Despicable Me 2 Week: Breakfast for a Good, Good Day

 As a final farewell

to our Despicable Me 2 Week

(check out all the activities we did by clicking HERE),

I fed the kiddos a...

...Despicable Me 2 themed breakfast.

On the Menu:

 Toast with Gru's Jams and Jellies

(Pop Tarts cut into the shape of a "G")

 Evil Minion Colored Grapes

 Minion Ba-Na-Naaaas!

 Dr. Nafario's Orange Juice Potion

With a breakfast like this...

...we did NOT have a bad, bad day,

that's for certain!  ;0)

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Linking up

with

Muffin Tin Monday

Despicable Me 2 Week: Mad Science, Part II

After having fun 

with

fake snow and our Blizzard Maker

(click HERE for the Mad Science 1 post),

the kiddos and I decided to delve into the world of...

...bubbles.

I set up a mini "Bubble Lab" for the kiddos,

using bubbles and wands and such we already had,

plus a couple of new bubble sets from

The Dollar Tree.

(Baby Girl made the sign for our lab,

so do not get all excited and think that

Michael Buble

came and snag for us during our Mad Science fun.

He did not-

this was just a misspelling...)  ;0)

For our first bubble experiment,

we really work with color mixing more than the

actual properties of the bubbles themselves.

This experiment used one of the bubble sets

I found at The Dollar Tree...

This set contained three different

test tubes filled with either

yellow, blue, or red bubble solution.

It also had a a bigger test tube you could use

to combine the different colored solutions...

...to create different colors of bubble solution.

WAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

(Sorry-

thought I need to insert that on behalf of

Little Wild Man's

mad science pose...)

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After playing around for color a bit,

we moves on to...

...some extra-strength bubble solution,

also purchased at

The Dollar Tree.

(I swear, I do NOT get paid or receive anything 

to promote their products,

but I go there

ALL THE TIME

for homeschool stuff.

I Would really love to have them as a sponsor-

FOR REALS...)  ;0)

Anyways...

These bubbles took longer to pop...

...making them easier to stick together.

The younger kiddos also had an excellent time

chasing these bubbles,

since they hung around longer,

making them easier to pop.

I believe the reason these bubbles are "stronger"

is perhaps they contain more glycerin than "normal" bubbles.

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While continuing our quest for all things

bubbly,

we checked in on 

an experiment Little Wild Man

had had in the freezer for over a week.

About three weeks ago,

over on Vine,

I had posted a video about...

...Little Wild Man's frozen slime experiment.

(Who doesn't like to see what "stuff" freezes

and how it "behaves" when it is frozen, right?)

One of my Vine followers 

("Be Seeing You")

made the comment that 

Little Wild Man

should blow a bubble with bubble gum

and see what happens to it in the freezer.

We both thought that was an AWESOME idea,

so...

...we both grabbed some chewing gum,

blew bubbles...

...and placed them in the freezer on parchment paper,

and waited.

We decided to do two kinds of gum,

one with sugar

(on the left)

and one with artificial sweetener

(on the right).

Since we were working with bubbles on this day,

we thought that it would be an appropriate time

to see the results of the

Frozen Bubble Gum experiment...

There ya have it.

Cold.

What a pontificater he is...

Seriously though,
after we discussed it the results,
both Little Wild Man and Baby Girl
(my bubble tasters)
said that the gum without sugar was harder to chew,
but kept its flavor.

The pink sugary gum was easier to chew,
but had no taste.

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Ok, Ok,
hang with me here people,
this was our last bubble experiment of the day-
I promise!

After checking in on the chewing gum,
the kiddos wondered how the
"stronger" bubbles
would fair in the freezer.

So I let them blow some bubbles

into our standing freezer in the garage.

Side note:

Please do not judge me on the 

Arctic-like condition of the freezer.

I KNOW we need to defrost it-

soon.

I checked back in my pictures and it has now been

over a year sine it was last defrosted.

See?

Here are the kiddos in June 2012,

"helping" along the defrosting process... 

OK,

back to the bubbles...

They latched on nicely...

...so we had high hopes that the bubbles

would actually freeze.

But they didn't.

I don't have any pics of it,

but the bubbles did leave marks where they had been

in the freezer,

which makes me wonder if they DID freeze for a bit,

but then shattered before we checked back in on them.

That will perhaps be a project to work on later.

For now,

we have retired our Mad Scientist goggles

and hope that our experiments during

Despicable Me 2 week

left Professor Nefario...

...with a smile on his face!

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Linking up

with

Science Sunday...

Despicable Me 2 Week: Minion Math

During our 

Despicable Me 2 Week,

I decided to "spice up"

Little Wild Man's math practice

with a little...

...Minion Math game.

Using THIS Minion dice download,

I printed out four copies,

cut the squares apart, and placed them in our

Photo Stacking Blocks

to create four Minion Dice.

I got the idea to use the photo blocks in this way

from Mama Jenn's Education Cubes website.

I am a member of this site,

and I HIGHLY recommend it if you want to bring in some 

physicality into your lessons-

which is especially nice for boys!  ;0)

After the dice were put together,

here is how we used them to practice

the mathematical concept of

regrouping:

1.  Roll one of the die.

2.  Write down the number rolled

in the units place

for the first number of your addition problem.

2. Roll another die

(and maybe make a goofy face while you do it).

3.  Write down that number in the tens place

for the first number of the addition problem.

4.  Continue to roll and write all the dice

until you have the second number

for your addition problem.

5.  Add the problem, and regroup if necessary.

Really,

all the dice provided was a way for 

Little Wild Man

to come up with his problem in an active manner.

He told me later that this was the 

"funnest Math ever."

Which is good,

since regrouping review

is not always fun!

Despicable Me 2 Week: Minion Puppets and Play

You can't have a 

Despicable Me 2 week of fun without honoring...

...the original little yellow "men."

So,

we had a few activities  

that I hope showed the Minions some love...

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First up,

we used the fingers from some

yellow rubber gloves

and permanent markers...

...to craft up...

...to Minion Finger Puppets.

They are so very fun...

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Another afternoon,
the kiddos and I played...

...Pin the Eyes (or Eye) on the Minion.

Using poster board and markers,

I drew a Minion body

for the kiddos to put

THESE laminated goggle eyes on...

...while MOST of them were blindfolded, of course!

It's always good to have a good helper

during clean up...

;0)

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Finally,

and perhaps most importantly,

I put together...

...a Despicable Me Explorer Box.

This has been our most played with box

BY FAR.

I think it is because of the...

...colored rice.

(I used THIS tutorial to color the rice.)

Along with the rice,

I put in a set of characters from the movie:

I also cut out and laminated

the back of the box the figures came in

and included it the box,

so we would know all the minions names.

In another box,

I put several spoons, bowls, sifters, etc.

to use with the rice.

Let me just caution you:

If you are a Mommy who can't take a mess,

don't make rice for your kiddos to play with.

It doesn't bother me-

in fact,

since the kiddos played with the box almost daily...

...I have vacuumed/swept almost daily.

This is the cleanest my floors have been in a LONG time!  ;0)

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I have a couple more items 

from Despicable Me 2 Week

to share with y'all,

so make sure to come back tomorrow!

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Linking up

with

Kindergarten and Preschool Corner...