Geodes

We have this neat little shop in our town called "Cool Stuff" and he loves rocks and minerals. He has a number of different minerals to sell, and one of them is Geodes. He said the trick to find one that would be hollow was finding one that was light compared to the others for it's size. Some Geodes will be solid inside, but I think the prettiest ones are hollow with neat crystals growing inside. So this is the rock we picked. We found what looked to be a natural line around the rock, and took turns pounding on it. I think we did a pretty good job. :) We picked good, our rock was absolutely beautiful. :) Now we want to try growing our own in empty egg shells. We hear you can mix water and epson salt and it grows in maybe 30min. to an hr. :) Add a couple drops of food coloring and you'll have colored crystals.

Studying the human body

Here are a couple hands on things I found online to study the body with. The whole thing is about life size for a child. The body parts velcro to the blue backing. The child can arrange the organs where they belong.

This next one has a vest that the child can put on and the little detachable velcro "pillow" organs can be placed by child or another child in the correct place. Someone more crafty than I could make the little organs.

Another fun idea is to take a large roll of paper like a newspaper endroll or butcher paper. Roll out a piece on the floor that's larger than your child and trace around him/her. Then they draw on their own bones, organs and facial features. A note on the newpaper endrolls. This paper is thin like newspaper but very cheap. Just go to your local newspaper office and ask if they have any end rolls to sell. There is tons of paper left on the rolls and they sell in my town for like 2$ Can't beat the price for art projects like this one.

Launching an indoor homemade rocket

This was a fun project too. We found an old 35mm film capsule and taped a paper rocket around it. (the kind of film container with the lid that fits up inside is best, because it has a tighter seal allowing for more pressure to build up inside) You need the film canisters lid to be at the bottom of your rocket so you can add the fuel. Anyhow, you take about a table spoon or two of water and drop in 1/2 a tablet of alka seltzer, pop the lid down in a hurry and jump back. The pressure will build and off pops the lid shooting your rocket into orbit. :) Ours went about 8 -10 foot up in the air. Notice we have a tray on the floor because it will deposit the water and some foam on the floor. :)

Launching a homemade space shuttle

Here my son is launching a homemade space shuttle he made. We happened to be studying space around the 4th of July and so he taped his shuttle to a bottle rocket. :) COOL!

What do you know it flew too! :)