1. food and drink
2. desserts and baking

Crystal Sebben, Director
heartland@appletreechildcarecenters.com
April 2015
14300 Hickman Rd, Clive IA 50325
Tel: (515) 987-2137
Fax: (515) 987-3319
www.appletreechildrenscenters.com
Director’s Corner...
If you smack, slap or scoop the mixture, it will feel solid since
you'll be pushing the cornstarch particles closer together.
Slowly run your fingers through it or pour it out, and it will
flow like a liquid.
April is Month of The Young Child!
Please make sure you see the
attached calendar for all the fun
events we have planned.
These mixtures are called non-Newtonian fluids, referring to
Isaac Newton's observation that substances typically
become more fluid when they're heated and viscous when
they're cooled. Those substances, like honey, are Newtonian
fluids.
Since the cornstarch goop's consistency is affected by
pressure as well, it's considered a non-Newtonian fluid.
Quicksand — a suspension of sand in water — works the
same way.
2. Bake a paleontology cake
What they'll learn about: Dinosaurs
The most delicious dinosaur dig ever.
There are plenty of cool ways to use
science to create food — and we'll get
to one later — but sometimes all you need is a cake to start
an appetite for knowledge.
11 Ways to Make Science Fun for
Your Kids
This paleontology-themed pastry doesn't automatically teach
your children anything about dinosaurs, but it can be a
delicious way to get them interested in learning more. Use it
as a way to keep their attention as you teach them about the
lizards that once ruled the earth.
The vinegar and baking soda volcano is a science fair
classic, but making science fun for your kids can mean a lot
more than making a mess of your kitchen.
If science at school doesn’t sit your children, there are plenty
of fun and even delicious ways to get them excited about
biology, chemistry, and physics—-without a single
worksheet.
3. Create an electromagnet
What they'll learn about: Electromagnetism
Check out these 11 projects that can lead to magical and
educational moments with your kids.
Making an electromagnet is a middle school science-class
staple, and it's an easy project to do after a quick trip to a
hardware store. Simply wrap copper wire around a nail,
connect the ends of the wire to a battery and watch the
magnetic magic unfold.
1. Make 'quicksand' with cornstarch
What they'll learn about: Non-Newtonian fluids
The magnetic field gets amplified with each additional loop
around the wire, and your kids can test out different wire
gauges, lengths and materials to see which will make the
strongest magnets.
While this might seem like a big task, you've likely done this
before. When you slowly mix about 10 parts cornstarch to
one part water, you create a liquid with the consistency of
honey, and the properties of quicksand.
This is how it works: When you mix the cornstarch into the
water, you create a suspension, which is when one
substance is dispersed inside another. This makes the
mixture act like a solid when pressure is applied, and a liquid
when it's allowed to flow freely.
1
Science (Continued from page 1)
Science Experiments
4. Make pepper swim with dish soap
day by day.
What they'll learn about: Surface tension
You can even split stems to color one side of the carnation and
not the other, or color it two different colors.
Surface tension is a tricky concept to explain
to younger children, but an easy and engaging
thing to show them. Sprinkle a bunch of
pepper on the surface of a bowl of water, have
a kid dip her finger in dish soap and gently touch the
surface of the water. The pepper will jet to the edge of the
bowl because the soap broke the surface tension of the
water.
8. Make hot maple ice cream
What they'll learn about: Molecular gastronomy
Molecular gastronomy, at its core, is using chemicals and
creative cooking methods to create food that flips its usual form
and function on its head. Over the past few years, more home
chefs have been trying out these techniques, and you can
create a hot ice cream that melts as it cools with a little bit of
methyl cellulose.
Surface tension is the result of the surface-level molecules
of water being pulled downward by attraction to other
molecules. This holds them in place and allows particles
like pepper to float on them.
Methyl cellulose is a derivative of plant cell walls, and creates
gels only when it heats up. The recipe in the video above shows
you how to make it yourself, and you can get the key ingredient
for as cheap as $7.99.
Because soap is another highly attractive substance, it will
pull the water molecules near it and break the surface
tension. This flings the pepper particles out to the edges of
the bowl, where the surface tension remains.
9. Build Heron's Fountain
You can also do the same experiment with milk and food
coloring.
What they'll learn about: Air and pneumatic pressure
5. Extract DNA from split peas
What they'll learn about: What DNA looks like
This might sound deceptively tricky, but with some
household supplies and a little bit of lab equipment, you can
help show your kids what DNA looks like. The video above
walks you through the whole process, which involves
breaking down the subject, using salt and meat tenderizer
to release the DNA and extracting it with alcohol.
An individual DNA molecule would be too small to see with
the naked eye, but this experiment makes the long, sticky
stands visibly tangle together.
6. Suck an egg into a bottle with fire.
What they'll learn about: Air pressure and vacuums
This is a surefire way to wow your kids with nothing more
than a hard-boiled egg, a glass bottle, a lighter and some
paper. Take strip of paper, light it on fire, put it inside a
glass bottle and let the smoke reach the brim. As soon as it
does, place the egg narrow-side down at the mouth of the
bottle, and it will slowly get sucked into the bottle.
As the smoke fills the bottle and it heats up, the air inside
expands. Once the flame is cut off by the egg's seal of the
bottle, the air begins to cool and contract, creating a
vacuum that sucks the egg in.
This modern adaptation of a first-century Alexandrian fountain is
a great way to introduce kids to air and pneumatic pressure.
Water and air pressure are moved through a series of tubes,
which draw water down from the top, through the bottom and up
to the top again.
10. Explain why the sky is blue with milk, water and a flashlight
What they'll learn about: Rayleigh scattering
Rayleigh scattering is what happens to light when it passes
through the atmosphere. As light travels from the sun to Earth,
it's absorbed and emitted by tiny particles, which scatter white
light into different colors. Blue and violet are scattered the most,
and because the sun emits more energy as blue light (which our
eyes pick up better), our sky looks blue.
You can replicate this effect with a glass of water, milk and a
flashlight. Shine the light into the glass of water as you slowly
add drops of milk. Once there are enough protein and fat
particulates from the milk in the glass, the water will look blue.
11. Make your own rock candy
What they'll learn about: Crystallization
If the dino cake and hot ice cream weren't enough, you can
teach your kids all about crystallization with some rock candy.
Simply mix sugar into water until the sugar stops dissolving.
Then, tie a clean string to a butter knife laying across the top of
a glass and pour in the solution.
If you can't stand the smell of hard-boiled eggs or can't find
the right size bottle, you can use balloons instead.
Keep the glass covered with a paper towel or plastic wrap to
keep out bacteria, and watch the crystals grow each day.
7. Make a carnation change colors
What they'll learn about: The vascular system of
flowers
It's not the quickest experiment, but it might be one of the
coolest. Take a few white carnations, vases and different
types of food coloring. Dye the water, then place the
flowers in the different vases to watch them change color
BY SYLVAN LANEAUG 23, 2014
2
Apple Blossom’s Activities
Our Infant 2 Nursery spent this last month talking about different types of vehicles. For a creative
expression activity the children where able to use a car to paint with. The children enjoyed
“driving” the car through the paint. They also used their cognitive skills to figure out how to get the
“tire tracks” to different parts of the paper.
Birthday Celebrations
New Teachers
Miss. Brenda
In the Pre-K
Room
Miss. Kat
Multi– Age
Teacher
3
Infant Room:
Graham M. turns 1 on
the 15th.
Toddler Room:
Max B. turns 2 on the
24th.
Transition Room:
John M. turns 3 on the 4th
Elizabeth T. turns 3 on the 6th
Preschool Room:
Thomas H. turns 4 on the 17th
Teachers
Miss. Zoey’s birthday is on the 11th
Miss. Stacie’s birthday is on the 20th
Spring Cleaning Chore List for the Kids
Need a great idea for getting the kids to help on spring cleaning day without the drama? Hand over a list of "to dos"
and have the kids check off as they go. Once everything is checked, then they are free to play.
Add chores to the list! Tell us in the comments what your kids will do to help clean the house.
Spring Cleaning Chore List for the Kids
Bedroom: Remove everything from under the bed and put away. Pick up everything off the floor
and put away. Bring sheets and pillow cases to laundry.
Entertainment Area: Put video games and movies into correct cases. Organize controllers, games
and movies in a drawer, shelf or basket.
Entry: Move shoes to closet. Move coats to closet. Organize sports gear into bins, backpacks or gym bags.
Car: Collect every item from floor, seats and cup holders. Sweep the seats and floor carpet with a stiff brush.
Art Center: Throw away dried up markers, pens and paints. Save favorite art pieces, recycle the rest. Organize
remaining supplies in drawers or baskets.
Published at www.cozi.com/live-simply/spring-cleaning-chore-list-kids
Apple Tree Children’s Center
14300 Hickman Rd
Clive, IA 50325
www.appletreechildrenscenters.com