Messy Lessons

Getting messy makes learning fun!  With a "classroom" of two students the cleanup for messy projects isn't too bad.  I know I've said it before, but I really love teaching my kids at home!  Here is a small sampling of memorable science experiments, and art and history projects that we have enjoyed lately.

 The kids made their own cave paintings after learning about the nomads.  We learned that cave painters often painted animals and signed their work with a hand print.

  We made "Gruesome Goo" by mixing cornstarch and water.  This was a science lesson about viscosity, but I'm not so sure the kids remember that part!  After washing it down the sink, I read that wasn't a good idea as it is likely to clog pipes.  Oops.

We learned about various types of animal and plant cells and their parts.  Did you know that an egg is one huge cell?  Very convenient since we don't have a microscope at home yet.  We were able to find the egg's nucleus, view the cell membrane, and then play in the cytoplasm.  When my son saw this picture today he said, "Mom, can we play with eggs again today?"

 This project, a directed drawing of Uncle Sam, wasn't messy, but it was still fun.  The kids drew the various parts of the picture as I described it to them.  We then learned about Uncle Sam and many other American symbols.  The picture on top was drawn by my daughter at age 5.  The second picture of Uncle Sam was drawn by my son at age 3.

Field trip day at the beach gave us another opportunity to get good and messy!  We are loving the sun and warmth of spring.

P.S.  If you enjoy pictures, check out some of my older posts.  I've gone back and added photos to a few.