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Does your child ask questions about the magical mystery microwave? Now you can show her how and why it works, while demonstrating just how strangely foods can behave while inside the crazy cooker.

What you need:

• Marshmallows
• Plate
• Microwave oven
• Bar of soap (optional)

What you do:

1. Make sure you supervise your child doing this experiment and explain that he always need permission if he wants to use appliances in unusual ways.
2. Have your child place a marshmallow on a plate in a microwave. Turn the microwave on for 30 seconds. Watch what happens.
3. Change the time you microwave the marshmallow and see what happens. Be careful: the marshmallow will be very hot when done.
4. Repeat this experiment with a bar of soap. The microwave will smell like soap after you finish. But not forever.

What's going on?

Microwaves have a unique property that makes them useful for cooking – the ability to excite water molecules. Microwaves cause water molecules in food to spin. As the molecules spin faster, they heat up. The hot water molecules then cause the food to heat up. When things heat up, they expand. As the marshmallow heats up, the tiny bubbles of moist air trapped inside grow, and the marshmallow gets big – very big. Now that your child knows this, ask him these questions: What did you see on the surface of the marshmallow after it was heated? Why do you think it only reached a certain size? Soon he'll be guessing how all the appliances work!

By Rain Newcomb and Bobby Mercer

Activity reprinted with permission from "Smash It! Crash It! Launch It! 50 Mind-Blowing Eye-Popping Science Experiments" by Rain Newcomb and Bobby Mercer (Lark Books 2006), a book that lets kids launch ping-pong balls, create cola geysers, and more— and learn about physics at the same time.

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What could be more in the Thanksgiving spirit than a celebration of the turkey? Let the little ones partake in the turkey fun, without having to do any of the carving. They’ll enjoy making these little turkeys out of apples and no one gets hurt!

This is a great activity to keep small hands out of the kitchen while preparing the big meal. All you need are a few apples, some toothpicks, marshmallows and raisins and you're all set! When they’re done, the kids will have made a fabulous table decoration everyone can look at and enjoy while they gobble the real thing.

What You Need:

• A large red apple
• Large and mini sized marshmallows (one large, at least 20 small)
• Toothpicks (seven per apple should be enough, but have extras on hand in case they break!)
• Raisins (15 – 30)
• Candy corn (one)

What You Do:

1. Place the apple on a flat surface and remove the stem as close to the apple as possible.
2. Carefully poke a toothpick into the apple on the outer rim behind where the stem was.
3. Keep placing the toothpicks in this fashion until you have six of them fanning out behind the stem to represent the tail feathers (three clustered on one side and three on the other.)
4. Once the toothpicks are in place, slide a raisin onto the first one, then a mini marshmallow, then another raisin, in a pattern. Talk to the kids about patterns and see if they want to create a different one (raisin, raisin, marshmallow, etc.) Repeat it on all six toothpicks. Be sure the pattern ends with the mini marshmallow at the top so the tip of the toothpick is no longer exposed.
5. Now, on to the face of the turkey! Place another toothpick in front of the six toothpicks on the opposite side of the stem. Gently press the large marshmallow onto the toothpick.
6. Using scissors, snip tiny slits into the spots where the eyes will go. Press a raisin into each eye hole. (Parents may want to help the kids with the scissors, since you'll want to make a very small slit.)
7. Using the pointy end of the candy corn, poke it into where the nose goes and you’ve got your turkey!

Make a whole family of turkeys, or one for each guest to take home. After a big heavy meal, they'll appreciate having something light and healthy to eat the next morning!

Lisa M. Cope is a freelance writer who focuses on parenting and child development issues. She is the mother of two young boys.

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It’s about that time when all the signs of Halloween approaching can be seen on grocery store shelves, in front yards, and in the pages of magazines. That hard-to-miss black-and-orange color theme is everywhere, as are the holiday’s symbols, from the witch with the pointed hat to the monstrous man with bolts in his neck.

A variety of images, from ancient history to recent times, have come to represent Halloween. And playing a spooked-up version of bingo is a fun, interactive way to see just how many of the holiday’s symbols are ever-present throughout your day.

What You Need:

• Several sheets of poster board or pieces of cardboard (a square, chessboard-sized piece works best, but any type of sheet 12” x 12” or larger will work)
• Thick black marker (such as a Sharpie)
• Ruler
• Scissors

What You Do:

1. At least a week before Halloween, you and your child can create bingo boards for each family member who wants to play. Use a ruler to create a grid of squares on each piece of poster board or cardboard. This is a great opportunity for your child to practice her measuring skills. Create at least 25 squares (5 rows by 5 columns) for each board. Be sure each bingo board has the same amount of boxes.
    
2. While each bingo board has the same amount of squares, the combination of symbols may be different from one board to the next. Start with one of the boards and brainstorm the various words for the symbols and imagery associated with Halloween.
    
3. Help your child write these words in the boxes. Examples include: black cat, witch, broomstick, Frankenstein, Dracula, vampire, bat, spider, cobweb, cauldron, pumpkin, Jack O’Lantern, and the Grim Reaper. Essentially, you and your child should choose words that you will be able to locate pictures of in magazines or in the grocery store, anywhere in your day-to-day routines. You may use the same words twice in one board, but try to have a variety of different words on each board.

4. After the boards are created with each square containing the word of a Halloween symbol, you’re ready to play. Assign a board to each family member. For the next week or so, each player will look out for the symbols on his or her bingo board. When you find one, cut out the image. You can find symbols in newspapers, magazines, coupon books in the mail, food and other kinds of packaging, and all over the printed media. (But searching and printing images on the Internet is against the rules!)
    
5. Once a player has an image of word on her board, she'll paste it in the appropriate square.
    
6. Once you cover your board with all of the required symbols, you can yell “Bingo!” for everyone to hear.  The first one to cover their entire board with the appropriate symbols and yell "Bingo!" is the winner of the game.

Your family may decide beforehand what the prize will be if you like. The activity works best with three or more players over the course of a week or so. Ghoul luck!

Cheri Lucas has her Master's of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction. She was a writing aid at Corte Madera Middle School for six years. She is currently working as a freelance writer in San Francisco.

© Copyright 2006-2011 Education.com All Rights Reserved.  http://www.education.com/activity/article/Halloween-Symbol-Bingo/

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If you’re short on time but want to find a creative way to decorate your Halloween table, try this cute and spooky party favor mug with matching mummy napkin rings. These mugs take but a moment to make, but are sure to make a big impression on guests. Fill the mug with tricks like plastic spiders and treats like mini boxes of raisins and fruit leather, as well as homemade items such as mini muffins or trail mix.

What You Need:

Muslin (an old white t-shirt will work, too)

Scissors

Medium sized wiggly eyes

Cute coffee mugs with a Halloween motif

Double-sided tape

Treats to fill the mug

4 toilet paper rolls cut in half

Small wiggly eyes

8 orange, black, or Halloween motif linen napkins

What You Do:

1. Parents, cut the muslin into 4 1”x36” strips for the Mummy Mug.

2. Show your child how to tack the wiggly eyes in place on the mug using a small piece of double-stick tape. The nice thing about using double-stick tape is that it won’t damage the coffee mug when your guests remove the muslin so they can use the mugs after the party.

3. Next, demonstrate how to wrap the muslin strips around the mug until it is completely covered, allowing just the wiggly eyes to peek through.

4. Make one for each guest to take home after the party.

5. To make the coordinating Mummy Napkin Rings, simply tack the small pair of googly eyes onto each toilet paper roll half, then wrap a thin strip or two of muslin around them, just as you did with the mug.

6. Carefully insert your linen napkins through the decorated rings and set them out on your table along with place settings and your Mummy Mugs.

7. If you'd like to make sure the kids don't get into the treats in their Mummy Mugs before the party is over, wrap each one in cellophane and secure with ribbon. For a personal touch, write each person’s name on a small tag, punch a little hole at the corner, and slide it onto the ribbon before tying a bow.

Let the spooky fun begin!

By Dina Brooks

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Nothing screams “Halloween!” like a glowing jack o’lantern – but your little one isn’t ready to wield a carving knife yet. No problem! With paper mache and paint, you can create a festive pumpkin that will outlast its carved peers.

What You Need:

1 balloon

1 cup flour

2 cups warm water

A mixing bowl

Lots of newspaper, cut into strips, plus some for lining table

Orange, green, and black paint, plus brushes and water for rinsing

What You Do:

1. Make paper mache: mix flour and water in wide bowl until it has the consistency of thick sludge.

2. Line work table with newspaper.

3. Inflate balloon and tie closed with knot.

4. Now you’re ready to get started: Drag newspaper strips one at a time through the paper mache mixture. When thoroughly saturated, drape strips around balloon. Repeat in overlapping layers until entire balloon is covered with wet strips. Wrap a final strip around the knot of the balloon to form a stem shape. Set aside a few days until paper strips are completely dry and hard.

5. The paper mache covered balloon should be round and hard. Cover whole “pumpkin” with orange paint and let dry. Add green “stem” and black eyes, nose and mouth. Let dry thoroughly before removing from newspaper-covered table.

By Hannah Boyd

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Ask a child to describe science in just one word, and you’ll probably hear “fun!” To young kids, hands-on science activities satisfy natural curiosities and are motivating, almost magical feats.

But science isn’t just about experiments that yield magic-like effects. It’s also about using knowledge to solve some of the world’s toughest problems. In today’s energy crisis, we're constantly looking at the science behind our sources of energy. Where does power come from, and how can we use it efficiently? Explore some of these big energy issues with your kids by putting on a jaw-dropping demonstration of an ultra-efficient air-powered car!

What You Need:

Clean, dry, half-gallon milk carton with the top cut off, cut in half along the length of the carton

4 spools (or substitute your own items for wheels, such as large bottle caps)

Straws

Balloon (and some extra ones, too!)

Hot glue gun and glue

What You Do:

1. For starters, you may want to decorate the milk carton—while this won't make the car go faster, it will make the ride more swank! You can use tempera paint to cover the outside surface (but do put in a drop of dish soap so that the paint will stick to the waxy coating on the milk carton), or glue on strips of colored paper, and mark windows and doors with a marker. Do beware: don't cut holes in the milk carton…the only hole will be the one you make for your balloon.

2. Cut a small hole in the middle of the back side of the carton. This is where the balloon will go. (Start with a small hole…you may need to make it bigger later if it doesn’t let enough air escape from the balloon.)

3. Put the open end of the balloon through this hole.

4. Make holes in the sides of the cartons for the straws to form axles. (Axles are the straight stick-like parts of the car that hold the wheels.) These holes need to be close to the bottom of the carton.

5. Stick the straws through the holes and glue on the spools to form wheels.

6. Now the car is built and ready for testing. Before you try it out, though, be sure to explain the principle behind it. Have your child fully inflate a balloon, hold onto the end without tying it, then let it go. What happens? (It zips around the room until the air is fully deflated. This is because when the air comes out, it pushes the balloon with equal force in the opposite direction. The gas powers the movement of the balloon. This is the principle behind the car as well.) Ask your child to predict what is going to happen when he inflates the balloon in the car, and lets it go.

7. Now, try it out! Inflate the balloon, but don’t tie it closed. Let go. What happened?

Note: You may need to make some adjustments to tweak the design of the car, the size of the hole holding the balloon, or the size of the balloon. It’s all about problem-solving. Encourage your child to keep trying until it works?just like all the great inventors of the world!

By Liana Mahoney

Liana Mahoney is a National Board Certified elementary teacher, currently teaching a first and second grade loop. She is also a certified Reading Specialist, with teaching experience as a former high school English teacher, and early grades Remedial Reading instructor.

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Looking for a fun and sneaky way to keep your child active? Try ExerDice, a game that uses homemade dice printed with different exercises to perform outside. Skip, run, jump, and hop your way to physical fitness! Since this game can be played with more than one player, it's great to play as a family to get everyone active, or play it at your next party or picnic.

What You Need:

Two large Styrofoam blocks

Paper

Markers

Glue or tape

What to Do:

1. Cut pieces of paper large enough to fit each side of the Styrofoam blocks (12 sheets).

2. Come up with six different ways to move, for example: run, hop, skip, crab walk, crawl, tip-toe, etc. Write one word per piece of paper, and invite your child to draw pictures depicting each action.

3. Glue or tape each action to the six sides of one die.

4. On the other six pieces of paper, print the numbers one, two, and three so you have a pair of each number. Ask your child to dots to represent the numbers underneath each number.

5. Glue or tape each number to the six sides of the die.

6. Pick an area (outdoors is best) where your child can run around freely.

7. Invite your child to roll both dice and race around the designated area based on what the dice land on. For example, if the movement die lands on "hop" and the number die lands on "three", your child race around the play area three times while hopping.

8. Each player takes a turn rolling the dice. Play for as long as you please. The object of the game isn't to win the race but to follow the directions indicated on the dice!

By Virginia Jean Herrod

Adapted with permission from "The GIANT Encyclopedia of Kindergarten Activities." Copyright 2004 by Kathy Charner (Editor), Maureen Murphy (Editor), and Jennifer Ford (Editor). Used by Permission of Gryphon House, Inc., Maryland. All Rights Reserved.

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Paleontologists, best known for studying dinosaurs, investigate prehistoric life by digging up and looking at fossils, or remains (like imprints or skeletons) that have turned into rock! With this exciting and surprisingly simple hands-on activity, your child can preserve imprints of his footprints, his toys, and even the family pet. All the while, he'll be learning about the geological process of forming fossils, the methods paleontologists use to find them, and scientific and historical importance of understanding creatures of the past. Mentioning dinosaurs a couple of times probably wouldn't hurt, either.

This valuable, fun-filled activity is sure to leave an impression!

Make Imprints in Playdough

What You Need:

Playdough

Large disposable tray

Living things, such as a leaf, flower, pet, and your child

Any other objects to imprint, such as toys

What You Do:

1. Recruit your child to help you fill the tray with playdough. Leave a couple of inches at the top so you can fill the tray the rest of the way with plaster later.

2. Encourage your child to press his hand into the dough to make an imprint. You can join him if you'd like! Talk about the consistency of the dough. Is it hard or soft? Does he think that this imprint would still be around many years from now if he left it here? What about an imprint in mud or sand?

3. Now, make imprints of other things! These can be leaves, flowers, shells, toys. Recruit the family dog or cat to make a few footprints as well! This works best with items that your child will still recognize when he sees the imprint.

4. If you'd like, you can start making plaster (see instructions below) while your child is making imprints. Your child can do as much or as little of this as he'd like. When he is satisfied with his imprint, it's time to preserve them in plaster. Follow the steps below to complete your homemade fossil.

Preserving the Imprints With Plaster

What You Need:

Playdough imprints in tray

Plastic milk jug or juice carton

Scissors

2 cups plaster of Paris Water

Rubber glove or large spoon

Small plastic toy animal

What You Do:

1. Cut the top off of the milk jug or juice container. Now you have a nice disposable container that you can mix the plaster in and throw away when you're done.

2. Put about 2 cups of plaster of Paris powder in the container. The plaster of Paris directions usually suggest one part water to two parts plaster (so 1 cup of water in this case), but start off with less water than you think you need.

3. Use your hand (with a rubber glove) or a large spoon to mix and smash big lumps.

4. Add more water, a little at a time, until a smooth paste is formed.

5. When it is ready to be poured over the playdough, the plaster will be the consistency of pancake batter or a milkshake.

6. Before pouring the plaster, use toy animals to act out a story about how fossils are sometimes formed:

Once upon a time, a long time ago, a turtle (or other animal) walked through the mud at the edge of a river. Sometimes footprints in the sand or mud get covered up by more sand or more mud. Suddenly a flood of water came down the river pushing lots of sand with it. The footprints made in the mud got covered up and, over a long time, became a rock. Because they turned into a rock, they lasted a long time and we can still see them. These are called fossils. Fossils are remains of plants or animals that lived a long time ago that have turned to rock.

7. While the children are watching, pour the plaster on top of the imprints in playdough. You can even incorporate this into your story!

8. Even though the plaster will harden within 30 minutes, let it sit for 24 hours before peeling the playdough from the hardened plaster. Otherwise, the playdough will stick to the plaster.

9. Wash tools and hands with water. Note: Do not pour any remaining plaster down the sink. Throw it into the trash.

The fun's not over! When you do finally remove the plaster from the playdough, try asking your child to identify the imprints or tell a story about how these things became fossilized. You can even bury his fossil in the yard or at the beach for him to dig up, just like a real paleontologist!

By Peggy Ashbrook

Adapted with permission from "Science is Simple: Over 250 Activities for Preschoolers." Copyright 2003 by Peggy Ashbrook. Used with Permission of Gryphon House, Inc., Maryland. All Rights Reserved.

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