An Accidental Discovery

While making hibernating bear puppets today, we discovered static electricity! It was extremely cool to see the styrofoam cup move "all by itself" after rubbing our hands on my corduroy pants and then placing our hands around the cup without actually touching it. The cup moved without touching it either towards us or away depending upon the position of our hands. To get an even more dramatic effect we will try this again tomorrow after finding something made of wool to rub our hands on. I wonder how many of the children have been "shocked" this winter as a result of static electricity. I will have to ask!