Jellyfish DNA

My little scientist

Snow Day Survival!!!

    
Today was out third snow day in as many weeks!  Between snow days and sick days, I'm having to come up with a lot of things to do while I'm trapped in the house with a 5 year old.  I'm a little out of practice.  These days, when she's not at school, we're either playing outside, visiting friends or at the Science Centre...we don't spend a lot of time in the house anymore!
The last day she stayed home due to weather, it we got about 20cm of snow, today it poured rain all day...weird weather!  So, we decided to make an equally weird experiment...SLIME!!


Cornstarch Slime
 
 What You'll Need

• bowl
• cornstarch
• water (the amount of water required will depend on the amount of cornstarch used)
• large spoon
• food colouring

What to Do

• Place the cornstarch in the bowl.
• Use the large spoon to stir the cornstarch while adding the water a little at a time. Keep stirring and adding small amounts of water until all the cornstarch is wet.  It won't be easy to stir, you might have to use your hands...it's weird stuff!
• Add a few drops of food colouring to the mixture.
• Keep adding small amounts of water and stirring until a thick slime forms.
• Pick up a handful of slime and squeeze it, it will feel hard, open your and and watch it run through your fingers!  It's messy but an easy clean up.

It is the ‘shear force’ which causes the slime to become thicker.   As soon as the shear force is removed, the slime becomes runny again.
Try mixing plain flour with water – does this behave in the same way as cornstarch slime? It is a little bit messier.

Peep and the Big Wide World

We LOVE these guys!  No matter your age, I think you'll love it too!  To feed my daughter's obsession with character playing with her daddy, I had to create these characters somehow.  A couple of years ago I found this pattern on Esty for Peep, Chirp and Quack and then the other day, after watching the episode called Newton's Big Adventure , she asked me for a "Newton" so I had to get busy.

Newton

What You'll Need :
Acrylic, worsted weight yarn.
Polyester Fiberfill stuffing.
Hook Size: 3.50mm

Shell
With shell color
R1- Make a Magic Ring and work 7 sc into ring
R2- 2 sc in each sc around (14 sts)
R3- *Sc 1, 2 sc in next sc*, repeat around (21 sts)
R4- *Sc 2, 2 sc in next sc*, repeat around (28 sts)
R5- *Sc 3, 2 sc in next sc*, repeat around (35 sts)
R6- *Sc 4, 2 sc in next sc*, repeat around (42 sts)
R7- *Sc 5, 2 sc in next sc*, repeat around (49 sts)
R8-20: Sc 49


Change to the color you want for the bottom of the shell, I used a light green
R21- Sc 49 through back loops only
**Leaving the front loops for the bottom edge of the bottom
edge of the shell**
R22- *Sc 5, dec 1*, repeat around (42 sts)
R23- *Sc 4, dec 1*, repeat around (35 sts)
R24- *Sc 3, dec 1*, repeat around (28 sts)
R25- *Sc 2, dec 1*, repeat around (21 sts)
R26- *Sc 1, dec 1*, repeat around (14 sts)
Stuff shell
R27- *Sk 1 sc, sc 1*, repeat around (7 sts)
Bind off, weave in loose end.

Bottom Edge of Shell
Using the same color as the top part of the shell and holding shell upside down, join yarn to one of the front loops we left in R21 and:
R- *Sl st 1, sc 1, hdc 1, dc 1, hdc 1, sc 1, sl st 1*, repeat around (49 sts)
Bind off, weave in loose end

Eyes (make 2)
R-1 with white, ch3
R-2, sc in 2nd chain from hook, 3sc in next st.
R-3, turn and work on underside, sc in next st, sl st in first sc.  Bind off

Eye Lids (make 2)
R-1, Using the same green for body, attach yarn to the back loop of the eye about mid-way on the long side.  Sl st in the next 5 sts.
R-2, ch1, turn.  Sk first st, sc next st, sk next st, sc in last st.
R-3, ch 1, turn. Sc across.  Bind off

Head
R1- Make a Magic Loop and work 6 sc into ring
R2- 2 sc in each sc around (12 sts)
R3- *Sc 1, 2 sc in next sc*, repeat around (18 sts)
R4-7: Sc 18

R8-10: Sc 18
R11- *Sc 1, dec 1*, repeat 6 times (12 sts)
R12-16: Sc 12
Bind off, leaving long tail for sewing.  Attach eyes: Fold green behind the eye and fasten to head in proper place. Stitch with green yarn, when you get to the white of the eyes, use the stitches in the back loops to secure the whites of the eye.  Also, make sure to use a couple of stitches to secure the green lid to the side of the white of the eye (see photo)
Embroider a cute little smile


Stuff head and sew to shell (I used a couple of extra stitches to make sure his head stayed up)

Legs - make 4
R1-Make Magic Ring and work 5 sc into ring
R2- 2 sc in each sc around (10 sts)
R3- (working in back loops for this row) *Sc 1, 2 sc in next sc*, repeat around (15 sts)
R4-6: Sc 15
Bind off, leaving long tail for sewing, stuff and sew to shell

Tail
Chain 5
Beginning at second chain from hook: sl st 1, sc 1, hdc 1, dc 1.
Bind off leaving long tail for sewing and sew to bottom part of shell.

Please let me know if you have any questions, I am an amateur pattern writer.