Rainbow Poop?

I teach fifth grade. I am actually pretty good at it and work hard to make learning fun while still meaningful. Science is one of my favorite things to teach, and this year has been particularly interesting since I decided to fully implement the Next Generation Science Standards.

The NGSS are as rigorous as Common Core, but a lot more fun. The NGSS are also very specific, Support an argument that the gravitational force exerted by Earth on objects is directed down, but easy to understand. For the past few weeks, we've been working on the structure and properties of matter, a weighty topic, I know.

Our latest investigation involved determining whether the mixing of two or more substances results in new substances. We used hair volumizer (a high amount of hydrogen peroxide), soap, yeast, and warm water to create a foamy fountain, commonly known as Elephant Toothpaste.

Once the fountains had done their work, beautiful, fluffy piles of colorful foam rested in the grass. All of the kids laughed and ran around admiring everyone else's colorful "creations." One of my girls came up to me and squealed, it looks like unicorn poop!

I burst out laughing and agreed with her wholeheartedly. It took a while to get everyone cleaned up and back in the classroom, but later, I sent out a couple of girls to photograph the piles. They had lost their fluffy appearance, but they sure did look like unicorn poop!