:

• loose paper 
• blank book (optional)
• crayons
• glue stick
• scissors
• leaf morphology chart (optional)

Decorate your Leaf and Bark Journal 

I found some beautiful leaf stickers on sale at Michaels (don't forget your teacher or homeschooler discount, too!) and had the kids decorate their books:

We then went outside, finding many of our leaves right in our own yard. We did our bark rubbings, noting the difference between the young and old trees, and we collected our leaves.

Use a Leaf Chart

We brought our laminated leaf morphology chart to identify the types of leaves we found:

When we brought the leaves in we started rubbing and cutting them out to fit in our books, leaf on left, bark on right:

Another one:

I really enjoyed this activity and we plan to keep adding to it or start another one when it is full. You could also try pressing the leaves or laminating them to save them.

Kick this Activity up a Notch 

If you have older kids, they will still enjoy this activity, but why not take it a step further? Ideas of topics to discuss:

• Tree life cycle
• Where do the leaves go after they fall?
• Why do trees have bark? What is its function?
• What do leaves do?
• What do you notice about the types of trees that grow where you live? How are they different from trees that grow in other climates? Why?

window ghosts

These were done basically the same way as our Valentine's Day window decorations. The kids really love tearing up tissue paper so I always save as much as I can from gifts or packaging.

What you need:

• clear contact paper
• tissue paper, torn or cut into small pieces
• stickers or stick on googly eyes, and any other decorations you'd like

Just cut out some ghost-shaped templates, peel off the backing, stick on your tissue paper, and decorate!

I cut out some templates of ghosts on the contact paper.

Making ghosts.

"Happy ghost"

"Silly ghost"

From outside the window.

sink or float?

This is a fun experiment to do, because the kids can decide which of their toys/craft supplies they would like to test (as long as they are waterproof). It can be surprising which items will float in water and which items will sink. This is hands-on learning of buoyancy and density!

Part 1: Random objects
What you need:

• large glass/plastic cup or bowl
• items that will sink or float! (ideas: marbles, paper clips, lemon slice with rind off, legos, lemon slice with rind on, plastic toy animals, craft sticks, sponges, small bowls or cups, a balloon filled with air, a water balloon, a feather, a ball of clay, a boat made of clay, boats made of other items like craft sticks, etc.)

Have them guess which items might sink or float ahead of time, and see if they're right!  We used part of the Thames and Kosmos Little Labs Boats for this experiment, but it is not necessary to buy the kit to do this experiment.

Sinking marble.

Floating clay boat.

Floating marble in the boat.

Lego floating.

You can sort the objects by whether they float or sink.

Part 2: Eggs
What you need:

• 1-3 eggs (one for each glass or just keep reusing the same one)
• Three glasses, pitchers, or bowls
• Fill one with regular water
• Fill one with heavily salted water (stir well)
• Fill one halfway with salt water, and keep a small pitcher of tap water on hand

Ask your child what he thinks will happen when he puts the egg in each glass. For the third glass, put the egg in so it will float to the top of the salt water (salt water is more dense than an egg), and then slowly pour the tap water on top. It will keep the egg floating halfway in the glass:

painting pine cones

This is a great activity to do outside on a nice autumn day. It is a wonderful fine motor and attention-building activity; painting an entire pine cone takes a lot of focus and time. Collect your pine cones on a nature walk ahead of time if you don't have any nearby.

I ended up filling another paint cup with glue. Paint the glue on with a paint brush and then sprinkle the glitter on. Glitter in a shaker bottle is handy for this!

Getting set up.

What you need:

• pine cones
• washable paint
• paint brushes
• smocks (it gets messy!)
• glue and glitter (optional)

Concentrating.

It's hard to get in all the nooks and crannies!

Painting!

Glittery.

Letting them dry.

Pin this idea for later:

stained glass jack-o-lanterns

My first idea for making these was to use crayon shavings and then heat them up between wax paper. It worked out okay but the colors ran a little too much - it's not really clear what we were going for! I think it would work for older kids, or kids who are more meticulous about placing the crayon shavings (read: not my kids!), or moms who had the time and patience to hang around with an iron for awhile. However, my second idea worked out much better for my kids, who like to color furiously and rarely stay inside any lines. The only trick to this is that you will be dealing with a warm plate, so you have to make sure it is hot enough to melt the crayon, but not so hot as to burn little hands.

I'll show the first method here anyway, though after doing some research, I am not the first to think of it! Check out The Artful Parent to see how she did her stained glass projects. Beautiful!

First method:
What you need:

• crayons, shredded or cut, and separated into bowls
• jack-o-lantern template
• wax paper, twice as long as your template
• plate (or other defined work area)
• tape, to secure wax paper to plate

Place your template on the plate, and the wax paper on top. Tape the wax paper to the tape to keep it from moving around. Sprinkle the crayon shavings on top. Fold over wax paper and either iron on low or microwave on low for 30 seconds at a time until the shavings have melted enough. Let cool. Cut out to desired final shape.

Getting started.

Crayon bits placed.

Semi-success.

Second method, that worked better for us (way less messy, though not quite as pretty and vibrant):
What you need:

• warmed plate (I warmed mine in the microwave)
• wax paper
• jack-o-lantern template, if desired
• crayons
• tape

Place your template and wax paper on the warmed plate. Tape the wax paper to the plate to keep it from moving around. Press crayon into plate and hold for a few seconds until it starts to melt, then color as you would color paper. Fold over wax paper. Let cool. Cut out to desired final shape.

Easy peas-y!

This was so much fun we ended up doing a bunch of them!

 stained "glass" jack-o-lanterns