The Quirkles & Fuddlebrook Science and Literacy Series

Try Liza’s Moving Arrows! This illustrates how light can bend or refract. Our eyes refract light. Refractive errors are optical imperfections that prevent the eye from properly focusing light, causing blurred vision.⁣

You’ve probably got a dozen half-empty bottles laying around, but have you ever stopped to really appreciate the life-saving product sunscreen or the science behind it? This month we ponder this oft taken-for-granted and misunderstood innovation. Mrs. Wigglebum’s Sunny Surprise demonstrates both the UV waves the Sun makes, and how sunscreen offers protection. Materials • UV detecting beads • Sunny day ☀️ • Sunscreen (optional)

Something as simple (and tasty) as a root beer float offers a teachable moment and a memorable way to learn about states of matter: solids, liquids, and gases. A scoop of ice cream (solid) with a little root beer poured over (liquid) creates some wonderful bubbly goo on top (gas). Dig in and enjoy!

It's Spring! Springtime is what is typically the most active and dangerous three-month period of the year for tornadoes in the United States. It’s a perfect time to pull out the Quirkles book Timothy Tornado to learn more about this strange weather phenomena and discuss safety preparedness. Then learn about vortexes in our fun activity, Timothy Tornado’s Water Race.

April showers 🌦️ bring May Flowers 🌷 Enjoy these “colorful” rain drops by making your own rain shower in a cup. Better grab your umbrella; it’s starting to rain! This activity comes from our Fuddlebrook book, A Spring Thunderstorm Materials: Clear plastic cup (five ounce or larger) Water Shaving cream Food coloring (several colors) Small cup or dish for each color Wooden craft stick (or something for stirring) Eyedropper or pipette

Earth Day is coming up! Here's a simple experiment you can do with your class that shows firsthand how polluting our water affects sea-life.⁣

A medium-size carrot has 25 calories, 6 grams of carbs, and 2 grams of fiber. It’s an excellent source of vitamin A. In fact, carrots were first grown as medicines, not as food. In the Fuddlebrook book, Bert’s Crazy Growth Concoction, Bert learns about healthy eating habits and making good food choices. Read the story and then watch our video as we grow a carrot from a carrot. 🥕 Materials: Full size carrots (not baby carrots) Knife Shallow bowl or pie plate Small pebbles or sand Water

February is the month we think about valentines, Cupid, and candy hearts, but on a more serious note, it’s also American Heart Month. ❤⁣ Read the fun Fuddlebrook story, Freddie Plays a Joke, to learn more. Then, watch our video that shows a heart model of a healthy and unhealthy heart, a model of a pumping heart, and a tasty treat from our sister series, The Quirkles®, entitled Yawning Yolanda’s Blood Candy, that demonstrates the four components of blood.

“Expecting a kid to learn only from a textbook is like asking to look at a travel brochure and calling it a vacation.” (venspired.com) We can totally relate this to science. Kids often hate reading about science in dull books. They do, however, love seeing how it applies and doing science. But it takes too long, it’s messy, and expensive is the argument some use to avoid hands-on activities in the classroom or at home. It doesn’t have to be. This month we show that it doesn’t take much to drive home science process skills, have fun, and teach several science concepts at the same time. A clear plastic bottle, some vegetable oil, water, food coloring, and an antacid can teach about density, light, color mixing, carbon dioxide, and immiscibility. It only takes a few minutes too. Watch our video to learn more.

As you head out for your early morning walk, pause to enjoy the beautiful plant life all around you. We often take them for granted, but plants are essential to life and utterly awesome! This summer, read the Quirkles story, Botanist Bert, then watch our video of Botanist Bert’s Colored Flowers. Try it yourself with different colors, flowers, or even celery.⁣ ⁣ Try this experiment today! ⁣ Procedure: ⁣ Fill the glasses about two-thirds full of water and add two to three drops of food coloring to each glass of water (one color per glass). Cut the stems of the flowers about four inches from the bottom. Put a flower in each glass and let them stand overnight.

Try Gilbert Gas's Balloon this month to test for Carbon Dioxide in soda.

You’ve probably got a dozen half-empty bottles laying around, but have you ever stopped to really appreciate the life-saving product sunscreen or the science behind it? This month we ponder this oft taken-for-granted and misunderstood innovation. Mrs. Wigglebum’s Sunny Surprise demonstrates both the UV waves the Sun makes, and how sunscreen offers protection.⁣ ⁣ Materials ⁣ • UV detecting beads ⁣ • Sunny day ⁣ • Sunscreen (optional)

The human body is awesome. And there’s nothing more incredible than our eyes.Did you know that May is Healthy Vision month? When it comes to our health, we often visit our doctor to make sure our bodies are healthy. But what about our eyes? In the Fuddlebrook book The Eyes Have It, we learn more about the sense of sight and offer a cool activity that illustrates how our eyes can play tricks on us.

Earth Day is coming up! Here's a simple experiment you can do with your class that shows firsthand how polluting our water affects sea-life.

Happy April! Explore Earth’s layers, or horizons, in an easy, hands-on activity children are sure to enjoy. After building the model, eat this delicious snack. We call this experiment Liza's Soil Model from the Fuddlebrook book, The Plant Warrior.

Here's another fun activity to try this March, Herman's Magnetic Artwork. Watch as our budding young artists have a blast creating their own masterpieces with a little help from magnets, too.⁣ ⁣ Materials:⁣ • White Paper⁣ • Aluminum cookie sheet or foil pan⁣ • Tape⁣ • Three magnetic marbles⁣ • Red, blue, and yellow tempera paint⁣ • Three plastic bowls ⁣ • Three plastic spoons⁣ • Magnet⁣ • Four blocks of wood (or something to elevate the cookie sheet)

March is the month of Dr. Seuss's birthday! To celebrate we look at polymers. Dr. Seuss had "Ooblek" and we offer "Zop" and "Fliz Floz."⁣ ⁣ Materials:⁣ • Glue gel (ie Elmer's clear school glue)⁣ • Liquid starch (found in most grocery stores)⁣ • Drop of food coloring⁣ • Plastic cups or bowls⁣ • Glitter (optional)⁣ • Measuring cup⁣ • Wooden craft stick (or something for stirring)

February is Heart Month! ❤⁣ ⁣ Try this tasty treat from our sister series, The Quirkles®, entitled Yawning Yolanda’s Blood Candy, that demonstrates the four components of blood.

This month we often say love is in the air. If that’s the case it must be in small quantities because by volume, dry air contains 78.09% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.04% carbon dioxide, and small amounts of other gases. Instead of love, this month we focus on one of those elements: oxygen⁣ ⁣ Learn more by reading the Quirkles book, Ollie Oxygen then watch our video to see how oxygen impacts a candle race.⁣ ⁣ #learningthroughplay #inquirybasedlearning #kidlit #gifted #homeschool #earlylearning #learnthroughplay #ece #teacherspayteachers #iteachtoo #quirkles #childrensbook #iteachk #iteachsecond #iteachthird #kidsactivities #iteachfirst #childrensbooks #teachergram #kidsbookstagram #secondgrade #stem #invitationtoplay #raisingreaders #playmatters #prek #afterschoolprogram #iteachfourth #iloveteaching #scienceforkids

Let’s take a moment to consider the science of color. It’s truly awesome! Mix holiday colors to create an ice sculpture with Liza's Colorful Ice experiment.