We finally got the first set of the Young Scientist Club kits (thanks Gammy) and the kids were gnawing at the bit to get started on the projects inside. So today we pulled it out and started with the Recycling Kit. We did experiment #2 – recycling a paper bag into paper. The kits aren’t amazing but we had a lot of fun and it was nice having the ‘not normal household’ stuff right there. In this case, two pieces of screen and a sponge. We had to supply a paper bag and a blender (although the directions did say you could skip the blender if you really cut the pieces up small and soaked the paper well).
You can easily do this at home without the kit. First tear up the paper into tiny pieces. Then soak 1 cup of paper in 4 cups warm water (they recommend a 1 cup paper to 1 cup warm water for lighter papers like newspaper) for five minutes.
If you have a blender, blend until it is a fine pulp. (Ear plugs are optional 😉 )
Place a piece of screen over a bowl or cup and pour or spoon out some of the paper pulp into an even layer. Press the back of the spoon on the pulp to squeeze out excess water.
Place a second piece of screen over the pulp, flip the paper over onto a towel and use the sponge to flatten the paper more between the screens (you can use a rolling pin for a smoother paper). We set ours to dry on a cookie sheet.
Bug is totally getting into the whole "My Project" thing. We have recently moved into the world of dinosaurs and prehistoric animals. While pouring over some prehistoric ZooBook Magazines my mom lent him… Bug came up to me with a activity guide (which I didn’t know was in the set) saying "this is what I’M doing next for my project." He wanted to make a Boxasaurus. Sure, sounds like fun!
We spent several days collecting boxes of various sizes. We raided the garage, basement, recycling bin, etc. Once we had a decent collection it was time to start designing the dinosaur. Bug spent some time just stacking and sorting until he decided to make a T-Rex (not surprising).
I helped him assemble the boxes. He did the glue and I taped the pieces in place to help hold them until the glue set. At this point his Boxasaurus project serendipitously tied in with this week’s Unplugged Challenge theme Balance. The T-Rex was very front heavy and had to lean against the wall until we got the tail in place. What a great lesson in balance and a perfect hands on lesson as to one of the reasons why many animals have tails! He wanted a longer tail on his Boxasuarus but that in turn made him back heavy. In the end we found the perfect balance of tail length to support the head and arms.
Next came the whole family production (and I do mean PRODUCTION) of painting the Boxasaurus. Since painting outside was out of the question (neg 10 not factoring wind chill), we cleared the furniture from the kitchen, set down some plastic bags (lol) and set up shop to paint. Good fun was had by all. AND Thank goodness it was a weekend and Daddy was home to carry the kids directly up to the tub while I cleaned up. The floor was a showcase that would have done Pollock proud. Fortunately Bamaboo cleans up so well!
Once dry, eyes, teeth and glitter (hehe, a well dressed Boxasaurus) were added.
This week’s Unplugged Challenge theme was Sand. We made sand candles using the kids hand/foot prints. They were really easy and we used recycled materials… so it was a free craft too.
First I collected up a bunch of random votive candles. I seem to have them in mass, but seldom actually use them. I pulled the stickers off the bottom, then pulled out the wicks and set those aside. I put 2 votives at a time into my potpourri crock pot to melt.
Then the kids and I filled a Pyrex baking dish with sand from the sand box (I would recommend using clean craft sand, but this is what we had on hand). We dampened the sand and each kid got a turn to make an impression. The older kiddos used their hands (I had to help push them down far enough) and for B we did her footprint. I poured the melted wax into the impression (each candle took about 2 votives worth of wax) and set in one of the wicks in the deepest part. Once the candle cooled to the touch, we removed it from the sand, rinsed off the excess sand with cool water and set up the sand for the next impression.
I think we ended up with some really cool Halloween candles.
One of our projects this morning was recycling all our little broken crayon bits into new block style crayons. It was a fun an easy craft and the kids really enjoyed using their ‘new’ crayons. I followed the basic directions provided on Martha Stewart’s site.
Basically you just peel all the crayons and break them up into pea sized chunks. (I used a butter knife on a cutting board to break some of them up).
Let the kids fill mini-cupcakes tins with their choice of colors.
Bake in a 200 degree oven for 15min – or until completely melted.
Cool on a rack.
Ours popped out without any issues.
