Story Hour: Halloween

Every year the Tuesday before Halloween we do a Halloween story hour. I have the kiddos wear their costumes, and we do science projects instead of a craft so they don’t get their costumes all messy. It is usually a huge hit! Science projects are cool no matter how many times you see them too so I can redo them and the kids still like them a lot. It’s a cool setup!

I had 6 kiddos and we read two really fun books about Halloween.

1. Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson
2. Pick a Pumpkin by Patricia Toht

I really loved both of these! Apparently Room on the Broom is a video also, so a lot of the kids knew the story because they had seen the video. That one as definitely a hit but they both are very good stories.

After that we moved on to our science projects!

I have a few favorites that I do year after year. I try not to repeat crafts because I usually have the same kids for two years, but science is cool every time you do it so I don’t worry too much about this one.

Here is a list of the projects we did:

1. Pumpkin volcano

2. Rainbow skittle melting

3. Disappearing ghosts

4. Ghost rockets

I didn’t get a picture of the pumpkin volcano but it it exactly what it sounds like. It is the classic baking soda/vinegar experiment but instead of putting it into a volcano, you use a pumpkin! The kids enjoyed this one but it wasn’t the coolest one we did!

Rainbow Skittle melting is always fun. All you have to do is place Skittles along the edge of a plate, and pour hot water onto the plate. When you do, the colors of the skittles begin to melt and will meet in the middle of the plate. If you wait long enough, you can even see the “S” from the Skittles come off and float around in the water.

Disappearing ghosts was a new one for my this year. I made my ghosts with a mixture of equal parts baking soda and water, and then formed them into ghost shapes and let them dry overnight. This was the exact same science as the dinosaur eggs I did last fall. The kids then got to spray the ghosts with vinegar and watch them fizz and disappear!

I always save the best for last: the ghost rockets. This is another classic science experiment- Alka Seltzer Rockets. Using clear film canisters (I got mine on Amazon), I place a piece of clear tape over the canister and draw a ghost face with a black marker. That’s all the prep! During the experiment, you place some of an Alka Seltzer tab (I usually use half) and HOT water. The hotter the water, the faster the reaction happens so you have to be quick! I put the water in, and then the tab, and then as fast as I can snap the cap on and turn it upside down. When the reaction happens, the canister part pops off the cap and goes flying! It’s always a teeny bit scary at first but once the kids figure out what’s happening they always enjoy it!

Library Lab

Program date: 4/11/19

There are SO many cool science projects on Pinterest right now, and kids LOVE science! We’ve done Library Lab a few times in the last two years, and I always try to look for projects that are different, because a lot of the time, the same kids come to each program.

I always write out a script for this one that tells me what materials we need, all the steps to go through, and the science behind the project. I am going to paste that script for each experiment here, with photos of the kids to break up the reading!

**I always start out this program by explaining to the kids that science is not something that will work 100% of the time. The cool thing about science is that you can try different ways to do things and see what works best! (Some of our experiments actually didn’t work the way they were supposed to so I am glad I led with this!)**

Invisible Ink

Materials

• 1/4 cup of baking soda
• 1/4 cup of warm water
• Grape juice
• Cotton swabs
• White paper
• Paintbrush

The Experiment

1. Mix together 1/4 cup of baking soda with 1/4 cup of water. Using warm water will help dissolve the baking soda a little better.
2. Use a cotton swab to write your message in invisible ink on a piece of white paper.
3. Wait thirty minutes for the invisible ink to dry.
4. Dip a paintbrush into some grape juice and paint over your message. The previously invisible message will appear!

The Science

The baking soda, water mixture being on the paper makes the grape juice react a little differently than it does with plain paper, allowing the letters to be seen!

You Can See Sound

Materials

• Large Bowl
• Plastic Wrap
• 1 teaspoon Uncooked Rice
• Metal Pan (Cookie Sheets or Pans are good options, but they must be metal)
• Metal Spoon

The Experiment

1. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and wrap it VERY tightly.
2. Pour the rice onto the plastic wrap.
3. Hold the metal pan in the air and position it next to the bowl.
4. Bang on the metal pan like a drum and watch what happens to the rice!

The Science

The rice moves and jumps around because of the sound waves that are caused when the spoon hits the pan. These sound waves travel through the air and when then reach the plastic wrap it vibrates causing the rice to move. The sound waves are also what allow us to hear the noise of the spoon hitting the pan.

I didn’t get any photos of this project because I was holding the metal pan!

Magic Sand

Materials

• colored sand
• fabric protector spray (I used Scotch Gard)
• large vase or bowl of water
• shallow container
• wax paper or tin foil
• spoon

The Experiment

1. Begin by lining your shallow container (or cookie sheet) with wax paper or tin foil. Spread the colored sand onto it. In a well-ventilated area, spray a heavy coat of fabric protector spray onto the sand.
2. After 10 minutes or so, stir the sand around and spray another coat onto it. Make sure all the sand is coated. You can repeat this again if you feel like the sand needs more.
3. After the sand is dry (about 1 hour), pour the colored sand into containers. Fill another container with water. We used a wide mouth vase for this.
4. Then simply pour the colored sand into the water. Watch how the sand clumps together when it hits the water.

The Science

Spraying the sand with the Scotch Gard makes it waterproof! So when it is introduced to water, is clumps together to try to keep the water from totally surrounding it.

This one didn’t work the way it was supposed to! I did buy sand from JoAnn and it was a little heavier than normal sand, so that is what I am blaming it on. I apparently didn’t get any photos of this one either!! Apologies readers!

Unpoppable Balloon

Materials

• Balloon
• Skewer
• Dish soap

The Experiment

1. Rub the dish soap on the skewer
2. Blow up the balloon (about medium size, not all the way!)
3. Pierce the balloon through the bottom and top where the rubber is thickest, and then push the skewer slowly but firmly into the balloon.

The Science

Balloons are made up from long chains of molecules called polymers, which are elastic enough to allow the balloon to stretch. A balloon is made up of molecule chains called polymers. The dish soap reduces surface tension on the balloon helping the skewer pierce it.

The polymer chains of the balloon close around the skewer which stops the air escaping and allows the balloon to stay inflated.

Several of the kiddos put their hands over their ears because they were just CONVINCED the balloon as going to pop! 

Fingerprint balloon

Materials

• White balloons
• Ink pad
• Thumb

The Experiment

1. Put your thumb on the ink pad firmly, making sure to get ink on the whole pad of your thumb
2. Press it down firmly but not too hard onto the white balloon
3. Wait a few minutes to allow the ink to dry a little
4. Blow up the balloon to see your inflated fingerprint

The Science

Your fingerprint is normal sized when you first stamp it on the balloon, but blowing up the balloon after that stretches it out and makes it bigger and easier to see, kind of like a magnifying glass!

I apparently didn’t get any photos of these guys blown up but they were really cool!

Oobleck

Materials

• Water
• Corn Starch
• Bowl

The Experiment

Mix one heaping cup of corn starch with 1/2 cup of water (we had to add a little more water) and mix. (repeat in that increment until you have desired amount)

Try to slowly put your finger into the mixture. What happens?

Now try to punch the mixture hard with your whole fist. What happens?

The Science

The substance formed is called a non-Newtonian fluid and it doesn’t behave as most fluids do. As you apply pressure to it, it hardens and when you let it sit it turns back into a liquid.

Dry Erase Floating Ink

Materials

• EXPO Dry Erase Markers
• dinner plate or baking dish
• jug of water

The Experiment

1. Test your markers to make sure the ink flows well.
2. Draw various shapes, stick figures or letters on your plate or baking dish.
3. Pour water into the dish, close to the edges of your drawings.

The Science

The science that makes dry erase markers able to be erased easily ALSO makes the ink insoluble, which means it can’t be dissolved in water! When water is poured over the ink, it becomes buoyant (able to float) and will unstick from the plates!

This one was also a little bit of a fail. I am not sure why because it worked SO well on Pinterest (Duh right?) I’m not sure what the problem with this one was but when I added the water the marker did not lift off of the plates.

I don’t have another one of these planned for this semester, but when I plan another one I will come up with new experiments!

 

Science Crafts

Program Date: 3/14/19

I had two crafts planned for this one but we only had time for one so I am going to talk about the one we had time for and link to the one we had to skip so you guys can see if you are interested!

I tried to combine two things that (in my experience) kids LOVE– crafts and science. The perfect craft jumped out at me on Pinterest: DIY Kaleidoscope!

For this craft, we needed several materials:

Toilet paper tubes

White cardstock (circle pattern included in link, I just printed them out!)

Scissors

Pencil

Sharpie/permanent markers

Straws (cut)

Mirrored sheets

Tape

Stickers (optional)

We started by giving the kids all a toilet paper tube, markers and stickers and giving them some time to decorate the tube any way they wanted.

The next step was to decorate the white cardstock sheet. We made sure they understood that the more sections their circle had, the more variation their kaleidoscope was going to have. We encouraged them to use different colors and shapes so that you could really see a change. When they were finished, they cut the circle out and we poked a straw-sized hole in it with a pencil.

The next step was the mirrored sheets. I didn’t buy the *exact* right sheets (I linked to them anyway but next time I’ll buy the exact ones on the Pinterest link). The problem with the sheets I bought was that they weren’t mirrored on both sides. If they had been, the designs would have reflected a lot better.

I pre-cut and marked rectangles of the sheets based on the measurements in the original link, and had the kids cut them into 3 equal sized strips. Once they cut them, they laid them right next to each other, *almost* touching, and taped them together, mirror side up. After that they taped them together into a triangle, mirror side in and put the triangle inside the toilet paper tube!

Next, we taped the straw to the toilet paper tube, with enough sticking out to put the circle on the end.

The last step was to actually put the circle on the straw, and look into the kaleidoscope! When you turn the circle, the different sections reach the open part of the tube, and reflects against the mirrored sheets inside! I wish I had taken a video, but it worked *really* well and the kids were amazed!

I would 100% do this fun craft again!

The other craft I had planned was a telescope tube craft. The link is here. I will probably try to do it soon because I thought it sounded really cool, but we ran out of time!

Overall this was a really fun craft and a great program!

Story Hour: Halloween

Halloween was on a Wednesday this year, so we talked about it on Tuesday at Story Hour! I did this similarly last year, and messaged all the parents/grandparents and told them that their kiddos could wear their costume if they wanted! A few forgot but this was the whole group! As you can see, we had a lot of cool characters! I had 15 today and 2 of them were brand new! It was a really good group.

Last year on Halloween, I decided asking them to wear their costumes and then doing a craft was probably not a good idea in case they got something on them. So I decided to do Halloween Science instead! It was so much fun last year I decided to look for new experiments (mostly) this year and do it again.

But first, the story time part.

The three books I read this week were:

1. Me and My Dragon, Scared of Halloween by David Beidrzycki
2. T-Rex Trick or Treats by Lois G. Gambling
3. Five Little Monkeys Trick or Treat by Eileen Christelow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They were all really fun books about trick or treating and the kids loved them!

Before we read our stories, we sang our normal song to get the wiggles out, found in the Story Hour Overview post. In between the first two stories, we did yet another Hokey Pokey! This one is extra fun because its the Spooky Pokey and they get to think of all Halloween parts to “put in”.

The Spooky Pokey

You put your pumpkin head in (lean your head into circle)…

You do the Spooky Pokey and you turn yourself around (hold up hands, wiggle fingers, make a scary, silly face; turn around in place)

Then give a little shout: “BOO!”

Add more verses or ask kids for ideas: witchy nails (wave our hands about menacingly); monster feet (stomp feet); zombie/mummy arms (hold arms out straight in front of you); vampire teeth (show teeth); bat wings (flap arms like wings); Ghost Self (try floating like a ghost); owl eyes (fingers make circles around eyes), hissing cat (make hissing sound), monster claws (hands with fingers curved in claws), scary face (make the scariest face you can!), skeleton hands(wiggle hands and fingers) or skeleton knees, etc.

The first time we did this one we did skeleton arms, pumpkin head, and bat wings. They liked it so much we did another set of 3 with dinosaur teeth, witch nose and monster claws. I have found that doing the song in rounds of 3 helps the kiddos (and me) remember better what we are doing!

The Science Projects:

I had two inside projects, and two outside projects, and I was very lucky the weather wasn’t too bad on Tuesday.  I found them all on Pinterest, and will provide links as the titles. Most of them are the same/similar reactions but used in different ways!

Spooky Expanding Ghosts

This was a baking soda/vinegar reaction. Vinegar goes in a water bottle, baking soda goes in the balloon, and the balloon goes on the water bottle. When the baking soda goes into the vinegar, the reactions causes the balloon to blow up! I drew a ghost face on the balloons with a Sharpie, but once it expanded you can barely see the face. Not sure what happened there!

Mini Pumpkin Volcanoes

Another baking soda/vinegar project! This is a standard volcano, but using hollowed out mini pumpkins instead. It also had me add dish soap so the reaction was bubbly! Food coloring was an option as well, but I didn’t use any because Halloween Costumes.

Popping Pumpkins

This one did not work the way I had hoped. It was another baking soda/vinegar reaction, with a sandwich bag. It was supposed to fill up and make the bag pop, but both times I did it they just opened at the top like normal.

I apparently didn’t get a photo of this one 😦

Ghost Rockets

I did this one last year and it was such a hit I did it again. I gave clear film canisters ghost faces, and did a HOT water/alka-seltzer experiment.  The hot water is important because it speeds the reaction along and makes the rockets fly higher!

If you look close you can see the trail the rocket is leaving, but the rocket popped up so high its out of frame!

Here’s an additional photo of all of us lined up outside before I started the experiments!

I usually don’t post a picture of the snacks but the Special Day person’s mom brought Halloween cupcakes! They had so much fun eating them and they were a mess when they were done. haha

I always love the Halloween Story Hour meeting and I am sure I will keep doing it this way in the future!!