Kitchen Science

What you need:

• URLs:
  • The Magic School Bus Baked in a Cake
  • The Magic School Bus Makes a Stink
  • Ups and Downs
• utensils and ingredients from Pretzel Chemistry printout
• plastic film canisters 
• hole punch 
• small objects with strong smells 
• modeling clay 
• roll of pennies 
• bucket filled with water 
• objects to test sinking and floating (nuts, soap, fruit, paper clips, jar lids)

What to do:

1. Each of these activities from Scholastic's The Magic School Bus focuses on a different science concept. You can try all three activities in a "science afternoon" or do each one on a different day.
2. In Baked in a Cake, your child will observe the chemical reactions that happen as she bakes pretzels.
3. Next, explore your sense of smell in Makes a Stink. This experiment helps your child discover how odors travel from the source to our noses.
4. Finally, try the two experiments in Ups and Downs. In these activities, your child will explore why objects sink and float and test properties of objects that make them act the way they do.

Learning Benefits:

• experimentation 
• discovering which objects sink and float 
• observation 
• how parts combine to make a whole 
• sense of smell and how it works