Part 1 - THE Birthday Party

First I had made ID Badges laminated and clips attached for all the kids. The ID Badges had their name, their picture (I scanned in last year's class picture then cut and pasted their head shot) and the occupation of "Treasure Hunter & Mad Scientist". I didn't think this was a big hit until I talked to 4 parents today who said the kids wore their ID badges all night. One even wore it to church on Sunday.

While the kids waited for everyone to arrive they designed their own "sports cards". I had old playing cards, headshots of each child and sports stickers, etc. that they could put on the card. Some loved this but everyone seemed to like it.

Next it was a treasure hunt. Todd had hidden all the loot bag/science experiment stuff outside. It was quite fun watching them run around - this was well-received... except we couldn't find 2 of the treasures until the end of the party... too well hidden!

Some of the simple experiments (that then became Loot Bag items):

1. Pencils with 2 'donut' magnets which the kids put on the pencil as 'opposites' and tried to get the magnets to stick.

2. Defraction glasses - look at lights and all lights go into a 'spectrum of light' - very well received.

3. Whirlybirds - those were cool... except the kids kept flying them onto our roof!

4. "Growing Heart" - 'put in water and within 72 hours grows to the size of your heart'

5. Geode Rock - a little rock that we broke open with a hammer and it had crystals in it.

6. A bar of ivory soap - and written instructions http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/00000053. We did this experiment at our house and then I sent a bar of soap and instructions with each kid. This is what the ivory soap looks like after it has settled. When it's microwaving it is HUGE...


What kind of science party would we have been without the coke and mentos experiment? We used 5 bottles (1. no lid with 14 mentos, 2. lid on but with 1 hole and 4 mentos. 3. lid on but with 1 hole in lid, 1 on neck and 4 mentos. 4. I can't remember. 5. lid on but with 1 hold in lid, 3 on neck and 14 mentos.) Check out the picture! We actually hit the house with one of the bottles - 20 feet away from the experiment! This was the most exciting experiment of the party.




The Tornado in a Bottle was also interesting.




We tried colour changing milk (http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/00000066) but it wasn't as much fun as our mini-volcanoes -> individual sized film cannisters (thank you Walmart) stuffed with baking soda, a drop of dishwashing soap and vinegar. (You could also add food colouring but I decided that'd be too messy).


We finished the party with self-decorated cupcakes -> I had all the toppings in individual ziplocs so the kids could either use all the candy to decorate or take the candy home in their lootbags.

Tomas said it was the greatest party (Phew) - and we ran out of time to make the Slime and the Lava Lamp Blob!!