Winter science activities

Up here in WI we get plenty of cold weather.  If you have your share try some of these winter fun activities with your family.

1. The Mpemba Effect was discovered in 1969 by a student.  See if you can name the results of this experiment.  

2 plastic containers of the same size

1 C. hot water

1 C. cold water

A freezer or a very cold day

Pour hot water into one container and cold water into another.  Make sure you don't mix up the containers.  Place containers in the freezer or outside to freeze.  Check on them often to see which on freezes first.  According to your results:  what do you think the Mpemba Effect is?

Answer: The Mpemba Effect is a phenomenon where hot water freezes faster than cold.

What happens when water freezes?

1.  1 coffee can with a lid

2.  1 bottle cap

3.  3 pencils

4.  2 heavy rubberbands

5.  duct tape

Fill the can with full with water and put the lid on.  Tape the 2 pencils on each side of the bottom of the can.  Place the bottle cap in the center on top of the lid.  Take the 3rd pencil and place it on the bottle cap.  Take one rubber band and place it around all 3 pencils on one side of the can forming a triangle with the rubber band.  Do the same with the rubber band on the other side of the can.  Make sure the top pencil can't move and place your can in the freezer or outside overnight.  Note what happened.  Did the water expand or contract when it freezes.

Freezing Fizzie

1 bottle lemon lime soda

1 large bowl of ice large enough to bury the soda bottle

water

several T. of salt

thermometer (optional)

Cover the ice in the bowl about halfway with water.  Sprinkle salt over the ice.  Bury the soda bottle in the ice.  Allow it to stay buried for 30 minutes.  It should not freeze.  After the 30 minutes remove the bottle from the ice and open the bottle.  What happened?  It should have become slushy.  Why did it get slushy?

Answer: The carbon dioxide dissolved into the soda and reduced the freezing point.  And when you opened the soda you released some of the carbon dioxide.  Thus, the freezing point rose again.  The liquid inside was already below that freezing point.  

Have fun and enjoy the cold weather!

A Year With Birds

Here's another great site if you love birds. Some wonderful poems that would be great for nature book entries. Click HERE to view the contents.

Burgess Bird Book Resources

Here is a great link if you are studying the Burgess Bird Book or will be studying it. It has lots of great links and ideas to go along with the book. Click HERE to visit!

Yesterday's Classics

This is a great site to find all those "lost" books that children love. Many living book titles for all subjects are listed here plus they are very reasonable too which makes it even more tempting.

Lost Classics Books catalog

Nature Coloring books

Here are some great nature coloring books to add to your children's (or yours) nature journals. My children love to color and we have never been disappointed with Dover books. They are both for learning and coloring. Click HERE to check them out.

Science by Memorizing!!

I love Lyrical Life Science. We used it years ago and I am thinking about using them again. I had the cassette versions and as we all know that won't work these days!!! They are a fabulous way to learn about science. Read more about them HERE.

Encyclopedia of Country Living

Dreaming of moving "back to the land"---or creating a more sustainable lifestyle right where you are? Emery's basic guide to gardens and goats reads like a very long letter to old friends. She shares how to---and how not to---buy land, can peaches, bake bread, sell berries, build chicken coops, keep bees, and more. Includes lists of books, magazines, and suppliers for every subject imaginable. 858 pages, softcover from Sasquatch Books.

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Now this is a great resource. No it isn't for homeschool-although it could be as you learn tons-but it speaks for itself in the above description. I love it. Read more HERE

Nature Study Notebooking Pages

Nature Study-Birds

Christian Liberty Nature Readers

Your children will delight in learning not only about the various animals and plants in creation, but also about God's glory. Birds, Bugs and more all pay tribute to God as their creator!

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Our family loves these little readers.  We have used them with most of our children and will continue to do so.  Highly recommend for your nature loving children.  Read more HERE

Jonathan Park

Come visit the exciting world of Jonathan Park’s Creation Audio Adventures! The Jonathan Park series has for years been equipping parents and children to defend creation truths against evolution’s lies, following young Jonathan Park and his paleontologist family on their exciting creation adventures around the globe. Each Jonathan Park episode is based upon real places and facts, featuring action-packed storylines that reveal specific evidences for Scripture’s creation account. Join Jonathan’s family and the Creation Response Team as they recover amazing treasures from Earth’s past, discover biblical answers to scientific issues of the day, and debate evolutionists about the true history of our world!

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Oh, who doesn't love Jonathan Park?  My boys love these stories.  In fact, every night when we put our little girls to bed they too HAVE to listen to Jonathan Park.  Go HERE to read more.  Wonderful!!