Science! I say Science Again!

Okay, so, you know how sometimes you are ready to write in the MOMENT but later you just don't want to feel like getting into it?

That is the situation with yesterday.

And so forgive me if I move on to today which was more fun anyway (except the movie... Dear Frankie... which was quite good, by the way.)

I admit that most of the day I was within an inch of a melt down (stress and I are not friends) but as it is OVER I can say it WAS a fun day camp. It was "FUNdamentals of Science" for ages 6-8 and it was full... about 30 VERY energetic kiddlets... and funny.

I had them learn mostly about states of matter... with as many (mild) explosions as I was allowed. We learned why Dry Ice was dry. We learned how to make really big bubbles. We made Oobleck.

More specifically, have you ever blown bubbles into a clear container of water and dry ice? The bubbles will bounce on the "smoke."

AND if you have water and dry ice and add dish soap to it, it will blow bubbles itself... that when you pop them are filled with the "smoke." Kids LOVE it. (So do *I*) If you have never done it, TRY IT.

Of course, we also made root beer. We did it wrong. Not their fault. MINE. You should really put only HALF the water in with the root beer extract, sugar, etc. THEN put in the dry ice. THEN the rest of the water. Instead we put in everything put the dry ice at once, and so when the ice went in I got covered in sticky root beer mix.

We also made "CO2 Sandwiches"... vinegar and backing soda exploding plastic baggies, played "Neutron Tag" (basically buddy tag but they are being positrons and electrons), etc.

However, one of my favorite things was still exposing a bunch of little kiddlets to Coke and Mentos! hee hee hee hee hee!



Ours was just, you know, NORMAL, and not so Bellagioesue, but STILL fun. Though we did experiment a few (Diet Coke seemed to go higher than Not Diet. Caffeine Free and Not caffeine free (or as some of the kids called it "Bad Coke and Good Coke" which cracked me up.) seemed to make no difference. However nothing so dramatic (or silly) as this:



But the kids were still pretty dang entertained that I was COVERED in Coke. (yes, what a lovely day to have a social thing after work... I get to go to a party covered in Coke... and root beer... and vinegar and baking soda and Oobleck and sweat and bubbles... and the regular pony hair and goat slobber.

With all the states of matter I thought we ought to have a little fun with non-Newtonian fluids (because, really, how funny is it to make 6 year olds SAY "non-Newtonian fluids") and we made Oobleck. hee hee hee! I *heart* playing with that stuff!
If you were curious...

Oobleck

Materials Needed

• 1 1/2 C. Corn Starch
  
• 1 C. Water
  
• Food Color (optional)

Mix the ingredients and allow children to play with the mixture. When"pushed" together, the mixture will appear dry and solid; as children let go of the mixture, it flows like a smooth liquid.

(However, you usually have to adapt it a bit., or we did anyway... like add more of one or the other... plus, apparently if you have ENOUGH you can do THIS:



Then we made ice cream (shaking it, like we make for the 2nd grade field trip) to put in our root beer and have root beer floats! (Sweeeeeet Science!)

After work I stayed in Lehi for a PARTY!!!! YAY! It was a Baby Shower, but NOT a boring one! In other words we did not have to drop diaper pins into jars or any of those games. It was way cute and planned by the lovely Laurie for Bethany and fam... well, and especially, obviously, the BABY of said family.

It was SUPER cute, good food (I used my child labor connections and brought root beer made by my day camp/sweat shop students for MY potluckery. hee hee!), and fantastic people (many of which are/were Linkster friends of mine. I am sure I am forgetting somebody, but there was GranolaGirl, NerdSpouse, Brentito, CountessKrispy, Travbabe... of course Thai and Scott and Thai's sweet mom... and the STARS Buck and Awesome (and Little Buck and INCREDIBLY ADORABLE mini-mike, Baby David!) and Darci and... others. Yeah. And ponies. It was good times!

And as for the baby, seriously... GORGEOUS BABY, isn't he?

And as for the title... hee hee hee!