BPA Bottles for Color Mixing Games

(cross posted from www.civil3drocks.com)

I went through a phase a few years ago where I read everything Maria Montessori ever wrote and tried to incorporate as much exploratory learning and play in our everyday activities. One of the things that I didn’t do enough of was color games. Mostly, I couldn’t think of what kinds of containers I could use that would be easy for little hands to hold, easy to measure and unbreakable. Well, now that my mind is locked on these stupid plastic bottles, I can’t stop thinking of ideas of how to use them.

Every night after dinner, I try really hard to take an hour away from whatever work I have on the go (and there is always work to be done) and do some sort of non-TV, hands-on activity with Panorama. Tonight, we did two games. Primary color mixing and color grading.

For the first one, I added a blob of red, yellow and blue tempera paint to three bottles, then filled with water. I gave her a spoon and she mixed them together. Here is a youtube video of the process.

I was pleasantly surprised by how fun she thought this game was (she played for about another 30 minutes after this video making colors such as "avocado"). Also note how much LESS whiney-four-year-old she becomes as she starts seeing that I am NOT trying to torture her, and how it is OK to make a mess. She hates mess in general.

For the second game, I made a concentrated batch of purple and a concentrated batch of white. Then I had her mix 1 oz, 3oz, and 5oz of purple with enough white to fill to 6 oz. Then, she lined them up by which one was darker. She liked this game a lot, too.

I can see this becoming extremely popular. We’ll take it outside next time on the little tikes picnic table and try some more variations on the theme- such as making 10 different concentrations instead of 3, etc.

Make Painting Easier with Old BPA Bottles

This weekend I discovered that 4oz Avent bottles (with the lids on) make great paint containers. The lids keep the mess a little bit under control, and you can pop the travel tops in to keep the paint fresh for your next art project (or at least for a few days.)

More BPA Reuse Ideas on Civil 3D Rocks, baby toolkit, and tons of BPA information at Z Recommends.

BPA Bottles as a Junior Chemistry Set

Cross posted from www.civil3drocks.com.

I was staring at my bottles again yesterday and I came up with something PERFECT. Bottles invariable have imperial volume markings, and usually metric as well. They are the ideal baby beaker for chemistry experiments! Add a lid for shaking up your mixtures, and those avent sippy lids (without the control value) are useful for pouring and sprinkling.

Here are a few chemistry games I came up with that Panorama and I have tried:

1. Temperature Check: Fill bottles with warm, cool, and ice water. Check temperatures with concrete thermometer (if you aren’t like us with 100 concrete thermometers laying around like expired pens, your hardware store should have something that will do the trick, or any safe thermometer will do.) Add salt to an ice water bottle to check its effect.

2. Different Viscosity: Combine dish soap with water in various concentrations. Use the metric volumes to add 60mL, 140mL, 200mL,etc of dish soap to several bottles. Add water to fill to 260mL. Mix. Drop a penny into each one and note how long it takes for it to sink to the bottom.

I will be raking my kids’ science books this weekend for more ideas.