Science Birthday Party For 5-9 Year Old Kids

Our daughter LOVES science so we thought it would be fun to celebrate her birthday with friends and activities she LOVES most! 

This is what we did:

1. We designed her party to start at 1:00 p.m. and end at 4:00 p.m.
2. We decorated the entry way with blown up balloons with marbles inserted in them so the balloons hung nicely.
3. We crisscrossed "Danger & Explosion" warning tape over the windows. 
4. We covered three tables with a variety of colored plastic table cloths and topped them with centerpieces of "Color Changing Flowers."  We purchased white carnations and daisies and put them in vases filled with water and food coloring.  This must be done a few days in advance so the flowers absorb the colored water.
5. We made science books for each child from three prong folders with directions to each experiment so the kids would be able to follow along and take home as a reference. We included explanations and "science laws."
6. We prepared pizza, cut up watermelon, lemonade, and chips for lunch.

With preparations complete, the Lab Rooms were ready to receive the young scientists!

When the kids arrived we gave them name tags with colored string, safety goggles, and children's aprons that we purchased from Amazon.  The kids decorated their name tags and put them in holders to save their spot in the science lab.

We then started the party with a game.  We split the kids into three teams (according to the string color on their name tag). We gave each team a bag of marshmallows and a bucket.  One child was instructed to hold a bucket on his/her head.  The other team members were told to turn around and try to toss marshmallows into the bucket from behind their backs.  The team that got the most marshmallows into the bucket were rewarded with water balloons they could throw at the adult volunteers. 

Experiments:

 

Egg In the Bottle

Peeled Hard Boiled Egg

Matches

Paper Towel

Glass Milk Bottle

1. Cut a strip of paper towel about 1" x 8".
2. An adult volunteer carefully lights the strip of paper at one end and drops it into the large-mouthed bottle.
3. While the strip of paper is still burning in the bottle, set a peeled egg on top of the mouth of the bottle.
4. Watch carefully!  The burning strip of paper will go out.
5. Keep watching!  The hard boiled egg will start to wiggle, then quickly squeeze through the top of the bottle and drop to the bottom.  AMAZING!!!
6. The experiment is not over yet.  How will the egg can come back out?   Be extra careful doing this part.
7. Turn the bottle upside down.
8. With your mouth, forcefully blow air into the bottle.  It shouldn't take much.
9. The egg will pop out of the bottle just like it popped in.

Why it works:

The burning piece of paper heats the air molecules inside the bottle.  Escaping molecules cause the egg to wiggle.   When the air inside the bottle cools, a "partial vacuum" occurs.  Because the air pressure outside the bottle is so great, it pushes the egg into the bottle.

                       The "Eggsclusive" Upside-Down Twist

Peeled Hard Boiled Egg

Matches

Paper Towel

Glass Milk Bottle

Candles

1. Carefully push two or three small birthday candles into the narrower end of a peeled hard boiled egg.  Make sure the candles fit easily inside the large mouthed bottle.
2. Light the candles and sing a quick "happy birthday song" to the birthday girl.
3. Turn the large mouth bottle upside down and slowly place it over the burning candles.
4. Allow the flames to heat the air inside the bottle for just a few seconds, and then place the mouth of the bottle tight against the egg.  The candles will go out and with a "pop" the egg will squeeze up into the bottle. 
   

   
   

What's Shaped Like an Egg? A Water Balloon!

Water Balloon

Matches

Paper Towel

Glass Milk Bottle

1. Carefully fill a balloon with water so the balloon is about the size of a tennis ball.  It must be slightly larger than the mouth of the bottle.  Tie it off.  Make a few balloons just in case the first one breaks.
2. Smear some water around the mouth of the bottle.
3. An adult volunteer lights the strip of paper and quickly drops it into the bottle.
4. Immediately put the balloon on the mouth of the bottle.  In just seconds, the balloon will start to wiggle, the flame will go out, and the balloon will be sucked inside. 
5. What invisible force is at work and how will we get the balloon out?  Ask the children if they remember what they learned earlier about the "egg in the bottle" and air pressure.
6. Insert a straw into the bottle next to the balloon.  When the air outside the bottle gets inside the bottle, the water balloon will come out.

Lava Lamp

(with no light)

     Clear bottle

     Vegetable Oil

     Food Coloring

    Alka selzer tablets

1. Find a clear bottle.
2. Fill it 2/3 full with vegetable oil.
3. Fill the rest of it with water leaving a bit of room at the top.
4. Add a few drops of food coloring (any color you choose).
5. Drop in Alka Seltzer tablets and watch it go!

Why it works:

Alka Seltzer tablets contain sodium bicarbonate and citric acid.  When the tablets dissolve, they mix together and release carbon dioxide (bubbles).  The bubbles mix the oil and colored water.

Color Changing Milk

     Plate

     Milk

     Food Coloring

     Q-Tip

     Dawn Dish Soap

1. Pour milk into the dinner plate to completely cover the bottom (about 1/4").  Allow the milk to settle.
2. Add one drop of each of the four colors of food coloring (red, yellow, blue, and green) to the milk.  Keep the drops close together in the center of the plate of milk.
3. Use a clean cotton swab for the next part of the experiment.  Predict what will happen when you lightly touch the tip of the cotton swab to the center of the milk.  It's important not to stir the mix.  Instruct the kids to try it and ask them what happened.
4. Now place a drop of liquid dish soap on the other end of the cotton swab.  Place the soapy end of the cotton swab in the middle of the milk and hold it there for 10-15 seconds.  See the burst of color!  It's like the 4th of July in a bowl of milk!
5. Add another drop of soap to the tip of the cotton swab and try it again.  Experiment with placing the cotton swab different places in the milk.  Notice that the colors in the milk continue to move even when the cotton swab is removed. 

Why it works:

Milk contains fat.  When dish soap is added, the soap attaches to the fat molecules which makes them bounce around.  The food coloring allows you to see the action.
www.stevespangler.com is a good resource for more information.

 The Pull Of Gravity (We did this with using only the ruler)

     Ruler

     Two People

1. Lay a 12 inch ruler flat on a sheet of white cardboard.  Use a pencil to draw a line all around the ruler.
2. Use a pair of scissors to carefully cut out the shape from the cardboard.
3. Divide the cardboard into six equal parts.  Color each part brightly with markers.
4. Ask a friend to hold the cardboard hanging down just above your outstretched hand.  When your friend releases it, try to catch the cardboard as quickly as you can.

Why it works:

Your brain sends a message to your hand to catch the cardboard but sometimes gravity is faster than you think!

                                                                        

Soda Geyser

     2 liter Bottle of Diet Coke

     Roll of Mentos

     Apron

     Safety Goggles

1. Find flat land and set your bottle of Coke down.
2. Carefully open your bottle of Diet Coke.
3. Drop two or more Mentos into the bottle of Diet Coke at the same time.
4. RUN, RUN, RUN!  Well, ok, just take several steps back.
5. Watch the bottle erupt!

Why it works:

Soda is bubbly because it contains invisible carbon dioxide gas.  It also contains a lot of water molecules which hold the gas bubbles.  This forms "surface tension."  When you drop Mentos into the soda, the surface tension is broken and bubbles are released.

The kids also had fun with the law of gravity again - jumping in a blowup (rented) Jumpy House. 

When the party was finished each child took home a pair of safety glasses, an apron, a name tag, a lab book, a ruler, a lava lamp, and an experience they LOVED!

Birthday Party Idea for Nine Year Old Girl

It's All About 9! was the birthday party theme. 

It's All About NINE!!! 

It was hard to come up with a themed party for our daughter turning nine years old.  So, we created our own theme; It's All About Nine!  My daughter LOVED it and I think that her friends did too!

Here is what we did:
My daughter invited nine friends to our house for the party. The party began at 5 p.m. and ended at 9 p.m.!  It seems like a long party, but we kept the girls busy and had very little downtime.  To showcase the theme and get all of the attendees involves, we created an activity punch board using cardboard, wrapping paper, tissue paper, nine plastic cups, and balloons.  We placed slips of paper; each with an "It's All About Nine" activity into each cup (you can find those activities below).  We tried to mix low energy, quiet activities and high energy and loud activities.  I saw the punch board idea in a Family Fun Magazine.  Here is how I created ours:   I traced the round open side of the cup onto the cardboard nine times and cut out the circles using a blade.  I then attached wrapping paper to the cardboard (to look pretty) and cut out the holes.  Put the slips of paper with the activities into each cup and placed tissue paper around the cups (secured the ends with masking tape) and then carefully placed the cups into the holes in the cardboard.  The top of the cup was flush with the cardboard. The bottom of the cup sticks out the back.  I used additional cardboard to make sides so that you couldn't see the cups sticking out.  I also used nine balloons to "jazz" up the board a bit.  For the party, each friend got to punch through the tissue paper and pull out a slip of paper with the "All About Nine" activity.  They LOVED punching through the tissue paper and reading aloud the activity!   Because we didn't know the order of the activities, all nine activities were ready to go.  I used a seperate room so that I could lay-out everything to grab and go.  

Here are the "All About Nine" Activities:

Nine Second No Smile:  Can you hold a straight face?  How about now?  Form a circle facing each other.  Put a sticker on your nose and try not to smile for nine seconds.  My husband and I did silly actions as only parents can do to "help" the girls laugh.  

Nine Object Stack:  Each person receives nine objects (we used edible items--lots of candy items and a water bottle).  Can you stack 'em and keep 'em steady for nine seconds?  Keep trying!  You have nine minutes. I had the nine items pre-packaged and ready to go for each girl.

Dressed to the Nines:  Are you ready for a photo shoot?  Dress to impress with the gear provided.  Smile and pose for the camera!  We gathered all of our dress-up clothes and added enormous eye glasses for fun.  We also had two empty picture frames that the girls could pose with (super trendy right now).  It was so funny and so fun to watch them be so silly!

Nine Color Nail Polish Necklace:  one of my favorite activities from this blog!!!  Check it out! Who has heard of a nine year old girl that doesn't like nail polish?  Not me.  All the fun, but very little mess when using the nail polish as an art project.  Metal washers, nine colors of nail polish, colored twine, toothpicks, and a paper plate to keep the mess contained. 

Goofy Nine Pin:  Like bowling and Angry Birds combined.  We used nine huge outdoor bowling pins and placed them up and down and all around--hitting one should make some of the others tumble over too.  My husband made an alley out of laminated flooring!  The girls used a soft ball to knock down the pins!  We didn't keep score.  It was just for fun!

Nine Foot Geyser:  An outdoor science experiment.  What happens when you add a sleeve of Mentos to a 2-liter bottle of diet cola...  A nine foot geyser!  We also had each girl try their own mini version with 12 oz bottles and Mentos.  This experiment doesn't last long, but the "oohs" and "aahs" we heard made it worth the investment!

Drop Nine Art:  Draw, drop nine, let dry and wear it!  Using permanent markers in a variety of colors, we had each girl draw a picture on a white t-shirt.  I put the t-shirt around a large plastic bucket and used a rubber band to keep the t-shirt tight so it would be easier to draw.  The girls then sprinkled nine caps full of rubbing alcohol into their t-shirt and watched the colors blend.  It was really fun, but the FUMES were strong.  We did this activity outside!  Our original idea was to have the girls draw on a small piece of cotton fabric and use nine drops of rubbing alcohol and them frame it.  But our daughter wanted t-shirts, so that's what we did.

Letter "N" Nine Object Scavenger Hunt:  Can you fin these items in the house?  Here are the items we used:
1.  Notebook
2.  Nail Polish Remover
3.  Neck Tie
4.  Nutter Butters (cookies)
5.  Nancy Drew Book, The Secret Of the Old Clock (our daughter's favorite)
6.  Nutella
7.  Nets for catching butterflies
8.  Nerds, the candy
9.  Number Nine in our daughter's favorite color-blue!

Nine Page Story:  Everyone gets to write and illustrate a page in this Nine Page Story.  It began with Once upon a time...

PAGE ONE:  Once upon a time there was a nine- year-old named_______________________.  She had ___________________hair and __________________

 eyes.  She liked to ______________ and __________________________.  She decided to go for a ___________________ over to a friend’s house.

PAGE TWO THROUGH NINE:

She said “Hi” to her friend named ___________________________, “Let’s do something fun!”  So they decided to ___________________________________ and ____________________________________________.  They had a good time!  They decided to invite another friend.  And off they went!