Mentos and Diet Soda

Mentos and Diet Soda Eruption: One of the most captivating experiments made popular by Steve Spangler.

Supplies Needed:
Various types of diet and/or regular soda (diet has a greater reaction)
Several packs of mentos candy (about 1/2 pack per soda bottle
Funnel or tube (optional)

Procedure:
(Experiment should take place outdoors)

1. Unscrew the soda bottle lid and place a funnel or tube on top (or use your hand as a funnel or tube) to drop the Mentos in the soda.

I asked the kids to make some observations of the Mentos Candy: Describe the candy.  How does it smell?  Taste?  Look?

2. Drop all the mentos, AT THE SAME TIME, into the soda bottle, then QUICKLY RUN AWAY!!! Warning: This is tricky and may take practice.

 If done properly, a huge soda eruption will come flying out of the bottle!!!

Science behind the Fun:
The Mentos reacts with the carbon dioxide in the soda causing foam to spray out of the bottle.
The tiny holes on the surface of the mint mentos expedites the carbon dioxide reaction.
More information may be read at http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_Coke_and_Mentos_eruption

Upon completion of the Mentos and Diet soda experiment, we decided to take it a step further.  We added more Mentos to the Diet Soda tightly secured the lid and each child rapidly shook the soda bottle.  We removed the soda lid and observed a very small reaction of bubbles at the bottom of the soda bottle.

Inflating Balloons using the Energy of Soda

Inflate balloons using soda energy

Materials
Bottle of soda
Balloon

Procedure
1. Stretch the balloon in all directions to cause the balloon to be more flexible.
2. Place the opening of balloon over the top of the soda bottle.
3. Shake the soda vigorously. Observe that the balloon inflates and soda rises into the balloon.

Science behind the fun....
Shaking the soda bottle causes the carbon dioxide (gas) inside the soda, as well as, the soda to rise up. The sudden release of gas eludes the bottle, but not the balloon, causing it to inflate.



Wikipedia Definition of Carbonation:
Carbonation is the process of dissolving carbon dioxide in a liquid. The process usually involves carbon dioxide under high pressure. When the pressure is reduced, the carbon dioxide is released from the solution as small bubbles, which causes the solution to become effervescent, or fizzy. An example of carbonation is the dissolving of carbon dioxide in water, resulting in carbonated water.

Saint Patrick's Day: A visit from a Leprechaun!

What happens when we get a visit from a Leprechaun....

 

The preschoolers found treasures the Leprechaun left in the room to apologize for the mess he made.💰

Let's follow his footprints to see where he went!

CLEAN UP!!

 MORE TO COME!!

Letter, number, sight words, shape etc. recognition

Silly String!
We, Goofily, sprayed Silly String on the letter G!

Preschoolers will learn to recognize letters, numbers, shapes and sight words, quickly, when offered a can of silly string! 

Fun with letters M and W

Letters M and W are tricky letters for preschoolers to master, often times preschoolers have difficulty differentiating the 2 letters.  Therefore, we came up with some intriguing activities to grab the preschoolers attention.

Snowball Fight!!!!

 Give each preschooler a sheet of paper with the letter M or W printed on it.  Ask each preschooler to identify the letter then ball up the paper making a "snowball". 

 

 The Snowball Fight starts when the music begins to play and ends when the music stops.   We played the song  "Snowball Fight!!!" (Letters and Sounds song for kids) by: Harry Kindergarten. When the music stops the preschoolers should find a snowball open it up and identify the letter. 

If you are holding the letter M, stand.  If you holding the letter W, sit down.

 

If you are holding the letter M put paper on your head.  If you are holding the letter W put the paper on your nose.

I Spy!

We Played "I Spy the letter M/W". The preschoolers searched for letter M's in our classroom, give each M a high-five then count all the M's.  Repeat the same process with letter W.  Do we have more M's or W's?

 

M/W Balloon Toss!

The preschoolers toss up their balloons.  When the balloon lands, they yell out the letter they see, Fun, Fun, Fun!!!

 

 

 

The preschoolers built the letter M and W with blocks and Lego beads.

 

 

Handwriting practice!

Shaving Cream

 

 

 

 

Finger painting

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q-tips and paint

 

 

 

 

Dot Art

 

Pencils

 

IPad Letters

 

 

 

M Monsters!

The preschoolers traced and cut out the letter M.

 

 

 

Trace and cut out triangle teeth.

 

Trace and cut out circles for eyeballs (as many as they want)

 

Glue the teeth and eyeballs on the letter M to create Monster M's.  (we secured the eyes with a glue gun)

They were being Silly Monsters as they were waiting for us to secure the eyeballs :)

Walrus W's!

This is a 2-day process!

This step is not necessary, but it's a fun sensory activity that looks and feels fascinating!

Painted white paper with black and white water colors.

 

Squirted and spread out glue on top of the gray paint.

 

 

 

Sprinkled (or should I say, pour) salt on top of the glue and use paint brushes to spread it over the paper.

Let It dry over-night.  This will be  used to make Walrus Whiskers.

Trace and cut out the letter W on brown construction paper.

 

Trace and cut out eyes and tusks, then paste on the W to create a walrus face.

 

Trace  2 squares on the back of the water color/salt paper, cut out. Then cut strips at the bottom of the squares, leaving 1/4 inch at the top of the square creating whiskers.