One Very Charming Snake [a Static Electricity Experiment]

The ancient art of snake charming concocts wonderfully imaginative visions of faraway places and exotic music. 

When I saw this activity in 50 Science Things to Make & Do by Georgina Andrews and Kate Knighton, I knew we had to give it a try. We already had all the supplies we needed!

What You Need

Tissue paper

Scissors

Small plastic ruler

Markers

Wool fabric (I used a wool winter coat)

Here's how to be a snake charmer, with the help of static electricity.

Step 1

Use a plate to draw a circle on your tissue paper. Use a marker to do this, since a pencil or pen will be more likely to tear the thin tissue. Cut the circle out. 

TIP: If your tissue paper has folds in it, use an iron on a low temp setting to smooth it out some before drawing your circle.

Step 2

Draw a spiral inside the circle. Add eyes and a pattern to your "snake" with markers. (NOTE: My son neglected to decorate the snake's body until after Step 3 was complete and it was a challenge.)

Step 3

Cut along the spiral lines. Once you've finished cutting, recoil your snake.

Step 4

Take your ruler and vigorously (I'm talkin' hard and fast, folks) rub one end of the plastic ruler back and forth against the wool material for 30 seconds or longer.

Step 5

Now touch the end of the ruler that you rubbed to the snake's head. Watch the snake rise up and uncoil itself!

The extra particles transferred from the wool to the ruler cause a build-up of static electricity that is strong enough to lift the lightweight tissue paper.

If you weren't convinced to check out 50 Science Things to Make & Do when you saw the amazing kaleidoscope we made, hopefully you are now!

Big City of Word Skyscrapers

Spelling words, spelling words, oh how we're growing tired of spelling words. If you've been a faithful follower this month, you might have noticed a pattern - spelling word activities every Monday. (I think it's safe to say we're in a rut.) So, without further adieu, I give you the last spelling activity you'll see here for awhile.

Some spelling activities are best for review, after a fair amount of practice. This activity, like Spelling Race and Roll &Write, is perfect for that early practice when a child is just beginning to memorize the correct spelling of a handful of words.

The supply list is short: graph paper, pencil, and a yellow highlighter.

Make a Word Skyscraper

Along the bottom of the page, my son wrote the spelling words, one letter in each box. He spaced the words with one empty box between each.

Then he repeated the words, omitting one letter (either the first or last) on each line, making a stair-stepped skyscraper building for each word from the bottom up. The top of the skyscraper had just one letter (either the first or last).

Here's one of his skyscrapers:

i

in

inv

inve

inven

invent

inventi

inventio

invention

inventions

(The repetition of writing the letters again and again really helps my son with memorization.)

Who's Home in the Word Skyscraper?

Once each word skyscraper was complete, I had my son look at each line of letters (or each story in the skyscraper). Were there any other real words revealed?

In the example above, there were five: I, in, invent, invention, and inventions.

He colored those boxes with the yellow highlighter, simulating lights. (Everyone that lives on the ground floor is always home.)

Tell Me About Your City

With his city of words complete, I asked him several questions.

• Which skyscraper is the tallest?
• Which skyscraper has the most people home?
• Which skyscraper has the fewest people at home?

Repetition works. And spelling practice can be fun.

DIY Kaleidoscope

Did you have one of those cardboard tube kaleidoscopes as a kid? I did. And I still remember how magical it was to turn it and see the patterned colors change before my very eyes. As an adult I've ogled those fine art kaleidoscopes made of glass and mirrors a few too many times to count.

So when I was thumbing through 50 Science Things to Make & Do by Georgina Andrews and Kate Knighton, the kaleidoscope craft immediately caught my eye.

Could it truly be done? Was it really that simple?

The answer to both questions is yes. And, boy oh boy, is this cool.

Here are the supplies you'll need:

• 4- by 6-inch piece of chipboard (recycle a cereal box)
• 4- by 6-inch piece of flat, clear plastic (if you don't have something in your recycle bin that will work, buy an acetate sheet from your local copy shop or a clear report cover from an office supply store)
• aluminum foil
• glue stick
• tracing paper
• markers
• tape

Step 1

Fold your piece of cardboard in half so the short edges meet. Then unfold, and fold each of the ends in to the center fold, so that your chipboard rectangle has three heavy creases.

Step 2

Put the piece of clear plastic over the top of your chipboard. Now use a ruler and scissors to score the plastic where the folds are on your chipboard.

Step 3

Set the plastic aside for now. Put glue all over the chipboard and top with aluminum foil (shiny side up). Trim the excess.

Step 4

Lay the scored plastic over the foiled chipboard and fold into a triangular shape (one side with overlap). The foil and plastic should be inside the triangular tube. Tape to close.

Step 5

Cut a small square of tracing paper that's bigger than the triangular opening of your tube (ours was about 3- by 3-inches). Using markers, add a colorful pattern to the paper, filling most of the space with bright colors. The pattern will work best if it radiates out from the center.

Step 6

Now hold the triangular tube up to the light, put it to your eye, and look through it; place the tracing paper pattern over the open end and turn it. Light will shine through the tracing paper and the pattern will be reflected off the sides of the plastic-covered foil, creating a magical transformation of colored shapes.

ENJOY!! (We did.)

Want to try other great ideas like this one? Get the book 50 Science Things to Make & Do!

3 Simple Spelling Review Activities

Is it the end of the school year yet? Oy! Those spelling lists just keep on comin' home with my son.

If you're like me, you'll do anything to find a creative way to make practicing them fun. (Sadly, there is always grumbling from my son when I pull out the list to review.)

Here are some new ideas he's enjoyed recently.

No. 1: Spelling Review Ball Toss

My son is a kinesthetic learner. It's like his brain gets moving when his body is moving too. One day I picked up his Nerf football and we practiced the words one by one, tossing the ball back and forth. I'd say a letter and he'd come up with the next one, with the ball whizzing between us. 

If the ball dropped, we started the word again. If his spelling was incorrect, I explained the error and we began again. We can't continue on to the next word until each one is spelled right.

VARIATION: Take your spelling practice outside. Grab a basketball. Read the words on the list and as your child recites the spelling, have them dribble the ball (one bounce per letter).

No. 2: Invisible Ink Spelling Review

Okay, so I'm exaggerating a little with that title. But seriously, crayon resist makes it easy for kids to self-check their spelling practice. Simply grab a piece of paper and fold it in half the long way. If it's not lined, make lines. Using a white crayon (or I use a fine-tip Crayola twistables colored pencil), write the correct spelling of each word on the right side of the fold. The child spells each word on the left and then gets to use watercolor paint to reveal the "invisible word" on the right. Maybe my son is naive, but he thinks this is nothing short of magic.

No. 3: A-MAZE-ing Spelling

I can't take credit for this idea, although I'd like to. It's genius. Alissa at Creative With Kids shared this idea back in 2011. You can actually turn your child's spelling words into mazes. It takes a little front-end prep (you need to sign up for a free account at Fontstruct and download the Mazey font; also free), but once your computer is equipped with the new font, it's just a matter of typing the spelling words and hitting print.

NOTE: Because my son had the words groan and grown on his list the first week that we did this, I added a sentence above each of the word's mazes to help him understand the difference in the word's use and meaning.

My son had LOADS of fun with this! Once he'd wound his way through the maze, he colored the letters in the maze so it was easier to read the word.

Multiplication BINGO

This is the fourth BINGO game I've made for my son and I can honestly say that the shine hasn't worn off. My boy still loves BINGO and I still love how easy it is for him to learn amazing things by playing it.

When my son's classroom teacher told me he was ready for multiplication and division at the last parent-teacher conference, I took it as my green light to start really challenging him to learn the math facts.

I made six BINGO cards with the answers to a variety of multiplication problems. (Download the game I made here free). I printed them and the problems on card stock, grabbed a multiplication table (in case my son got stuck), and a bowl of cheerios to use as game pieces. We were ready … almost.

When my son got home, we read a great book of multiplication math problems cleverly disguised as children's fiction. My son had loads of fun with Suzanne Slade's book Multiply on the Fly. We whizzed through the book with my son firing off answers to the insect-inspired queries as quickly as the buzzing bugs on the pages within.

Then we got busy playing.

I turned over all the calling cards so the problems were face down and one by one drew them. I was careful to cover the answer with my thumb as I showed him the problems.

If the answer was on our game cards, we placed a cheerio over it.

We got through quite a few problems, and my son only needed to reference the multiplication table once (8 x 8), before he got a diagonal 5-in-a-row and hollered exuberantly, "BINGO!!!!"

He might have won the game, but having made practicing multiplication a riot for my son made ME feel like a winner too.

I love that.