Pink Snow! A Science Experiment

Ok, before I get onto the Science Snow part, I have to share with you all my reality.

wait...first..you know the Cookie cake I shared with you yesterday?? Well...we had some company over last night, and since I had TONS of that left over, that is what I served for dessert....get this...

I was told that it was BETTER than Mrs. Field's Cookie cake.

What??

Boo-ya! haha! It's a keeper y'all!! lol

ok, now back to my reality..

I know that my days looks all fabulous and productive...

BUT.

I will say that yes, I do get a lot done in my day....and I attribute that to my Moby Wrap.

This is a Moby Wrap (BEST investment EVAAA!!! I actually have 2 - one for the car and one for home)

 I wear Baby B on me a lot of the day and it keeps her oh. so. happy....which makes for a happy momma. I can do almost everything in it! I'll even cook with her in it...except with splattering grease or hot water.

However, the other day...the day I made the YUMMY cookie pie, I about had a breakdown. Hubs was at work...for TWENTY-FOUR LOOOOOONG hours. It was after A's nap and all of a sudden, B was NOT happy ....for the REST of the day. All she did was cry or eat. Seriously. From like 3:00 until it was time for bed. My poor child, Autumn....she was getting into all sorts of trouble (which really wouldn't have been a problem, if I wasn't already dealing with B stressing me out.) So I was yelling at her, which was making her cry, which was making me want to cry since I had BOTH babies crying, plus...who really wants to make their kid cry???? Ummm...maybe Stalin?? But not me, that's for sure! AHHH!!!! 

But then night time came, B and I layed with A in her bed to put her to sleep and the three of us had the most snuggly, QUIET, fabulous time, reading books and falling asleep. And poof!! Life was grand again. 

So, to answer y'alls questions. I don't know how I get it all done in my day. And yes, B is attached to me quite a lot, whether in the wrap, or nursing, which she does a lot too!...lol. But that's who I am...my mom used to call me Taz....

because I would NEVER stop! ha!

Ok, now onto my Pink Snow :)

This actually came from my friend that I used to teach with in 3rd grade, but who is now in 5th grade. You've heard me talk about her before - she's my science guru :)

This is a cute little Nonfiction book about all kinds of weird weather..but only a little but about how snow forms.

There's also this book

 

It's about how to get to school on snow days (ummm...what kind of days?? lol)

and there's this book....

This is a great one to read while you do the different insulator activity with the Hershey Kiss (bare-hand, mitten, or flannel)

Anyway, the activity she does is from Steve Spangler...do you know this man and his website??? Our 5th grade teachers LOVE him!!

Anyway...you know the Insta-Snow we use (sorry, we Floridians use - ha!) to talk about snow??

 

Steve says they invented it by accident when trying to make diaper filler stuff...The big and MAIN, HUGE, DEAL BREAKER of a difference is, of course, that the Insta-snow will expand, while the diaper filler is supposed to ABSORB (wouldn't that be horrible if the diapers expanded?? lol!!!)

Apparently, according to my friend, they are both polymers (which is a harder cnocept tht they don't reallyneed to know until later, but it's cool and science-y...according to her...which is why SHE'S the 5th grade teacher..lol). 

Let's get physical..physical....I wanna get Physsssiiiicallllll (c'mon..you know you were singing!)

A physical demo of the polymer would be to have 6 kids join hands and scrunch close together...then, all the other kids are water molecules who join in the middle of the polymers and the more of the you add, the more stretched out and apart the polymer kids get - and tada! You have a reinactment of expanding polymers!

Now, for the Science Fair project portion...

Using diapers, "Which Diaper brand absorbs the most water???"

(p.s..you guys know that a science fair question is NOT a yes or no answer, right?? lol)

So...ask your teacher friends or students with baby siblings to bring in a few diapers - hopefully they use different brands. Get out the polymers of the diapers (The Steve Spangler book I have from his inservice says that you get the polymers out of the diaper by cutting open a (new unused) diaper, pulling out all the cotton like material inside and scooping up any powders that came out with it to put in the bag too. then you blow a little air into the bag and shake and should see the polymers (powderlike) stuff left.. its not a crazy lot. The purpose of the cotton stuff is to help spread out the polymers so the baby doesn’t sit in one big “gooshy lump of water-filled gel.”) and measure out the same amount of each and added different amounts of water to each batch of polymers.

Then do it with the snow and discuss what it would be like if the diapers were filled with that instead! hahaha!

He did a cool little demo....which he did on the Ellen show!! Here, take a look-see

You can add some kool-aid to the insta-snow to make the Pink Snow (hence, using the book).