Science Sunday- Planting and Growing

Last week Hailey learned all about farms.  So in addition to doing a bunch of crafts about farm animals we also did a few science experiments about planting and growing.

First we did an experiment to see how much water a seed needs to grow.  The cup on the left was a little more than half full of water, the middle cup had just enough water to cover the seeds and the one on the right didn’t have any water.  We also put saran wrap over the top of the cups to keep some moisture in.

A few days later we could see something starting to sprout from one of the beans in the cup that had only a small amount of water.

Today (6 days after we started the experiment) several of the beans are starting to sprout in the cup that had a small amount of water.  We also seem to be growing some mold.  The cup with no water- the beans didn’t do anything.  The cup with a lot of water- 2 beans floated to the top but nothing else happened.

We also did an experiment to learn how plants get water through their root system.

We had several carnations and put them in cups with a variety of colors of food coloring mixed with water.

After about 45 minutes we could see the blue starting to show.

About 2 hours later.

The next morning the flower was nice and blue.

We made a pretty bouquet to put on the the table.  The blue definitely came out the brightest.

Our last experiment:

We balanced a potato in a jar and put water in the jar.  We made sure at least 1/4 of the potato was covered by the water.  We started this experiment later in the week and so far nothing has happened.  We should start to see some shoots growing out of the bottom sometime soon.

The Chick that Looks Like a Ghost

This is one of those projects that looks a lot cuter inside your head.

I traced Hailey’s foot on yellow paper and she glued it onto another piece of construction paper.

She added some cute little feet.

Then I thought it would look cute if Hailey used her fingerprint as eyes.

But it looked more like a ghost than a chick.

So we added wiggly eyes instead and it looked much better.

With a Moo Moo Here…

Today we made a cute cow to add to our farm theme for the week.

I found this cow head template and had Hailey color it.

Then she painted 4 clothespins brown.

I cut the bottom off of an orange juice carton and we wrapped it in white paper.

Hailey taped the head on.

Then she added some spots.

She added a pipe cleaner for a tail.

Once the clothespins were dry she added them to the box.

The finished cow.

Share Your Sunday Best

The Farm

We decided to make a little farm to go along with our farm theme this week.

I took several containers of playdough and spread them out on a tray.  The one green doesn’t quite match the others… so let’s just pretend the grass on the farm isn’t quite perfect.  And Hailey decided the farm needed a little pond- so we added some blue.

We made a fence using little popsicle sticks and stuck them together using playdough.  Then we added some farm animals.

Hailey played with this for a looooong time!