outdoor fun Archives - JDaniel4s Mom

How to Create An Exciting Water Science Discovery Center

May 11, 2015 By Deirdre

Much of the summer is spent outside at my house. We play, explore, and learn in our backyard. (Last year I shared with you a series of science experiments we did with water.) This year I have set up a science discovery center for my son on his gardening table. It has all kinds of kitchen tools and toys that can be used to explore water.

Today I am going to share with you just what I placed on the science discovery center. Over the next few days, I will share with you a few of the experiments that can be done using these science tools.

As the experiments are shared I will add links for them at the bottom of this post.

Here is what you will find in the science discovery center:

Top Shelf

A set of funnels (One of the funnels has vinyl tubing, 1″ ID x 1-1/16″ OD Clear Tube BPA Free Heavy Duty, 3.3FT coming out of it.)
Plastic Easter eggs
Corks
Bread Tags (Not visible in the picture)

Middle Shelf

Flowerpot
Plastic boat
Large plastic storage container
Plastic Eye Dropper Pipettes Plastic Eye Dropper Pipettes
Kizmos Flower Tools Plastic Measuring Spoons (These are from the same company, but are different from ours. Ours are not available.)
Salt and Pepper Shakers Moisture Proof Set o

Bottom Shelf

Tin can with a vertical column of holes
Plastic colander
Wooden spoon
Rocks (Not visible in the picture.)

You will notice at all of the items are durable and almost all of them are made of plastic. I wanted to select items that would do well if they were left outside.

Where did I get the science discovery center table?

I wasn’t able to find the gardening table we have online. Below are a few gardening tables I thought would work if you want to have a science discovery center in your yard.

Topeakmart Potting Benches Outdoor Garden Potting Table Work Bench

Wooden Toy Gardening Center Indoor/Outdoor Playset – 22 Wooden Pc Garden w Flowers, Seed Packets, Pots, Shovel, Rake, Apron, Watering Pot- Great Interactive and Fun Playtime Gift for Boys or Girls

Little Tikes 2-in-1 Garden Cart and Wheelbarrow

During the week I will be sharing the following science discovery table experiments:

How to Make Things Sink

Cork-Filled Easter Egg Experiments

How to Make Water Flow

Windy and Cool Science Experiments with Free Printable

April 24, 2015 By Deirdre

Windy and Cool Science Experiments

The wind seems to blow through our yard everyday. It only made sense then to explore the wind as a part of the the A-Z Science Experiments for Kids series hosted by Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails. As you will see we conducted a number of cool science experiments with wind.

We created a wind turbine or pinwheel for us to use to explore the wind. I made Who Has Seen the Wind Template that we could use and you could too.

The words on the pinwheel are from the title of a Christina Rossetti poem that I really love. It seemed to totally fit with the science experiment we were going to do.

Who Has Seen the Wind?

Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.

Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.

Here is how we assembled the pinwheel:

Cut out the two pinwheel pieces ( The pinwheel square and the cloud circle)
Cut down the dotted lines from the corners to the circle in the center.
Use a hole punch to punch the four corner holes and the center hole.
Bend the side of each triangular piece into the center and glue it down. Make sure the holes in those pieces line up with the holes in the center.
Glue the circle with the cloud in the center of the pinwheel.
Push a pin into the cloud right where its nose would be.
Attach the pin to a pencil. Make sure the pointy end of the pin isn’t sticking out of the pencil.

Exploring Cool Science Experiments With Wind

You can conduct your experiments inside or outside. We took out pinwheel outside.

Windy and Cool Science Experiments with Free Printable Pinwheel

Experiment One

Try to just get the pinwheel moving with a soft and slow breath. Start counting to ten once you get it moving.

What number were you able to count to?

Experiment Two

Then blow as hard as you can across the pinwheel. Start counting to ten again.

What number were you able to count to?

Experiment Three

Let the wind try to get the pinwheel spinning. Note which way the pinwheel turns.

Does it go clockwise or counterclockwise?

Experiment Four

If you held the pinwheel sideways, repeat the same experiments while holding the pinwheel right in front of you.

Did the number you could count to stay the same?

Did the wind blow it faster?

Experiment Five

Now try holding the pinwheel down horizontally and repeating the experiments.

Could you count to the same numbers?

Could the wind make it spin?

Windy and Cool Science Experiments with Free Printable Pinwheel

We discussed our answers to these question orally. You may decide to record you answers in a science journal.

Here are some other cool science experiments:

Cool Science Experiments with Friction

Pollination Experiments

Sink and Float M&M’s

You will find a more great science experiments for kids on my Early Learning Science Pinterest board.

Cool Experiments with Friction

Please stop by and check out all the other A to Z of Science Experiments for kids. There is a complete list of them on Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails.

If you try these cool science experiments , please leave me a comment below telling me about how your experiments went or share a picture of it on my Facebook page.

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{Gardens for Kids} Spider Web Trellis

May 9, 2013 By Deirdre

The idea for this spider web trellis came after reading about a spider web trellis in a book about gardening for kids. The book suggested using bamboo poles and twine to create a web. They went on to recommend that you plant a sweet pea plant to weave into the web.

JDaniel and I headed to Home Depot with the book in hand to see if we could find the materials and planst that we would need to create one for our backyard. We found out very quickly that they didn’t carry bamboo poles and that the customer service lady wouldn’t recommend using them. They will fall apart so quickly she said.

What did she recommend that we use instead? She pointed us to the metal poles that farmers used to make barbwire fences. “The poles have hooks built into them to attach the twine to,” she said. They were perfect. The fence poles are solid, won’t rot, and have those wonderful hooks.

The book then recommended a sweet pea plant, but they didn’t have any pea plants for sale. We then looked for the next thing on the list twine. They had a gardening twine so, we grabbed a roll of that before heading to the register.

JDaniel and I must have visited three other nurseries and didn’t find sweet pea plants. One recommended I buy seeds instead, but they didn’t carry them. The second nursery suggested we try Martin’s Nursery in the next town over so, we headed there.

They didn’t have them, but I wonderful lady there suggested that we try the Trumpet Creeper. “It will grow up to thirty feet long and will be flexible enough to weave,” she told us. When I told her about the twine I was going to use, she told us that was a bad idea. “It is going to rot,” she said. She recommended that we use a heavy string.

It was decided that we stopped by to pick up the string later in the day. JDaniel was ready to stop looking for spider web trellis materials by then. This gardening for kids project would have to wait awhile before getting started.

When we did have everything we needed, we headed into the backyard with our fence poles, string, Trumpet Creeper, and a variety of gardening tools ( large shovels, small hand shovels, scissors, a hammer and more)

The first thing we did was to plant the poles. It was a little tricky. We found that after about eight inches of dirt we have clay. Digging through the clay was a workout. JDaniel and I both took turns trying to dig through it.

Once we got the hole as deep as we could, I put a folded washcloth over the top of the pole and hammered it in. While I did that, JDaniel started the hole for the second post.

After I did a happy dance to celebrate the fact that poles were in place, we planted the Trumpet Creeper. Digging the hole for the plant was so much easier than it had been for the poles.

Creating the web was JDaniel’s favorite part. I had to show him how to pull the string tightly around the poles and attach it to the hooks at the beginning. He got the hang of it very quickly. He took the string across around and down over and over again.

The web got bigger and more elaborate as he wove it. The string went over and across our plant a couple of times. When I felt like we had a enough string on the web, I tied it off tightly and we both stepped back to look at it. We were both very pleased with it.

Would you like to make one of your on?

Here is our gardening for kids web supply list:

two green metal fence posts
a roll of heavy white string or twine
a plant that will creep or spread like a vine

We created our spider web trellis a few weeks ago. The plant has grown and we have been able to weave it through the web both vertically and horizontally. It is fun to decide what direction to guide plant into next.

This is a wonderful garden for kids. I hope you will try to make a spider web trellis too.

>This post is link to Dig Into Gardening. ( A gardening link up for kids that I am co-hosting)

Here are some more gardens for kids projects:

Paper Plate Greenhouse

Growing Grass Words

Mother’s Day Herb Garden

Earth Day Activity- Backyard Nature Center Table

April 18, 2012 By Deirdre

JDaniel dragged a plastic table off the deck and began searching the yard for items that he could display on his backyard nature center table.

He took the job very seriously and placed only things he really wanted to display on it. Flowers from bushes in the yard didn’t make the cut. Wood and dirt along with other ground coverings were necessary.

Once the items had been gathered, they had to be arranged in a specific way. The background of why each item is placed where was not shared with me by the display’s curator. I was advised that it should remain just the way it is.

When he finished, he was left with a dilemma. Who would visit his nature center table? The two preschool-age boys next door were invited over along with their dad to view it. One visit seemed to be enough for them.

So, today I am inviting you to view his backyard nature center display. A display of this kind deserves visitors beyond the ones available in our neighborhood.

Feel free to stop by often and share your thoughts on this wonderful exhibit. The actual display will remain open until early summer when the director of the backyard will probably remove it.

If you choose to open a display like this in your backyard, please let me know I would love to visit it virtually too.

This post is being linked to Alphabe Thursday.