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easy craft

easy experiment

Ever wonder if a bubble can be something other than a round sphere? Challenge geometry and create your own mind-bending, cube-shaped bubble!

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Gather your materials.&nbsp;

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Slip 12 pipe cleaners into 12 straws.&nbsp;

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Twist the ends of the pipe cleaners together to build straws into a cube shape.&nbsp;

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Tuck away the excess pipe cleaners into the straws.

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Fully dip the cube into a container of bubble solution.

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Carefully pull out the cube and gently wiggle it until the soap planes meet and form a square in the middle.

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Dip the end of another straw into the bubble solution.

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Slowly blow a bubble into the center of the cube using the straw.

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Bubble Cube.

Bubbles are usually spherical because water molecules hold tight to each other through a force called surface tension, naturally pulling the bubble film into the shape with the smallest possible surface area for its volume! But when you submerge a 3D frame, the soap film attaches to all twelve edges of the cube. The surface tension pulls the film inward from every side, meeting in the middle to form a flat square interface. Blowing air into that central spot creates a hollow, straight-sided bubble supported by the surrounding soap walls!

straws

pipe cleaners

large bowl or bucket

bubble solution

Bubble Cube

fall

leaves

decorations

painting

nature crafts

craft

Bring the beauty of fall leaves inside with these homemade jelly decorations.

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Gather your materials.

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Pour 2 tbsp of clear glue into a cupcake liner.

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Add ½ tsp of liquid dish soap.

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Add a drop of red food coloring.

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Stir until combined.

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Make yellow and orange versions.

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Place leaf coloring page inside a plastic bag.

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Paint glue over the leaf shapes.

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Allow painted leaves to dry fully over a few hours.

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Carefully peel dried leaves off plastic.

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Stick leaves on a window or any smooth surface.

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Admire your Jelly Leaves.

We’ve recreated the colors of fall with food coloring, but what do actual leaves use? During the spring and summer, leaves are full of a bright green pigment called chlorophyll, which acts like a tiny solar panel to turn sunlight into food for the tree. But as days grow shorter and nights get chilly in the fall, the tree starts getting ready to sleep for the winter and stops making chlorophyll. As the green chlorophyll breaks down and fades away, hidden pigments called carotenoids—which were inside the leaf all summer long—finally get their chance to shine, revealing brilliant shades of yellow and orange! Some trees even trap extra sugars in their leaves to produce brand-new pigments called anthocyanins, painting the autumn trees in vivid reds and purples.

clear glue

dish soap

food coloring

cupcake liners

stirring stick

paintbrushes

leaf coloring page

plastic gallon bag / large ziplock bag

Jelly Leaves

snow

Christmas

science project

baking soda experiments

In our part of California, we don't get any snow. While we try to make at least one trip to Tahoe every winter for a weekend of skiing and sledding, sometimes it's still not enough snow to satisfy my kids. To recreate some of that fun winter magic, we decided to make our own snow! It was a great way to have fun with sensory play.Looking for more crafts to decorate for the holidays? Create awesome decorations and have hands-on fun with a <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/rainbow-air-dry-clay-project-kit/5612" target="_self">Rainbow Air Dry Clay set </a>from the <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store" target="_self">KiwiCo Store</a>!

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Pour 1.5 cups of baking soda into the tray.

The ratio of baking soda to shampoo is 6:1.

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Pour a 1/4 cup of shampoo into the same tray. 

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Use your hands to mix these two ingredients! The mixture will soon take on a crumbly, and less sticky, texture, which means your snow is ready for play! For extended fun, add food coloring to create vibrantly colored snow, find small toys to create an arctic habitat in the snow, or build mini snowmen with tiny button accessories!

tray

baking soda

measuring cup

shampoo (preferably white-colored)

Instant Sensory Snow

construction

homemade craft

at-home learning

sounds

Use a straw and water to experiment with sound.

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Use scissors to make angled cuts on a straw.&nbsp;

Make sure the straw is still intact and that you're not cutting all the way through the straw.

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Optional: To secure the straw, cut a piece of cardboard into a right triangle. Match the right angle to where the straw folds and tape the cardboard onto the straw. Make sure the tape doesn't cover the open slit on the straw!

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We worked with different-sized straws to test out unique whistle sounds. What sounds can you make with your whistle?

clear cups

water

scissors

tape (optional)

cardboard (optional)

Water Whistle

chemical reactions

chemistry

experiment

science experiment

quick experiment

Have you ever seen a lava lamp? All of the colorful wax that rises and falls, bobbing around--it's mesmerizing! You've probably wondered how to make one. This is an easy science experiment that you can do at home to create your very own homemade lava lamp. And it only takes a few common household ingredients!Looking for ways to keep your young scientist engaged and learning? Learn about chemistry and practice art skills with <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/planet-bath-bombs/3702" target="_self">Planet Bath Bombs</a> from the <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store" target="_self">KiwiCo Store</a>!

We love watching the bubbles in a lava lamp dance. But before they get their groove on, there’s a lot of chemistry that has to happen! When you add the oil and water to your bottle, you’ll see that the water sinks to the bottom and the oil sits on top. Try shaking up the bottle (don’t forget to put the cap on) and see what happens. No matter how hard you shake, the oil and water won’t mix together — they’ll always separate out again! There are two reasons that oil and water don’t mix. The first reason has to do with something chemists call polarity. Water is made up of polar molecules. That means each molecule has a positive charge on one end and a negative charge on the other end. Positive and negative ends stick together kind of like magnets. Oil is made up of non-polar molecules. That means they don't have a positive or negative charge. Since the water molecules are looking for a positive or negative charge, they won’t mix with the oil molecules. The second reason has to do with something called density. The denser something is, the more stuff there is packed into it. If you weigh a cup of water and a cup of oil, the water weighs more. That means the water is more dense than the oil, which is why it sinks to the bottom! But there are ways that you can mix them up! Adding the fizzy tablet will create a chemical reaction that causes carbon dioxide gas bubbles to form. Water droplets will stick to the bubbles and hitch a ride to the top of the bottle. Once the bubbles escape, the water droplets will sink back below the oil. It is a density disco, polarity party, and a bubbly ballet all in one!

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Fill the container ⅘ full with vegetable oil. 

We used a funnel, but it’s not necessary! 

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Fill the rest of the container (almost to the top!) with water. If the container is too full it might overflow when you add the fizzy tablets! 

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Add a few drops of food coloring. They should sink to the bottom of the container and color the water. 

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Break up a fizzy tablet and drop it into the container and watch your lava lamp come to life! 

Want to experiment more? Try making a glow-in-the dark lava lamp. Instead of tap water, use quinine water (aka tonic water) and no food coloring. Place your lava lamp under a blacklight to light it up! 

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container

vegetable oil

fizzy tablets

Fizzy Lava Lamp

STEM

automaton

motion

mechanics

KiwiCo crate box

recycled craft materials

Halloween

indoor project

Design and build a little automaton with a big personality. What kind of monster will you make?

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Use a large plastic cup and trace four circles on the cardboard. Cut the four circles out. 

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Use school glue to glue two of the circles together to create a thicker cam. For faster results, let an adult apply hot glue. 

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To make the axle, poke one of the cams with a skewer in the center. Don't worry if it's not quite perfectly centered, it will still work. Apply school glue to attach the skewer. For faster results, let an adult apply hot glue. 

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With the end of your scissors, poke a hole about an inch in from the top edge of your shoebox. Cut the straw in thirds and poke one piece through the hole.&nbsp;

Use school or hot glue to secure the straw with the shoebox. The straw allows the skewer to spin freely.

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Poke the second skewer through the center of the second cam. Then, use your scissors to poke two more holes through the sides of the box for the straws. With the cams in place, I had my son help me test out the motion. He was delighted to discover that rotating the horizontal skewer rotated the vertical skewer!

Make sure the second cam doesn't touch the backside of the box when it is assembled. If it does, poke new holes to move the skewer a bit more forward.

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Use your construction paper and markers to make some monsters! You can also use a paper cup to create your monster. Once you are finished, tape or glue it on the vertical axle. Let your monster fly! 

This cardboard automaton uses cams (and followers) to move the monster. A cam is a machine part that moves (either back and forth or around and around) — and that transfers that motion to another machine part called a follower. Transforming one kind of motion into another is a cam’s job. In this machine, the cam and follower transform the horizontal spin of the skewer to the vertical spin of the dancing monster!

76 cool art science projects projects for kids

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