We had the TV on in the afternoon the other day and I saw a childrens show (not sure what it was called sorry) where they blew a balloon up inside a plastic PET bottle as part of an experiment demonstrating how air takes up space even though you can't see it. The kids on the show then filled the balloons with water and tied them off so the water balloons were trapped inside the bottle.
I thought it looked super cool so we had a go at it today and improvised a little to create a bit of volcano action (always a topic of interest around here ;-D).
WE USED:
* empty clean 2L PET bottle with lid
* balloon
* water
* food colouring (optional, we coloured our water red because after the first few tries Bubble wasn't impressed with transparent 'lava' :-D)
* tool to make small hole in bottle (we used a sharp tip knife, a nail or thick embroidery needle could also work).
Insert the balloon into the neck of the bottle and then stretch the open end of the balloon over the mouth of the bottle.
Ask your child to try blowing up the balloon - they wont be able to do it because of the air already inside the bottle. Even though they can't see it it is there taking up space.
Using your sharp implement (we used a knife - very carefully of course!) make a small hole in the bottom of the bottle.
Try blowing up the balloon again and voilà - success! Explain that the air has moved the make room for the balloon because it can escape from the hole you have made. Cover the hole with your finger and the balloon will stay inflated.
Keeping the hole covered with your finger fill the balloon with water. Be sure to keep the hole in the bottle covered even when the balloon is full.
Replace the cap and you should be safe to take your finger off the hole (release it slowly in case the lid leaks, ours was fine though). You now have a balloon full of water inside a bottle; I'm sure you can guess what comes next!
Once the lid is removed the water explodes from the bottle as the air rushes back in through the hole in the base to push it out.
Bubble was however unimpressed with water as 'lava', so we did it again putting red colouring in the balloon before blowing it up and filling with water. I sat the bottle in a dish to make clean up of the red water easier.
When the flow started to lag a bit (the subsequent 'eruptions' were less and less explosive, Im guessing because the top of our balloon got a few holes in it) Bubble gave the bottle a squeeze to ramp up the action...
... just a little :-)
This activity was definitely a hit - water, volcanos and squeezing stuff, how could it fail :-)
Our 'faces' just waiting for some hair.
Bubble used dot stickers and markers to create the faces.
Bubble used the glue where she wanted her hair to go, she was very specific! :-)
Our finished faces with their different hairstyles.
First I cut a food pyramid from cardboard and sectioned it with a marker. I labelled the sections 'sometimes food' and 'anytime food' because I want Bubble to get the idea that healthy food can be eaten anytime and foods that aren't so healthy are for 'sometimes' only :-)
We talked about each food and Bubble guessed which section it should go in. If she guessed incorrectly I told her the correct answer and why ("because it's made with lots of sugar", "because it's a fruit" etc...).
We've hung it on our phonics wall so we can discuss it this week and elaborate a bit on the whole 'healthy' and 'not so healthy' thing.
Insert the balloon into the neck of the bottle and then stretch the open end of the balloon over the mouth of the bottle.
Ask your child to try blowing up the balloon - they wont be able to do it because of the air already inside the bottle. Even though they can't see it it is there taking up space.
Using your sharp implement (we used a knife - very carefully of course!) make a small hole in the bottom of the bottle.
Try blowing up the balloon again and voilà - success! Explain that the air has moved the make room for the balloon because it can escape from the hole you have made. Cover the hole with your finger and the balloon will stay inflated.
Keeping the hole covered with your finger fill the balloon with water. Be sure to keep the hole in the bottle covered even when the balloon is full.
Replace the cap and you should be safe to take your finger off the hole (release it slowly in case the lid leaks, ours was fine though). You now have a balloon full of water inside a bottle; I'm sure you can guess what comes next!
Once the lid is removed the water explodes from the bottle as the air rushes back in through the hole in the base to push it out.
Bubble was however unimpressed with water as 'lava', so we did it again putting red colouring in the balloon before blowing it up and filling with water. I sat the bottle in a dish to make clean up of the red water easier.
When the flow started to lag a bit (the subsequent 'eruptions' were less and less explosive, Im guessing because the top of our balloon got a few holes in it) Bubble gave the bottle a squeeze to ramp up the action...
... just a little :-)
This activity was definitely a hit - water, volcanos and squeezing stuff, how could it fail :-)
On one side of the milk bottle I punctured some small holes using a paring knife tip. Then on an adjoining side drew a sun (making sure when the sun side was held upright the side with the holes faced upwards, so it wouldn't 'rain' when the sun was out).
On the opposite side I drew some rainclouds (so when this side is upright the side with the holes faces down, making it rain).
I made a bottle barn for the Little People animals to shelter in.
And a bottle house for the Little People to take cover inside from the deluge.
We put our bottle house and barn in the bathtub where Bubble could make it rain to her hearts content :-)
Everybody safely inside, I think there's a storm coming!
When Bubble held the milk bottle cloud rainy side out the water came tumbling down (sorry the photo is so dodgy, there is rain there I promise :-D).
Bubble was delighted controlling the weather in her mini world, and the Little People weren't too upset about having puddles to jump in either ;-)
I used a large cookie cutter to trace 14 heart shapes onto thick card and then cut them out.
Then made two holes in the top of each heart using a hole punch so they could be threaded onto some wool using a child friendly needle.
Bubble sat for ages carefully threading and spacing her hearts along a length of wool.
We then hung her heart garland along her bedroom wall above her bed.
Using a small shaped cutter I traced 14 hearts onto the back of a sheet of red contact paper.
On each heart I will write something I love about Bubble to create little 'Ways I Love You' stickers that can be added to her heart garland.
Every night before Bubble goes to bed during the 14 days leading up to Valentines I will give her another 'sticker' for us to read together and add to her wall.
I cut out the parts for making both the Australian National flag and the Australian Aboriginal flag from sheets of felt. The stars on the National flag are very dodgy unfortunately, I didnt realise how tricky 7 point stars are to draw!
Bubble used small pictures of each flag as a guide while she assembled them.
She did a very good job I thought! Bubble really liked this activity and is quite fascinated with flags in general, so I think I will make some more of these to represent flags of other countries.
