Packaging Peanuts and Water

Arbor day bark coloring
Arbor day was Friday and I hadn't realized until the night before while reading someone's blog.
With nothing planned for the 'holiday' I went with first thing I could think of.
Tree bark coloring. 
Simple and sensory.  The kids had never colored on paper on a tree before. 

It was a bit windy so Spencer was discouraged quickly from the activity.  
We also used chalk which made the art hard to see.  :( . 
I learned what not to do and we will most likely be repeating this activity again. 

I have not completely prepared lessons for the letter G yet with the stomach flu going through everybody so we I have been putting together activities I haven't found time to do otherwise.

We explored packaging peanuts with water. 

 We started the experiment by asking the question "What will happen when you put the peanuts in the water?"
Answer: It will float.

The great thing about doing this experiment was that Jerry was home for it.  He also did not know what would happen when putting the packaging peanuts in the water.

First we dipped the ends in the water and stuck a few of them together.  They more melted together.

Of course it was not enough for our curious kids.  They wanted to put handfuls of peanuts in the water.

The reaction of the peanuts melting into each other was not quick enough to keep their attention.  

So in went 1 packaging peanut.  

The peanut floated.  That seemed like that was all until the peanut started to look 'holey'.  Jerry started poking it as it dissolved.
The kids didn't expect anything more to happen.

Jerry wanted a closer look at the dissolving peanut and picked it up.  It was no longer a solid it was pasty.

It was funny watching his face.  He looked at me, a little grossed out, and says "did you know this would happen?"

Laughing I nodded.  Ahhh the great moments in life.

Needless to say the as soon as the kids noticed the more extreme change from solid to paste they took handfuls of the peanuts and put them in the water.

I moved the the peanuts and water to the sensory bin.  

Athena's hands went right in!  

I had to convince Spencer to put his hands in.  
He did not really like it.  

In this photo he was upset that his hands were messy. 

Not long into the activity they asked for spoons and said they were making me a birthday cake. 

Jerry added food coloring (with discussion on color mixing) and some vanilla extract to give it more of a cake batter look and smell. 

Although even with spoons and bowls Spencer was still reluctant to get his hands messy.  He kept asking me to wash his spoon because it had the paste on it. 

He finally asked if he could go get a car.  

A car! Of course a car, why didn't I think of that. 

Then he was in for hours of play!