We managed to grow crystals (number 6 on the list) really really fast! Of course we'll be doing this one or two other ways before spring (hopefully) but these were really neat! We received the kit from Santa for ECJ and Mommy kind of commandeered it. (I think Santa's elves just might have gone to Dollar Tree for some of the stocking suffers...)
It was super simple because all you had to do was put the colored cubes in a container and add water. We tried cold water first (it doesn't tell you what temperature of water to use) because it also made for a great sensory activity (for those of you looking for new ones on the cheap). And although there was some growth seen, and a lot of "testing the waters", they just weren't growing really really fast.
So, Mommy drained out the cold water (careful not to spill the "crystals" down my garbage disposal) and refilled with hot water. Boy, did those things start growing!!! It was at this point that the campers (lead by Peanut) discovered that if you put the end of a "straw" in the water and looked down the other end it magnified the crystals!
5-10 minutes after adding the hot water Mommy drained the water off again and placed the crystals on plates. It said to let dry slightly on paper towels but the feeling of being "oozy" was just too hard to resist.
The campers spent about 45 minutes discovering and playing with their crystals!
And they were all varying sizes!
One of the neatest things about this is it can be reused (as I type this they're drying out on the same plates I'd placed them on). Once fully dry they can be placed back in water and will grow again. I'm not sure how many times this will work but I'm not complaining what-so-ever.
The other thing we managed to get done was to make our evil twins (number 21 on the list). I wasn't quite sure which direction I wanted to go with these at first so I just showed them (mainly Peanut) how to trace each other and then the pencil outlines and then told them to "make your evil twin". I guess when you're getting traced by a sibling it can be a pretty ticklish experience :-) .
The creativity and originality they showed was impressive!
After they'd decorated their "twin" how they saw fit we decided to make it into a quick lesson on what you should do and what you shouldn't do. So each child either wrote, or had me write, all the things that made their twin evil all around the "twin". There were quick discussions and then the "evil twins" were taped up to each child's bedroom door.
Kinda scary actually....
We'll keep them up there for a few days before I put them away. I'll keep them on hand though in case we need reminders of how not to be our evil twins from time to time.
Peanut did go back and change how her twin looked after a couple of hours and proclaimed that she was nice now and would never do those things again! All in all a really good project to do and they had fun doing it. Even if my hallway looks a bit creepy right now.
I think in the spring we just may make something a little more cheerful with tracings of each other...
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