Cloudy with a Chance of Fun!

Week 1 of Connect: Sensory Science

It’s Amy here, back with another super fun Connect group – Connect: Sensory Science!

What is sensory science you may ask? Well, it’s like any regular science experiment, except each experiment will stimulate the kids’ senses! This could be through hearing, sight, smell, taste, and touch! In this group, we will be exploring different colours and textures in each project such as hot and cold, hard and soft, light and heavy, and much more!

Why is this important? Well, there are actually many reasons why sensory play is super important for kids! Some of the many benefits of sensory play include language development, building new nerve connections in the brain, problem solving, it aids in social development, helps with emotional regulation, and can also provide tools to help with anxiety. Nonetheless, sensory science provides the best of both words between the benefits of science activities and sensory activities – creating an amazing activity for kids!

For our first group, we actually did two activities – an erupting lemons experiment, and a cloud dough activity! We started off by going over some standard rules and expectations for the group, and then headed into a snack. The kids were able to catch up with each other over some yummy oranges and birthday cake flavoured bear paws! All of the kids knew each other, so it was exciting for them to catch up again through this group.

For our first activity, erupting lemons, we first watched a fun Youtube video about the experiment and the chemical reactions that take place when the lemons "erupt.” Then, each child was given a lemon to carve out, food colouring of their choice, and baking soda! The kids carved and filled their lemons with color, and once the baking soda was added, the lemon erupted. The reaction produced a very fizzy colourful lemon, that resembled a bath bomb. The kids absolutely loved it!

After this 15-minute activity, we headed into our main activity – cloud dough! We watched another Youtube video about how to form cloud dough and any chemical reactions that take place. The group was then given a tin pie plate filled with 2 parts corn starch, and 1 part lotion. The group had to work really hard to get the dough formed with their hands which was a challenge. Everyone eventually succeeded with their dough, and then they got to add some food coloring to their dough to brighten it up. We cleaned up and the kids got to take their cloud dough home in a bag. 

While doing these activities, the kids had some really great conversations. We mostly chatted about the experiment and how to form the dough, how to re-create the dough at home, and what other experiments we'll get to do in the group! The kids also had some very brightly stained hands on their way home, despite our continuous hand washing - sorry parents!!

Overall, this was such a fun week, and I cannot wait to see what the next few weeks will entail! Next week we will be making Magic Milk and Slime!

November 29, 2022

-Amy, BigsNBC Mentoring Coordinator