Jumble House Learning for young children, Science, Science Challenges, Science for kids

Where do the holes come from? The Science of Bread.

We wanted to know how the holes got into bread so we watched Maisie making a loaf of bread ‘Yummy Good for your Tummy Bread’ and then made some ourselves.

Click here for the video showing how to make the bread

Watching the yeast fermenting and producing all those tiny bubbles is fascinating and children love to have a go kneading the bread dough.

Using fresh yeast to do this makes the science behind bread making much clearer.

After producing a really delicious loaf of bread using Maisie’s instructions we looked at the conditions needed for the yeast to work.

This is what we did:

We put the same amount of yeast in seven dishes.

Dish A … we added sugar.

Dish B … we added cold milk

Dish C … we added warm milk

Dish D …we added sugar and cold milk

Dish E … we added sugar and warm milk

Dish F … we added sugar and very hot milk.

Dish G … just yeast. Nothing added.

Then the children were asked to PREDICT which dish the yeast would work best in.

The dishes were left for 30minutes.

This dish did the best. Which was it? What conclusions did we draw?Well, you need to try the experiment out for yourselves to find out because that is what ‘Jumble Fun’ is all about! Motivating children to be ‘hands on’

A good introduction to the simple science of yeast for very young children can be found on the Jumble Fun in the ‘Science for Kids’ playlist on out channel: http://tinyurl.com/funjumbles

In this programme Lizzie Witch illustrates how to blow up a balloon using yeast

Click here for the yeast and balloon experiment

Jumble House Art meets Science, Learning for young children, Science, Science for kids

Crazy Colours

Crazy Colours. A spectacular effect with the minimum or resources and effort! Children love this experiment but do get them to ‘predict’ what they think will happen before adding the soap. Then at the end ask them to think ‘why’ it happened. There is a video giving a simple explanation for them to watch on my channel. It’s called ‘Crazy Colours’ and it is in the FUN SCIENCE playlist. The Jumblefun Channel

I used UHT semi-skimmed milk. A further experiment could be to see if anything different happens when you use full fat or skimmed milk. For a rainbow effect use red, blue and yellow. The soap can be applied by a brush as shown in the video or by finger or cotton wool bud.

Why does it happen?

Although milk is mainly water it does contain lots of other things like vitamins and protein and fat.

Fats and protein are very sensitive to changes in the milk. When soap is added it sends the fat molecules crazy and they all start to twist and turn. During these acrobatics the colour molecules get pushed around so creating the crazy patterns.

Watch the very short video demo below. Have fun!

LINK TO SHORT VIDEO DEMONSTRATION

Jumble House Fun Learning for Young Children, Learning through play, Science, Science for kids

We’ve been watching an egg cooking.

We’ve been watching a poached egg cooking! Today’s example of an everyday occurrence we take for granted but when watched through the eyes of a child the transformation is magical! ‘How does this happen?’ Most three year olds will appreciate that it’s something to do with hot water.

We’ve no time now but this evening we are going to test that theory by putting one egg into cold water and the other into hot.

Jumble House Art, painting, Printmaking, Modelling for young children, Learning through Play, PreSchool, Science for kids

Raindrops on Puddles Part One

It’s incredible how much can be learnt using raindrops on puddles as inspiration.

Science. Art. Mathematics. Vocabulary. Fine motor skills and lots more.

But to kids it’s all just great fun and that’s what learning should be.

Here are just a few ideas. There will be more in the next few posts.

Jumble House Animals, Children, Creativity, Science for kids, Uncategorized, wildlife

Learning about Lizard

Today we saw a lizard in our little garden. She was very active and very healthy. But, a year ago we found one in our cantina. She wasn’t very well at all. We christened her ‘Little LIZZIE Lizard’.

Read on to find out what happened.

Yesterday we found this little lizard in our cantina and it wasn’t very well. We called it Little Lizzie Lizard!

She looked so thin and lifeless and so dull that we were really afraid she would  die but we were determined to do our best and try to help her.  First we needed to find out some facts about lizards.  We have shared them and the story of Little Lizzie Lizard below.


Some Lizard Facts!

Lizards belong to an animal class called REPTILES.
Reptiles (with a few exceptions) are cold-blooded animals which lay eggs. They have a backbone, four legs and are covered in scales.   Lizards can be found all over the world except at the North and South Poles.

 Can you guess why? 

There are over 3,000 different types of lizards and they come in all sorts of shapes, colours and sizes! The smallest measures a tiny 7cms whereas the largest, the Komodo Dragon can reach lengths of 3 metres.
Lizards have four legs each with five little toes and they are very fast runners and very good at climbing. They also have a very long tail part of which can detach itself if a predator grabs hold! The lizard then grows another one!

They are insectivores which means that they eat only insects but some of the larger ones are carnivores and eat small animals,
Most lizards live in trees or under rocks and are more active at night. During the day they like to sunbathe!

 Why?? .
Well, it has something to do with the fact they aren’t found at the North or South Poles !!
Do you know what the climate is like at the poles?
Yes! Ice and snow and VERY cold.
You and I and all mammals like dogs and cats and rabbits and mice and horses are warm bloodied which means we are able to control our body temperature. To keep it the same even when the temperature outside changes. But reptiles and that includes lizards, are cold bloodied which means that they can’t control their body temperature. So they need to sunbathe to warm up!

This is why our little lizard was so poorly when we found her.   She had been locked in a cold underground room with no sun and was very, very cold.  She was also very dehydrated which means her  body was lacking in water and dehydration is very serious.  We couid tell she was poorly because she was so happy to be handled and that is NOT normal.   The poor thing hadn’t the energy to run away!


So!  The Jumbles came to the rescue!!

We had to warm her up and re-hydrate her which means we had to make sure she drank some water.  We held her near a bowl of water and were really pleased because she started to lap it up !

Then we found a nice big bowl and popped her in with a shallow bowl of water and then we put it in a nice warm spot outside but not in direct sunlight because it is VERY hot here at the moment.  We also gave her a little box just in case she wanted to hide!


Then we left her in peace but kept checking every hour.

After about four hours Lizzie Lizard was looking very different. More alert and a much better colour !  So we put a few ants and maggots into the bowl to tempt her to eat.  The DOG BISCUIT was not for Lizzie Lizard! It was just a quick way to catch some insects and transport to the bowl !


By the following morning Lizzie Lizard  was anxious to get out and, instead if wanting to be handled she ran off when we tried to touch her !

That was a good sign Lizzie was feeling normal again.

It was time to let her out !


And that’s what we did!

It was such a great feeling to have helped an animal back to health and to return it to the wild.

Video of Little Lizzie Lizard’s recovery!

Jumble House Bouncy eggs, Fun Learning for Young Children, Learning for young children, Learning through play, Science, Science Challenges, Science for kids

The Bouncy Egg

A fun, simple and effective investigation with eggs.

All you need is two eggs, cider or white wine vinegar and two clear containers.

The experiment needs to be left for 18 to 24 hours.

All my programmes are designed to motivate children to ask questions, to predict, to reason.

This video is in two parts. The first explains how to set up the experiment and asks children to predict WHAT they think will happen to the eggs. Then they do the experiment and try to think WHY it happened.

The second part is the explanation put very simply. I suggest you stop the video between the two parts.

Adult supervision is required

Click on this link to watch the video

Jumble House Bubbles, Creativity, Early Learning, Free, PreSchool, Science

Learn and have Fun with Bubbles

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Bubbles are so much fun and kids love them. It’s incredible too how often we come into contact with bubbles during our every day lives without even thinking about it. Bread making, whipping up cream, whisking egg whites, fizzy drinks, washing etc etc.

We see them and use them so often that we take them for granted.

But to children , they are MAGIC!

There is so much to be learnt from bubbles but to kids it’s all just good fun. A perfect example of learning through Play.

The theme of one of my learning programmes for preschool children has a theme of Bubbles. If you haven’t watched it yet you can use the link below to view.

BUBBLES. Stories from Jumble House

If you are looking for some more activities on the ‘bubble ‘ theme then here they are! I’ve made short videos on most of the activities so just click on the links to view.

Why are bubbles different colours?
My kids loved this activity!
We half filled a bowl with water and added lots of soap to make masses of strong bubbles. Then we placed our hands under a pile of bubbles and walked around inside and out observing how the colours changed. Children will realise quickly what is happening but they won’t probably know the term ‘reflecting ‘ so this is a good  opportunity to introduce and explain.

Are bubbles always round?



No matter how you try the bubbles you blow will always be round because they are free. There is nothing pushing on them. But, look at the shape of the bubbles on a bubble print. There lots of bubbles are squashed together and so push each other into all kinds of shapes.  Can you make a square bubble?  With a bit of an effort yes!  Learn how on the link below: 

Can you make a square bubble?

Where else do you find bubbles?
Play a game, ‘Spot the Bubbles ‘ . It can last a whole week!
There are bubbles everywhere!

Make some bread.  Yeast produces bubbles when it is given warmth, sugar and liquid. Make some bread using fresh yeast then they can appreciate the process.
Click on the link below the photo to watch how to make delicious ‘ Yummy Srummy Good for my Tummy Bread’!!


Make Bread with Maisie Jumble

Bubbles on the surface of a pond or lake.

Ask questions later like: ‘where do you think they come from?  ‘what is in the water that produces these bubbles? ‘

Click on this link to find out more:  What’s making the bubbles?

Some foods have bubbles.   Just look at a block of Aero chocolate!

Bread. Chocolate Mousse  You can make a fun bubbly jelly too.

So how do we get the air into the liquid?
Here are some good ways to demonstrate this:
Whipping   (cream and egg whites)
Blowing
Steam-like for Cappuccino.
Using a milk frother – .These little milk frothers are really good and providing the milk isn’t too hot Children can make themselves a frothy milk drink.

Bubbles, air and frothy milk 


Early Learning
Of course, while your little ones are discovering bubbles they will also be learning basic scientific and mathematical concepts like temperature, weighing and measuring, density AND accumulating lots of new words.