Combine Science and Art with Paintball Bombs

This homemade paintball bomb experiment would be cool any time of year, but it might be really fun to do this experiment and use the bombs to paint a pumpkin.

Teach Beside Me has all the details of how to turn regular tempura paint into gelatinous blobs that do kind of explode in a bomblike way when they hit a surface with force.

This is a great combination of science, math (getting the proportions right to make the science work) and art. Another fun option for using the paint bombs might be putting paper on a fence and throwing paint at it. You could even draw a bullseye and do target practice.

Would you try something like this with your kids? It requires planning to get the ingredients but I think it would be well worth it for a fun art exploration. If you try it I’d love to hear what you think.

[Photo via Teach Beside Me.]

Check out this article on the best STEM gifts for kids.

Check out our Online store for special buys on Educational gifts We find bulk items and end-of-stock supplies to bring you heavily discounted items. (make sure you check our store often so you don’t miss out on new stock). We also have some free printable files, including a Science PDF for learning about Microscopes.

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Pumpkin STEM Activities for Kids

I’m in deep denial about the fact that new year is almost upon us again! It’s been the fastest and the longest year at the same time, and I can look back and see some good things as well as some things I wish had gone differently.

Doing a year in review with your kids — whether in the classroom or at home — is a good way to capture some of their memories and the things they really liked about the year gone by.

There are a lot of different printable year in review worksheets you can use if you want to make this super easy. Here are links to a few (often part of larger posts about NYE celebrations with kids that are worth a read, too):

Teach Beside Me has lots of fun printables fro the end of the year, including a year in review that covers favorite memory, funniest memory and the best book they read, among other topics.
NurtureStore‘s version has space for a self-portrait and prompts like favorite toy, best day out this year and future dream job.
Remember favorites, their “best idea” of the year and have room for setting goals for next year with this one from The Keele Deal.
The year in review from Yes We Made This has room for drawing or writing and includes things like something they learned, a memory they made and a place they visited.

Of course you could pretty easily make your own year in review for the whole family to do that asks questions based on what you most want to remember. (Favorite video game? Best friend? Favorite family memory?)

And if after the year in review you’re ready to look ahead a bit, Mrs. Merry has new year’s resolution printables to inspired kids to look ahead and set goals for things they want to try. You can totally fill this one out as a grownup, too.

[Photo: Mrs. Merry]

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