Science Week 

This week preschool got deeply involved in the thrill of science week subject and found a variety of ways to enhance that. We started off watching multiple videos and demos of experiments that are child-friendly but still fun, then chose the ones we wanted to take part in. On Tuesday we began our practical activities with a ‘dancing popcorn’ experiment and made sure to gather all the ingredients required for this activity. We grouped up around the tables, and took turns pouring the kernels, baking soda, vinegar, water, and food colouring. It was great to see all the children engaged and teaming with each other in such a fun and hands-on atmosphere, cooperating so well whilst following the instructions given to achieve the task and discussing the possible or expected outcomes from this experiment. Towards the end we watched all the colourful liquids react to each other as the popcorn began to rise with bubbles, with some overflowing and some remaining in the jar, which the children were so happy to witness and be a part of.

On Wednesday afternoon we then decided to take on a quicker and more bubbly experiment, that’s known for its a rapid reaction and certain success, which is the famous coca cola and Mentos combination. We took this easy experiment outside in the warm weather and had all the children gathered around the tuff tray, we explained what the intention was behind it and that we expected the fizz of the drink to shoot up in bubbles, which it did successfully and had an over spilling outcome which wowed the children. Afterwards, we came back inside to create our own lava lamps using oil, water, food colouring, an Alka-Seltzer tablet and bottles. The children worked well as a team and used different colours to compare outcomes with their friends and make it more vibrant.

Continuing with the colour scheme, on Thursday we used skittles and water to create a rainbow, which the children were more than happy to take part in. We placed skittles around in a circle of the bowl and poured just enough water to line up with them that eventually had the skittles running their colour as seconds went by. Such a quick and easy experiment that could be done at home, that the children enjoyed very much and were satisfied to see the skittles all turn white which surprisingly didn’t even tempt them for a taste.

Lovely experiments this week preschool and becoming our very own scientists!

For science week the babies turned into mini scientists and created their own potions using coloured water, lemons limes and flowers the babies really enjoy water play currently so this is an activity they instantly became engaged in.

We then conducted an experiment using coloured vinegar and bicarbonate of soda to see the reaction and create coloured fizz, the babies enjoyed watching the bubbles rise when they poured the vinegar into the test tubes.

In toddler room for science week we conducted some experiments. Our first experiment was to explore colour mixing through making potions. We were able to use test tubes and jugs and explore filling and pouring to see what the different outcomes were. Our next experiment was a volcano experiment. We mixed vinegar and bicarbonate soda together to create a reaction, we added food colouring and had fun watching it pour out onto our volcano. Our next experiment we added Mentos to coke and lemonade to see what happened. For this activity we predicted that the same thing might happen that happened with the volcano, we were pleasantly surprised when it caused a big explosive reaction that was lots of fun to watch. For our last experiment we tested our attention and focus skills by adding water to skittles to make rainbows. We all did amazing waiting during this experiment and loved watched their rainbows suddenly appear. Well done Toddlers what a fun week of experiments.