Monday, June 30, 2014

After School Linky Party (6-30)

Welcome to the After School Linky Party!


I hope you and your kids are having an amazing summer
filled with exploration, messes, adventures, and fun. 

If you're looking for ideas, you've come to the right place.

Here are just a few of my favorites from last week's party.




 Cool Games - Button Golf at JDaniel5's Mom.



 Crinkle Art Painting Craft at Mama to 5 Blessings.



Parking Garage Learning Lot at Boy Mama Teacher Mama.



Ice Cream Cone Rocket Races at From ABCs to ACTs.





The After School Linky is cohosted by
Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational

We would love to have you link up your School-Age Post (Ages 5 and up) about your learning week after school including Crafts, Activities, Playtime and Adventures that you are doing to enrich your children's lives after their day at school, home school, or on the weekend!

When linking up, please take a moment to comment on at least one post linked up before yours and grab our after school button to include a link on your post or site! By linking up, you're giving permission for us to share on our After School Pinterest Board and feature an image on our After School Party in the upcoming weeks!


Friday, June 27, 2014

Printable Underground Railroad Quilt Code Game


This idea has been stuck in my head for awhile, ever since I heard about how quilts were used to communicate to runaway slaves on the Underground Railroad. Their patterns and blocks were a code, providing direction, signifying safety, and issuing warnings (according to some historians).



Before my son and I played the game I made, we read the perfect book to pair with this activity - The Patchwork Path: A Quilt Map to Freedom by Bettye Stroud.


Having already read a biography on Harriet Tubman, my son had a basic foundation of knowledge on the Underground Railroad. Stroud's book filled in the rest - explaining how quilt blocks held messages for Hannah and her father on their journey from a Georgia plantation to freedom in Canada.


What You Need to Play the Game
Cardstock to print the 10-page PDF on
Tape to piece the game board together
Pictures of slaves who found freedom on the Railroad (I printed
   images of Henry Bibb, Frederick Douglass, Josiah Henson, and
   Harriet Tubman on cardstock and laminated)*
Medium-sized binder clips
Paper cutter to cut the game cards

















Prep
Cut the pictures so that when they are inserted into a binder clip, the faces are visible. These are your game pieces.

If necessary trim the white border (this depends on how your printer prints full-bleed pages) on your game board pages so that the map image butts up against each other. Affix the pages with tape on the back.

Cut the game cards apart and shuffle.


The Objective
Be the first to move your game piece along to Cleveland, OH (the Underground Railroad station nicknamed "Hope").


How to Play
Each player picks their game piece and places it on the start star. Everyone should be dealt three cards, which they turn over on the table to look at. (Secrecy is not important.)

Before a player can move to the first space on the game board and leave the plantation to begin their journey on the Underground Railroad, they must play the Monkey Wrench card. If it is not in their hand, they draw and discard either the card drawn or another card in their hand. Play continues this way until they draw the Monkey Wrench card and can start their journey. The same is true for the next quilt block space (Tumbling Blocks).

It may take awhile to get these cards. If you suspect that your child will grow impatient quickly, print more of page 5 and 6 on the PDF so there are more Monkey Wrench and Tumbling Block cards in the deck. Likewise, if you have more than two players, additional cards will be necessary.

Anytime a space along the railroad has a quilt block next to it, the player must play that very same quilt block card in order to move there (and beyond it).


A player can move to any space not designated with a quilt square by playing either a Log Cabin or Flying Geese card.

If a player has multiple Flying Geese or Log Cabin cards, they can all be played on his/her turn (e.g. if two Log Cabin cards are played, the player can advance two spaces). The player must always draw more cards to maintain three cards in their hand.


BEWARE! If you draw the Drunkard's Path card, you must move back 1 space. You cannot play any other cards during this turn. NOTE: if you move back to a space before a quilt square space, you do not have to replay that same quilt block card again to move forward. A Log Cabin or Flying Geese card grants you passage forward.

If you run through the entire deck of cards, simply grab the pile of cards already discarded or played and turn them over to reuse.

VARIATION: Use colored binder clips so each player has multiple game pieces (i.e. all the game pieces for Bobby have blue binder clips, while Sarah has game pieces with red clips). Every time a Monkey Wrench card is drawn, the player can begin moving a new game piece on the journey. Decide to play for 45 minutes (or so) and when the time is up, see how many game pieces for each player made it to Cleveland. The player to free the most slaves is the winner.

This is a great strategy game that piques kids' interest in history, codes, and folk art.


Got a kiddo that's interested in quilts? Or looking for a math extension of this game? What about our Quilt Square Fractions?


*Due to copyright protection, I'm not providing you with printable game pieces. A Google search should result in MANY choices, though.

Monday, June 23, 2014

After School Linky (6-23)


Welcome to the After School Linky Party!


Last week's party was FULL of great ideas, activities,
and printables.

If you missed it, you missed a lot. Check it out here.

In the meantime, here are a few of my favorites.



Junk Jam Music Game at Mosswood Connections.

12 Ways to Learn with Water Balloons at I Can Teach My Child.




The Raft Craft at Teach Beside Me.


Learning about Water Pressure at Learn ~ Play ~ Imagine.


The After School Linky is cohosted by
Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational

We would love to have you link up your School-Age Post (Ages 5 and up) about your learning week after school including Crafts, Activities, Playtime and Adventures that you are doing to enrich your children's lives after their day at school, home school, or on the weekend!

When linking up, please take a moment to comment on at least one post linked up before yours and grab our after school button to include a link on your post or site! By linking up, you're giving permission for us to share on our After School Pinterest Board and feature an image on our After School Party in the upcoming weeks!

Friday, June 20, 2014

How to Suspend a Ball in Midair


Having just learned about air and atmospheric pressure when we made a DIY barometer, this lesson served as a great extension.

All you need is a ping pong ball and a working hair dryer.


I had one son hold the hair dryer straight up, while it blew cool air at the highest setting. Our other boy gingerly moved a ping pong ball into the air stream.

WHOA! They were amazed to see the ball float in mid-air without falling. Even more fun is when they moved the hair dryer at a slight angle to see the ball still stay suspended!


Why it Works
The force of air from the hair dryer will push the ball up, and the force of gravity will push it down. It will stay suspended at the point where the force pushing up and gravity pulling it down are equal.

The reason the ball does not shoot out of the stream of air, is air pressure. The air coming out of the hair dryer has a lower air pressure than the air surrounding it. This keeps the ball within the column of fast-moving air coming from the dryer. This principle was discovered by Bernoulli in the 1700s, long before the first hair dryer was invented.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Weather Forecasting with a DIY Barometer


We picked the perfect day to do this craft. Before the day was even over, it had turned from sunny to cloudy to raining (and later the tornado sirens went off).


The science behind this craft is fascinating.

To start, I explained atmospheric pressure. That's a pretty tough thing to visualize, but we had a little help from Bill Nye, the Science Guy. (Check out some of his video clips on YouTube.)

Once we understood what pressure was and that it changes with the weather, it was easier to understand how a barometer works.

Supplies
Wide-mouth glass jar without a lid
Deflated balloon
Rubberbands
Plastic drinking straw
Tape
Cardstock or posterboard
Pencil
Scissors


How to Make a DIY Barometer
Cut the neck of your deflated balloon off, making a straight cut about halfway down the balloon.


Stretch the balloon as tightly as possible over your glass jar, so the latex is taught. You want to make an air-tight seal, so add a rubberband or two to secure it.

Now trim a plastic drinking straw so it's about 6 or 7 inches in length. Then make angled cuts on both ends so each end has a point.


Using the corner of a small square of clear tape, attach the flat part of one end of the straw to the balloon in the center of the jar.


The other end of the straw is your pointer.

Now fold a piece of heavyweight paper in fourths lengthwise. Tape so it's in the shape of a triangle and stand on one end.

Take your barometer outside and let it acclimate. Set your triangular paper up at the end of the pointer, and with a pencil record where it touches and the weather conditions.


This is your baseline. Continue checking on the barometer and making recordings of the weather conditions. As the weather changes, the straw pointer will move up and down.

Once you have marks recorded for a variety of weather conditions, you'll see a trend. When the weather is sunny, it points upwards. When it's storming, it points downward. You can watch the DIY barometer and begin to make predictions based on the gauge you made.


How it Works
If the air pressure inside the jar is heavier than the air outside the jar, it will push up making the balloon convex (humped up), which will tip the straw pointer downward. This occurs when the weather is rainy or storming.

If the air pressure outside the jar is heavier, it will press down on the balloon (making it concave), tipping the straw pointer upwards. Expect this to occur when it's sunny.

Monday, June 16, 2014

After School Linky (6-16)

Welcome to the After School Linky Party!


Ward off summer slump and boredom with a steady flow of activities. There are loads of ideas here to help with your summer schedule!

Here are some of my favorites from last week's party.

Ways to Make a Rainbow at Life with Moore Babies.




Geoboard Constellations at School Time Snippets.


Ocean Animals Book & 3-Part Cards at Gift of Curiosity.


PVC Pipes+Connectors+Water=Physics at Rubberboots and Elf Shoes.

Rubber Duck Math Game at Fantastic Fun and Learning.


The After School Linky is cohosted by
Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational

We would love to have you link up your School-Age Post (Ages 5 and up) about your learning week after school including Crafts, Activities, Playtime and Adventures that you are doing to enrich your children's lives after their day at school, home school, or on the weekend!

When linking up, please take a moment to comment on at least one post linked up before yours and grab our after school button to include a link on your post or site! By linking up, you're giving permission for us to share on our After School Pinterest Board and feature an image on our After School Party in the upcoming weeks!



Friday, June 13, 2014

Balloon Tennis


Spring and summer are lovely, except when the humidity is unbearable, the pollen count ridiculous, and the temperatures scorching. Some days you just need an indoor activity, preferably one where the kids can burn off ALL that energy.

We had one of those days. 

And this is what we did: balloon tennis.


It couldn't be simpler. All you need is a latex balloon and tape as well as a disposable paper plate and jumbo wooden craft stick for each player.

Simply tape the craft stick to the paper plate to turn it into a paddle.

Blow up the balloon and if you want, use painters tape to make a line on the floor. Kids stand with the paddle on either side, lobbying the balloon back and forth, trying to keep it from touching the ground.


This may well be the cheapest gross motor fun my two boys have had together!


This idea came from Keeping it Simple

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Tie-Dye Fourth of July


Last year we made painted stripe and handprint flag tee shirts. Sadly, the boys have grown and the shirts are going to be too small and too short to wear this holiday. To make new Independence Day tees, we used dye.


Supplies
150 ml of water (or just shy of 5 oz.) for each bottle of dye
1/2 tbsp. powdered dye (bright red and royal blue)
sprinkle of salt
two small plastic bottles with a nozzle
white tee-shirt
Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (1/2 cup for sink full of water)
Rubber gloves - more than one pair for each person (the more the better)
Rubber bands (2 for each shirt)
Plastic sheeting
Plastic cling wrap

Step 1
First we filled our stainless steel kitchen sink half full of water and added 1/2 cup of Washing Soda. Since I make my own laundry detergent, I had this handy. Stir so that the soda dissolves. The water will still be murky.

Step 2
Add your pre-washed tee-shirts to the soda water mixture. Let soak for at least five minutes. We had to run a quick errand, so ours soaked for 30-40 minutes. From what I've been told, this step is essentially to lock in the dye so you have brighter, more vivid colors.


Step 3
Squeeze the shirt(s) to remove as much excess water as possible.

Step 4
Apply two rubber bands, twisting and re-looping them around the shirts many times so they're tight.  When finished, the shirt will be divided into thirds.

Step 5
Mix your dyes. I used Tulip brand dye, adding about 1/2 tbsp. of each dye to 150 ml of water and a sprinkle of table salt. This amount of dye will make two child size tee shirts. Once inside a small bottle with the cap on tightly, shake the bottles vigorously until all the contents are combined. NOTE: Begin wearing gloves at this step. If the dye splatters on your clothes, it will stain. 

Step 6
Lay plastic sheeting (we used trash bags) on the ground outdoors. We did this project in the garage to avoid the wind catching the corners of our bags. Place the damp, rubberbanded shirt on top of the plastic.

Step 7
Apply the colors so the middle third of the shirt is left white, dousing the top and bottom sections of shirt with the tie dye in the applicator bottles. Use the rubberbands as a guide of where to stop applying the dye. Don't worry if the dye seeps into the white area.


Step 8
Gently wring out excess dye from the two ends of the shirt and wrap in plastic wrap. Lay in the hot sun (if possible). Let the dye cure into the fabric for as long as 24 hours.


Step 9
The next day, remove the plastic wrap and while wearing plastic gloves, take off the rubberbands and rinse the shirt until the water runs clear.


Step 10
Launder the shirts in the washing machine. (Do this without any other clothes in case any dye leaches into the water during washing.)

Step 11
Once dry, wear proudly!


I saw this project on I love to create blog

Monday, June 9, 2014

After School Linky (6-9)


Welcome to the After School Linky Party!

Summer is here! Are you ready?

There are loads of ideas, crafts, and experiments shared each week to help you keep the kids busy, learning, and entertained. Miss a week and you miss a lot!

Here are a few of my favorite's from last week's party.


Soda Bottle Speed Boat at From ABCs to ACTs.





Not Exactly Mr. McGregor's Garden at Clark and Luci Learn.



Princess Unit at Every Star is Different.


Self-Esteem Mirror at Mosswood Connections.


Planning for Smart Summer at Planet Smarty Pants.


The After School Linky is cohosted by
Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational

We would love to have you link up your School-Age Post (Ages 5 and up) about your learning week after school including Crafts, Activities, Playtime and Adventures that you are doing to enrich your children's lives after their day at school, home school, or on the weekend!

When linking up, please take a moment to comment on at least one post linked up before yours and grab our after school button to include a link on your post or site! By linking up, you're giving permission for us to share on our After School Pinterest Board and feature an image on our After School Party in the upcoming weeks!