Spooky Science, Monster Writing

We had such a great homeschooling day on Monday. I was skeptical we'd get into the groove since we had just had my niece and nephew with us for four days. I brought in some spooky schooling, though and we had a terrific day!

I went out and bought some dry ice and we did a number of experiments. You can see suggestions from Steve Spangler science and a couple of you-tube videos here and Scientific Tuesdays.

First I dropped dry ice into the spooky skull cup Daddy bought for the kids.  Then we did the one with dish soap (left) that created lots of bubbles.

We placed a coin on a block of dry ice and watched it move back and forth as the coin warmed up the ice and made pockets of carbon dioxide move past.  Then we left the coin and went on to other things--only to notice later all the ice crystals that had formed on the coin.

We added warm water to a plastic water bottle and then added chips of dry ice.  Then we put a big punching balloon on it and watched it inflate.  The kids were intrigued by how much carbon dioxide was released. We also had a terrific talk about the different weights of gases, hauled out the periodic table and looked at where hydrogen and helium appear on the table.

We used a bubble solution to create these massive bubbles in a pot.  The kids liked that!

From there we went on to some writing activities.  I have a reluctant writer, but LD absolutely LOVED this Monster creative writing packet!!  So believe it or not, LD and DD spent an our and a half writing and drawing!  First they wrote descriptive words about a monster. Then drew its picture. Then they went on to brainstorm some questions (a monster's name, place, etc.) and wrote a poem with alliteration.  Finally they did more brainstorming before writing a story.