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Beaker Creatures Easter: Pod Hunt & Relay Race!
- Patria Lincoln Posted On Feb 25, 2019 | Easter
Fill Your Easter Basket with Fun and Learning – Make it a Beaker Creature Easter!
As the old song goes, hippity hoppity, hippity hoppity, Easter’s on its way! In addition to dyed eggs, oodles of candy, and treasures from the Target dollar bin, this year, slip some science into your kiddos’ baskets with Beaker Creatures!
Here are a few things to try:
Fill a bowl half-full of water (these guys really fizz up – you might even place the bowls on a cookie sheet to contain any overflow) and let your little one drop a Beaker Creature in. The eggs will foam and fizzle until they’re dissolved. Once revealed, a hidden capsule holding an adorable Beaker Creature appears!
Have the kids drop their Beaker Creatures into separate bowls of water and race to see whose pod dissolves first!
Next up, color-changing fun!
Drop an Easter egg dye tab in a bowl of vinegar and stir to dissolve. Examine the color of a Beaker Creature pod and help your kids make a prediction as to what color the liquid in the bowl might turn when dropped into the bowl of dye. Try again, with a different color dye and a different colored pod. You can even mix the foam colors together to create fizzy new shades.
DIY Space Sensory Bin!
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Celebrate Astronomy Day with Kids
Each year Astronomy Day is celebrated worldwide. The stars have fascinated humanity for literally centuries, and even to this day captures the imagination of kids of all ages. Celebrate this event with them this year and don't worry if you don't own any expensive telescopes. These DIY activities use real life discoveries to inspire your little astronomers!
Track the Phases of the Moon
Bone sticks from across Europe and Africa dating back as long ago as 35,000 BCE that tracked the moon’s phases. Use a simple number line with your kids to track the phases of the moon over the course of a month, from full moon and back again. Do it for several months and see what patterns they begin to observe.
Depict a Celestial Phenomenon
A celestial phenomenon is a astrological event that involves one or more objects. The earliest example depicted was discovered in Germany in 1999. The Nebra Sky Disc dates back to 2000 BC and it depicted a star cluster, phases of the moon and the rising sun.
Use a black paper plate, or even just black paper, and encourage your children to depict their own star formations. If they can’t stay up to observe them at night, project some indoors with this Shining Stars Projector.
Astronomy to Keep Time
The Chinese astronomers kept detailed observations beginning about 600 BC, for the primary purpose of timekeeping. Their records allowed them to predict eclipses, and include the first record of events such as supernovas and comets.
On the other side of the world, the Mayans developed their own astronomical tables for predicting the phases of the moon, eclipses, and the appearance of the other planets. They used these and the cycles of the Sun, the Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and constellations to establish the Mayan calendar.
All of the above astronomy was without a telescope, and you can still observe these astronomical events with your kids today. Check out this astronomy calendar and pick a full moon, eclipse, planetary event, or meteor shower to observe as a family.
Try this simple astronomy experiment to help kids as young as preschoolers understand what makes night.
Just because ancient astronomers did all of this without a telescope doesn't mean your little ones have to! All of the above activities can be done with the naked eye but if you feel like shooting for the stars check out Learning Resources Big View Telescope. How will you celebrate Astronomy Day?
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