Thursday, July 22, 2010

Moon Pudding



We've been getting some excellent views of the moon, this week. It really is true, that you get the best views of the moon's craters, if you view them when the moon is not full, and focus on the craters nearest to the dark edge. Even just with a spotting scope, it can be a spectacular sight.

Spectacular enough to inspire our snack last night, with the help of an idea from Jim Wiese's Cosmic Science.



I gave the children each a bowl of smooth, vanilla, "moon", pudding, but I held back the spoons, to keep them from digging right in.



Then, I gave them a few chocolate chip meteors, and let them go to work decorating the surface of their moons.



Of course, our meteorites didn't break up on impact, and so had to be removed/eaten to reveal the cratered artwork underneath, but the idea was there.




Finally, while the children finished off the pudding, we reviewed the phases of the moon with Franklyn M. Branley's The Moon Seems to Change. It's a Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science book, though not one of our favorites of Branley's. Mickey's Magnet holds that honor. But, it does contain instructions for a simple do at home science experiment to show the phases of the moon, which we might try sometime.

For today though, you can find more story stretching arts and crafts at this week's stART (story + ART) link-up, at A Mommy's Adventures.



It's great to be a homeschooler.

12 comments:

Ticia said...

Nice. I've usually seen that done in flour. Pudding would be much tastier.

Michelle said...

That looked like so much fun...Emily would love it!

Thank you for linking up to stART :0)

Unknown said...

Ya know, this week was the anniversary of man walking on the moon...at least, that's what Jungle Girl told me, and I'm too lazy to check this info out for sure right now, so don't quote me on this...

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

Wonder Mom - I didn't know that! But, I will check it out, because it goes perfectly with the next couple of projects we have planned :)

Phyllis said...

Wow! We have done this with flour and stones, but it would be more fun with pudding. I had no idea that chips would leave craters like that. What fun!

Debbie said...

This is such a great idea! I am going to keep this in mind for when Selena is a little older and asking all those interesting questions about the moon!

sbswtp said...

What a yummy project... :)

Charlene Juliani said...

YUMMY! I love how one of your children is standing up to drop the "craters" LOL!

Christy Killoran said...

Yum! I have seen it done in flour too, but this is definitely much tastier (like Ticia said). Great project.

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

What a great activity/snack that would work well with the Moon book that we have. It's also from LRAFO series and it's called "What's the Moon is Made of" - it's pretty good for younger audience.

Anonymous said...

Now this is my kind of project! Thanks for the good book review too. We're going to start on outer space stuff soon and I usually get books from the "Let's Read and Find Out" series.

Anonymous said...

Lessons with eating are such fun. The books look great!