Pom Pom Turkey (and Magnets)

It all started a few days ago with playgroup, when one nice mommy made a going away gift for a boy who is moving this week.  It was a cookie sheet with colorful pictures--a rainbow, a gumball machine, etc--that he could fill in with soft pom poms she had glued to little magnets (perfect for the car).  The playgroup kids couldn't keep their hands off of it!

That's how the cookie sheet-magnet-pom pom saga began, and there followed some trips to the Dollar Store.

You may have seen these on Pinterest?  I found some sheets at:
http://www.makinglearningfun.com
http://havingfunatchelleshouse.blogspot.com/
http://www.bubblesandbobbins.com
http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com

I would just caution you anytime you have small pieces and magnets around:  NEVER leave them out where a child who is still putting things in his mouth can reach them.  Also, remember that some magnets can wreak havoc with credit cards and electronics.

That said, all you need is some printed sheets (you can even just draw your own), a cookie sheet that magnets will stick to (my big ones from Sam's apparently are NOT magnetic, so check), glue and pom poms in different colors.  My mommy friend colored some of her white pom poms with a marker, but when I tried that I just got messy.

Later I laminated the rainbow.

The magnets come in packs of 50 from Michael's.  I got the smaller ones.  50 Pack of Magnets

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, so of course we needed a turkey, too!

This was from Making Learning Fun and it suggests using colored magnets sold for white boards.  Hmm....maybe next year.

UPDATE:  Here's another link to a Seven Continents Map to use with magnetic pom poms.

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Our Very Own Stonehenge: Noticing the Sun's Position

Our Very Own Stonehenge, Through the Peephole

When we first moved into our house (August, 9 years ago), we noticed this odd circular rainbow on the wall of our kitchen in the morning.  A bit of investigating revealed that the light was coming through the peephole in our front door (that would be directly behind the photographer's back) and refracting into the circular rainbow.

The kids dubbed it, "Mr. Rainbow"!

Mr. Rainbow illustrates two scientific principles:

• Refraction

Refraction is the fact that different colors of light bend by different amounts when they pass through curved glass.  It occurs when the sunlight passes through the curved glass of the peephole.  Since sunlight is a mixture of all of the colors of light, the lens splits the light, creating a rainbow.  Don't have a peephole?  If you buy an inexpensive prism, you can show this to the kiddies with sunlight.


• Position of the Sun 
• 
  
• Mr. Rainbow also tells us about the changing path of the Sun throughout the year.  Not  only does the Earth orbit the Sun, but the angle at which it faces the Sun changes, giving us the seasons of the year, and changing the path of the Sun through the sky. Since our house faces east, Mr. Rainbow shows up in the morning, but only during certain times of the year.  In fact, it always seems to first appear just as the kids' summer vacation is ending and we're nearing the start of the school year.  

Do you have a Stonehenge in your house?  Or at Grandma's?  You can explain to the kids that a couple of thousand years ago Celts built a primitive astronomical observatory based on their observations.  You may notice the rainbow in your house because of the refraction through the peephole, but the ancient Celts noticed the position of the Sun changed throughout the year.  The stones were aligned with the position of the rising Sun on the summer soltice--the longest day of the year.

Stonehenge

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