Kiss Your Brain!

Over the summer I saw an idea online about a growing brain that you could put in water and it would increase in size and once you remove the brain it would shrink. I have heard of some fun activities to do with the growing brain and I really wanted to get my hands on one. I found an online science mall that carried them and they were $5 plus shipping. As I was preparing to present for our district Science Back to School presentation, I thought of using the brain as an ice breaker activity for the training and as a notebooking activity in my kindergarten classroom. I contacted the company to see if they could give me a discount if I were to buy multiple brains. They were intrigued as to why I would want so darn many brains... The company originally wrote me back and asked some questions. A few days later I had not heard the final word and I went online to look at the brains I was now becoming obsessed with. Get ready for this part friends... The company had INCREASED the price from $5 per brain to $14 (plus shipping) per brain and never got back to me. Now I knew I could not afford to buy my growing brain.

I searched over the summer for an alternative and I came up with Grow Me's that are sold at the store I now LOVE called Dollar Tree. I know the Grow Me line has a brain but I have never found it. Through my quest for my little brain I have come to love GROW Me's because they come in all sorts of funny versions from animals to pirates and from cupcakes to entire farm scenes. At first, I was still disappointed about never getting a brain but I was happy to find Grow Me's with objects that could really grow. I kind of fell in love when I discovered Larry the Growing Lettuce Head. Larry has been everywhere this summer and he is the best companion because he always smiles and does not say a word. He does his job and grows and I do my job and observe him. So after a summer of just me and my favorite pal Larry I decided it was time to take him on the road.

Larry the Growing Lettuce was revealed at the district Science staff development and he was pretty popular with that never ending smile. He did his job well and broke the ice and gave us some laughs because he didn't want to come out of his jar. And truth be told, I have searched the world over for a proper container for little Larry and all I had at the time was a Mason jar so that was his home. During the training several teachers said they had bought the Grow Me's for their children and someone gently suggested that I had stunted little ol Larry's growth because his habitat was not large enough. Someone even suggested to put Larry in the bathtub and see how big he gets. The thought of seeing my dear friend Larry floating around in the stagnant bath water at 5am each morning just wasn't what I had in mind.

Since the training I have had lots of emails and pictures sent to me by text of all the different versions of Grow Me's and I have laughed because I guess the ice breaker activity worked and got people excited about Notebooking in Kindergarten. I have been so busy talking about Larry that I never had time to think of the growing brain. Two days after the Science training I was in Michael's shopping for materials for my classroom. I decided to circle the store before leaving. Much to my surprise I ran right into a... GROWING BRAIN! You really would have thought I had won the Kindergarten Lottery. I had to stop myself from squealing in delight. Not only did they have growing brains but they had growing body parts in the Halloween section. Friends, I grabbed them and I grabbed them quick. And since I was feeling so darn chipper I grabbed a growing spider too. Now as you can imagine, I have quite the collection of growing things for my self created Science center. And if you thought my luck was over, it wasn't! I turned the corner and found the perfect container for Grow Me's. The container is about as big as a paint can and it is totally clear. I am still on the look out for something larger but right now who is complaining?

Now, I am sure you are asking yourself what in the world does this really have to do with Science? You will have to come back and see. I will give you time to capture some of your own brains and Larry's. If you find something good you have to email me and promise you will!

Until then... Kiss your brain!