What Will We Do in VBS? (An Ocean in a Bottle!)

Greetings Friends!

The days to VBS are beginning to get closer and closer...only about three weeks left before we transform OSJ into an ocean!! My mother has finished her work.  I will be posting the final pictures of her decorations later in the week.  I thank everybody who has helped my mom and I prep for the decorations. 

But now...it is my turn to show you what I am planning on doing with the kids during the week of VBS!  I am going to show you one of the science projects: making an ocean in a soda bottle.  The purpose of this project is to get the kids to think about what an ocean looks like, as well as what goes into the ocean, waves in the ocean and more!

You won't get to see every single activity until after VBS has finished.  However, I needed to experiment with this particular project because I wanted to make sure it worked. 

This particular project was from the creative juices of Kristina Hacker---thanks for the inspiration!

Supplies:
1 clear bottle
water
food coloring
olive oil
glitter (several colors)
hot glue gun


First, gather all of the supplies!

Fill a little over half of the bottle up with water.  Dye it blue.

Add sea rocks and glitter! (It is important to do this step before the olive oil goes in, otherwise it won't mix.) Shake it up!

Add the olive oil to make...

Hot glue the bottle cap onto the bottle.  (Obviously the kids will not do this step.  I will do it during my prep time!) Then rotate sideways to see the end result! Here's my mom holding up the final product! You can't see the glitter too well in this photo, but believe me...you can in real life! I will have my actual camera charged so you can see the kids work this July! (Oh darn- you have to come visit my blog again in a few weeks!)

Then you can tilt it to make waves.  We can have so many great discussions about the ocean, gravity, mixing chemicals and more!!!

I am happy with the final product.  Now that I did it, I can make a few modifications so the kids can be successful with this project too! I will have funnels for the kids to use when pouring water and oil.  I will also have glitter in salt and pepper shakers.

Thanks for viewing! See you soon!

<3

Em