Experiment PLAY

adding water with black food colour added to flour

 Since my mini-interview with Isabelle showed me that she wanted more time to have messy and experimental play - this afternoon was dedicated to free-play of that variety. I gave them a selection of food stuffs to experiment with - as I know they have been keen to test out bicarbonate and acetic acid again (ättika). They tried it out with a balloon - the idea was to inflate it - and despite Sophia pointing out the ingredients should be going into the bottle, Isabelle wanted to test out if the ballon would inflate if they were put directly in the balloon. It did not. Putting the acetic acid in a plastic bottle, and bicarbonate in a balloon which is then placed onto the bottle so the powder falls into the now sealed bottle did work - as it all fizzed up the balloon inflated. The next step was to make a volcano - first they made dough to make the mountain part (I let them experiment with the quantities - too much water at first - but that of course can be remedied with more flour).

hmm, it was a bit too grey - more food-colouring needed

 ... more and more flour was added until it finally became a play-doh like consistency! It took a while. All the time Michael was keeping clear of the kitchen as he did not like the smell of the acetic acid - he was busy constructing with lego...

too much water - more flour needed

And then the volcano was ready for the bicarbonate and acetic acid

 Once the volcano was made it was loaded with the ingredients - it didn't work at first as the food colouring seemed to protect the bicarbonate from the acetic acid - but with a little stir and some more bicarbonate it bubbled nicely (Michael came in to look - and rolled his eyes and said "Its not much of an explosion...")

Once they had satiated their volcanic needs they turned to the cornflower "Its soo cool, it neither liquid nor solid, and yet it's both..." - and yes their hands are ever so slightly green afterwards.

cornflour, water and green food-colouring