Make your own geoboard

I used to love playing with geoboards when I was a kid and I wanted to get a couple for the girls to play with in the classroom. If you follow my other blog you know that there is no way I am going to buy something if I think I can make it for a lot cheaper. Well, these geoboards were no exception. We had some scrap wood in the garage that I cut into squares. These are 11in. by 11in. but you could use any size you wish. (Could you imagine a giant one hanging on the wall!! How fun!). I started out by making vertical lines 1 inch apart and then did the same horizontally.

After all of the lines were drawn I hammered a nail into each cross section. On each one of these boards there are 100 nails (200 total!!) It may seem like a lot but I think I only spent around 30 minutes on the nails. If you are using really small nails and your not that great with a hammer you could always use a clothes pin to hold the nail in place and avoid smashing a finger.

Once all the nails were in, I took them outside and gave them two coats of red spray paint. This project took about two hours to complete (that includes drying time. It took only about 30 minutes for the paint to dry in this heat) and cost me nothing since I already had the supplies on hand. They turned out perfect and the girls love them.

I am sure that these will get a lot of use in our classroom.

I will be linking up to THESE fun parties. 

Be sure to check them out and get inspired.

Disappearing Egg Shell

I have been seeing the disappearing egg shell experiment floating around on pinterest for some time now and I wanted to give it a try.

Materials:

• Vinegar
• Egg*
• Cup or Glass

*(You could use raw or hard boiled. Hard boiled would be less messy less messy but what fun is that?)

Set the egg inside your glass and fill it with vinegar until it is covered. If your egg floats and some of it pops above the surface that is fine. 

Notice the bubbles?

After 24 hours carefully take the egg out and examine it.

The egg should be soft a squishy. 

Careful not to squeeze too hard!!

If any of the shell is remaining you should be able to carefully rub it off. 

You can barely see the yolk!

It also grew in size (or as my 4 year old said - "It ballooned!")

What happened to the shell?

Egg shells contain something called "calcium carbonate".  This is what makes the shell hard.
Vinegar is an acid known as acetic acid.
When calcium carbonate (the egg shell) and acetic acid (the vinegar) combine, a chemical reaction takes place and carbon dioxide (a gas) is released.  This is what the bubbles are made of.
The chemical reaction keeps happening until all of the carbon in the egg is used up .
When you take the egg out of the vinegar it's soft because all of the carbon floated out of the egg in those little bubbles.


I will be linking up to THESE fun parties.
Be sure to check them out and get inspired.