Confusing Cans

My children started towards their CREST 'Star Awards' today as CREST Star Investigators. We signed up with our local Home Ed 'Science & Technology' Group.

The first activity completed today was the 'Confusing Cans' and what I thought would be a simple activity turned in to something complicated and fun, with smiles all around.


They started off shaking the cans to guess what's inside, and even though I had informed my children that the cans were either Corn, Soup, Coconut Milk or Baked Beans, somehow they guessed Peaches and Tomatoes.  We were off to a great start!

We tried rolling the cans indoors, but our messy house had too many obstacles in the way, so we headed outdoors. They rolled cans, measured distance, then headed back indoors to weigh cans, and in the end finally concluded that Indigo had Coconut Milk, Cypress had the soup, Zephyr had the corn, and Mommy had the Baked Beans.  AND, we found the Coconut Milk to be perplexing but found out it's normal to start off as a solid then turn to liquid the more it's rolled and shaken.

Whilst the activity suggested we open to cans to see, that seemed like a waste because none of us were in the mood to eat those things, so my children had a better idea to remake labels to tape back on the cans. 

And I had a great idea to end our activity with an afternoon snack of chocolate chip cookies and milk :)

We're all really excited about the first star......now bring on the 2nd star activity!! (and more cookies-n-milk :)