Science Day - SO fun!!

Yesterday was super busy.

After a hard day at work/play, Annde and I attended the PTA meeting & event. It's always a fun night for us because we've made a little tradition out of it for the last 3 months. First, we go out to dinner at Taco Bell (Dad doesn't like to go there) and we split a kids meal (I eat her tacos & cinnamon twists while she gets the drink and toy), she eats 1-2 plain chicken soft tacos, and I get to eat some nachos. Yummy! It's not the most nutritious dinner but it's a fun Mom/Annde tradition for PTA night once per month. Annde taught me some Jerry Jim Jingle song (or what she remembers of it) while we munched. She was still hungry so I bought a quesadilla - note to self: They put sauce on it and it's not good sauce for a kidlet who isn't into spicy. Next time, I will have to remember to say, 'No Sauce!'

After that, we went back to the school and Annde played with her friends during the school meeting. I was really impressed in the PTA last night. We have a really large PTA, with over 100 members, for a school of our size (Pre-K 3 yrs, Pre-K 4 yrs, K, Head Start and a few smaller programs). We had the Head Start Outreach coordinator ask yesterday if she could invite several families that are in the process of qualifying /waiting list for Head Start. (Of course, this was immediately after we discussed cutting back on funding for programs this year because we didn't earn enough money at the one major fundraiser we did.) It was overwhelmingly approved because we understand that free programs, like Science Night, are so beneficial for children, especially ones that don't normally have access to this kind of thing because they are on a waiting list for tuition assistance. I think every parent in there said, "I can wait a few minutes more in line for my child to do this activity because I know that every child in this room is going to have a great experience." It felt like we were doing something awesome last night... and isn't that what it should be about?

So, without any more chatter, here are the pictures from Science Night. Ann Arbor's Hands On Museum came and set up 15 stations of science based activities. Here were a few of Annde's favorites:

The magnet table was a big hit. Not only did she learn about how magnets work (attract/repel), she also had fun seeing how many bells she could pick up based on the strength of different magnets. This table used colored waters (red/yellow/blue) . The kids used the squeezy bottles and the ice cube trays to make colors. Annde's really good at this so she was making colors like magenta and marigold and chartreuse instead of just doing the normal orange, green, and purple. (Thank you Blue's Clues!!) Here she's learning about chemical reactions - the old corn syrup and water trick. When she pushed on the top, she couldn't put her fingers in, but when she pointed, her hands went right in. She had fun pulling and dripping them off...

Here, she learned about whales and blubber. There was a bag that contained something with the same properties of blubber. She put one hand in it and then into the cold water. Then, she put the other hand into the water bare. She liked how one was warm and one was cold.

Here, she's playing with flashlights, color screens, and mirrors. She wasn't too interested in the refraction/reflection properties but she did like to change the flashlight's color by applying the screen.

Here, she is learning about height and length and how to measure. They used toy dinosaurs and sponges to measure. Annde was into the measuring for only the first one... then she wanted to see how high she could stack the foam circles. Tee Hee!! 15 was her "bestest".

This one was fun - he blew up a balloon and then used static electricity to attach an outside piece of tape (not the sticky side) to the balloon. It then spiralled up the string as it deflated.

So that was the fun of Science Night... Sorry about being so wordy but I wanted to explain what was in the pictures if any one of you were interested in re-creating these at home. (Plus it helps me when I got to scrap these pictures... :) )

I'll end my long blog post with a layout. This was a great page to do... I mixed 3 challenges into one because they worked together so well and you guys know me: I can't resist over embellishing a page... At Coordinates Collections, there is a challenge called 'Stuffed' in which I have to use a bunch of different things (2 colors cardstock, 10 buttons, 3 pc chipboard, 3 patterned papers, 5 flowers, 3 brads, and 2 ribbons). Also, there is a challenge at Scrapbook Doodle in which I needed to use at least 10 flowers and Color Me Daisy had a challenge to use Transparency in your layout. So, here's all three! I love this page... it's actually on my calendar this month. The paper layers are below the transparency and everything else (pics, flowers, buttons, journaling...) is on top. I've had this Pink Paislee transparency for a while and I love how it came out. This page is very "Jana"...

Here's a close up...

Well, that's all for now. I did 6 pages (mostly - still have to journal) with Stacy and Tracy that I still need to get up as well as setting up my 25 days of Christmas mini book so look for more posts this week...