Kitchen & Food Scrap Gardening (Traducción al Español al final)

vegetable scrap garden

Don’t throw away your vegetable scraps–use them to grow new plants! Learn how to reduce food waste and create a window sill garden.   To regrow Romaine lettuce: -cut the base of the plant and leave it in a dish with water by a sunny window -refill and change the…

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Weekly Build Challenge: Surprise Zoo! (Traducción al Español al final)

Welcome to the weekly build challenge! Families are encouraged to get creative with Lego blocks, figurines or other craft materials to solve a challenge. We will be posting a challenge each week. If you’d like to show off your creation on the Santa Clarita Library kids blog and social media…

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Grow Your Own Grass Head! (Traducción al Español al final)

grass head

Spring is here and it’s time to garden. Make your own grass head and watch it grow. Design its face and outfit and trim and style its hair as it grows!   Watch the video tutorial here:   Supplies For the Grass Head: stockings/tights/nylons (you can use old pairs you…

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Weekly Build Challenge: Whale Rescue!

Welcome to the first weekly build challenge! Families are encouraged to get creative with Lego blocks, figurines or other craft materials to solve a challenge. We will be posting a challenge each week. If you’d like to show off your creation on the Santa Clarita Library kids blog and social…

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Lava Lamps

You can make your own lava lamps at home with 3 different recipes. Each experiment produces a chemical reaction that causes “lava” to bubble up!

 

*Tips: If you don’t want to waste too much oil you can use less and still have great results, plus you can also use a narrow glass that holds less liquid for the experiment.

 

Alka-Seltzer Lava Lamps

Supplies

Alka-Seltzer or similar antacid (active ingredients are baking soda and citric acid)

clear glass/bottle

oil (any cooking oil or baby oil will work)

water

food coloring

spoon

 

Instructions

  1. Fill a glass 2/3 full of oil
  2. Fill the rest of the glass with water
  3. Add a few drops of food coloring and stir with a spoon, watch as the oil and water separate with the dye only coloring the water
  4. Break an Alka-Seltzer tablet into four pieces and drop one in

*Discuss the bubble reaction, when the tablets dissolve they react to the water creating carbon dioxide which bubbles up through the oil pulling some of the colored water with it, when it reaches the surface the carbon dioxide is released and the dyed water floats back to the bottom of the glass.

  1. Drop your remaining Alka-Seltzer pieces into the glass, one at a time, to see the bubbly lava again

*I unfortunately did not have Alka-Seltzer tablets at home to provide photos for this recipe, but keep reading  to see 2 more great lava lamp experiments!

 

 

Baking Soda & Vinegar Lava Lamps 

Supplies 

baking soda

clear glass/bottle

oil (any cooking oil or baby oil will work)

vinegar

food coloring

spoon

 

Instructions

  1. Add about a TBSP of baking soda to cover the bottom of glass

baking soda in glass

 

  1. Pour oil gently on top of the baking soda so you do not disrupt the first layer

oil in cup

 

  1. In a separate container mix about ¼ cup vinegar with food coloring

blue dyed vinegar

 

  1. Slowly spoon a few drops of vinegar into the oil glass and watch to see what happens

lava lamp reaction

 

*Vinegar is denser than oil so it sinks below the oil, but when it reaches the bottom of the glass it reacts with the baking soda causing carbon dioxide bubbles to form

*After some time, I decided to pour more vinegar into my glass to see what would happen

lava lamp reaction

*Can you see all the layers in the glass? At the bottom is the white baking soda, then the blue vinegar, and then the gold oil.

 

*As the baking soda and vinegar began to react the glass began filling with a surge of blue and white bubbles filling the glass in a very cool way.

 

 

Salt Lava Lamps

Supplies

salt

clear glass/bottle

oil (any cooking oil or baby oil will work)

water

food coloring (I would not recommend water colors, I tried them in the sample and they made the water too murky)

 

Instructions

  1. Fill a glass 2/3 full of water
  2. Fill the rest of the glass with oil
  3. Add a few drops of food coloring

*Notice how the dye only colors the water and not the oil.

*Notice that the oil floats on top of the water, even if you stir the oil and water together they will separate with the oil on top, this is because oil is less dense than water.

  1. Add pinches of salt to the glass and watch to see what happens

*As the salt falls through the glass it will weigh down the oil and pull it down into the water, when the salt disintegrates in the water the oil will bubble back up in the glass.

 

*This sample has less dye so you can see the salt settling at the bottom of the glass and bubbles coming up into the oil layer

 

*Notice the little eruptions within the oil layer

 

 

Looking for more fun science experiments? Check out our free eBooks on videos on Overdrive

For more exciting activities sign up for our free Spring Reading Program to complete missions and earn rewards!


Traducción al Español de Lámpara de Lava

Tú puedes hacer tu propia lámpara de lava en casa con tan solo tres diferentes recetas. ¡Cada experimento produce una reacción química que causa que la  “lava” flote hacia arriba!

 

Recomendación: Si tú no quieres desperdiciar mucho aceite, tú puedes usar menos y aun puedes tener buenos resultados, además, también puedes usar un vaso de vidrio más angosto y usar menos líquido para el experimento.

 

Lámparas de Lava  con Alka-Seltzer

Material:

Alka-seltzer o un antiácido similar (los ingredientes activos son bicarbonato de sodio y ácido cítrico)

Un vaso transparente de vidrio/ botella

Aceite (cualquier aceite para cocinar o aceite para bebé)

Agua

Colorante vegetal

Cuchara

 

Instrucciones

  1. Llenar el envase de vidrio unas  2/3 partes con aceite
  2. Llenar el resto del envase con agu
  3. Agregar unas cuantas gotas de colorante vegetal y mover con una cuchara, ve como el agua y el aceite se separan con el colorante mientras se pinta el agua.
  4. Parte un Alka-Seltzer en 4 pedazos y agrega un pedazo al agua.

*Discute la reacción de las burbujas, cuando las tabletas se disuelven, producen un reacción con el agua creando dióxido de carbono, el cual burbujea subiendo a través del aceite llevando el agua coloreada con él. Cuando alcanza la superficie el dióxido de carbono es liberado y el agua coloreada flota nuevamente al fondo del envase.

 

  1. Agrega el resto de los Alka-Seltzer en el envase, uno a uno, para ver como burbujea la lava otra vez.

*¡Yo desafortunadamente no tengo Alka-Seltzer en casa para mostrarles fotografías de esta receta, pero sigan leyendo para ver 2 experimentos de lava a continuación!

 

 

Lámparas de Lava con Bicarbonato de Sodio y Vinagre

 

Material:

Bicarbonato de sodio

Envase de cristal/ Vaso/botella

Aceite (cualquier aceite de cocina o para bebé)

Vinagre

Colorante vegetal

Cuchara

 

Instrucciones

  1. Agregar más o menos una cucharada de bicarbonato de sodio para cubrir la parte inferior del vaso. baking soda in glass
  2. Vierte el aceite suavemente  el bicarbonato de sodio para que no se destruya la primera capa.oil in cup
  3. En un envase por separado mezcla un ¼ de taza de vinagre con colorante vegetalblue dyed vinegar
  4. Lentamente agrega unas gotas de vinagre en el vaso con aceite y observa que es lo que sucede.lava lamp reaction

*El vinagre es más denso que el aceite así que se hunde por debajo del aceite, pero cuando llega al fondo del vaso, reacciona con el bicarbonato de sodio causando la formación de  burbujas de bicarbonato de sodio.

* Después de algún tiempo, decidí agregar más vinagre en el envase para ver qué pasaría.

lava lamp reaction

*¿Puedes observar todas las capas en el vaso? En el inferior está el bicarbonato de sodio, y en seguida el aceite dorado.

¡En cuanto el bicarbonato de sodio y el vinagre comienzan a reaccionar el vaso se empieza  a llenar con una oleada de burbujas azul y blanco llenando el vaso en una forma asombrosa!

 

 

Lámparas de Lava de Sal

Material

Sal

Envase de cristal claro/Vaso o Botella

Aceite (cualquier tipo de aceite o aceite para bebe funciona bien)

Agua

Colorante vegetal (no recomiendo acuarelas, las probé en la muestra e hicieron la muestra muy turbia)

 

Instrucciones:

  1. Llena el envase unas 2/3 partes con agua
  2. Llena el resto del vaso con aceite
  3. Agrega unas cuantas gotas de colorante vegetal

*Nota como el color solo pinta el agua y no el aceite

*Nota que el aceite flota encima del agua, aun si tú agitas el aceite y el agua juntos, ellos se separaran del aceite de arriba, esto ocurre porque el aceite es más denso que el agua.

  1. Añade piscas de sal al envase y mira que es lo que pasa.

  • Cuando la sal cae en el vaso, va haciendo el aceite pesado y va jalándolo hacia abajo en el agua, cuando la sal se desintegra en el agua, el aceite hará burbujas y flotaran hacia arriba.

  • Este vaso tiene menos color para que puedas apreciar como la sal se va concentrando en la base del vaso y las burbujas comienzan a flotar hacia arriba entre las capas de aceite

  • Nota la pequeña erupción dentro de las capas de aceite.

 

¿Estás buscando más experimentos de ciencia? Revisa nuestros libros en línea o nuestros videos en Overdrive.

¡Si quieres más actividades emocionantes, regístrate en nuestro Programa Gratis de Lectura de Primavera, completa misiones o retos y obtén recompensas!

 

 

 

 

 


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Rainbow Walking Water

Watch a rainbow come to life! This simple experiment creates a colorful reaction using a few household materials. Use the primary colors and see how the secondary colors emerge when water “walks” out of cups with the aid of paper towels.   Supplies: 6 clear cups/bowls/containers food dye (red, yellow,…

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Shaving Cream Rain Clouds & Marble Art

Shaving Cream Rain Cloud Supplies: a clear glass/cup/bowl/jar shaving cream (you can use whipped cream, but it may make the water murky) liquid food color or liquid watercolors (if you only have gel food coloring mix it with water before using it in the experiment) water optional, pipette or spoon…

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Free Resources for Families! Traducción al Español al Final

Do the days seem to be blurring together? Do the kids need something to do? Here is a list of things that are available for free to use at home! ABCMouse This one is subscription-based. BUT you can get a 30-day free trial It is for children ages 2-8 and…

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Save The Frogs!

April 28th Is Save The Frogs Day! Frog populations have been declining worldwide at unprecedented rates, and nearly one-third of the world’s amphibian species are threatened with extinction. Up to 200 species have completely disappeared since 1980, which is not normal. Amphibians naturally go extinct at a rate of only…

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Never Miss An Event @ Your Library!

 We often hear from families that they didn’t know about a special event until afterwards. When we post pictures of fun programs at our library locations on social media, they are sometimes followed with comments from our customers: “I wish I had known about this!” “How do I find out…

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