Homemade Sailboats (the Science of Wind)

Our youngest son (age 6) loves to tinker. Forget toys, he'd rather raid our recyclables, fire up his imagination, and make something entirely new. I knew he'd dig this activity.

We made a bathtub sailboat.

It took just a few minutes and a few supplies.

For each sailboat, you'll need the following:
wide, shallow plastic jar lid (ours was from mayo)
plastic drinking straw
card stock cut to 3-inches by 5-inches (or an index card)
hold punch
tape or glue (we used a low-temp glue gun)

How to Make It
Punch a hole in each of the cards short sides in the middle. Thread the straw through the holes. It will fit snug.

If your lid isn't threaded, tape will hold your straw and paper sail upright. If you have threads, parents should use a glue gun to assist with getting the sail stabilized.

Now simply, place your boat gently in a basin of water. We played with ours before bath time. Blow the sail and see how it propels the boat.

Will the boat swivel around so the sail's facing a certain way based on the direction of your breath (i.e. the wind)?

This is our second fun activity from Science Play! by Jill Frankel Hauser. It's loaded with other great ideas!

How to Make a Weather Vane

We have had some crazy weather here in the Midwest this spring: many days of rain, cooler-than-normal temps, and gusty winds. This activity was perfect for those blustery days.

Making a weather vane is a simple project; gathering supplies is the hardest part.

disposable dinner plate (a sturdy one) - an extra is optional

marker

Small plastic food container with a lid (dig one of your recyclables)

sharpened pencil with an eraser

exacto knife

stick pin (like ones used for sewing)

plastic drinking straw

scissors

small rocks or glass baubles

hot glue

construction paper or cardstock

Compass (or smart phone)

Step 1

Draw two perpendicular lines on the bottom of the plate that intersect in its middle. I cut an extra plate in half to use as a template.

Step 2

Cut a small x shape in the middle of the bottom of your plastic food container using a craft knife (parents only). This will need to be big enough for a pencil to squeeze through, but small enough to hold it tightly in place.

Step 3

Place the container, lid-side down in the middle of the upside down plate and trace around it. In the four quadrants, write N, E, S, W for the cardinal directions, making sure to put them in the correct order.

Step 4

Add rocks or glass baubles to the container as weight. Add hot glue (parents only!) to the lid and secure it to center of the plate, using your traced line as a guide.

Step 5

Shove the sharpened pencil (lead first) into the center of the plastic container. Make sure it is straight.

Step 6

Pierce the center of the drinking straw with the stick pin.

Step 7

Put the pin into the eraser. Your straw should spin freely.

Step 8

Make small slits with scissors in the ends of the drinking straw. Cut a triangle and square shape from your heavyweight paper. Insert each into the slits on either end of the drinking straw.

Step 9

Take the weather vane outside. Use a compass to make sure your cardinal directions are aligned properly. 

Watch as the straw spins and the triangle shows you the direction the wind is blowing from.

We read two books as part of this activity. They helped explain the impact the wind has on our weather, instruments to measure wind speed, and various activities (flying kites, wind surfing, etc.).

I asked my sons why someone would need to understand wind direction and speed. Our oldest came up with lots of good answers, but his little brother (5 years old) wasn't sure. I asked him to punch the air. Then he made a fist and I put my hand around it. I told him to push. My hand provided resistance. "What if your fist was an airplane and my hand was the wind? Would it be harder to fly an airplane in the wind? Would you need to use more fuel?" This was a simple hands-on way for him to comprehend the invisible force of wind!

This activity was modified from education.com.

Weather Forecasting with a DIY Barometer

We picked the perfect day to do this craft. Before the day was even over, it had turned from sunny to cloudy to raining (and later the tornado sirens went off).

The science behind this craft is fascinating.

To start, I explained atmospheric pressure. That's a pretty tough thing to visualize, but we had a little help from Bill Nye, the Science Guy. (Check out some of his video clips on YouTube.)

Once we understood what pressure was and that it changes with the weather, it was easier to understand how a barometer works.

Supplies

Wide-mouth glass jar without a lid

Deflated balloon

Rubberbands

Plastic drinking straw

Tape

Cardstock or posterboard

Pencil

Scissors

How to Make a DIY Barometer

Cut the neck of your deflated balloon off, making a straight cut about halfway down the balloon.

Stretch the balloon as tightly as possible over your glass jar, so the latex is taught. You want to make an air-tight seal, so add a rubberband or two to secure it.

Now trim a plastic drinking straw so it's about 6 or 7 inches in length. Then make angled cuts on both ends so each end has a point.

Using the corner of a small square of clear tape, attach the flat part of one end of the straw to the balloon in the center of the jar.

The other end of the straw is your pointer.

Now fold a piece of heavyweight paper in fourths lengthwise. Tape so it's in the shape of a triangle and stand on one end.

Take your barometer outside and let it acclimate. Set your triangular paper up at the end of the pointer, and with a pencil record where it touches and the weather conditions.

This is your baseline. Continue checking on the barometer and making recordings of the weather conditions. As the weather changes, the straw pointer will move up and down.

Once you have marks recorded for a variety of weather conditions, you'll see a trend. When the weather is sunny, it points upwards. When it's storming, it points downward. You can watch the DIY barometer and begin to make predictions based on the gauge you made.

How it Works

If the air pressure inside the jar is heavier than the air outside the jar, it will push up making the balloon convex (humped up), which will tip the straw pointer downward. This occurs when the weather is rainy or storming.

If the air pressure outside the jar is heavier, it will press down on the balloon (making it concave), tipping the straw pointer upwards. Expect this to occur when it's sunny.

3 Ways to Enjoy Frigid Temperatures

It's crazy when the temperature in Alaska is warmer than the high forecasted where you live. That happened this week. Monday's wind chill was -50s. I heard they're calling it a polar vortex. Whatever it is, it has caused life to grind to a halt here in the Midwest.

On the second day of school cancellations, I decided we had to do something - get out of the house, even if for just a second or two. So that's what we did. Three times yesterday we conducted some quick experiments in the frigid outdoors.

#1: Frozen Bubbles

Did you know that if bubbles are suspended in the air long enough in very cold temps (it was 8 degrees F. here), they will freeze? Yeah, I know. So cool, right?

Check out these phenomenal images on Weather.com of frozen bubbles.

I made our bubble solution with three simple household ingredients.

1 1/2 c. water

1/2 c. liquid dishwashing detergent

1/4 c. white corn syrup

The corn syrup makes the bubbles stronger.

At first, we were disappointed. Then we realized that we needed to keep our bubbles floating longer in order for them to freeze. We started blowing our bubbles  upward and several caught the wind. By the time they came down and popped on the driveway, instead of disappearing, what was left looked like a translucent plastic grocery sack. We were amazed!

#2 Frozen Stiff Shirt

This (and the next activity) were shared by friends on Facebook. The results are crazy cool.

We wet a shirt and rung out the excess water and took it outdoors. I asked my son how long he thought it would take to freeze. His guess? 30 minutes. My guess? 4 minutes.

Six minutes was the right answer! My son was shocked.

#3 Shooting Snow Squirt Gun

Lots of folks around here are throwing pots full of boiling water out into the frigid air. Sounds like a weird Midwest thing, doesn't it? The truth is, the result is so extraordinary, you'll want to see it for yourself.

Since a pot of boiling water in the hands of an 8-year old sounded a little too dangerous, I followed a highschool classmate's lead. My son's eyebrows arched when I made him run to the garage to get his water gun.

I carefully poured the boiling water into the gun's reservoir, capped it and handed it to him. He went outside and fired it up, immediately shooting a cloudy stream of snow into the air.

When I asked him which of these three activities was the best, this one won out.

 All three of our Winter experiments made being stuck at home a whole lot more fun!

NOTE: Always dress appropriately to guard against the dangers of frostbite and hypothermia. Heed warnings and cover exposed skin and limit the duration of time spent outdoors. Safety first, then fun!

Snowflake Rubbings Art

Paper cut snowflakes are so magical. We like the interactive snowflake designers online like this one here, too.

To leverage my oldest son's love of creating his own snowflakes, I thought we'd make some rubbing plates.

I grabbed chipboard (think empty cereal box) and printed some six-pointed templates on sticker paper which I adhered to the cardboard. Now I grabbed some yarn and we traced the lines with white school glue and laid yarn pieces over top, making sure none overlapped.

Then we embellished, using nothing but our own creativity, clipping small lengths of yarn and gluing them on in our own patterns.

When we decided our snowflake rubbing plates were done, I traced over the yarn with the glue to really secure them and harden the yarn. Now we let them dry overnight.

The next day, I peeled off the paper labels from two white crayons and grabbed some large blue construction paper. My sons placed the rubbing plates beneath their paper and began rubbing the side of the crayon back and forth over the snowflake plate until its design appeared like magic!

Our four year old wanted a tree in his picture so I cut one from a newsprint advertisement. We added a snowy foreground from torn paper and voila! A winter wonderland that can be recreated year after year with our new rubbing plates!

Cute-as-a-Button Craft Stick Snowflake

Every year, the kids and I make a homemade ornament or two. This year, given my sudden infatuation with snowflakes, I zeroed in on this winter craft.

It was perfect for my four-year-old who could always use a little fine motor practice.

What You Need

Wooden craft sticks

Hot glue gun

White acrylic craft paint and brushes

Buttons (white, pearl, glittery, etc.)

White school glue

Yarn or thread

Making this lovely little snowflake is simple.

1. Paint three wooden craft sticks and let dry.

2. Arrange them in a snowflake shape and use hot glue to hold them together.

3. Apply white school glue to the six points of the snowflake. Position the buttons on top.

4. Break for hot cocoa. (optional)

5. Keep gluing buttons on until the whole snowflake is covered.

6. Let dry and attach a loop of yarn to the back with hot glue so you can hang it on the tree.

While we waited for the glue to dry, we read two excellent books.

Snow by Uri Shulevitz is a charming book that tells the typical tale of a child who is excited for snow when the grown-ups are not. It's a simple book with enchanting illustrations.

The Little Snowflake by Steve Metzger chronicles the journey of a snowflake as it falls from the sky, hoping to land in a field and become part of a snowman. It's a heartwarming story with a beautiful (and happy) ending.

How Snowflakes are Made (craft & science)

We got our first real snowfall of the season last weekend. It inspired these two activities - one science, one craft - both equally amazing.

First, I challenged my oldest son to put the process of how a snowflake is made in order.

I used one of our jumbo paint stir sticks that has velcro attached (see our last activity using them here). I printed the steps on cardstock, cut each out and attached a small dot of velcro to the back.

My son read them all and then guessed their order. He only had two switched around!!

Print the steps of a snowflake that I used here. They are in order on the printable. These were created based on information provided by the website geology (dot) com.

Next, we looked at some phenomenal photography of real snowflakes in the book The Snowflake: Winter's Secret Beauty. I think both of us must have uttered "Whoa! Look at that one" at least a half a dozen times!

When we'd each found our favorite flakes in the book, we read It's Snowing by Gail Gibbons. The book provided more detail about the formation of snow, types of winter weather advisories, and weather-related vocabulary (e.g. whiteout). Gibbons' books always deliver.

Lastly, we made a paper snowflake. This was new to my son. He's made paper snowflakes with scissor cut designs, but never one that involved tape and some simple paper manipulation. He was really excited to see the final result and has already asked if we can make another.

The one we made is pretty big (maybe two feet around) and since we used office paper, a little floppy. (We are using it as a centerpiece.) I think our next flakes will be made a little smaller and with sturdier paper.

I like this project for multiple reasons. Supplies are minimal (paper and tape), the snowflake is six-pointed like real flakes, and the final result is stunning! Here's how we did it:

1. Download the template, print, and cut away excess paper so you're left with a square. Fold the points of the square together so you've got  a triangle with lines on just one of the sides that touch the fold.
2. Cut along the lines.
3. Open the triangle and lay the square out flat in front of you.
4. Take the two flaps of the innermost cut square and bring them together.
5. Overlap them slightly and attach a small piece of transparent tape to hold them in place.
6. Flip the paper over.
7. Take the two corners of the medium square and bring them together. Tape.
8. Flip the paper over once again.
9. Bring the corners together on the remaining square.
10. Tape together. One-sixth of your snowflake is complete.
11. Repeat steps 1-10 five more times. Roll a piece of tape and adhere to the tip of one of your snowflake points. Attach to another snowflake point. (Make sure each piece you tape together is oriented in the same direction.)
12. Continue attaching all six points together at the center tip until your snowflake is complete.

Color Hunt & Fruit Rainbow

When planning an activity for an 8- and 4-year-old, it can be hard to find an idea that will keep both stimulated. These two activities fit the bill. My boys had a blast!

Color Hunt

A local park in town has the most breathtaking display of flower beds. I spend so much time ogling the flowers as I drive by, it's surprising I haven't rear-ended someone. To share the beauty of the gardens with my family, I planned a Color Hunt.

The supplies were simple: six large paint sample strips (ours were BEHR from Home Depot) in the colors of the rainbow (i.e. reds, oranges, yellows, etc.), which I cut in two.

I punched leaves out of the hues and used a brad to hinge them all together. I gave each of the boys their color book and sent them exploring to see how many of the colors they could find in nature.

This was SUCH a simple activity. What we found was that blue was an especially difficult color to find a flower of; we had to look no further than the sky, though!

Fruit Rainbow

The next day for a snack, I prepared a plate of various fruits for the boys. In front of them I placed a Rainbow Placemat that contained boxes for each of the colors.

The boys were instructed to place fruits of the correct color on their mats in the order specified. My oldest son's placemat had the full seven colors of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet), while the 4-year-old's contained the six basic colors (i.e. purple instead of indigo and violet).

,

Download a 4-page PDF of both placemats here. Print, tape together, and laminate for durability.

FRUIT WE USED

Red: Strawberries

Orange: Mandarin oranges

Yellow: Pineapple

Green: Kiwi

Blue: Blueberries

Indigo: Grapes

Violet: Raisins

The boys used a small pair of serving tongs to move the fruit from the platter to their placemat, which provided a little extra fine motor practice for the younger of the two of them.

Alternative: Not a fruit-eating family? Have kids collect everyday objects from around the house to add to their rainbow mat!

(This isn't the first time we've eaten a rainbow. Check out our rainbow cupcakes and word puzzle here.)

Book Recommendations

To conclude our color fun, I read a book with each of the boys. The PreK book I chose for my youngest is by Betty Schwartz. This Magic Ribbon book is such a treat to read with its colorful animals. My son never ceases to be impressed when he turns the page and a new ribbon of color has been added to the rainbow from the previous page.

My oldest son and I enjoyed E. C. Krupp's book The Rainbow and You. It taught us a ton about how ancient cultures thought of the rainbow, who Roy G. Biv is, how the eye sees color, what rainbows are made of, etc. Both of us were astonished to discover how little we actually knew about these weather wonders!

Catching and Plotting Rainfall

If you're on Pinterest, you've seen this amazing rain gauge project. The simplicity, short material list, and learning opportunity have made it a favorite among kids and parents for years - my son and I included.

To make it you'll need a clear plastic bottle (like a 2-liter soda bottle) or a large water bottle. We used a Smart Water bottle. Remove the label. Have a ruler, scissors, and a permanent fine-tip marker handy.

Cut the top of the bottle off with a knife or scissors; young children should leave this up to grown-ups to do. Now align a ruler so the end of the ruler is at the bottom of the bottle and make small marks with the marker up the side of the bottle where the inches or centimeter lines are.

Now take the top of the bottle and place the spout upside down inside the bottle. With a little pressure, it will fit snugly.

Head outside and find the ideal spot to place your rain gauge (away from trees, etc.). Dig a shallow hole and secure the bottle inside it.

Now wait … and wait … and wait. Apparently making a rain gauge was just what we needed to chase away the stormy skies. While this spring has been extremely wet (parts of our city were sandbagging two weeks ago as the river threatened to exceed its banks), since my son made his rain gauge, not a drop has fallen. (What's that they say about the best laid plans?)

When it does, though, he'll be ready with this Daily Rain Record.

Each day, he'll plot the amount our rain gauge catches by drawing a dot on the line. Then he'll check all the boxes that apply to the type of rainfall (e.g. mist, downpour, shower).

Download a PDF of this Daily Rain Record free here.

When he has seven days of data, he'll draw lines between the dots, total the rainfall, and find the average by dividing the total by seven.

You didn't think I was just going to make this a science lesson did you? (he he) I just had to sneak a little math in.

Looking for a great book to read to pair with this activity? We read Elizabeth Miles' Watching the Weather: Rain. It covered why we need rain, helped us review the water cycle, and explained drought, floods, and acid rain - all in terms a soon-to-be third grader could understand.

Weather Tracking with a DIY Thermometer Slide

This activity came to me in the wee hours of the morning after lumbering out of bed to let the dog outside; I laid there unable to sleep at daybreak on a Saturday. The reason?

This thermometer. Once the idea popped into my head, I was afraid I'd forget it. <YAWN> 

This activity is simple and requires few supplies:

Red paint or markers

2 empty chipboard paper towel tubes

1 piece of sticker paper (or regular office paper and glue)

An Exacto craft knife

Glue

Printable 1-page "Was the Meteorologist Right?" PDF (choose Fahrenheit or Celsius)

Printable 1-page thermometer PDF (download the one I made here)

For five days, my son and I watched the meteorologists' prediction in the morning over breakfast. What would the high temperature be today? 

When it was shared, my son promptly moved the red "mercury" in his DIY thermometer slide to that number and wrote down the respective degrees on his recording sheet.

Later that day, (sometimes after school via Weather.com or over dinner as we watched the 5:00 news) my son recorded the ACTUAL high temperature of the day, once again moving his thermometer slide. Now he figured out the difference between the predicted high and actual high, using subtraction. This number was also written down. Now all that was left to do for the day was determine how well our meteorologist did, by checking the appropriate box.

less than (<) 4 degrees difference = Excellent Job

4-6 degrees difference = Fair Job

more than (>) 6 degrees difference = Poor Job

We did this each day for five days straight. Our recording sheet revealed that three of the five days our meteorologist did a fair job and twice, the predictions were excellent; the last day it was only one degree off! My son was amazed.

When the five days were over, my son asked if I could print another recording sheet so he could keep on recording the weather predictions' accuracy. He truly enjoyed this.

We read some great books as part of this activity. Check them out!

How to Make a Thermometer Slide

Flatten your paper towel tubes. Cut one along one of the vertical creases you just made; open it and apply white glue to the inside. Fold it shut again and place under a stack of heavy books until it starts to dry closed. (photo 1)

Print the thermometer onto a sheet of sticker paper. Cut it to a width that will fit on the flattened tube. Peel the paper backing off the sticker paper and stick it down. Place something inside the tube (I used an old plastic ruler) to keep from cutting all the way through the tube and use the Exacto craft knife to cut out the mercury part of the thermometer (photo 2). Use a piece of the leftover sticker paper to line the inside of your thermometer.

Now trim the flattened and glued tube so it's skinny enough to fit inside the thermometer snugly but still slides easily (photo 3). Paint it red (photo 4). Once dry, slide it inside (photo 5). It's ready to use!

What's the Weather There?

Download this thermometer here.

Spring break is coming up so I figured it would be fun to take an imaginary trip to five U.S. capital cities. Just the idea of this pretend adventure made my son giddy!

“Where we goin’, Mom?" he asked. From a bowl full of papers printed with each capital city, my son drew one. This was our first stop: Sacramento, CA. (Woo Hoo! On a cool February day in the Midwest, it was a real treat to go there, even if it was just in our minds!)

I handed my son a plastic sheet protector filled with two papers: a map of the United States on one side and a thermometer on the other.

We used Google Maps to locate where in California the city of Sacramento was located. My son made a dot on his sheet protector-covered map with a dry-erase marker. Then we headed over to weather.com to see what the temps were like that day. My son wrote the name of the city and temperature next to the thermometer and colored in the mercury up to 65 degrees Fahrenheit with the dry-erase marker.

We made stops at four other capital cities - Juneau, AK; Charleston, WV; Bismarck, ND; and Salt Lake City, UT. What a blast we had on our virtual vacay!

When all the cities were identified on the maps and thermometers were colored, we “returned home” and I asked my son the following:

• What was the hottest city we visited?
• What was the coolest?

Then he put the cities (i.e. thermometers) in order from coolest to warmest temperature.

Lastly, I put his subtraction skills to the test and asked him to tell me how much warmer it was from one city to the next.

“Why didn’t we go more places, Mom?” he asked when we were done. It looks like more “vacations” are in order!

How to Make a Thunderstorm

When a follower e-mailed and told me that her son was fearful during thunderstorms, I was inspired to help. Most of my fears as a child stemmed from the unknown. And with all the mystery surrounding the weather, it’s no wonder so many kids are scared. These activities, as well as the others featured this week on clouds and the water cycle, are meant to demystify the weather. The following are three ways my son and I tried to replicate what goes on in a thunderstorm.

LIGHTNING

Our experiment started with a clay monster. A house made out of modeling clay would probably have made more sense. (But that’s what I get for giving a 6-year-old choices.) We attached several 'lightning rods' (paper clips or safety pins) as hair. Then, I blew up a balloon, grabbed a wool coat, and we headed into a windowless room.

After vigorously rubbing the balloon against the wool (roughly 30 seconds), I held the balloon near the monster’s hair and, after several tries, we not only heard the crackle of our lightning, but saw it jump from the balloon to the metal. It was SO cool!!

I found the directions for homemade lightning on the Disney Family Fun site. TIP: Don’t blow the balloon up too full; a smaller balloon is easier to hold.

THUNDER

While I typically like to make popcorn the way my grandparents did on the stovetop crankin’ a handle until the pops have stopped, a microwave is a quicker way to ‘make thunder.’ Before I nuked a bag of unpopped popcorn, I explained to my son what happens during a storm. The following is an excerpt from Darice Bailer’s book Why Does it Thunder and Lightning? It seemed like a perfectly simple explanation for thunder:

The electric current that flows through the sky heats the air so fast that the air explodes. The explosion causes a rumbling or a loud BOOM in the sky.

I told my son that the microwave was going to make an electric current, similar to the one flowing through the sky during a storm. Then we listened for the noise created when the air inside the microwave was heated up quickly.

It wasn’t long before we heard our ‘thunder’ (the popcorn popping). What a yummy lesson!

RAIN

Making rain inside of a jar was a simple extension of the condensation experiment we did during our water cycle lesson. I first read about this experiment on I Can Teach My Child, one of my favorite blogs. It's pretty simple. 

Heat water until it's almost boiling. Pour some of the water into a clear glass jar. Put a plate on top of the jar and add ice cubes to the plate. Wait a few minutes and then watch inside as the condensation builds and streaks of water pour down the sides of the jar. It’s raining in there!