Hair

Hair is amazing it comes in so many colors and textures: curly, straight, red, brown, short, long. And you can style it in so many ways.  I am rather lazy when it comes to my own hair.  I like to have a wash and wear style which doesn't take me long to do in the morning.  For that reason (and because my husband likes it), I have long hair.  I wash it every other day and gather it up in an elastic at the back and twist it into a bun.  Yes I am a bun-wearing librarian.  Everyday I wear my favourite hair accessory, a clip made of steel and brass that I bought at the St Kilda Esplanade market.  This is what I wear day in, day out. 
So for the hair theme I thought I would do something different so I teased my hair right out so it was a fluffy halo around my head.  I was a little self conscious as I walked out to storytime and greeted the children.  But they didn't say a word, perhaps this says something about how accepting kids are.  We sang a song together and then I asked them if they noticed anything different today.  They looked around and shook their heads.  I said what about me, I didn't brush my hair this morning!  Then they had a big laugh.

Science Experiments:

1. Static Electricity
I love using balloons as they brighten up the room and this time I used balloons to create static electricity.  All you need to do is to rub the balloon back and forth on your hair a few times and then slowly lift it away from your head. What you will see is your hair being attracted by the balloon and it will seam to sand up on your head.

What is happening here is that rubbing the balloon against your hair creates static electricity.  Static electricity is created when there is an imbalance of electrical charges between two objects.  As you run the balloon on your hair you cause the electrons (negatively charged particles) that sit on the surface of your hair to be transferred to the balloon.  The hair is now positively changed and the balloon, because it has more electrons, becomes negatively changed.  Then it is just a question of opposites attract and strands of your hair rise up as they are attracted to the balloon.  This is all due to what is known as the triboelectric effect which about how certain materials become electrically charged after becoming into frictional contact with each other.  But that is way to complex for pre-schoolers, but if you are interested about this effect you can read more here
This is a great experiment to go around during craft time and rub on children's and parents hears so that they can see the effect happening with someone they know.  It is even better if you have a mirror so the children can see themselves

2. How strong is your hair.
This is a fun experiment but a little time consuming, depending how strong your hair is.  The goal of the experiment is to see how much weight a single piece of hair can hold.  I followed the instructions on this video, but I used 5 cent pieces instead of pennies.  My hair was able to hold 75 cents worth of 5 cent pieces.  Encourage children and parents to do this experiment at home as everyone has different types of hair and differing strengths.

Book ideas:

The hair book - Graham Tether
Birdie's big-girl hair - Sujean Rim.
Curly girly - Amanda Tarlau.
Ella Kazoo will not brush her hair - Lee Fox & Cathy Wilcox.
I won't comb my hair! - Annette Langen, Frauke Bahr
Emily's Rapunzel hair - Cecily Matthew
Clara's crazy curls  - by Helen Poole.
Bella’s bad hair day – Stephen Michael King
This monster needs a haircut  -  Bethany Barton.
The man with messy hair – Pamela Allen

Craft activities:

Find a template of a head.  Ask children to draw a face and add some hair.  Use wool, curled cellophane, curling ribbon and paper strips for hair.

Balloons

To have fun with balloons and to introduce children to think about different types of gases.

Balloons equal party, fun and celebrations.  Balloons are great to use with kids and I have used balloons a lot in my STEAM storytimes to demonstrate different concepts.  This session can be used for a birthday theme storytime or for any storytime session that involves celebrations.

I couldn't resist posting this photo of my son on his first birthday!

Science concepts

To blow up a balloon we usually use air.  Air is made up of gas that goes into the balloon. There are different ways to make this gas.

Experiment: 

Blowing up balloons with different gases.
Equipment 
600 ml bottle ¼ filled with vinegar;
Bicarb soda, funnel;
2 balloons;
spoon.

Blow up a balloon and talk about putting gas into the balloon (that comes out of your lungs when you breath).  Tie up balloon.

In another balloon put 2 table spoons of bicard soda (using funnel)
Carefully attach the neck of the balloon to the bottle without the bicarb soda spilling into the bottle.
Hold the balloon upright so the bicarb soda goes into the bottle and watch the solution fizz and the resulting gas fill up the balloon.  When the reaction has finished tie up the balloon.
You can view the demonstration here

Explain to kids how there are different types of gas and the gas in this balloon is carbon dioxide which is heavier then the air around us, including the original balloon that was blown up.  Demonstrate this by holding both balloons and dropping them together and watch how the experiment balloon falls faster.   Let the children have fun dropping the balloons together too.
 

Book suggestions:

 

 

Bang went another balloon – Keith Faulkner
Pip and Posy: The big balloon – Axel Scheffler
Seven More Sleeps - Margret Wild and Donna Rawlings
Balloonia – Audrey Wood
Ella and the Baloons in the sky – Danny Appleby
Wibbly pig has 10 balloons – Mick Inkpen

Craft Suggestions:

Make a birthday card with coloured paper balloons of different sizes; or
Cut out a hot air balloon and colour/decorate; or
Buy balloons, blow them up and stick paper to make animals