We are getting ready to celebrate America's birthday on July 4th so I wanted to share a few activities with you. Have fun playing them and have a
Happy 4th of July!
Drag and drop online fireworks puzzle (click here)
What is inside a firework? (click here)
Match the color to the firework online game (click here)
US Flag Jigsaw Puzzle (you can choose how many pieces to use)-(click here)
Here are some instructions to make your own fireworks (well, sort of!):
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For
most kids, Fourth of July fireworks are a highlight of the holiday. Who doesn't
love those magnificent and exciting explosions of color? This activity is a
great way for your child to make her own fireworks, without the danger of
course, and celebrate the holiday with a bang! Your child will have fun and
she'll even learn some science too!
What
You Need:
- Large, tall clear glass jar filled with water—half a
gallon or more works best!
- Blue, red and yellow liquid food coloring
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- Small jar
- Spoon or stir stick for mixing
- Clear Pyrex measuring cup
What
You Do:
- Fill a large clear glass jar—half a gallon or
larger—with plain water. Place it on a table where your child can watch it
from several angles.
- Invite your child to pour 2 tablespoons of oil into a
clear Pyrex measuring cup. (Remember: measuring is a core science and math
skill in elementary school, and there’s no such thing as too much
practice.)
- Now help your child put in about 5 drops each of red,
blue, and yellow food coloring into the oil. Stir each color into the oil.
- Have your child pour the oil onto the water in the jar
all at once. At first, the oil will be spread around in globules,
but keep watching: right before your eyes, the oil and food coloring will
first float to the top, and then the globs will “find” one another and
come together.
- Now it’s time for even more fun as the “fireworks”
begin! The food coloring will begin to separate from the oil and move back
into the water, in long streams of each of the three colors. The colors
will separate from one another as if they never mixed in the first place,
and stream through the water in the three original colors that you began
with. For both adults and kids alike, the results can be mesmerizing.
What's
Going On:
This
experiment is a demonstration of that old scientific truth: “oil and water
don’t mix.” Another important scientific property being demonstrated here is
the movement of liquid molecules and the effects of "relative
density." Oil molecules like to stick to other oil molecules more than
they like to stick to water molecules. Likewise, water molecules are attracted
to other water molecules more than they are to oil molecules. Left to their own
devices, oil and water will push each other away and try to get as far away
from one another as possible.
When
you pour the food coloring into the oil and shake it, the two will mix briefly,
but the mixture is quite unstable at this point. Then, when you pour the oil
onto the water, it will break up at first, but as you continue to watch, you'll
see the oil molecules find one another and begin to come back together.
Finally, the water-soluble (meaning "water-liking") food coloring
finds its way out of the oil, and heads back into the water, one color at a
time, offering an extra art lesson in the ways that primary colors combine and
separate. In the spirit of adventurous scientists everywhere, you can encourage
your child to try this experiment several times, with lots of colors!
By Julie Williams -
Julie Williams, M.A.
Education, taught middle and high school History and English for seventeen
years. Since then, she has volunteered in elementary classrooms while raising
her two sons and earning a master's in school administration. She has also been
a leader in her local PTA.
From Education.com
