Make It Special!
Mystery Invitations from the Kitchen
- Using cotton swabs and lemon juice, write invitations on white paper; let dry before sending. It’s best to use 8 1/2x11-inch paper, because letters written with juice become large. Attach a note written in ink or markers giving directions to hold the invitations up to light for the secret party details.
- Create unique, photo party invitations from Kodak Gallery!
Dress the Part
Follow a child’s costume pattern for a doctor’s lab coat for each child, if you are “sew” inclined. Bargain-basement white sheets provide ample yardage. If you are sewing challenged, purchase inexpensive aprons at a party or craft store. Make “Dr.” name tags with sticky paper and attach to the lab coats. Include a pair of lensless plastic glasses with cord (for kids to hang around their necks if they don’t want to wear them or if they have their own glasses) to complete the scientist look.
Take-Home Treasures
- Include all the recipes, experiments and list of scientific terms (see Super Science Words) in miniature cookbooks. Tie with cord or shoelaces, and attach a child-size wooden spoon or colorful measuring spoon to each.
- Use a computer to create Doctorate of Kitchen Chemistry certificates decorated with clip art, or hand-letter them and add fun stickers. Present one to each child in a ceremony before they leave.
- Package a spoonful of homemade butter (see Shake-It-Up Butter) to be enjoyed at a later time. Include directions for refrigerating.
Easy “Incr-Edible" Experiments
Scrub-a-dub-dub! Washing Hands Is an Emulsion!
Super Science – Squirt a drop of oil on each child’s hands, and ask them to wash it off. When it won’t wash off, add a squirt of soap (an emulsifier); it surrounds the oil, forming an emulsion, and can wash down the drain. While kids are washing, have them wash a marble to be used later in an experiment. Kids now have clean hands and are ready to cook!
Dancing Drinks
Gather kids around a table, and pass out clear plastic glasses filled with lemon-lime soda pop and small paper cups filled with a handful of raisins. (We tried dried cranberries with a lot less motion.) Tell kids to drop the raisins into their beverage and watch the action.
Super Science – Soda pop is filled with carbon dioxide bubbles that cling to the raisins and lift them to the surface. When the bubbles burst, the raisins sink to the bottom where new bubbles collect on the fruit, and the dance goes on!
Magic Cake?
Kids can make the Cookies ‘n Cream Cake. If you have an oven with a window, invite the kids to watch the baking.
Super Science – As the batter gets warmer, tiny bubbles of gas form in the mixture and grow larger. The batter surrounding these bubbles becomes permanently set as the protein from milk and eggs coagulates with heat. The combination of leavening agents and acid forms carbon dioxide, causing the cake to rise. Flour power strengthens the walls of these bubbles so the cake doesn’t collapse when removed from the oven. If kids are curious, have them add a teaspoon of baking soda and then baking powder to various liquids or sour cream and observe the results.
Smooth Saucery
Start this activity when there is about 15 minutes bake time left for the cake. Kids can make the cheese sauce for the Ham and Cheese Ziti. Adult supervision is needed near the cooktop and hot pans. Kids can complete making the main dish and--with help--putting it in the oven. If the cake is not finished baking, let the casserole stand just a few minutes at room temperature.
Super Science – Melting the butter and mixing it with the flour coats the fat, making it possible for the milk to be added and stirred into a smooth sauce.
Shake-It-Up Butter
Place 1/2 pint whipping (heavy) cream and a freshly washed marble in a plastic pint-size jar with a tight-fitting lid. One filled jar for every two kids is appropriate. Shake the jars vigorously in a figure-eight pattern; call time or stop the music every 30 seconds as a signal to pass the jar to the other child to shake. When you can’t hear the clank of the marble, you’ll know the cream has thickened into whipped cream. But keep shaking until you hear a clank again; this means butter has formed and separated from the liquid. Drain off the liquid (buttermilk) and dish up the butter for serving with the rolls; store in refrigerator.
Super Science – Fat droplets from a suspension coalesce to form a solid, the butter.
Scientific Salad Dressing
Kids can make the Orange Dressing for the Orange-Strawberry Salad by shaking it in a plastic jar. Pass the jar around so all the kids have a turn at shaking.
Super Science – A mixed salad dressing is a liquid suspended in a liquid, or a temporary emulsion. When you mix fruit juice and oil, they don’t dissolve; shaking or mixing vigorously causes the big oil droplets to break up into smaller and smaller droplets that suspend in the citrus juice liquid. Kids can observe how the liquids will separate again when the dressing stands. Kids can repeat the shaking, taking turns, and note how long it takes for the juice and oil to separate.
Extra Experiments to Do While Foods Are Baking or for Speedy Scientists
Slick Trick
Give each child a flat plastic plate and 6 square ice cubes, and ask them to stack as many ice cubes on the plate as they can. Immediately start passing salt shakers (one for each child is ideal), and tell the kids to sprinkle their ice cubes. Award a prize to the child who gets the most ice cubes to stick.
Super Science – Salt lowers the freezing point of water. The ice melts and the salt dissolves, forming an uneven surface. The water refreezes, making it possible for the cubes to stick together.
Liquid Layers Art
Give each child a plastic jar for filling with liquids. Have premeasured in plastic cups 1/4 cupfuls of corn syrup, water colored with food color and vegetable oil. Let kids place one of each liquid in their jar. Pass out one plastic button, one plastic animal figure and one paper clip for each child to drop into a jar. Tape lids securely so kids can take their jars home.
Super Science – Liquids have different densities. Kids can observe whether objects float or sink.
Party Pictures