Lapsit Storytime : Birds!

This storytime is aimed at 0-24 months. At the beginning of each storytime I usually introduce some of our puppets. This gets children out of their shell a little. It also helps to calm any fears they may have about coming to storytime! I make sure every child gets the chance to pet the puppets if they'd like :) 

Here are the Folkmanis puppets I introduced at this storytime:

Snowy

Woodpecker Family (also makes noise!)

Baby Bird in Egg

1. Opening Song: Open Shut Them

Open, shut them,

Open, shut them

Give a little clap, clap, clap

Open, shut them, open, shut them

Lay them in your lap, lap, lap

Creepy crawly, creepy crawly,

Right up to your chin, chin, chin

Open up your little mouth

But do not let them in, in in

2. Book:  What a Hoot by Fran Preston-Gannon

This book is large and on the heavier side but I love that it's big because it's perfect to read to a group! Most board books are small which can make it hard to share with an audience. The illustrations are adorable and the book has short and simple texts, making it perfect for the 0-24 month olds. It describes many common opposites that young toddlers and babies are becoming familiar with (loud and soft, clean and dirty, alseep and awake, for example) and then the book, of course, has silly illustrations such as an owl who really likes to bake! 

3. Fingerplay: Two Little Lovebirds - a classic fingerplay! 

Two lit­tle love­birds sit­ting on a hill

One named Jack, one named Jill

Fly away Jack, fly away Jill

Come back Jack, come back Jill.

*kiss* muah!

Two little lovebirds sitting on a cloud

One named Soft, one named Loud

Fly away Soft

Fly away Loud

Come back Soft, come back Loud 

*kiss* muah!

4. Shaker Song - Sung to the tune of “London Bridge”

"Shake your shakers, shake, shake, shake,

Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake

Shake your shakers, shake, shake, shake,

Shake your shakers!

Other Verses:

Shake your shakers high, high, high,

Shake your shakers  low, low, low,

Shake your shakers  fast, fast, fast,

Shake your shakers  slow, slow, slow"

I actually sing this song every week! It really is awesome to see the young toddlers getting acclimated to it. After the kids have gone to enough storytime sessions, it almost becomes second nature to them! :) 

5. Book: Little Bird Biddle Bird by David Kirk 
Love this book! It's a wee bit long but the kids seemed to enjoy it. I love the illustrations and the sing-song flow the book has. Plus, it's just fun to say "little bird, biddle bird." It's a great read-a-loud and also shows all the early science words associated with birds that young children should be learning: feathers, nests, eggs, and worms!

6. Song: Fleas, track 24 on More Tickles & Tunes by Kathy Reid-Neiman
Creep your fingers up and down baby, touching the named parts as you go. 

On my toe there is a flea  Now it's climbing on my knee
Past my tummy, past my nose
On my head where my hair grows
On my head there is a flea 
Now it's climbing down on me 

Past my tummy, past my knee
On my toe, take that, you flea!  

7. Book: In My Nest by Sara Gillingham  & Lorena Siminovich

I absolutely LOVE these books with the little finger puppet attached by Sara Gillingham. They seriously get an infant or toddler's attention! I used to bring a bunch of these books over to the 10 month old I was babysitting and he would immediately be attracted to them. 

Early literacy tip:
At this age, it's more than fine if a child doesn't sit and actually listen to you read the book. Simply getting a child to be interested in books is the goal here. Young children can only sit for a few minutes for a story, but as they grow, they will be able to sit longer. Let your child decide how much (or how little) time you spend reading. And you don’t need to read every page. You may find that your child has a favorite page or even a favorite picture. She may want to linger there for a while, and then switch books or activities. Babies may just want to mouth the book! That’s okay. When you let your child explore books in the ways that interest her, the reading experience will be more meaningful. 

Source: Zero to Three, How to Introduce Toddlers and Babies to Books

8. Baby Bounce: I’m a Little Cuckoo Clock!

"Rock babies gently back and forth on your lap as you say the verse. Then lift them up in the air for each “Cuckoo!” Source: Mel's Desk

Tick tock, tick tock
I’m a little cuckoo clock
Tick tock, tick tock
It’s one o’clock!
CUCKOO!

Tick tock, tick tock
I’m a little cuckoo clock
Tick tock, tick tock
It’s two o’clock!
CUCKOO! CUCKOO!

9. Book: Bring on the Birds by Susan Stockdale

This is a very colorful board book about birds! The story features several different types of birds with simple text and colorful illustrations. The book is on the small side though if you're reading it to a larger group. 

After storytime, I bring out a few toys and let children play for about 15-20 minutes. 

Hope you enjoyed this bird storytime for babies and toddlers, 0-24 months!

STEM: Olivia the Orangutan Folder Story

This is a fun animal science folder story that I wrote myself. There are many facts incorporated into this story about rainforest animals and when I told the story, the preschoolers were totally mesmerized! I had them join in with me and say "oooo oooo oooo ooo oooo!" and twirl their finger as they were saying the main verse. I was very inspired by the Scat the Cat folder story which I blogged about a few months ago and so I wrote this, using the same theme of an animal changing colors! I also paired it with the story Orangutan Baby (I Love Reading) by Monica Hughes. It's short and perfect for preschoolers!

Instructions for making this:

I printed out a coloring sheet of an orangutan. I used this one.

Then I cut out the orangutan out and paperclipped it to a folder (one that was enclosed on 3 sides).

I then cut around the orangutan so that there was a cut out of the body. 

Then I placed the different colored sheets of paper inside the folder. 

I then drew the faces on each sheet of paper (making sure the different pieces of paper were lined up). 

Then when you tell the story you can pull the colored paper out to reveal the next color! :)

Olivia the Orange Orangutan
by Sarah Prokop

Once upon a time there was an ORANGE haired orangutan named Olivia. Olivia had a very special talent - she could change her color by twirling around and singing a little rhyme. All she had to sing was:

"I'm Olivia the Orangutan
Through the branches I swing
and I can change colors
if I twirl around and sing! (Oooo-oooo-ooooo-ooooo-oooooo!)"

One day, Olivia walking through the forest floor when she spotted a beautiful blue frog! She thought it might be fun to be a bright blue color like the frog so she said...

"I'm Olivia the Orangutan

Through the branches I swing
and I can change colors
if I twirl around and sing! (Oooo-oooo-ooooo-ooooo-oooooo!)"

Suddenly Olivia wasn't orange anymore. She was a beautiful shade of BLUE! However, the frog didn't like someone impersonating him so he made an "EEE EEE EEE" sound. (for added effect you could play a short video or sound clip of a blue poison dart frog here)

Olivia knew that sound... it was the sound of a blue poisonous dart frog!! Olivia got scared. She knew that she could easily get poisoned by that frog so she ran to a clearing in the rainforest where she saw a brown anteater!

"What a funny looking snout he has!" said Olivia. (The giant anteater uses his snout to consume more than 30,000 insects, mainly termites, every day!) Olivia decided it would be hilarious to impersonate such an odd looking creature so she twirled around and sang:

"I'm Olivia the Orangutan
Through the branches I swing
and I can change colors
if I twirl around and sing! (Oooo-oooo-ooooo-ooooo-oooooo!)

An in a snap, Olivia turned BROWN, like dirt, like chocolate, and what else? She rushed to the canopy of the rainforest to show her friends but they were not there. Instead, she found a gray sloth sleeping upside down from a tree branch!

She laughed and thought, "why would anyone sleep upside down?!" Then she thought how fun it would be to impersonate the gray sloth so she stood on the tree branch and said,

"I'm Olivia the Orangutan

Through the branches I swing
and I can change colors
if I twirl around and sing! (Oooo-oooo-ooooo-ooooo-oooooo!)"

Just like that, Olivia turned GRAY, just like the sleeping sloth. She was sure that the sloth would get a huge kick out of this but instead the sloth did not move. The sloth did not say a peep! Olivia, looking as gray as the sky, twirled around many times but nothing got the Sloth’s attention. The sloth just kept on sleeping… (and sloths can sometimes sleep up to 18 hours a day!)

Olivia was starting to feel lonely. No one seemed to be amused by her color changing ability which made her feel sad. She decided it was time to find someone who would care!

She swung through many trees until she finally came upon an Emereld Tree Boa snake that was lime green! Whoa, Olivia thought. What a beautiful shade of green!

(Baby Emereld Tree Boa snakes are usually red-brown, orange or yellow, but at about 6 months of age they become the beautiful emerald green adult color!)

Olivia wanted to be this beautiful color so she twirled around and sang:

"I'm Olivia the Orangutan
Through the branches I swing
and I can change colors
if I twirl around and sing!” (Oooo-oooo-ooooo-ooooo-oooooo!)"

Olivia suddenly turned bright GREEN, like a lime! Wow! They could surely see her now! Olivia was excited about her bright new color. She went to play with the other apes, but they all laughed at her. “Whoever heard of a lime green orangutan?!” No one played with her & she felt so sad.

“I don’t want to be lime green anymore. I don’t want to be gray like the sky, brown like the mud and I don’t want to be blue like the water. I want to be orange again, just like my brothers and sisters and friends. I’d like to have a lot of orangutans to play with so she said:

"I'm Olivia the Orangutan
Through the branches I swing
and I can change colors
if I twirl around and sing!” (Oooo-oooo-ooooo-ooooo-oooooo!)"

Olivia changed back to ORANGE and that night, her and her friends danced under the orange sunlight for the rest of the day. Ever since this day, she has been very happy just being herself. 

(Then I talk again about the message – We should just be happy being ourselves and not try to be someone we’re not. Olivia was happiest just being who he was: an orange haired orangutan.)

More Fun Facts:

Q) Why are orangutans orange?

A) Their coloring helps them blend in. The water in peat swamp forests, where orangutans live, tends to be a muddy orange. Sunlight reflected off this water can give the forest an orange cast, making orangutans hard to see in the light!
Many of their nests, up in the forest canopy, contain orangey-brown dead leaves, and some trees have reddish leaves when young.

Ground-based predators would only see orangutans in the canopy as a mere silhouette. (Mark Harrison, orang-utan Tropical Peatland Project. David Chivers, reader in Primate Biology, Cambridge University)

Q) Where do orangutans hang out in the rain forest?

A) Orangutans may be perfectly adapted for swinging through trees, but new observations suggest they also spend a surprising amount of time hanging out on the ground.

Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23803-tree-loving-orang-utans-hang-out-on-the-forest-floor/ 

Please credit me and link back to my blog if you use this in a storytime!

Best Books of 2015 for Grades 4-8

Award Winners and Top Books from the Past Year

(book summaries pulled from www.worldcat.org)

Juvenile Fiction 
The War That Saved My Life - Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

A young disabled girl and her brother are evacuated from London to the English countryside during World War II, where they find life to be much sweeter away from their abusive mother.

Stella by Starlight - Sharon M. Draper 

In 1932 North Carolina, Stella feels the effects of a Klan cross burning, segregation, voter registration, and a major house fire in a story of change in a close-knit community.

George - Alex Gino. Scholastic.

George identifies as a girl; if only the rest of the world would too. With the help of best friend Kelly, George takes the first steps to becoming Melissa, her true self.

Lost in the Sun - Lisa Graff

In his efforts to make a fresh start in middle school, Trent struggles to put a traumatic event behind him. Fallon, the class outcast, strives to help Trent let go of his guilt.

Blackbird Fly - Erin Entrada Kelly

Bullied at school, eighth-grader Apple, a Filipino American who loves the music of the Beatles, decides to change her life by learning how to play the guitar.

Full Cicada Moon - Marilyn Hilton

Set during the year of the first lunar landing, this free verse novel follows Mimi Oliver, a half Japanese, half African American girl who learns about fitting in and beIng strong.

Fish in a Tree - Lynda Mullaly Hunt

With the help of an insightful teacher and quirky friends, Ally discovers how smart she really is in spite of being identified as dyslexic.

The Nest - Kenneth Oppel
When wasps come to Steve in a dream offering to fix his sick baby brother, he thinks all he has to do is say yes. But yes may not mean what Steve thinks it means

Adventures with Waffles - Maria Parr

Whether sledding with chickens or boating with cows, there’s never a dull moment when Norwegian neighbors Lena and Trille are together.

Echo - Pam Muñoz Ryan 

This original fairytale intertwines with historical fiction to explore music and its power to save, heal, and set free.

The Blackthorn Key - Kevin Sands

In 1665 London, Christopher, an apothecary’s apprentice, and his best friend Tom attempt to uncover the truth behind a mysterious cult.

Fuzzy Mud - Louis Sachar

Taking a shortcut through the off-limits woods to avoid a bully, Tamaya and Marshall encounter fuzzy-looking mud that unleashes a medical and environmental disaster.

The Marvels - Brian Selznick

Two seemingly unrelated plots—Billy Marvel’s wordless, illustrated story set in 1776; and Joseph Jervis’s prose story set in 1990—come together in a tale of mystery, adventure, friendship, and family.

Hoodoo - Ronald L. Smith
In 1930s Alabama, twelve-year-old Hoodoo Hatcher is the only member of his family who seems unable to practice folk magic, but when a mysterious man called the Stranger puts the entire town at risk from his black magic, Hoodoo must learn to conjure to defeat him.

Murder Is Bad Manners - Robin Stevens.

At an English boarding school in the 1930s, crime-solving friends Hazel Wong and Daisy Wells struggle to find an exciting mystery to investigate until Hazel discovers the dead body of Miss Bell, the science teacher.

Gone Crazy in Alabama - Rita Williams-Garcia

Sisters Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern travel to rural Alabama to visit Big Ma during the summer of 1969, where they find out about southern culture, animal rights, & family history.

Juvenile Nonfiction

Enormous Smallness: A Story of E. E. Cummings - Matthew Burgess  

From an early age, poet E. E. Cummings loved words. Burgess’s text, enhanced by Di Giacomo’s collage illustrations, explores Cummings’ life and career as a poet.

Tricky Vic: The Impossibly True Story of the Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower - Greg Pizzoli
At the turn of the twentieth century, Czechoslovakian Robert Miller became a con artist. Calling himself Vic, he started with small schemes, working his way toward selling the Eiffel Tower.

Mesmerized: How Ben Franklin Solved a Mystery That Baffled All of France - Mara RockliffFollow along as Ben Franklin applies the scientific method to a new mysterious phenomenon Dr. Mesmer has been spreading across France. 

Terrible Typhoid Mary: A True Story of the Deadliest Cook in America  - Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Known as a carrier of the deadly typhoid fever, Mary Mallon was also a victim of civil rights violations. Her biography reveals the complexity of her case.

Juvenile Graphic Novels
Roller Girl - Victoria JamiesonAstrid falls in love with roller derby and learns how to be tougher, stronger, and fearless in this dynamic graphic novel. 

Sunny Side Up - Jennifer Holm
Sunny Lewin is sent to live with her grandfather for the summer in Florida, where she befriends Buzz, a boy completely obsessed with comic books, and faces the secret behind why she is in Florida in the first place.

Lunch Witch - Deb Lucke 

When Grunhilda the witch is forced to find a new job, she finds a new job as a school lunch lady, where she enjoys scaring the children, until a little girl with thick glasses named Madison comes along and sees through her act.
Lost in NYC: A Subway Adventure - Nadja Spiegelman

After getting separated from his teacher, his classmates, and his trip partner during an outing to the Empire State Building, Pablo, the new kid in school, learns to navigate the New York City subway system as well as his own feelings towards making new friends and living in a big city.

Phoebe and her Unicorn: A Heavenly Nostrils Chronicle -  Dana Simpson
One day a girl named Phoebe skipped a rock across a pond and hit a unicorn in the face. Improbably, this resulted in a lasting friendship between Phoebe and the unicorn, one Marigold Heavenly Nostrils. Come along for the unicorn ride with Phoebe, as she deals with the usual burdens of childhood .

Hamster Princess: Harriet the Invincible - Ursula Vernon

In a spunky graphic novel retelling of Sleeping Beauty, Harriet, a hamster princess, embarks on many wild adventures until the curse on her backfires and she needs to save her parents.

Letter D Storytime

This is my storytime that I put together which introduces children to the letter D! 

1. Book:  Lazy Dave by Jarvis

This is SUCH a cute book that we recently got at work. A review on School Library Journal said that the phrasing is awkward but I completely disagree. The review also said that the the dog and human inhabitants of the story fall flat and inexpressive but I disagree with that also! I found this book to be a really great read aloud and the preschoolers absolutely loved it! The kids enjoyed the retro style illustrations and laughed at many of the pages (especially when Lazy Dave trips and stops the diamond thief!). They were entranced by it as I read it and I definitely don't understand how this could have received a poor review at all!

2. Fingerplay:

Dancing Fingers

We’re going to dance our fingers up
And dance our fingers down
We’ll dance them to the side
Let’s dance them all around
And we’ll dance them on our
shoulders
And we’ll dance them on our head
Let’s dance them on our tummy
And we’ll put them all to bed!

I usually extend this and also dance fingers on our knees, ankles, etc. I also go quickly from knees to toes and back to knees because it makes it more fun for children. Preschoolers are easily amused by these simple action rhymes. 

3. Song: Ducks Like Rain by Raffi

Kids of all ages get a huge kick out of this song. There is also a Carol Peterson version which is great. For the action part, I have the kids use their hands to make a duck mouth sing as the song goes "Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack." I also have the kids stomp around as if they're a duck that is splishin' and splashin' in the rain. This song also greatly amuses any parents in the room!

4. Book: Dog Loves Drawing by Louise Yates

5. Flannel Board: Five Donuts

Down around the corner in the bakery shop

Were five yummy donuts with sprinkles on top

Along comes a dog with a dollar to pay

She buys a donut and takes it away

Down around the corner in the bakery shop

Were four yummy donuts with sprinkles on top

Along comes a dog with a dollar to pay

She buys a donut and takes it away

Down around the corner in the bakery shop

Were three yummy donuts with sprinkles on top

Along comes a dog with a dollar to pay

She buys a donut and takes it away

Down around the corner in the bakery shop

Were two yummy donut with sprinkles on top

Along comes a dog with a dollar to pay

She buys a donut and takes it away

Down around the corner in the bakery shop

Was one yummy donut with sprinkles on top

Along comes a dog with a dollar to pay

She buys a donut and takes it away

Down around the corner in the bakery shop

Were zero yummy donuts with sprinkles on top

Along comes a dog with a dollar to pay

But she so stuffed that she passes out along the way!

Adapted words to fit the D concept from a flannel board story found on Storytime Katie. For a hilarious element, use a dog puppet to "eat" the donuts. I also had the dog let out a little burp after eating each  donut and the kids were dying of laughter. At the end, I show the dog slumped over the flannel board snoring! Kids commented that the dog must be "really fat" after eating all those donuts! 

6. Book: A Dog Wearing Shoes bu Sangmi Ko

This book is absolutely endearing as well! :) I love that it talks about a lost dog and what happens when you find a dog without an owner. It teaches a good moral to children and also discusses where a dog should be adopted (at a shelter rather than a pet store). One preschooler commented in a disappointing sounding voice that the "pictures were black and white."However, as soon as I started reading, he had no trouble paying attention! The kids also got a huge kick out of the fact that the dog wore shoes and that the dog that girl adopted at the end wore a yellow tutu, just like the little girl. This is the type of book that you will need to have the children look closely at the illustrations. Definitely a great read-a-loud and perfect for any dog storytime. 

7. Song: Dinosaur Dinosaur Move Your Body (from YouTube)

How could I have a Letter D storytime and not mention dinosaurs?!  Kids enjoyed acting out all the motions in this song! I also like that it's short enough to get some wiggles out but not too long where it takes away from the main purpose of storytime (reading great stories)!  

8. Book: Dog Loves Drawing

This is another spectacular dog book. I think this is my new favorite book in fact! The way the drawn animals move through the illustrations are very humorous. The kids laughed so hard. This book was also great for getting the children to make predictions about where the story was going to go. For example, on one page it says "Then the dog decided to draw a..." and then on the next page it shows what the duck drew (a monster).  I also love that it shows children that they too could create their own stories with a pencil and let their imaginations go wild through illustrations. 

9. Song: Jim Gill - Silly Dance Contest 

Kids are obsessed with this song and it is the perfect song to get shy preschoolers out of their comfort zone! 

Clean Up Song Poster for Early Learning Spaces

I designed a Clean Up Song poster to put in our early learning area. I was hoping that this would be a fun way to gently remind children and their caregivers to clean up after they're done using the toys. We've had quite a few messes in the area lately and so hopefully this poster will help change that!

I wanted to share the song with anyone who might be interested in recreating this on Canva. Hope you find it useful!

Have any other great clean up songs? I'd love to hear them! Comment below with any other tips you may have for keeping early learning spaces clean. 

STEM: Glow in the Dark!

I have always wanted to experiment with glow in the dark paint and today I finally got to! We also got to play around with neon paint which was a huge hit! I am so excited to share this program with you all. 

Age: My program was geared towards K-3 but this program definitely could be for older children up to 5th grade too! 

Time: 45 minutes

Glow in the Dark Lava Lamp Materials:
Clean plastic soda bottle with cap or glass mason jar with lid
Vegetable oil (the cheaper the better)
Alka Seltzer (or similar antacid tablets)
Water
Funnels

Neon paint and glow in the dark paint

A UV light (also called a black light) if possible

Here is some of the paint I bought from Meijer:

Glow in the Dark Bracelet or Bead Maze Materials: 

Glow in the dark beads

pipe-cleaner or stretchy string*

*younger kids may have trouble putting beads on the string so a pipe-cleaner bracelet might be a much easier.

You could also have them make glow in the dark pipe-cleaner sculptures if you have Styrofoam squares! I blogged about making pipe-cleaner sculptures here. 

(Credit: Kidspot.com.au)

Optional Materials:

Glow in the dark bracelets from the dollar store as a freebie gift (they were cheap! Only $2 for 16 of them!) 

Books: 

The Day-Glo Brothers: The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer's Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors by Chris Barton, Illustrated by Tony Persiani

Another option: What Was I Scared Of? A Glow-in-the-Dark Encounter by Dr. Seuss (this book looks awesome under a black light)

Steps:

1) First we started the program by reading  the book, The Day-Glo Brothers by Chris Barton. The book is quite long so I will admit that I did paraphrase a few of the pages because some of the younger kids in kindergarten were started to look restless. The 2nd graders seemed to have no problem listening though. It's such a perfect book for this program though as it talks about how these two brothers discovered the glowing chemical  --  "Together the brothers built their own ultraviolet lamp. One night they took it into their dad's drugstore. In the darkened storeroom, they aimed the light at the bottles and boxes on the shelves. There, in the dark, the chemical stained label on a bottle of eyewash emitted a yellow glow." The book features the very materials we need for this program! Black (ultraviolet) lights, neon fluorescent paint and glow-in-the-dark paint. So perfect!

2) Afterwards I began to talk about our little science experiment. I asked the children "What happens when you mix oil and water? Raise your hand if you know!" One child did say "They don't mix!" And I said, yes! That's right. Let's see it in action now. I then did a simple demonstration and showed them how we would mix 1/4 of the bottle with water and then fill the bottle with Dollar Store vegetable oil so it was about 3/4 full. 

3) Next, I told the children I was going to squirt some neon and glow-in-the-dark paint into my bottle. 

4) Then, I added an alka seltzer tablet and showed them the amazing lava lamp effect!

5) I then read the following paragraphs from the Steve Spangler Website to explain how it works:

"First of all, you confirmed what you already knew… oil and water do not mix. The molecules of water do not like to mix with the molecules of oil. Even if you try to shake up the bottle, the oil breaks up into small little drops, but the oil doesn’t mix with the water.

When you pour the water into the bottle with the oil, the water sinks to the bottom and the oil floats to the top. This is the same as when oil from a ship spills in the ocean. The oil floats on top of the water. Oil floats on the surface because water is heavier than oil. Scientists say that the water is more dense than the oil.

Here’s the surprising part… The Alka-Seltzer tablet reacts with the water to make tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide gas. These bubbles attach themselves to the blobs of colored water and cause them to float to the surface. When the bubbles pop, the color blobs sink back to the bottom of the bottle. Now that’s a burst of color! Your own homemade lava lamp… groovy baby!"

Source: Steve Spangler Website

6) I had bottles prefilled with 1/4 of water just to save time. Next, I had children take turns pouring oil into the bottles. Some of the younger kids didn't want to do it so I did it for them which was fine by me. They enjoyed seeing the oil and water together and watching the oil settle on top. 

7) Next I told the children to add paint of their choice.  I said to add about 6 squirts and they were good at following the rule on that!

8) After children were done adding their paint I told them to break up the Alka-Seltzer tablets into four pieces and put them into their bottles to watch it fizz and bubble!

10) After adding their Alka-Seltzer tablets, they got to see the amazing lava lamp effect! I also allowed them to carry their bottles to the counter where the black light was sitting. They were in awe of the glowing colors and seemed mezmerized. The kids asked questions like "Will it ever stop doing that?" I told them that yes, eventually the bubbles would settle but the oil and water would still not mix. It was a fun teaching moment. 

See it in action:

11) After this the children made their glow-in-the-dark bracelets! It was a really fun program and I would definitely do it again!

More pictures: 

Hope you enjoyed this blog entry today. If you have any other suggestions for glow in the dark experiments feel free to share them in the comments!