The Colors of Our Day

First up, The colors of fall. Check out this lovely bouquet hubby brought home for me last night for no particular reason! What a treat!


Next, more color mixing fun for Charlie. Last week we played around with shades of yellow, and mixed red and blue to get purple. Today I read him the book Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni. The gist of the story is Little blue and Little yellow are two colored spots who share wonderful adventures. One day, they can't find one another. When they finally meet, they are overjoyed. They hug until they become green. Not just a story about color mixing, but a tender message for young kids.

After the story, Charlie got to make some "Littles" of his own. To prepare for this, I cut 2 sponges into circles. Added clothespins for handles and threw some paint on a plate. Voila! Instant art project.

Then I got out of the way and let him create.

The big boys got into some mixing and color observation as well. They are working on solving a mystery using simple chemistry experiments from the book The Crimecracker Kids and the Bake Shop Break-in by Marilyn D. Duerst. The author came to our library last year and did some fun science stuff with the kids. We purchased her book then and are just getting around to using it now.



Today's experiment had them observing which of 7 white powders commonly used for baking caused a reaction when mixed with iodine. They will use their data combined with results of additional experiments to gather evidence in solving the bake shop break-in. A fun way to add science to our day.

Adding Iodine to the mystery baking "powders"

Sometimes the color of the iodine stayed yellow. Other times it turned purple.

A side note: I was talking to Steve about proper disposal of iodine last night and the conversation turned to talk of tasteless, odorless poisons. (we'll be married 14 years in Oct.) Turns out there are many of them and Steve knows alot about them. I'm just putting it out there, people. Just in case something should, you know, happen to me. Then again, he did bring me such pretty flowers. I have nothing to worry about, right?