Show & Tell {Birthday, Science & Other Recent Stuff}

It's time for Show & Tell Friday with CanadaGirl - visit her blog to participate and to see other Show & Tells.  My Show & Tell is pretty random today, just a couple pictures of some science-related things we did recently and a couple other silly pictures.



Landon turned 9 on Tuesday.  We didn't have a birthday party, at least not yet.  We're having friends over this evening for dinner and that's the "big" celebration this year.  But of course I had to take at least one picture of the birthday boy, uncooperative though he might be.



One of the things Landon got for Christmas was a little kit to grow rock crystals.  So we finally got around to doing that.  Here are the results:







It took longer than the package said it would, but at least we did get some pretty nifty looking crystals!



We will be starting a weather unit in Science in the second semester, and I will also be teaching a weather class at our co-op this year.  I asked Landon and Kennady to help me test some of the hands-on things we'll be doing at co-op, so I can gauge how long it takes to put them together and how much adult help the kids will need in class.  The first thing we tested was a "whirlwind in a bottle"  - the classic demonstration of how tornadoes spin.







That worked reasonably well, and only took about 10 minutes to construct.  Of course, after spinning the whirlwind around about 3 dozen times, the duct tape did develop a bit of a leak.  LOL



And a couple of fun pictures, just to get me caught up...  Kennady got the VeggieTales Christian Hits CD for Christmas, and it has quickly become a favorite.  I caught her doing air guitar to the CD awhile ago:



And finally, this is what she decided to wear to our New Years Eve party:



A Jasmine costume.  She certainly looked festive!