Marble Maze 07/02/2011
 Recently we bought new patio chairs. On each side there was a protective plastic piece, which after reading The Chocolate Muffin Blog, was the perfect marble maze! I couldn't get the idea out of my mind until we tried it! The kids play a game called Feed Gnocchi on Pbskids.org. I never really liked the games but was amazed at their ability to make the mazes based on this game. They knew how to place the pieces so the marble would roll onto the next one and if it did not work, they had the ability to fix their mistakes. I was impressed and have a new found respect for the site and Curious George.  We taped the pieces up with Scotch tape and then when they felt the maze was complete I used packing tape to make it very secure. We had two different weights of marbles. One marble from our plastic marble maze game and another from our magnets. We had fun seeing which worked better. There are four sides and a different marble run/maze on each side. A few days after we made this it ended up in the sand box and has been used as a sand slide. It worked great there too!         Play idea inspired by: http://www.thechocolatemuffintree.com/2011/06/seven-sensational-ideas-for-creating.html 1 Comment  We have done an experiment like this before with vinegar and baking soda. Today I gave them many things to choose from. Some bowls had water and some had vinegar. They also had baking soda, cornstarch, sugar, and small jars with spice mixtures. I did walk them slowly through the different ingredients and how things interacted before I "let them loose" because I wanted them to notice the reactions or lack of reactions. The bowls of water also had food coloring for color mixing. The spices for were for pretending to cook. I really enjoyed watching them figure out how to make things bubble up and change colors. I was thrilled when the words, "Hey mom, what do you think will happen when...." continually came up. I responded, "YES!, Try it! What happened?" and numerous small experiments were conducted. After they lost interested with the mixing then we painted with the left overs. The pictures were not show worthy but the process was fun and messy! I don't think they "got" that the sugar dissolved. This reminded me of a science experiment I have done with my upper elementary students where they try different amounts of sugar in a Kool-Aid type mixture and then actually taste them. So, dissolving will wait for another day. I have not tried the slide show feature before, feel free to leave feedback. | Summer 2011
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