We just finished our theme unit on the Chinese New year yesterday.
We had fun reading books. My youngest (toddler) enjoyed
the books by Roseanne Thong. We read:
One is a Drummer: a book of numbers
Red is a Dragon: A book of colors
Round is a Mooncake: a book of shapes
We did a science activity together and I wanted to share it with you.
Chinese New Year: Shining Pennies
One of the traditions during the Chinese New Year celebration is to give children red envelopes containing brand new money.
Make pennies shine like new again with this science activity. You can make this into a science experiment by trying four different ways to shine the pennies and see which one works best. Ask the children what they think will happen.
Encourage them to observe and describe what happens after dipping each penny into one of the bowls.
Need:
1 bowl which contains 1/2 cup vinegar
1 bowl which contains 1/2 cup soy sauce
1 bowl which contains 4 TBS salt and 1/2 cup vinegar
1 bowl which contains 1/4 to 1/2 cup lemon juice and 4 TBS salt
Note: Make sure children wash hands to avoid rubbing ingredients in eyes. Soy sauce can make a mess so it may help children to wear art smocks.
Directions:
Fill the four bowls with the ingredients listed above and have children dip a penny in each bowl (or have children placed in groups with one bowl) Ask children what happened when they dipped in the penny. Discuss their obsevations on which penny was cleaned best.
It is such fun to see the reactions of the kids as they watch the shine come back to their "lucky" penny!
Edited by PreemiesPooh - 5/8/11 at 10:11pm
