Our (not so) "Wet 'n Wild Wednesday"

When I explained our weekly plan to Myla at the beginning of the week, my little water lover was super excited about Wednesdays! She prefers to practically live in her bathing suit in the summer in hopes we will be doing something wet outside. Well, I was sorry to disappoint but we did not have a very wet, and definitely not a wild, Wednesday.

We did, however, do an ICE EXPERIMENT! That is technically "wet", right? Since M is a natural lover of science (yahoo!) I thought this could be fun (and super easy!)

The EASIEST ICE EXPERIMENT EVER

Materials

Bowl
Ice cubes
Whiteboard or paper
"Little Scientists"

This pic was taken literally 5 minutes before we walked out the door for gymnastics but we did gather a little background knowledge and predictions first!

And I know this is major "teacher-y" but I just can't really turn it off in the summer. Stop judging. ;) I know I'm a big nerd. I own it.

Asked the kids what they knew about Ice and what would happen if we left the ice in the bowl while we were gone at gymnastics.

M shared her knowledge: "Ice melts. Ice can be frozen. Ice is ice."

Yes, yes indeed.

N's response? He yells..."It's COLD!", as he runs off. Can't expect a whole lot from him right now. ;)

When I asked what she thought would happen to the ice while we were gone, her response...

"We should put the ice in water so it doesn't melt. But it will melt and water will be there."

Posing with our predictions

After gymnastics, an hour later...

"Mom, look...there's still a little ice in there!! And water! Can I drink it?!"

 Noticing that it is mostly melted and some ice was still there, just smaller. 

When I asked her why, she said "Because it wasn't in the fridge!" When I dug a little deeper, she didn't know the exact reasoning so I explained temperature very briefly. 

Went a little something like this...

Me: "So, the reason the ice melted was because the temperature in the kitchen is warmer than the temperature in the refrigerator. How do you think it feels inside the fridge?"

Myla-"Super cold!"

Me- "What about the freezer where the ice is made?"

Myla- "Super SUPER cold!

Me- Right, the temperature is super cold in the freezer. So what would happen if we put ice OUTSIDE?

Myla- "It would MELT!"

Me: "Why?"

Myla: "Because it is hot outside, silly!"


So... I think she's got it. :)

I wrote our new question on the whiteboard for her to predict..."What if we put the ice outside?"

Just then, Noah was calling me from the bathroom so I left to help him, but told Myla to be thinking about it. 

When I came back, she had drawn a picture on her board. (Proud mommy moment!)

She explained to me that she had drawn the ice cubes and the sun. And that "smile-like" line below the cubes is showing that it is melting. :)

I helped her spell the word "MELT"

So then I thought that we could add another factor since she already knows ice melts outside. We prepared 2 bowls of ice...one for a shady spot and one for a sunny spot. Which one would melt first??

Her prediction? They are both gonna melt. :)

Can't tell but this is in the shade.

See the shadow? This one is in the sun.

After 10 minutes, there was just a little melting in the shady bowl.

And this would be the time my camera battery went out so I had to switch to my phone and I forgot to get a pic of the sunny bowl at 10 mins. Oh well.

I did get a video of the kids predicting what we would find in the bowls before we checked after 35 mins or so! Myla predicts we will see water in the bowls and Noah? He predicts we will see garbage trucks. Boys!

All liquid!! Myla thought the one in the sunshine had warmer water than the one in the shade. :)

Noah was happy to dump the water out to water the plant.

Wet 'n Wild Wednesday Part 2!

Water Painting 

Materials:
water in bowls
paintbrushes
food coloring!
"Little Artists"

Ok, so let's be honest, because the water "paint" would dry up the second it hit the driveway, this lasted a whole 2 minutes! 

Noah is saying here "Not working!!"

Myla asked,  "How is this even "painting" if there is no color?!"

 She is exactly right...

ENTER Food coloring!

This seemed to entertain them a little longer!

It was cute to see their reactions when the food coloring mixed with the water. It was like magic.

Downside? The color didn't show up all that well. We wrote her name here but can't really tell. 

But that didn't seem to bother them...they had fun mixing the colors. 

Blue + Red = PURPLE!

Very content pouring the water back and forth.

(Just ignore all the bandaids...poor guy got attacked by mosquitos over the last few days. Yes, I do put bug spray on my kids...they are just super sensitive. :(  )

Mixing all the colors? Makes an interesting greenish brown. 

So, there you have it...our (not so) Wet 'n Wild Wednesday! 

We did get in the house within 30 minutes before it started raining! Myla looked out the window at the rain, then looked back at me and said, "See, mom? It really is "wet 'n wild Wednesday!!"

Yes, sweetie, I guess it is.