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Here are two tutorials for creating watercolor butterflies from round, basket-style coffee filters. One uses a spray bottle, and one uses capillary action. Both are lots of fun! Gather your materials: Round, basket-style coffee filters (white works best) Newspapers Washable markers Pipe cleaners Scissors Water Clean spray bottle (for 1st version) Clean, short, cups or glasses (for 2nd version) Pencil (for 2nd version) String (optional) Version 1: How to Make Coffee Filter Butterflies Using a Spray bottle Line your countertop or table with old newspapers to keep it clean. (It will still get wet!) Get a coffee filter, and flatten it out as much as you can. With the markers, color a creative design on the filter. Spray water onto the filter and marker until the coffee filter is completely wet. Once it is completely wet, stop adding water. If you add a big pool of water the colors will mix together too much, plus it will take forever to dry. Let the coffee filter completely dry. Cut a pipe cleaner in half. Fold the top of the dried filter into the center. Gather the rest up from the bottom, and wrap the middle with half a pipe cleaner to form the body and antennae. Optional: tie a string around the butterfly and hang it up to admire it! Version 2: How to Make Coffee Filter Butterflies Using Capillary Action: A Chromatography Experiment! Line your countertop or table with old newspapers to keep it clean. Choose one marker to experiment with first.  Black and brown markers are the most exciting! Take one coffee filter. Draw a thick circle [Read more]

Are you planting a garden this spring? Sometimes it can be tricky to plant tiny seeds with the right spacing, but if you make this DIY seed tape, it will be much easier! Gather your materials: Any kind of seeds, as long as they aren't too old to sprout. small saucepan spoon stove or hotplate, to be used with adult supervision! 1 tablespoon cornstarch 1 cup cold water Any squeeze bottle (you can reuse a clean, empty mustard or ketchup bottle) scissors to cut the paper towels paper towels, cut in 1 1/2-  to 2-inch strips and folded in half lengthwise ruler plastic baggies or plastic containers Optional materials: A drop of food coloring Instructions Stir cornstarch and water together in the saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat until it thickens: the mixture should look opaque and cling slightly to the back of a spoon or a fork before dripping off. Let the mixture cool and transfer it into a squeeze bottle. Optionally, add 1 drop of food coloring and shake the bottle to make your 'glue' easier to see. Lay out paper towel strips. Check the planting directions on the seed packet to see how far apart to space the cornstarch glue dots. Using the squeeze bottle, place dots of the cornstarch mixture along one side of the folded paper towel, using the ruler to space them correctly. Place 1 seed on top of each cornstarch glue dot, fold the other half of paper towel over the top, press it flat, and let it dry completely. Store your dried seed tape and the seed packet (or planting instructions)  in a plastic [Read more]

Try an Alphabet Scavenger Hunt! Instructions: Find something that starts with each letter of the alphabet around your house, and make a list or draw what you find for each letter. Suggestions: You don’t have to find the items in the order of the alphabet if you don't want to. Can't find an item that starts with a particular letter? Try to find an item with that letter in the word, or make up a funny new name that starts with the letter you need! Can you find an item you can use for more than one letter? For example, if you find a banana, you could use that for the letter B, but a banana is also a food, so you could also use it for the letter F! Most of all, get creative and have fun! (If you get stuck on a particular letter, scroll down! Below are some ideas for objects you might have around the house.) From Ann at the Philomath Community Library Here are some suggestions: Aa – apple, alarm clock Bb – book, bowl Cc – couch, chair, cat Dd – door, dog Ee – egg, earphones Ff – food, freezer Gg – garbage, garage Hh – hat, hairbrush Ii – ice, important documents Jj – jacket, juice Kk – kitchen, kite, kid Ll – library book, lamp Mm – map, magnet Nn – neck, napkins Oo – orange, ottoman Pp – paper, pencil Qq – quilt, Q-tip Rr – rug, robe Ss – shirt, stuffed animal Tt – table, television Uu – uniform, umbrella Vv – videogame, vacuum Ww – wall, water bottle Xx – xylophone, or a [Read more]

Building a marble run is not only lots of fun, it is a great way for kids to show their creativity and practice their problem-solving skills, while learning about gravity and momentum! Gather your materials: Empty toilet paper or paper towel rolls Scissors Masking tape or painter’s tape Something small and lightweight that can roll. Rolling up a quarter sheet of paper into a ball and putting tape around it to make it smoother works well. A small pom pom or ping pong ball works well too. Optional materials: A bowl or cup to catch the rolling object A large piece of cardboard Decorations Instructions: Cut some toilet paper or paper towel rolls into half, lengthwise, to form chutes. Leave a few whole for tunnels. Tape the chutes, connecting one to another, onto a wall, a door, or a large piece of cardboard propped up against a wall. You can use a combination of chutes and tunnels, just make sure they point downwards at an angle. Try making a zig zag from top to bottom. Steep angles will make the ball roll faster, so watch out! Experiment with other ways to make the rolling object roll all the way from the top to the bottom. You may need to adjust angles, distances between chutes, or add cardboard stoppers to the ends of some of them. You can also experiment with different rolling objects to see how fast or how slow they make it through the course. Use a bowl or cup to catch the rolling object. Decorate your course if you want to. Have fun! Here are some marble run examples from Peik-Kuan at the Corvallis Public [Read more]