What's New!

Take and Makes for this project will be available at area PPLD libraries beginning Friday, Sept. 3, 2021.

Supplies and Directions:

Materials we provide: Plastic cup, plastic sandwich bag, rubber band

Materials you provide: scissors, water, interesting specimens to observe

Directions (see pdf link below for additional step-by-step photos):

1. Cut a hole in the side of the cup along the bottom. This doesn’t need to be neat. It’s designed as an access point for you to get specimens into the bottom of your cup.
2. Stretch one layer of the plastic bag over the top of the cup and secure it with a rubber band.
3. Find a specimen and put it in your cup through the hole. (A specimen is an insect, leaf, flower, etc.)
4. Pour a small amount of water onto the plastic wrap. You want it to be a small pool.
5. Look through the water at your specimen. The water has created a lens and magnifies your specimen.
6. Repeat with other specimens.

How it works: A microscope uses mirrors and lenses to bend light so that an image appears larger than it is. In our microscope, the water creates a convex lens. It bends the light that passes through it and makes the specimen appear to be bigger.

Supplies:

• TP tube
• Mylar sheet
• Straw
• Cardstock circle
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Tape
• Markers or other things to decorate

Directions:

1. If you'd like, decorate your tp tube.
2. Cut the mylar sheet into 3 equal pieces that fit to make a triangle inside the tube without falling out. Cut them a little bigger to start first. We cut ours 10 cm x 3.6 cm (3.94 inches x 1.42 inches).
3. Line up the mylar strips with a tiny strip between them. Tape them together. Then tape them together into a triangle. The shiny side is toward the center. Slide the triangle into the tube.
4. Cut the straw so the bendy end is about 6 inches long. Tape it to the tp tube so the bendy part hangs over the end.
5. Cut out your cardstock circle. Poke a hole in the center. Decorate the circle using markers, stickers or anything else you have at home.
6. Place the straw through the hole in the circle. Slide it until the circle is over the bendy part of the straw so it turns easily.

Look into your kaleidoscope and manually turn the circle. You should see lots of changing designs!

The Friends of the PPLD holds two big book sales per year, typically in March and October.

Scheduled dates for 2023 are

• March 10, 11 and 12
• October 13, 14 and 15

Watch this space for details!