Bread Science Experiment + Free Printable Bread Cutting Pack

My next guest blogger is one you will definitely want to visit: Kristin from SmartE partE! Kristin is a homeschooler who blogs about her tot-school and preschool learning activities, themes, and free printables. She specializes in tot and prek "trays", such as her Hockey Tot Tray + Free Hockey Pack, 12 Science Preschool Trays + printables and 15 Spring Preschool Trays + printables.

Sourdough Bread Science

Long ago, my husband took a job as a bagel baker, which led to a career in bread baking. Sourdough was just a way of life! It took until later to understand the science behind it.

The actual maintenance of a sourdough starter is likely outside the scope of preschool science. If you are interested in learning more today, Cultures for Health has some helpful tips, videos and projects all about sourdough! We wanted to share an easy-prep science experiment that can be done with regular yeast and everyday household liquids. 

For this simple experiment, you will need:

-Yeast (not instant)
-Various liquids (see below)
-Cups or bowls
-This printable

You could try this with any liquids you like! Other than the various water temperatures, be sure to have the liquids at room temperature.

-Ice water
-Warm water
-Hot water
-Soda water
-Almond milk
-Dairy milk
-Apple juice
-Cider vinegar
-Soda w/ sugar
-Soda w/ corn syrup
-Soda (Diet)
-Water & baking soda (let sit 5 min before using)
-Water & aspirin (let sit 5 min before using)

Simply mix about 1 tsp. of yeast into 4-6 oz. (or 1/2 - 3/4 C) of liquid in a cup or bowl. Label or note each mixture. Watch mixtures as they change. Look from above and record the results on the printable! (We used dollar store plastic cups for this. But, another option would be to do these mixtures within Ziploc bags! Please be wary though as the bags could explode due to the activity of the yeast.) We were surprised at what liquids had the strongest reactions. We invite you to investigate this, too!

Download the Yeast + Liquid Bread Science Printable here! 

Bonus: Free Bread Cutting Pack

Though my boys make bread all the time, I decided to have a special Bread Preschool Week in our homeschool. So, I have created a free, printable bread mini-pack that I am honored to share with Totschooling readers! I always appreciate the free printables from Totschooling that makes our homeschool preschool journey oh-so much easier!

This bread mini-pack includes:

-Cutting Strips
-Cutting Shapes
-Slicing Bread
-Symmetry 

Download the Bread Cutting Practice Pack here!

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoy learning about bread and how it works in your homeschool!

Meet Kristin:

Hi! I am Kristin and I blog over at smartEpartE.com. When our son, E was 2 I jokingly called him a "smarty party," hence the name of the blog! It served as inspiration to keep up with weekly tot school themes, and perhaps, share some ideas with others! Thank you for visiting over at smartEpartE.com or on Pinterest!

Rainbow Photo Hunt STEAM Activity

I am pleased to introduce the next guest blogger in our series, Jamie from Hand Made Kids Art. Jamie is an art teacher and a mom who shares creative art ideas and projects for kids of all ages. She is here today sharing a fun way to put the "A" in STEAM.

Learn and master your colors with a rainbow color hunt. This STEAM activity combines science, technology and art for a fun twist on preschool color learning.

STEAM is the combination of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math. Hand Made Kids Art believes the inclusion of the Arts to STEM is essential to our young children’s future success. Teaching children how to think creatively and learning to be problem solvers is how we can prepare our children for the future.

With STEAM activities, the final product of the activity is not as important as the process or creating the product. Through the process of experimenting and exploring your child is using creative and critical thinking skills. Scientists, mathematicians, engineers and artists all use the same critical thinking skills to find new and innovative solutions.

Activity Objective: Child will observe and identify the use of color in their environment. Child will use technology to document their exploration of color with photography.

Materials:
Rainbow Hunt Printable
Clipboard
Pencil
Digital Camera (or Cell Phone Camera)
Printer
Hole Punch
Key Ring

Tutorial:
Step 1: Print off the rainbow hunt printable (or create your own) and place on the clipboard. My three year old requested her favorite color pink be included in the color hunt so I made two versions, one including pink.

Step 2: Go exploring and identify each color either outside in nature or inside the house.

Step 3: Document your “color” finds by taking a photograph of each color. Use the printable to keep track and check off what colors you have found.

Step 4: Once you have completed taking a photo of each color, download and print the photographs. We printed our photographs on 4x6 photo paper. Below is a collage of our final color photographs. All color photographs were taken by my five and three year old.

Step 5: Create your photo book. Punch a hole in the corner of each photograph and slide the photograph on to the key ring. You may print off the rainbow printable to use as the cover for the book or let your child create their own book cover.

Activity Extensions:
Write the color names on the back of the photographs.

Provide additional art experiences by letting your child experiment and explore making marks with color using a variety of materials, such as crayons, markers, and paint.

Related links from Hand Made Kids Art:

Photography Made Easy for Kids

How to Turn STEM into STEAM

How to Use Technology to Enrich Preschool Learning

Jamie is a certified Art Instructor having taught children of all ages. In addition to inspiring young minds and creating for Hand Made Kids Art, she is a busy mother of 3 children. Hand Made Kids Art focuses on quick, easy and inspiring art activities to grow creative kids. It doesn’t matter if you only have 5 minutes or 20 minutes, you can find time to create art with your children with Hand Made Kids Art. Follow along with our art adventures at HandMade Kids Art, Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Thawing a Frozen Heart: Sensory Science for Kids (Love to Learn Linky #25)

It's no secret that my kids love Frozen! In fact, their favorite part of the movie is when Anna gets turned into ice and they come to the realization that "an act of true love will thaw a frozen heart". Since Valentine's Day is coming up, I thought it would be fun to do a sensory and science activity where they can thaw Anna's frozen heart! 

(If you're new to the blog, also check out our Frozen Learning Pack and Frozen Alphabet Cards!)

This activity was so easy to set up, and it was great for introducing my 3 year old to science concepts such as phases of matter (ice/ water), temperature (hot/cold) and buoyancy (float/sink), all while pretending she was rescuing her favorite Frozen character, Anna!

What you'll need:

-ice cube tray

-water

-hearts cut out of red construction paper

1 - First I cut out 16 hearts from construction paper. (however many ice cubes your tray holds) The fastest way to do this is to take one sheet of red construction paper and fold it in half and then in half again and keep folding until you get a square small enough to fit in an ice cube tray. Then you can cut several hearts with one cut. I got all 16 in one shot by doing this.

2 - Fill the ice cube tray with water and add a heart in each space. 

3 - Let freeze overnight.

The first thing I did was let my daughter touch and play with all the frozen hearts. This was a great sensory experience and she really enjoyed it!

Then, we tried several ways to thaw the hearts: 

1- Putting one frozen heart in a glass of water and letting it sit there. (You can even have one glass of warm water and one with cold water and see which one melts faster)

2- Putting one frozen heart on a plate and using a dropper to pour drops of water on it.

3 - We also tried thawing one heart by holding it in our hands and letting body heat melt the ice.

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4 - Another thing that we didn't try but would have been fun is adding salt to the frozen hearts and observing what happens.

The heart that was floating in the glass of water finally thawed and we realized it wasn't floating anymore. It sank to the bottom! Apparently, paper hearts do not float.

More Frozen Ice Activities:
Frozen Fractals Art Activity by A Little Pinch of Perfect
Melting Elsa's Frozen Hands by Happy Hooligans
Frozen Fractals Ice Sculptures by Happy Hooligans
Elsa's Ice Castle Science Play by Preschool Powol Packets
Frozen Water Magic Science by Preschool Powol Packets
Sven & Kristoff Ice Block Races by Mom Endeavors
Frozen Ice Castles from Sand Castle Molds by Kids Activities Blog
Frozen Sensory Tub by Nurture Store
Frozen Sensory Play with Shaving Cream & Ice by Learn Play Imagine
Invitation to Build: Elsa's Ice Palace by Left Brain Craft Brain (not real ice but just as cool)

LOVE TO LEARN LINKY


Visit my co-hosts to see their posts and features!

A 5 Senses Valentine's Day for Kids from One Time Through
25 Valentine Process Art Projects from Left Brain Craft Brain
25+ Easy Heart Crafts for Kids from A Little Pinch of Perfect

Now it's time for some more links! I hope you'll join me and a couple of friends for a brand new linky party!

Bloggers, link up your posts every Thursday and watch as we round them up and share them all over the place.

Almost anything goes, we're just hoping your activities teach kids (or us!) something. (science, art, cooking, behavior, crafting, parenting, etc...)

The Love to Learn Linky is Hosted by:

Totschooling: Viviana is a blogging mom to a toddler and a preschooler, sharing ideas and resources for early education. She specializes in unique, hands-on printable activities that are educational, fun and inspire creativity in young minds.

Left Brain Craft Brain: Anne is an ex-engineer, current stay-at-home mama writing about crafty ways to encourage creativity (and brain power!) in our kids. Each of her projects gives kids the chance to learn about a new subject and do something crafty at the same time.

A Little Pinch of Perfect: Katie combines creativity, play, and learning for the perfect mishmash of fun activities that keep kiddos entertained throughout the day. She wholeheartedly believes in the power of play and feels that all activities naturally provide a fun way to learn.

One Time Through: Sue is an Elementary School Teacher currently on leave to be at home with her preschooler son.  She shares ideas for connecting and learning with kids through meaningful, play-based activities that nurture curiosity and creativity.

Love to Learn Linky Etiquette:

• Posts should be about educating our kids in any way - science, art, cooking, crafts, behavior, parenting, etc. Please keep them family friendly and please no Etsy shops or giveaways unless they are relevant to the topic.

• Upload your direct post link to the InLinkz widget. Link up to 3 posts.

• Like the hosts on Facebook: Totschooling, A Little Pinch of Perfect, Left Brain Craft Brain and One Time Through.

• Or follow the hosts on Pinterest: A Little Pinch of Perfect, Left Brain Craft Brain, Totschooling and One Time Through.

• Post our button on your site.

• By linking up, you agree to have your images shared with credit.

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