Sunday, June 19, 2011

Science Party: Setting the Scene

 How do you turn a filled-to-capacity garage into a science lab? With lots of hard work and a little imagination! Fortunately I have a counter in my garage, which gave me the perfect place to showcase each experiment. I knew I wanted Einstein, so I decided to make the wall above the counter the place to showcase oversized  black and white Einstein posters.
I have three folding tables I used for antique shows, so these were centered in the garage as work stations for the kids. I covered these with white plastic tablecloths from Dollar Tree, and stapled them underneath the table to prevent them from sliding and to keep the overhang from being in the children's way. To avoid any conflict and confusion, I assigned each child a place and marked it with a large name tent. We had 6 boys and 6 girls in attendance (including Jonathan) so it worked out perfectly with 2 boys and 2 girls at each table. A card table was available to hold all of the equipment for our Professor McDaniel. Jonathan's preschool teacher graciously agreed to keep things interesting by being on hand to do scientific demonstrations and experiments for the kids. (Check out her new blog, Imagination Station !)
Lab coats with name tags were available for each child, from Mr. Disposable . They were long sleeve, so I cut the sleeves and rolled them for ease of arm movement.
Shelves were covered with rolls of brown craft paper as a backdrop for colorful classroom posters, purchased on eBay.A white metal utility cart kept tubs of water bottles readily available for children and adults. Trash cans labeled "Toxic Waste" were ready to collect the empties.
A vinyl banner, from Vista Print, was placed over the garage door welcomed guests into the "lab".
I was pleased with the final product, it was cute and functional for our garage science party.
Tomorrow: inside decor!
Counter and Einstein wall

Lab coats

Tables for little scientists

Wall of posters

Counter overview

1 comment:

Brenda said...

HOW COOL !! You thought of everything! I bet the party was a
BLAST !!

Brenda