I don’t know about you, but my family LOVES grilled cheese! We have it at least once a week. So when I was trying to think of what I wanted to do for a cooking project this week, it was clear to me that we would need to make grilled cheese! So I started thinking, hmmmmm what makes a good, no wait…a GREAT grilled cheese? Is it the bread? Is it the cheese. Is there anything else you can put on a grilled cheese? The answer is YES…YES…and YES!!! All of the above.

After doing some research I found to my surprise that there are actually hundreds of different recipes for grilled cheese!!! For instance, you can use wheat bread, rye bread, pumpernickel or my favorite white bread to make your sandwich.

There are different types of cheeses too. For example, swiss, cheddar, muenster, mozzarella and of course American cheese. Then we can get into the endless toppings to add to your sandwich. Some of my favorites include tomatoes, ham, pulled pork, and bacon…mmmmmm bacon!! (Chef tip: Bacon makes everything better). And that is just the beginning! Who knew there were sooooo many types of grilled cheese!

Tyler and I make our now famous three cheese gourmet grilled cheese! 

I guess we are not the only ones who love grilled cheese. Check out this video.

 -Brad & Team Yellow

Watch the video below to unpack your baggie with Julia. She is going to show you what everything in the baggie is and how we are going to use each material. If you’d like, you can choose to decorate your cup using sharpies and stickers, then it will look like your creation is growing crazy hair when the grass begins to grow! You can make a monster or a self portrait or just add fun spring decorations like flowers, rainbows, and butterflies. Enjoy!

Instructions for Planting

Lima Bean: Wet the paper towels (you don’t want them too wet or not wet enough), then place the wet paper towels into the ziploc baggie they came in. Add your lima bean to one side of the paper towel and seal up your baggie. Find a sunny window for your baggie and tape it up against the glass. Watch your lima bean sprout in a few days!

Grass Seeds: If you’d like to decorate your cup do it before putting your soil and seeds in! To start planting, fill your cup about ¾ of the way up with soil. Grab a pinch of seeds and sprinkle them into the cup. Give your seeds a spritz with a spray bottle and then add soil on top of your seeds. Add only enough soil to cover the seeds – too much soil will keep the seed from growing. Once you’ve added your top soil give it a little spritz and find a sunny spot to place it. You can do one spritz a day or add water when you see that your soil is starting to get dry – remember not to over water your plant!

Once you’ve planted your seeds and set up your lima bean baggie, you can watch this video of Julia reading Once There Was A Seed by Judith Anderson and Mike Gordon:

We will continue to document our seed growth using the two worksheets included in your baggie! If you need another copy of the worksheets, they are linked below.

The purpose of this activity is to show how science is fun. Sometimes when children hear science they think a bunch of information is being talked about – this is not the case here. We are going to create an experiment and it involves having fun. The children can also work together by helping one another doing the project. This experiment will teach the children how clouds are made with water and air.

Supplies: 

• Warm water
• Small jars with lids
• Ice cubes
• Hairspray

Activity Plan:

Ever look up into the sky and wonder how clouds form? A great science activity like this “cloud formed in a jar” can be so fun and simple. We all are scientists and we are here to weather the storm.

Let’s begin… 

1. Pour warm water into the jar and swirl it around to warm the inside of the whole jar.
2. Turn the lid upside down and place several ice cubes on top of it. Place the lid onto the jar.
3. Then remove the lid and give a quick spray of aerosol hairspray. Replace the lid.
4. Remove the lid and watch the cloud escape.

Yes, we just did our first science experiment. 

Let’s talk and find other ways we could do it differently. 

Why not test what happens when you add cold water to the jar instead of hot water.

This will help better understand why both warm air and cool air are needed to form the cloud.

• First, you need warm moist air.
• Next, you need a cooling process.
• Lastly, you need a cloud condensation nucleus or something to start the cloud.

By pouring warm water into a jar and trapping it, you create the first step which is warm, moist air.

This warm air rises and meets with the cool air at the top of the jar which is made by the ice cubes.

The hairspray provides the cloud condensation nuclei.

The water vapor inside the jar cools down, it begins to form around the hairspray nuclei into many droplets. When you remove the lid, the swirling cloud is released!

Thanks for making Science fun! Till next time, Neddie the Mad Scientist.

Activity by Neddra English, Hardy Site

Objective:

Obstacle courses are a great way to keep kids moving and having fun. Here is an example but kids love to create their own obstacle courses. This is a great outdoor activity to and helps improve coordination and movement skills. Great for all ages.

Instructions:

Make a start point and work your way around the driveway (or wherever you are making the obstacle course) by drawing different activities. Include many different tasks such as dancing, jumping, hopping, turning around, jumping on 1 foot, clapping, going backwards, etc. You could even include rocks or other objects and create a task around it. It’s a good idea to add in some ”break” activities such as make a wish, give high five to the sky, say your name, empty your pockets, etc. It makes the obstacle course more fun. You can create your own very fun and colorful obstacle course!

Activity by Lisa Vergara, Floating Teacher