Thursday, April 9, 2015

Last Wonderful Wednesday! Easter Celebration!

Hard to believe we are done!  Wonderful Wednesday has seen it's final week!  The last week landed on April fools day, and right before Easter.  I couldn't help but have some messy, erupting fun to bring it all to a close!  I even played an April fool's day joke on all the kids!  I've included instructions and ingredients for all this week's Wonderful Wednesday's fun - great for anytime of the year -not just Easter!


April Fools Day Joke


So to begin our day, I offered the kids some brown-E's for breakfast.  They eagerly accepted the invitation to what they heard to be brownies, and I headed to the stove to take out my surprise.  When I placed my brown-E's in front of them all, they weren't quite sure if Ms. Leonard had lost her mind, or what was going on.  Then the light bulbs went off, and they all found the humor in my April fools day joke!  (I had cut up brown construction paper E's and then put them into a baking pan.)
It was just the beginning of a day filled with silly surprises.  We finished our lap books, and then headed to the gym to begin our first experiment.  


Scientist Dress Up Theme

In keeping with our science memory work, which talked about what good science is, we decided to all dress up as scientists for our final week!  


Color Explosion Experiment

Supplies:
  • Plate
  • Whole milk
  • Food coloring
  • Q-tips
  • Dawn dish soap
Take the milk and pour it onto the plate until it's covered sufficiently, about 1/2" deep, with milk.  Then have the kids drop food coloring dots onto their milk.  Next take a Q-tip and dip it into some Dawn dish soap and then touch the soap covered end of the Q-tip onto the milk.  The colors will run away from the Dawn dish soap and spread out into beautiful designs.  We even took our Q-tips and turned them over and re-applied soap to the plate full of colors, and watched them jump across the plate.  This is a very easy, high impact experiment for kids.


Forgiveness Demonstration

I did a demonstration of a vacuum, which symbolized Christ's forgiveness of our sins.  

Supplies Needed:
  • Flat glass pie pan or plate
  • Glass jelly jar or container
  • White candle
  • Penny
  • Food coloring
  • Water
  • Matches
I presented the kids with a pie pan that had a white candle, a penny not too far from it, and a glass filled with blue dyed water.  I poured a little bit of water onto the plate that covering the penny and surrounding the candle.  I lit the candle and then explained that the candle represented Christ and the penny represented us.  The blue water represented our sin.  I next placed the glass jar over the burning candle, and "magically" the blue water was sucked up underneath the glass jar!  Then the candle extinguished, as the oxygen in the jar ran out.  We talked about how Jesus takes our sins away and placed them onto himself, dying for our sin.  Then we talked about the science of how the jar and candle created a vacuum, pulling in the water as it was created.  It's a pretty powerful demonstration!  I will say that you have to play with the experiment a bit to get the amount of water correct and the other elements to the experiment just right.  However, it's very cool when you do.
We next split into two groups.  One group headed outside to make a cross wood project, while the other, began working on a thorn of crowns project…


Wooden Cross Project

Supplies Needed:
  • 8"x6" Wooden pieces stained (big thanks to my wonderful hubby for doing this!)
  • Large headed roofing nails
  • Hammers
  • Colored string or yarn
  • 5"x7" cross picture, printed and cut out to use as a guide 
The kids first placed the cut out cross paper onto their stained wood, making sure to center it.  Then they nailed nails on the 8 end corners of the cross, and then the four inner corners.  Once they were nailed, then they removed the paper guide and began to string the nails with their chosen string color.  The designs were all different, and I totally got busy with all that was going on and never made it back to photograph everyones final masterpieces!  =(  (They used gloves because the stain was still a little tacky from being stained the night before.)


Crown of Thorns

Supplies Needed:
  • 4 cups of flour
  • 1 cup of salt
  • Water -to the correct texture start with 1/2 cup
  • Toothpicks
  • Cookie sheet for baking
Add the flour and salt, then add water until the mixture is a smooth but firm consistency for molding.  Next take the dough and split it out so that you can make three "snakes" to braid.  Have the kids braid the three snakes and close them into a circular shape.  Next take toothpicks and breaking them in half, place them with the point side out, into the braided dough to resembled thorns.  Next bake the dough in the oven at 400 degrees for about an hour, or until the dough is clearly dried and hard.


Chocolate Gak

We made some good ol' gak -but chocolate smelling, of course for Easter.  However, you won't want to eat this stuff!  It's NOT edible!!!  But it sure smells good!  I wouldn't recommend it for young children who won't be able to resist the smell and may put it in their mouths!  

Supplies Needed:
  • 3/4 Cups of cold water
  • 1 Cup of Elmer's glue
  • Liquid food coloring
  • 1/2 Cup of hot water
  • 1 Teaspoon of Borax 
  • 1 Tablespoon of Chocolate Cocoa
Bowl 1:  Mix together the cold water, glue, food coloring, and chocolate.  Then set aside.
Bowl 2:  Mix together the hot water and Borax, until completely dissolved.
Combine Bowl 1 into Bowl 2 and mix well.  It should form a slippery, smooth, putty texture.  Pour off any extra water left over that didn't mix.  
In true Wonderful Wednesday finale style, I pulled out the shaving cream activity!  The kids LOVE this.  Somehow, one convinced me to put some on their goggles, and before I knew it, they all wanted it on their goggles and everywhere else, by the end of the time!  Lot's of fun though!


Making Puff Peeps

There was a purpose to the shaving cream - it was to make puff paint!  After all the goggle spaying, we did finally get around to our actual purpose, but it was again delayed by some very fun sensory play as they mixed their glue and shaving cream together!  I've been making puff paint for so long, I don't measure anymore, so I don't think I can give you an accurate "recipe".  I just add almost a whole container of shaving cream, to about 1/2 an 8oz. container of white glue.  Mix them together, add some food coloring and then let the kids go to town "painting".  

I drew giant peep bunnies onto pieces of construction paper, for the kids to fill in with the shaving cream paint.  Some missed the point entirely, just spreading puff paint all over their entire paper and the table, and just had fun making a big mess - LOL.  That's what it's all about though - ending the school year with joy and messy fun!


Erupting Easter Egg Dying!

We couldn't just color easter eggs the ol' fashion way.  That would be too boring!  So, we did some erupting easter egg coloring this year.  Too much fun!

Supplies Needed:
  • Hard boiled white eggs
  • Baking soda
  • Food coloring
  • Vinegar
  • Empty jars
  • Paint brushes
  • Small containers
Take small containers (I used old applesauce cups) and mix some baking soda with food coloring, adding enough water to make a thick paste.  Once all your colors are mixed, then using a paint brush, have the kids paint designs with their colors, onto the eggs.  They should paint them thickly, so there is a good amount of mixture on each egg.  Once painted, then take empty jars and fill them with vinegar. Head outside with your vinegar jars, because this is messy!  Have them drop their painted eggs into the vinegar and see the eruption!  Then they can remove their eggs, and they'll be beautifully colored. 


Easter Themed Snack

To end our day, we had some yummy treats.  Plastic eggs filled with fruits and veggies and rice cakes, covered with peanut butter and a bunny face made out of apples, strawberries, marshmallows, raisins and chocolate chips.  Delicious fun!


It was a Wonderful Wednesday and a Wonderful Year!








6 comments:

  1. love the forgiveness demonstration!
    I was going to pull some April Fool's gags too but lost track of time! I saw the Brown "E's" on PInterest too!

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    1. Thank you Bekki, for stopping by and commenting. :) It was pretty fun that April fools happened to fall on Wonderful Wednesday -that's the first time ever. I love Pinterest! I am always seeing stuff I like, and then it triggers ideas, and then I can't ever remember where I saw it again! Have a blessed week! Colleen

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  2. Chocolate GAK ---- yay!! SO many great ideas here. Thanks for linking with Collage Friday!

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    1. Thank you Mary. Glad you stopped by! :) Blessings -Colleen

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  3. Thanks so much for sharing these cool ideas with us! You always come up with the cutest projects! We have done the color explosion experiment and it was awesome!

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    1. Thank you - so much fun to experiment with kids! Blessings - Colleen

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