From Rags to Telescopes

In honor of International Womens day we looked at a famous Astronomer who truly lived a Cinderella fairy tale. She was rescued from her prince of a brother who changed her life from rags to telescopes and gave her her fairy tale ending.

Once upon of time there was a girl called Caroline Herschel. She lived in Germany with her Mother, Father and her nine brothers and sisters. Caroline had scars on her face and was very short. Her family didn't think anyone would want to marry her so she stayed at home and worked as a house maid looking after her family and doing all the chores.

Meanwhile Caroline's brother William was living a fairy tale life. He had moved to England and had become a musician. Caroline felt like Cinderella trapped in her home, held back from all her hopes and dreams.

One day something happened to Caroline that changed her life forever. She escaped her life of misery and chores and went to live with William in England. Caroline worked hard as Williams house keeper and he learnt her how to sing. 

By night William loved to watch the stars in the sky. He wanted to learn more so he built powerful telescopes to help him to see deeper in to space. He loved it so much he  left his job as a musician and became an Astronomer. William became well known for his work and went to work for the king.

We decorated tubes to use as Telescopes

Caroline helped her brother and became his apprentice. She loved studying the sky and worked along side her brother discovering  the mysteries of the skies.

We  made our own Constellations :)  

William gave Caroline a telescope as a gift and Caroline started making discoveries of her own. She discovered eight comets, eleven nebulae, and updated a book on the position of the stars.  Caroline became the First  lady of Astronomy

Hand Print Comets :) 

Not only did she discover eight comets but she showed that even with the odds stacked against her she could get her fairy tale ending and be an inspiration to astronomers and people all over the world. 

Comet Collage :) 

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Lava Lamp

This is a nice simple science activity that does not take much time which is fab for busy routines and all the items needed can usually be found around the house.

Things you need

Plastic bottle or clear beaker/ glass

Water 

Any colour food dye

Vegetable oil 

Salt 

Instructions 

1. Fill 3/4 of the glass* with water and a drop of food dye. 

2. Fill the rest of the glass with vegetable oil and wait for it to settle on top

3. Sprinkle salt and watch the bubbles rise. 

Simple Science 

Why does the oil layer on top of the water? 
When the oil is added to the glass the oil will layer on top of the water. This is because water and oil do not mix. Water is denser (heavier) than oil therefore the oil floats to the top.

What happens when the salt is added?
When the salt is added it drags a bob of oil to the bottom of the glass. The salt dissolves and the oil makes its way back to the top creating bubbles

This day in history - Mount Vesuvius erupts

On the 24th August 79Ad Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried Pompeii

pompeii is in Italy. The country shaped like a boot.

The flag is green,white, and red.

We made a volcano and made it erupt. To find out more check out my post by clicking on the image caption.

erupting paper mache volcano

I explained that Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried a whole city called Pompeii. Everyone forgot about the city and it was not discovered until nearly 2000 years later by a archaeologist.


What is a archaeologist?

An archaeologist is someone who tries to find out about the past by looking at things people left behind. They look at  skeletons and fossils and artifacts.

These are the things archaeologists found in Pompeii

Setting up a  Archaeology dig 

We made some clay (4 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt, and 1½ cups of water) and made a city. My children are really young so they were basically balls with there thumbs pressed into one side to make a door but they were aware of what they were and thats all that matters. We also made some bracelets and some vases that were broke in half (so they can be pieced together at the dig). We placed them in the oven  at 180°C for 1 hour and then painted them.

I placed the houses in the bottom of the sensory table and covered them with sand. I then buried the other pieces we made along with lots of 2p and 1p coins. I kept half of the table empy so that they could move teh sand across later.

City before we buried it.

Becoming Archaeologists

A true archaeologist needs the right outfit and tools. We made some cardboard fedora hats using this fabulous tutorial by justjonty on instructables and equipped ourselves with spoons and toothbrushes.

Unfortunately I did not have time to paper mache and paint our hats but we will definitely be doing this later. These are fab to add to the fancy dress box. The children did not seem to mind they were quite happy with just the cardboard.

The dig!

We used the spoons to search the sand and used the toothbrush to rub the sand of the items before putting them into a tub. I explained that digging at a site is slow and careful work to make sure they don't miss or damage anything

I originally set up a archaeologist tent using a hula hoop, shower curtain, and ribbon. Inside was a table with boxes for them to sort out the things they find. It was too windy to use the tent so we had to make do with just the table :(

We used the pink tub for items and the black for coins. Once we got near to the bottom we started to uncover the city. We had to be really careful. We used our hands and the toothbrush to brush the sand away from the buildings.

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Erupting paper mache volcano

For the base I used a box with a small edge to catch the lava when we erupt our volcano. I then sellotaped  a small box in the center to give the lava chamber height. I made the lava chamber by cutting a milkshake bottle in half.

We then glued loosely scrunched up newspaper around the frame and then secured it with masking tape.

We mixed some paper mache: 2 cups of flour mixed with 2 cups of water. We then used it to stick strips of newspaper all over the volcano. We covered it in 6 layers. We applied the first three layers on day 1 and left it to dry a little next to a hot radiator for a hour between applying each layer. I then left it to dry properly over night. In the morning it was completely dry and we did the same with the last 3 layers.

After painting it and allowing it to dry we took it outside to make it erupt. We filled 1/4 of the center with  baking powder and then added  4oz of vinegar, and a drop of red food dye.

When the lava dried it gave the volcano a awesome effect.

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Magic Icecubes

   A lovely simple little activity which gives you the opportunity to teach children about primary colours, mixing colours, and different temperatures.


First of all we filled our ice cube trays with water and added a couple of drops of red, yellow, and blue food dye. My children love playing with water so this went down really well. We put them in the freezer and left them for around four hours.

Once the ice cubes were ready we talked about how the cold had made the water into solid ice and then popped two different coloured cubes into a glass of water and watched the water change colour. My two year old was really excited seeing the water change and my four year old was hyper guessing what colour the water would turn with different combination of ice cubes.

Oxygen experiment

 Oxygen comes from plants. Like us plants need food to give them energy. The  plants use sunlight, water. and air to make a sugar. They use this sugar to give them energy to help them grow. This is called photosynthesis.  Once they have finished making their food there is some oxygen left over. They release this oxygen so we can breathe it in. This little activity will let you see the oxygen that is released from the leaf.


We cut a healthy leaf from a plant and placed it in a glass of water and placed it in a sunny spot. 

After a hour we could see lots of little oxygen bubbles all over the leaf and the glass

We observed our leaf every few hours by the end of the day there was a lot of bubbles around the edge of the glass. We gave it a little shake and watched them float around.

Check out my blog on Joseph Priestley to find out more activities on oxygen and air.

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What is Air?

Air is a mixture of Oxygen and other invisible gases. It is all around us but we can't see it. So if we can't see it how do we know it is there?

I used a empty pop bottle to demonstrate the existence of air. What is in the bottle?

Nothing? Right?

I squeezed the bottle onto their faces so they could feel the air blow out.

Macey squeezing the bottle so Drew can feel the air.

The air can also make things move. We can see the leaves rustling on the trees and our washing swaying on the line.


We blew through a straw to make balls of cotton move around the table.

Macey figured out she could also use the empty bottle to move the cotton balls.

Wow! Look what I can do :) 

We then made paper windmills and watched the air blow them round in the garden.

We also filled a carrier bag with air and squeezed it back out.

Filling the bag with air.

Catching it

Squeezing it out :) 

Check out my post on Joeseph Priestley to find out more activities on air and oxygen.

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