Shop UK Site 
Make Your Own Beaker Creatures Home!
- Patria Lincoln Posted On Jun 26, 2018 | STEM
Mysterious Beaker Creatures have landed on Earth, in search of science adventures.
And your child is just the one to join them! The chemical reaction between a Reactor Pod and the Liquid Reactor Super Lab magically reveals an adorable alien inside every pod! It is a great way to introduce your little collector to the super-cool world of chemistry in a playful way.
Great, right? Even better, you can turn this STEM learning experience into the perfect STEAM activity by adding a bit of arts & crafts and pretend play fun!
Each Beaker Creature belongs to a specific species and environment. Once your little one has uncovered their creature, encourage them to examine its unique characteristics (number of legs, antennae, eyes, tentacles, and wings). Then compare their notes to the included identification cards to find out which Beaker Creature they’ve got!
Visit the Beaker Creature website to read a bit about the creature’s environment, then put on your crafty caps and think about how you might create a custom playset for that creature using things you already have around the house!We built one of the environments (Green Space) for an example:
Buglettes
These itty-bitty buggies live in Green Space and love trees, grass, and plants. Can you create a shoebox forest with a cardboard box and construction paper? Or flip through your magazines for forest scenes, cut and glue a backdrop, and lay a carpet of green leaves?First, get scissors and a shoebox!
Next, make the forest floor with green paper.
Add trees and leaves (from the outside) to make it really come to life!
Add your Beaker Creatures to their new home and let the fun begin!
Here are more fun ideas for the other Beaker Creatures environments!
Oceanites
The Oceanites spend their days underwater, swimming, exploring coral reefs, and snoozing in underwater caverns. If you’ve got a water table, today’s the day to use it! Fill it with painted tin foil coral, sea shells, and strips of green trash bag sea weed. No water table? No problem! Set out a casserole dish and fill it half way with water and make a home for the water Beaker Creatures.
Astrolytes
These starry-eyed sweeties live in Starus, an outer-space world with multiple moons, meteors, stars, and other fun space phenomena. Create your own Astrolyte observatory in a Mason Jar, complete with glittering walls and dangling stars!
Frostonians
Snow-white Frostonians live in a chilly winter wonderland made of snow-capped mountains and frozen lakes. Recreate their brrr…illiant home by gluing some batting (pillow stuffing) or stretched cotton balls to a cookie tin covered with foil. If you’re super crafty, consider creating a painted papier mache mountain using strips of newspaper, flour, and water. Add a cotton ball snowman and don’t forget the ice cube slide!
Minisaurs
These dusty friends stomp and play in the desert, surrounded by piles of rocks and rusty red mountains. Recreate this hot area in your own sandbox, filled with pebbles and rocks, or make a more permanent playset by coating a sheet of card stock with a thin layer of glue and sprinkling with sand. Create a mountain range made of painted red rocks and add a tumbleweed out of glue-dipped twine wrapped around a small balloon.
Whichever environment you choose to create, remember to make it large enough for other Beaker Creatures – there are six creatures to collect in every species!
DIY Space Sensory Bin!
READ MORE
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?
READ MORE
DIY Science Snow Storm in a Jar
READ MORE
