This watched pot did boil (Unplugged Project of the week)

Here's our unplugged project (yay! we''ve finally done one, AND a week early!). The theme was

CHANGE

We didn't do a craft activity, we did a science observation

wait for it...

...

...

...

We watched a saucepan of water boil!

Whoo Hoo!

What's that got to do with change? Well, changing states of water, of course!

Ok, so we pinched the idea from someone else. The video is here with all the scientific explanations (Hopefully you'll be able to access it through my link)

There aren't really any written instructions for our unplugged project because, well, it's as simple as watching a pot boil. Try it out, but check out the happy scientist's explanations.

And do you know what we learnt? Well we learnt

a) what we call steam isn't steam at all

b) that those little bubbles that first cling to the bottom of the pan aren't a sign of the water boiling, they are gases coming out of solution

c)why the bubbles pop really quickly when the water is just starting to boil.

d) and that our saucepan handle conducts heat (ow!)

Go watch a saucepan of water boil!
[If you haven't done so I would seriously recommend going to www.thehappyscientist.com website and registering to recieve their email newsletter which gives an experiment a week for free (or for 20$ - approx £12 - a year you can have access to all the videos and stock of science experiments on the website).]

And here are some videos about the changing states of watering water.

First The Water Cycle song:

And what about this one?

And here, my kids' all-time-favourite:

And this one, showing what happens when you throw boiling water into the air in Saskatchewan during a typical mid-winter, -40c day (wouldn't recommend it for a grey day in England!)



Happy Boiling!

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Today we made a version of the bottle game inspired by this blog post here It took a few attempts to get it right. I think the string needs to be fairly slippy and not too long. We used curtain rings and reels of sellotape as handles.

If sibling arguing was an olympic sport then my kids would get a gold (I love the way ds1 flinches at the end in anticiaption of the kick/hit he might receive):

Borrowing Bottle Brainstorm and Buying Black Boots

Great suggestion here at the blog Almost Unschoolers for using up all those empty drinks bottles. Haven't given it a go yet, but if I can rouse my sick* children tomorrow, it might provide a morning activity. The bottle project is almost unschoolers' unplugged project this week with the theme of 'the letter B'. I'm supposed to contribute to this too, but I'm yet to complete even one of these unplugged projects.

Maybe next week...the theme for the unplugged project is 'Change'. Mmm...that's a tricky one, but I suspect that http://www.thehappyscientist.com/ might have a few good suggestions.

[*all 3 have been ill with temperatures and colds etc]

And today we finally got to buy ds2 some boots. So he's been clomping around the house in these huge black walking boots all evening. I have no idea if they actually fit him because they are so rigid I can't even feel his foot in them. But he's not yelping...so that's positive, isn't it?

What is it about new shoes that is just so magical. Isn't it the best feeling in the world to have a new pair of shoes? It's that Paolo Nutini feeling, isn't it?

So...the Badman consultation, the latest one, is now closed. Over 5000 responses. Don't suppose the government will take a blind bit of notice, but maybe at least for a short while we can get back to actually home educating our kids. I am so sick of the whole thing...urrghhh...it's been exhausting.

'The Unplugged Project'

We've just (hopefully) joined the Unplugged Project. See http://www.unplugyourkids.com/unplugged-project/ for more details. Here is a snippet to give you a taster:



'What is the Unplugged Project?
Sometimes we all need a little push (me included) to set aside our chores and have some creative fun with our children. The Unplugged Project is a weekly communal project which hopefully will inspire you and me to spend some high-quality but low-tech time with our little ones.
Every week I propose some sort of theme. I try to keep the weekly topic very general so that you can adapt it to your children’s ages and interests....Interpret the theme as strictly or as loosely as you like. There really are no rules. The point is to turn off the TV and find time in a busy schedule to have some creative fun at least once a week."



Next week's project is 'happy' (http://www.unplugyourkids.com/2009/03/02/bottle-project/#comment-5410. ). So what does 'happy' bring to mind. Oh yes! Me having a week of perfect solitude away from kids and other dependents, time to do lots of reading, writing, watch whatever tv I want, catch up on some knitting and gardening and .... Ok, gonna have to rethink the 'happy' theme...