Tag: experiments

Cooking & Chemistry – Pandemic Homeschooling, Theme 5

Here’s #5! Click here for the list of themes. Speaking of kitchens, I have a cabinet filled with our “quarantine” treats! We’re allowed to have one of each thing per person per day. Treats include capri sun pouches, pop tarts, assorted single serving chips, powdered lemonade mix, etc. Having school closed counts as a quarantine condition, LOL.

Activities

  • Plastic Milk experiment looks high impact with two ingredients, a microwave and a strainer. Fun with cookie cutters! Here’s another experiment question: Will this work with milk made with milk powder?
  • You could try any of these Cookie Experiments, OR you can just bake cookies with different sweeteners to test their differences. Sugar, honey, Splenda, corn syrup are all on the table!
  • Find out how tall you can build a tower made of marshmallows
  • Grow sugar crystals

Books

“Teens Cook: How to Cook What You Want to Eat,” Megan, Jill and Judy Carle, available on Overdrive
“Science Experiments You Can Eat,” Vicki Cobb, available on Amazon ($)
“Eat Your Science Homework, “ Ann McCallum, available on Overdrive

Snacks

Anything you make in these activities!!

Plants & Flowers – Pandemic Homeschooling, Theme 4

Here’s the fourth theme in this series. I know this guide was originally written at a normal time where we could freely go out and get supplies or books from the library. You might not have all the supplies listed in these posts. I hope, however, this series of themed activities can still help you with inspiration to help you get through your days of Social Distancing with your family. My kids haven’t gotten nutty yet, but I myself am on my way there. Having a list of options is always helpful for me when it’s not easy think creatively, so maybe this will be helpful for some of you too!

Field Trips

  • If you can get to a place where you won’t run into people closely, take a nature walk!
  • If you have a yard, go out and collect plants or sticks to make a centerpiece for your table.
  • The Arnold Arboretum is open to visitors but all the facilities have closed. Click here for more information.

Books

“Martha Says it with Flowers,” Susan Meddaugh, available on Overdrive
“The Ugly Vegetables,” Grace Lin, available on Overdrive
“The Secret Garden,” Frances Hodgson Burnett, available on both Hoopla and Overdrive.

Free Online Learning

Understanding Plants, Part 1: What a Plant Knows on Coursera
A list of 4 free Herbalist classes
Becoming an Herbalist Mini Course, The Herbal Academy

Activities

  • Potato Maze Experiment, which requires some advanced planning to get a potato to start sprouting before building the potato obstacle course. Note: Make sure there are not light leaks in the box except for the exit point.
  • Biome in a Baggie Experiment, to learn about the water cycle, Zoom from PBS.
  • Make sun prints with colored construction paper

Snacks

Any kind of fruit plus pictures of the whole plant and flower that fruit comes from.