Paper Bag Ponchos

Cinco De Mayo (the fifth of May) is a holiday that celebrates Mexico’s victory over a battle with France. It is a day of pride, unity and great festivities!

To celebrate Cinco De Mayo lets reuse paper bags and turn them into South American Ponchos!

MatMaterials

large paper bag glue/tape

markers or paint string or Yarn

any embellishment you like!

1. Flatten the paper bag.
2. Cut a circle in the bottom part (this will actually be the top, and the hole for your head!)
3. Decorate each side of the bag with designs. Look online for Mexican symbols and color themes. Take a look at the symbols below for ideas.
4. Once the sides are dried, glue or tape your fringe on the bottom of the bag.
5. Finally, cut slits in the side

seams of each paper bag.

Raw to Rubber Eggs

Materials
one egg
drinking glass
vinegar (enough to fill a glass)

1. Put a raw egg in a glass.
2. Fill the glass with vinegar and let it sit for a day and night.
3. Remove the egg and go experiment dropping it in the sink.

What’s happened? When vinegar, which is acidic, combines with the calcium carbonate of the shell, it breaks it down. A chemical reaction has taken place! Did you observe any bubbles? Carbon dioxide, which is a gas, is released during this process.

Optional: Try leaving this rubbery egg out for another day. What’s happened now?

make your own mineral crystals

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Materials

quart sized glass jar

½ cup warm water

Epsom Salt

spoon

2x8” half inch piece of dark construction paper

1. Add warm water to the jar.

2. Stir your salt into the water one spoonful at a time, until the water molecules are completely saturated with salt. You will be able to tell this when no more salt will dissolve and it starts to collect on the bottom.

3. Place the construction paper strip in the jar and let it sit for up to three weeks. Salt crystals will start to form on the paper as the water evaporates.

Optional:

-Choose a color for your crystals and add a couple drops of food coloring to the water!

-Experiment with different environments for your crystals to grow. Try a shallow pie pan with a circular piece of construction paper.

-You can also try to grow your crystals on objects like a piece of a kitchen sponge, or a paper clip suspended by string hanging from a pencil.

-This experiment works more efficiently on a sunny day! Can you guess why…?

So, how’s it work?

If you look at salt with a magnifying glass, you will see it is made up of small crystals. Salt is a mineral, which is a natural occurring crystalline solid. In other words, the minerals are formed as crystal shapes. When the water evaporates, the salt molecules stick together and form this crystalline structure.

These crystals are made up of tinier particles called molecules – so small you couldn’t even see them with a microscope. When you put the salt in the water, the salt molecules break away from the crystal – this is now a salty solution. The amount of salt molecules that the water can hold depends on the temperature. Hot water can hold more than cold water. Once the solution is cooled it is now supersaturated, meaning the water does not have any more space to hold more salt.

Other ways of saying salt:

Sodium chloride

NaCl

Halite (a mineral that has cubic shaped crystals; it is your average table salt!)

Color Symphony

Materials:

cups or plate
3 different bottles of food coloring
milk
white glue

1. Take the milk out of the refrigerator and let it warm up a little. It'll work better if it's not cold.
2. Put the milk in a cup or plate.
3. Add drops of food coloring in a triangle or square pattern
4. Put a drop of soap in the middle of the food coloring design and watch the colors move.
So, how's it work? Milk has fat in it and the soap breaks up the fat. The food coloring swirls into the places where the fat used to be.
5. Now, instead of using milk, try it with glue. Soap also prevents glue from sticking together. If you let the glue harden, you can cut away the cup and you have a colored disk.

Rock and Roll Painting

Materials:
pebbles
ice cube tray (or small paint dishes)
acrylic or tempera paint
shoe box/container w/ lid
paper

Process:
1. Put paint into ice cube trays (or small dishes). Place a pebble in each color.

2. Put a piece of paper into a shoe box/container with lid.

3. Drop a paint covered pebble into your container and start shaking.

( ...You can later add to your pebble painting with other materials like markers, crayons, or chalk.)

Paint Like a Polar Bear

What kinds of hands do polar bears have? 5 fingers like us? Webbed hands like reptiles? Talons like owls? No, you know, they have paws!

Materials

old sock

paint (liquid watercolor or watered down tempera)

dishes for paint

large paper

1. Distribute watered-down washable paint into dishes. (Make sure they are big enough for a paw!)

2. What type of colors do you think a polar bear would like to paint with? What do you think a polar bear might paint?

3. Find those recylced mismatched socks and paw up! Slip them onto your hands and dip them into the paint. Now you can start making your polar bear painting!

Can you make big strokes? How about paw prints?