Fun Facts Friday
Brain Drain Busters:
The Best Kitchen Science Experiments
The Alphabet Aerobics Speech blog will be taking a cue from our corporate-minded friends and enjoying "Summer Fridays" starting next week. However, don't fear! We will continue to blog through the summer on Thursdays.
Stay tuned for tons of summer fun and activities to prevent the dreaded summer learning loss, or "Brain Drain" every Thursday during June and July!
Don't forget to check out our 5 Games on the Go for more summer learning fun!
What is the Summer Brain Drain?
The Best Kitchen Science Experiments:
Prevent Summer Learning Loss
The summer has typically been a time for children to disconnect from technology and get outside to play. However, losing out on the progress they've made during the school year is a real risk. Whether it is at camp or in your own back yard, there are a ton of activities that can help prevent summer learning loss.
Some of my favorite memories from growing up involve making experiments with my mom and my friends in our Long Island kitchen. Inevitably, we'd end up a mess, but we always had fun and learned a ton. I remember using a potato as a conductor to light up a lightbulb, making rock candy, and conducting various artistic experiments. These are memories and time spent with my mom that I will cherish forever.
Here's a list of the top kitchen experiments with a link to directions:
* Rock Candy Use different colored food dye to make colorful
creations. Talk about how the sugar crystalizes. Test
out different water temperatures and different colors.
Have a "race" to see which crystalizes faster.
* Glow in the "Dark" Jello Use tonic water and jellow to make a
glowing, blacklight suprise! Talk about which
is your favorite color and why. Discuss the
steps you took to make the Jell-O surprise.
You may even want to discuss why it works
and how you could make it better next time.
Or, take a cue from the 90's Jell-O
commercials and make fun shapes! The
possibilities are endless!
* Phases of the Moon Oreos Talk about the phases of the moon, eat
* Shadow Tracers Talk about the path the sun takes as it crosses the
sky while tracing really cool shadows. This is fun for
almost any age; I just had a middle school student
make trace shadow puppets and make designs
after he was asked to leave his literature class.
