Fun Science/Art Project

Science never looked so pretty

Our science project

I’ve never really been an avid science learner, but when the opportunity came to combine a science activity with an art activity with my kids I thought, how fantastic!

A couple of months ago I came across a mommy blog, “Whatever” where I saw an art project and thought it was beautiful.  I still go back and visit this site  to get inspired and ideas for other projects.

I try to coordinate activities for my one and half and three and half-year old during the week. I was adamant about introducing a fun science activity since my older son, Rockford, really enjoys watching “Sid the Science Kid” episodes on PBS Kids.  This cartoon has actually come in very handy for me and I have gotten a lot of cool, easy and fun ideas to introduce every day science to my kids…even fun for me.

So here is the science activity I did with my kids. I started out talking about the “Water States of Matter”. This is basically how I did this.

First, I drew a picture of water in its solid state (ice). Then I drew the liquid state (water). Finally, I added a picture of  the gaseous state (steam). I drew this out on my kids’ white board so they could get a visual (kids learn better when they are using more of their senses).

Ice

Water

Steam

After they saw my amateur drawings of water states of matter, I walked them over to the kitchen to get a hands on experience. Here is where they got to see first hand what I was talking about. I took out a frozen Popsicle from the freezer and talked about the state it was in (solid). I asked what they thought would happen if I stuck it in a pot and turned on the stove (heat)…crickets…(oh, yeah they are only 1 and 3). I placed the pop (only after they each enjoyed eating half of it) into the pot and we stood there as the frozen pop turned into turquoise colored water (it was a bubble gum flavored pop). Soon after, we watched the water disappear as we saw the steam rise from the pot. Witnessing this in action was the best thing for their little minds to absorb than merely reading and viewing pictures about it, plus they got a treat out of it.

It was after this experiment in the kitchen that I introduced the Crayola art project. I asked them what state the wax was in. Rockford actually tried to answer, wrong answer, but at least he attempted it. “The state of the wax is solid,” I explained. I tried to pick their brain and ask if they thought it could change states of matter if I added heat to it like with the frozen Popsicle. Like a snobbish nay sayer, Rockford shook his head and gave a solid, “No”.  This made the activity the more fun.

Here are the easy step by step instructions:

Needed: One 64 Crayola box, one 24 Crayola box, a hot glue gun, a 20 x 24 Canvas, hair dryer

1. Line up the colors by their shade (like the blogger, I too opted to take out the blacks, whites and browns). Hot glue them to the top of the canvas.

line them up

2.Place the blow dryer close enough to the colors until you begin seeing them melt down. Be careful as color wax tends to splatter around if the dryer is not angled correctly. Then blast off until you have all the colors melted to the bottom of the canvas.

The heat is on

The kids were amazed to see the melting effect and Rockford was surprised he was wrong.  After it dried I let them touch and feel the wax as it had harden after the heat was removed from it.

The kids learned that certain things, like water, have different state matters and they can be altered when heat is added to it. This Science/Art Project now hangs on the wall that leads to my boys’ room and they love it…and I do too.

Have a great Day!!!!

I love my Family!!!

Tags: art, children education, colorful art, craft, Crayola, Educational Resources, fun activities, kids activities, Popsicle, science, Science education, Science project, Sid the Science Kid, United States, water state of matters