Supplies:

• Wide bowl or pie plate 
• About 1 inch of milk
• Food coloring 
• Dawn dish soap
• Q-tips

Steps: 

1. Pour about 1 inch of milk in the bottom of the bowl or pie plate.
2. Drop different colors of food coloring into the milk, spacing the food coloring drops so that the drops don’t touch.
3. Pour about ¼ cup of Dawn dish soap into a bowl. Dip the q-tip into the Dawn.
4. Next, touch the milk anywhere with the q-tip (only touch the milk with the q-tip, not the food coloring). You can keep touching the milk in all different spots.
5. Watch the food coloring react.

Why does this happen?

Activity by Cheryl Moy, Bates Site
Photo Credit & Inspiration: www.livinglifeandlearning.com

Practice your footwork with this perfect rainy day activity!

Things you need:

• A lot of space
• Tape (we recommend using masking tape or painter’s tape for easy removal after)
• Ball

How to:

1. Make a maze-like course that you will have to run the ball through on the floor with tape. 
2. Once the tape is laid down, you have to keep the ball in between the tape.
3. You can time yourself or add any twist you want! You can even make a new course once you have mastered your first!

Activity by Rachel Scanlan, Bates Site
Photo Source: www.pinterest.com

We recommend everyone do this outside to avoid some clean up!

Things you need:

• A large tray that can hold paint… we will probably need more than one
• A lot of different colored paints
• A long roll of white paper (or you can take smaller pieces together)
• Scissors
• A cleaning station (we recommend a hose, water, and paper towels)

How to:

1. Roll out enough white paper long enough for a child to take a few steps.
2. Pour the paint colors the child wants into the tray.
3. Have the child step into the pan and get their feet covered in paint.
4. Have them step out onto the paper and walk on the paper, leaving their footprints behind.
5. Important step! Once they are done have them wash their feet off.
6. When everyone has finished, hose down the area.

Activity by Rachel Scanlan, Bates Site

Photo Credit & Inspiration: www.emmaowl.com

Supplies:

• Ruler 
• Round shape that is about 3 inches in diameter
• Pencil
• Glue stick
• Markers 
• Cardstock or scrapbook paper (at least 2 different colors)

Directions:

1. Cut two 3 inch circles, one out of each color paper. Fold them both in half and make a clean sharp fold.
2. Take one of your circles and draw a heart shape from the fold. Cut out the heart shape, leaving the crease in.
3. Now, take your heart shaped circle and fold down the two rounded tops or ‘lobes’ of the heart. These will be the mouse ears.
4. Now, open up the heart. With the black marker draw a nose at the tip of the point and two eyes mid-heart, one on each side of the fold.
5. With the glue stick, glue the inside of the heart-shaped head from the bottom of the ear (where you folded them) to the bottom point. Do not glue the ears!
6. Line up the fold of the heart-shaped head and the fold of the circle, which will become your mouse body. Press the two together until the glue is secure.
7. From either of the two card stock sheets, cut a strip that is approximately 3 inches by ¼ inch. This will be the tail. Roll the paper up tightly to create a curly look, leaving about ½ inch straight and uncurled. The ½ inch that is straight , you will fold in half.
8. Put glue on the the ½ inch straight section. Line up the crease/fold of the tail to the fold at the end of the body and attach the tail to the body.
9. Your mouse will now rock back and forth. Have fun with your mouse.

Now that you know how to make the mouse you can make all different colors and designs with the leftover cardstock!

Supplies:

• 6 small clear cups
• Paper towel 
• Food coloring (red, blue, yellow)
• Water

Steps

1. Fill 3 of the cups ¾ full with water.
2. Add a 5 drops of food coloring to only the 3 cups that have water (5 drops of red in the first cup, 5 of blue in the second cup, and 5 of yellow in the third cup)
3. Place all 6 cups in a circle alternating cups that are empty and water with food coloring (empty, full, empty, full, empty, full).
4. Take 6 paper towels and fold them in half the long way then fold them in half again.
5. Place the cups close together in a line, then dip one end of the paper towel into an empty cup and the other end into the cup with food coloring. Continue until all 6 cups have two ends of  paper towels in them.

Now watch the color process. As the paper towels absorb the colors, you can see the color travel up one side of the paper towels and down the other side into the next cup. After a while the cups that were empty will now fill with colored water.

If you leave the paper towels overnight you will find in the morning that all the cups are filled with colored water. The primary colors mix to create secondary colors and you can see where the colors traveled.

Activity by Cheryl Moy, Bates Site
Inspiration & Photo Credit: www.sciencebuddies.org

Recommended Supplies:

• Three beads in ascending size (this means each one is larger than the one before it)
  • Small (we recommend using a 12 mm bead, which is a little bit smaller than a dime)
  • Medium (we recommend using a 20 mm bead, which is a little bit smaller than a nickel)
  • Large (we recommend using a 25 mm bead, which is a little bit bigger than a quarter)
• 2 pipe cleaners 
• Scissors 

Steps: 

1. Cut the two pipe cleaners into two 8-inch sections.
2. Cut one of the extra 8-inch sections of the pipe cleaner into a 2-inch section and set aside.
3. Fold both of the 8-inch sections of pipe cleaners in half.
4. Interlock the two folded sections at the folds, so that the open ends are facing away from each other.
5. Next, bring the ends of the folded pipe cleaners together and thread them through the 25 mm bead and then thread them through the 20 mm bead, so that the 20 mm bead is on top of the 25 mm bead.
6. Thread a 12 mm bead onto the 2-inch section of pipe cleaner.
7. Fold the pipe cleaner around the bead.
8. Thread the ends through the bottom of the 25 mm bead. To make the tail.
9. Fold the pipe cleaner sticking out of the bottom of the 25 mm bead and tuck them up into the bottom of the 25 mm bead.
10. Next, fold the pipe cleaner loops up and away from the tail to make the feet.
11. Shape the pipe cleaners sticking out of the top of the 20 mm bead, by folding each side down and tucking them into the top of the 20 mm bead.

Notes:

• You can use plain wooden beads or colored wooden beads.
• You can give them faces and buttons.
• Design them in all different ways.

Activity by Rachel Scanlan, Bates Site

Photo Credit: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/212021094993939459/

A paper copy of a maple seed

Objective

Create different flying machines that help explain the forces of aerodynamics.

Supplies

construction paper or card stock, ruler, scissors, paperclips. Optionally, markers, crayons, etc. to decorate the flyers.

Steps

1. Cut a piece of paper approximately 8” long by 1-1/2” wide.
2. Along one edge fold back the paper about 1/4”.
   
3. At one end fold the paper back approximately 1/2”.
   
4. Repeat five (5) times.
5. Take a paperclip and slide over the folder end parallel to the short edge.
   
6. Take outside or into a large room and through it high in the air. Watch it spin down to earth! (It does need a good height and still air to settle in to its flight mode)

Discussion

• Why does the maple seed spin?
• Wha advantage does this give the seed over other seeds?

References

https://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/roto-copter.html

Activity by Steve Newlands, Bates Site

• Empty Toilet Paper Roll (if you don’t have an empty toilet paper roll you can use cardstock to make a tube)

• Silver paint or marker

• Markers

• Paintbrush

• Small beads or buttons

• Construction paper (any color of your choice) – you can also color white printer paper if you do not have construction paper

• Glue

• Google-y Eyes

• Black Marker

Instructions:

1. Paint or color your toilet paper roll  (let the paint dry for about 30 minutes)

2. While the paint dries, cut out your construction paper pieces. You will need:

   1. 1 rectangle (2 inches by 1¼ inch). This will be for the control panel.

   2. 2 strips (2 inches by ½ inch). These 2 strips will be the arms.

3. Glue the rectangle on to the center of the toilet paper roll, the long sides going up and down. This will be the front of the robot.

4. Glue the google-y eyes on to the toilet paper roll above the rectangle. Leaving space between the rectangle and the google-y eyes to draw a mouth.

5. Glue the beads or buttons onto the rectangle, which is the control panel. Glue them in any design that you like. Allow the beads or buttons to dry before standing the robot up.

6. If you have not already, cut two strips that measure 2 inches by ½ inch from the construction paper or the paper you colored. Fold the 2 strips accordion style. These 2 strips will be the arms for the robot. Glue the arms onto the sides of the robot.

7. Using black marker draw a mouth on your robot under the googly eyes.

8. Your robot is now complete. Have fun playing and using your imagination with your robot!

Activity by Cheryl Moy, Bates Site

• Paper Cup

• Empty toilet paper roll

• Scissors

• Pen

• Crayons or Markers

• Stickers

• Duct tape, washi tape, or any tape that you have at home

Instructions

1. Place the paper cup on top of the outside bottom of the cup. With the pen or a marker trace around the toilet paper roll. You will have a circle

2. Then cut out the circle, making a hole in the bottom of the cup.

3. Place the toilet paper roll in the hole of the cup. Push the cup through until only about ¼ of the toilet paper roll is showing from the bottom of the cup. You should be able to see straight through the toilet paper roll and the cup.

4. To secure your toilet paper roll to the cup, you can wrap either duct tape, washi tape or any type of tape that you have at home. This will also decorate your telescope.

5. Decorate your telescope with crayons, markers and stickers.

6. Take your telescope and start exploring!

Activity by Cheryl Moy, Bates Site