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“Brain Food”

Recipes for great play!

Home Made Sand: 4 cups dried, used coffee grounds, 2 cups cornmeal, 1 cup flour, ½ cup salt.

Knox Gelatin Mold: The ratio is ¾ cup water to 1 packet Knox. Take the number of cups of water your container holds and divide by .75. This is how many packets of Knox you need. In a saucepan, heat the water over low heat, add the packets of gelatin. After it dissolves pour it into your container. Let set overnight. **Be sure to spray your container with Pam first! The kids can use pipettes and eyedroppers to inject the mold with colored water.

Temperature Mixing: You will need 4 baby food jars, liquid water color and 2, 3x5 cards. Fill 2 jars to the brim with HOT water and color it red. And 2 jars to the brim with COLD water colored blue. Put and index card over 1 of the cold jars. Hold the card in place as you flip the COLD jar upside down and place it on top of 1 of the HOT jars. Hold the jars in place as you slip the card out from between the 2 jars. What happened? Try it again but reverse and put the HOT jar on top of the COLD jar. What happened this time?

Film Canister Pop: Fill a clear film canister about2/3 full with water. Drop in an alka-seltzer tablet and quickly put on the lid. It will take about 18 seconds for the top to EXPLODE off and shoot into the air. Always use safety glasses when doing science experiments!

Bubbling Eruption: In a pitcher mix ½ cup of dish soap, 1 cup of water, ¾ cup of vinegar and a squirt of liquid watercolor. In a clear bottle put ½ cup of baking soda. Using a funnel, slowly pour the vinegar liquid into the baking soda bottle. Thick lava!

Bouncing Bubble Solution: 1 cup distilled water, 2 Tbls. Of blue Dawn, 1 Tbls. Of glycerine. The water is the most important ingredient. Good quality water doesn’t contain high levels of iron or minerals. Glycerine gives the solution the extra strength. You may substitute Karo syrup for the more expensive glycerine. Use a glove on your hand and you can hold a bubble and make it bounce.

Rainbow Stew: Ingredients needed: 1 cup corn starch, 1/3 cup sugar, 4 cups water, red, yellow and blue coloring, medium saucepan, mixing spoon and ziplock baggies. Mix the cornstarch, water and sugar together and put over medium heat. Cook until thick, stirring constantly. Divide mixture into thirds and add color.




Recipes page 2

Seal Gum for Homemade Stickers: You will need 4 envelopes Knox gelatin, 2 cups of water, and 1 teas. Peppermint extract and a small saucepan. Mix the gelatin and water in the pan. Heat over medium heat until the gelatin is dissolved. Add the peppermint and let cool. Paint a thin layer on the back of any picture and let dry. Lick and stick!

Clean Mud: Grate 3-4 bars of Ivory soap. Tear up a roll of toilet paper into a large bowl. Add some warm water and start mixing. Slowly add more water if needed to form the consistency of mashed potatoes. Can be stored in an airtight container and be reconstituted with more water. It can be dried after sculpting.

Rainbow Layers: In a clear plastic cup pour a layer og each of the following liquids: colored green water, blue dish soap, cooking oil, and some pink shampoo. Watch as the layers separate out into the same pattern no matter which order you poured them into the cup!

Color Mixing: Gather corn syrup, food coloring, red, yellow and blue, and paper plates. Mix each of the colors with some corn syrup. Use your fingers to mix the colors on the paper plate. A fun sensory experience.

Lava Lamp: You need a 16 oz. plastic soda bottle with cap, vegetable oil, cheap is good! Food coloring an alka-seltzer tablet and water. Fill the bottle ¾ full of oil and fill the rest of the way with water. Add about 10 drops of coloring. Be sure to make the water dark. Divide the tablet into 8 pieces. Drop 1 piece into the bottle. Watch what happens. When the bubbling stops add another piece. It’s a lava lamp!

Recycled Markers: Don’t throw away those dried up markers. Instead, use them as paint pens! The kids can dip them in water and “paint” on the paper.

Ivory Soap Science: You need a bar of Ivory soap, paper towels and a microwave oven. Place the bar of soap in the middle of a piece of paper towel in the center of the microwave. Cook the bar of soap on high for no longer than 2 minutes; Don’t take your eyes off the action! The soap will begin to expand and erupt into puffy clouds. Be careful not to overcook it. Allow the soap to cool for a minute before touching it. Pipette liquid watercolor over the “mountain” and see what happens. Udate: start small--use 1/4 bar and nuke for 30 seconds.

Lip Balm: 2 Tbls. Shortening, 1 Tbls. Non-sweetened kool-aide. Melt shortening in the microwave for 30 seconds. Stir in the kool-aide. Melt for 30 more seconds. Poor into small container. Put in fridge until cool and hard.

Flubber!

Have fun with this mysterious substance at home!
What happens to Flubber when...
it is stretched?
it is rolled into a ball and bounced?
it is stretched over the opening of a jar?
an object (golf ball, etc.) is rolled on it?
Put into a collander?
What else can you do with flubber?
...make it and find out!
--------------------------------------

What you need:

3 cups Warm Water
2 cups Elmer’s White Glue (we prefer Elmers Glue-All)
Liquid Water Color (food coloring stains)
20 Mule Team Borax, available in the grocery store laundry section.
Glitter (optional)
White Vinegar (for cleaning)

What to do:
In a large container combine and mix:

1 ½ cups very warm water
2 cups Elmers Glue-All
A few drops of water color and glitter (if used)
Make sure this combination is completely mixed.

In a small container combine and mix:
1 1/3 cups very warm water
2 level tsp 20 Mule Team Borax.
Make sure the Borax is completely dissolved.

Combine the glue and borax mixtures. Mix well using your hands until all the liquid is absorbed. You may need to squish, mix, and break up the flubber to get it fully combined. Store the flubber in a plastic, air-tight container at room temperature.
For best results, measure precisely and mix well as noted above.

Notes:

SAFETY for BORAX: Basically, it's soap. Adults, please keep the box of powdered borax out of the reach of children. There are no extreme hazards but avoid prolonged exposure to skin. Avoid creating and breathing dust. In case of contact with eyes, rinse thouroghly for five minutes and consult a physician.

If kept in an airtight container, the Flubber will keep for a very long time. Vinegar dissolves Flubber from carpet, hair, furniture, clothes, and pets.



"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
Albert Einstein

Six Essentials Children need to be creative:

TIME-----long periods of uninterrupted free time, with few transitions during the day-----move at their pace

OPPORTUNITY-------invitations for learning

SPACE---lots of outdoor time. Think of the outdoors as an extra classroom. Children grow from the neck down and the trunk out. They must move.

FREEDOM-------to explore with few restrictions

EXPERIENCES------that are real, using real materials

THE MATERIALS-----think real and fun.

Adults are the guide on the side, not the sage on the stage. We are facilitators, not keepers of the stuff. Always asking what can I get for you?


Always ask a child if she wants her name on the picture. If they do, ask where? If they want to write it, let them! If they don’t want it, Don’t! And don’t sneak back to write it later!


Resist the urge to say “what is it?” or try to guess. You don’t have to say anything. If they come running and say Look, Look, Look, do just that! They did not say look and comment.

If they ask if you like it, turn it around and ask them the same thing. Turn the paper and ask it they like it this way.

What process art isn’t!
• not having pumpkins all look the same but saying they could put the eyes anywhere they wanted
• no more dittos or precut shapes
• looking like something
• making models
• always in the art area
• making kids do art
• small paper or gobs of glue, too much is sometimes not enough
• spending more time preparing the project then it takes the kids to do it!
• A finished product




We must be able to articulate what is happening when children play. Link “learning” words to the activities and projects. Talk about what children are doing.

Absorption Friction Weight
Force Magnetic Questioning
Patterning Vibration Reaction
Propulsion Measurements Suspension
Balance Inflate Temperature
Buoyant Experimenting Vibration
Evaporation Investigating Action



Children “show” us what they want and need to know. We then enhance their environment by using that information and our knowledge about how vital play is to a child.

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WHO - Washington Homeschool Organization
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