You’ll want to gather a variety of leaves for your children/students to examine.  Also have a magnifying glass available for those future detectives!  Look carefully at a each leaf and see how the veins run. What kind is it? Describe how it looks. Draw a picture of it. Look at another leaf and how...
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  Simplified pencil-sharpener Open window (A) and fly kite (B). String (C) lifts small door (D) allowing moths (E) to escape and eat red flannel shirt (F). As weight of shirt becomes less, shoe (G) steps on switch (H) which heats electric iron (I) and burns hole in pants (J). Smoke (K) enters hole...
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Looking for something fast and very fun?  I’ve never had a group of children (or adults) that don’t enjoy playing, touching and experimenting with this mixture.  It has many names; Oobleck, Slime, Glurch or Goop and is like Silly Putty. The name Oobleck comes from Dr. Seuss story “Bartholomew and the Oobleck”. Reading the...
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Nina, a parent of one of my students, brought in 4 chrysalis’ for the class to watch and see emerge before we went to the butterfly festival at the University of Michigan Natural History Museum.  Unfortunately only 1 of them emerged and it was on the weekend!  But our trip to the Natural History...
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What a great day!  We took our class to explore the Mattheai Botanical Gardens with their children garden, labyrinth, trails and conservatory. The kids enjoyed learning from the docents and seeing the cocoa seeds, desert terrain and sausage plant.  It was great to share a great place with my students. Tweet
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The Mackinac Bridge in upper Michigan. This week we’re going to be building bridges!  It started out as a bridging cultures but it soon became New Morning School’s way of participating in the Plymouth, MI annual Green Street Fair.  Our students are going to work together in teams from preschool to middle school making...
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Picture taken from Google. Materials: bowl of ice and cold water vegetable shortening plastic bag a bowl with ice and  some cold water. Steps: You can ask your child to imagine he was a polar bear swimming in the Arctic (the bowl of cold water), ask, “How would you stay warm?” Let them put ...
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Picture from Wikipedia. Your child will love being able to take two snowballs in the house for this experiment. Materials: 2 snowballs kitchen sink cold water Steps: One snowball needs to be packed very hard and the other fairly soft. Inside put them in the sink filled with cold water. What happens? Just like...
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These days you can go to the store and buy almost anything you want.  You don’t need to think about how you are going to fix that toaster, sharpen that pencil and heat up that dinner; just buy a new one, use a pencil sharpener and throw that dinner in the microwave. “Creative Thinking”,...
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Go on a walk with your child and have them discover what animals brave the winter weather with them. Has your child ever wondered what animal left those prints in your yard? Or how do animals stay warm all winter long? Or why do some animals hibernate? Let them discover the answers this winter....
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