SCIENCE ACTIVITIES
Ewww Mud : fill bottle 1/3 full of dirt and the rest with water. This is especially fun if the dirt is from the children’s own backyards.
Party Bottle: fill water balloons with just enough water to shape them. You will have to push and poke them into the bottle, but they will fit. You can also use a bottle with a wider mouth (sports drink) for this. Add confetti that fits the occasion such as “Happy Birthday,” “Graduation,” “New Baby,” or other themed confetti. Fill bottle with water and add a little glitter for sparkle.
Bubble Bottle: simply add a few drops of dish soap to water in the bottle. You can add glitter and/or coloring if you like.
Beach Bottle: fill bottle ¼ full of clean sand. Add small shells, bits of old jewelry, plastic coins, crystals, and/or pearls for treasure. Fill the rest of the bottle with water – add a few drops of blue coloring. You can also add plastic sea animals to swim in the water.
I Spy Bottle: add interesting items to a bottle. Larger mouth bottles work well for this as they accommodate a wider array of objects. Fill the bottle to about 2” from the top with sand, birdseed, cornmeal, or some other fine-grained material. If you have children who can read, you can attach a list of the items in the bottle for them to find. For non-readers, use small pictures or stickers depicting the items to be found and attach them to a card that goes with the bottle.
Magnetic Bottle: add nails, tacks, paper clips, washers, pins and other metal objects to the bottle. Fill with sand (or like material) and attach a magnet to the bottle with a piece of string. You can also add non-magnetic objects to the bottle so children can discover what will be attracted to the magnet and what won’t.
Color Mixing Bottles: add candle coloring to baby oil and mix thoroughly. You will only need to do this with the colors red and yellow. When mixing two primary colors to obtain a secondary color, you need to have half water/half oil mixture. The darker color of the two should be the water-based color. If you are making orange – use red water/yellow oil, for green use blue water/yellow oil, and for purple use blue water/ red oil. Pour the water-based color in first and then add the oil-based color on top. Cap tightly and shake to make your secondary color. The two substances will blend for a few minutes and then begin to settle out.
Color Mixing Bottle II: fill a bottle ¾ full of water. Add a few drops of color and watch the color slowly mix with the water. You can add two colors and watch them mix. This is a very relaxing activity that requires a little patience.
Ocean Bottle: fill bottle 2/3 full of water and add a few drops of blue coloring. Add baby oil to the very top of the bottle leaving almost no air space. Cap tightly.
Lava Lamp Bottle: fill bottle ¾ full of baby oil. Add water to almost the top and then add 8-12 drops coloring. Break an Alka-Seltzer tablet into eighths and slowly drop the pieces into the bottle. This bottle gets more interesting with time.
Glow in the Dark Bottle: Pour just enough “glow in the dark medium” or fluorescent paint into a test tube to coat the sides entirely. Pour excess back into paint bottle. Tube will glow in the dark after being exposed to light.
Balls of Color Bottle: fill a bottle full of baby oil. Add coloring to a small cup of water. Using a pipette, deposit little balls of color into the oil. Be careful to squeeze gently and don’t release the squeeze until the pipette tip is out of the oil or you will suck oil up into the pipette. The balls of color float through the oil.
Density Bottles: find 4 identical bottles and 16-20 beads, buttons, glass stones, rocks, etc. Each bottle needs the same amount of liquid and the same amount/distribution of objects. Fill one bottle with plain water, one with salt water, one with baby oil, and one with clear corn syrup. Add the same amount and type of object to each bottle. Children can observe how the objects move through the different liquids. It helps to code the bottle caps so you can tell at a glance which liquid is in each bottle.
Static Bottle: fill bottle about 1/8 full of Styrofoam beads. Rub bottle on wool sweater, carpet, or someone’s hair and watch the beads move.
Soothing Bottle: fill bottle 1/3 with corn syrup. Add food coloring, glitter, and/or confetti. Corn syrup slowly coats the bottle.
Go with the Flow Bottle: fill bottle 1/3 full with a liquid had soap that has glycol stearate – not disterate – in it. Slowly add water to the very top of the bottle. You can turn the bottle slowly to see smooth streaks in the water which means the layers of water are moving slowly and smoothly past each other – you are witnessing laminar flow. If you move the bottle fast you will see swirls and waves – you are witnessing turbulence.
Glitter Globe Bottle: fill bottle about ¼ full of rubbing alcohol. Pour baby oil to about ½” from the top. Let it settle out. Add glitter, sequins, or small beads to you bottle and add more oil until your bottle is completely full. The rubbing alcohol is lighter than the oil so it will float on top of the oil (unlike water).
Root With a View Bottle: fill bottle with potting soil and seeds and watch the plants grow. Be sure to water lightly.
Out My Way Bottle: fill bottle half full of Styrofoam beads (not peanuts) and add water all the way to the top. Watch them jockey for position.
Losing My Marbles Bottle: fill bottle ¾ full of sand and add a marble on top. Try to move the marble from one end of the bottle to the other.
Water Magnifying Bottle: fill bottle all the way to the top. Place over printed material to magnify the words.
WATER CYCLE BRACELETS
Yellow, solar energy, energy provided by the sun for the never ending water cycle.
Clear, evaporation, vapor created when the sun heats water in lakes, streams, rivers or oceans
Green, transpiration, vapor created when plants and trees give off moisture.
White, condensation, tiny droplets of water formed when water vapor rises into the air and cools.
Blue, precipitation, moisture released when clouds become heavy and form rain, snow, hail, etc.
Brown, percolation, movement of water through the ground.
WATER BRACELET 2
black - thundercloud
blue - raindrop
green - grass
yellow - sun
glitter - evaporation (I had some directions that said to use clear,
but the
glitter made the "invisible" water real for my kids)
white - cloud
DISCOVER MATTER BOTTLE
I use this poem. Each lab pair has a small empty water bottle. We talk about solids and they put a marble (a solid) in the bottle. We talk about liquids and they 1/2 fill their bottle with water (we add a drop of food color). We talk about gases and we add 5 drops of dish soap (this forms bubbles that have gas--oxygen- -in them).There you have it! A water bottle with all the states ofmatter as a visual!
States of Matter
Solids
A solid's a solid.
It doesn't change shape.
It can't move around;
It stays in one place.
Your desk is a solid
And so is your chair.
Just look in your classroom
Wow! They're everywhere!
Gases
Air is a gas.
We can't see it, that's true;
But often we feel it
In things that we do.
It keeps up a kite.
Air fills up a bubble.
Without it to breathe,
We would be in BIG trouble.
Liquids
A liquid moves smoothly.
We say that it flows
From one place to another
How quickly it goes!
We know that most liquids
Are easy to see.
With no shape of their own,
They're not like you or me.
MAKE CYCLONES
Use round plastic water bottle (no curves in bottle).
Fill 2/3 full with water. Drop few drops dish soap, blue food coloring , and glitter. Replace top and scure with tape.
Child swirls bottle to make a cyclone inside.
TEACHING ABOUT GASES
Take a latex glove ( I buy a box of 50 at Smart and Final) pour baking soda into the thumb. You can make a lot of these ahead of time. Holding the thumb to prevent the child pouring liquid into it have the child pour vinegar into the fingers. Knot the top of the glove. The child shakes it to mix the baking soda and vinegar. The carbon dioxide released will blow up the glove like a balloon. The child can draw a face on the glove with markers.
Do this when teaching states of matter (gas). You could also use it if you teach about acids and bases.
PLANT SUNFLOWERS
Have children sponge paint the outside of a styrofoam cup. After it dries, fill it with potting soiland plant sunflower seeds. If you have room in your classroom, grow them at school. As a group activity, show what happens if you don't water, what happens if you don't have light. Place several plants away from the light and watch how plants reach for the light.
BUBBLES
Mix one gallon of water with one cup liquid detergent and 50 drops of glycerine.
Blow bubbles and have the children pop them.
GOOP
Mix 2 cups water with a little food coloring, add 6 cups of cornflour/cornstarch to make goop. A great outdoor summer activity.
RAMP IT!
Provide the children with an inclined plane. (Can be made with a propped up board.) Have each child pick an item from the class room and sit down, before you explain what you are going to do. Show the children a few basic items, like a car with wheels, a marble and a book. Ask the children if the item will roll down or slide down the ramp, or if it will not move. Then try it with each item. Have each child guess what the item that they picked out will do.
PAINTING WITH WATER
You just need a paint brush, and water in a bucket, oh yeah, and a nice warm summer day. Let your child "paint" with the water, and watch how the water evaporates in the warm sun. Paint rocks, trees, the sidewalk anything!!!
BALANCE PLAY
Part of science is weighing items. Provide your children with a scale or balance for them to experiment with, and plenty of various items. This can usually be tied in with your theme. If you are doing winter, let them weigh snow vs water. Which weighs more? If you are doing valentines day have them weigh heart shaped beads.
MEASURE IT
Another part of science is measuring. Provide the chidlren with plenty of opportunities to measure things. Provide measuring cups in your sand and water table, and containers of various sizes.
SALT ART
Saturate hot water with salt. Let the water cool, and have the child use the salt water to paint on black paper. Then after it dries, have the child look at the crystals of salt on the paper.
PLANTS WE EAT
Show the children some common plants we eat. Name the different parts of the plants, while you show the plants to the children. Help the children sort the plants. By types of fruit, and veggies. Sort again by the part of the plant we feats, like we eat the roots of carrots and potatoes, and we eat the leaves of lettuce, and spinach.
FLOAT OR SINK
Have serval different items on a tray, and a dish pan of water. Ask the children if they think an item will sink or float. Try it!
OCEAN BOTTLE
Clean out an empty plastic pop bottle. Add water, blue food coloring, and glitter, and maybe a few pebbles. Seal the bottle closed using a little hot glue, allow to completely dry before the children can play with it. Tip the bottle back and forth. roll the bottle on the floor.
SENSORY FISH
You need:
Blue Hair Gel
Ziplock Bag small
Plastic fish
Glitter
Place the fish, glitter and gel into the baggie. Seal the bag, and then tape it shut. Let the children feel and play with the bag at a table. Observe closely so the bag is not punctured.
MAKE A TELEPHONE
Poke a hole in the bottom of two strofoam cups. Place a piece of string in the bottom of one cup and tie a knot at the end of the string to prevent the string from coming completely out of the bottom of the cup. Then thread the string through the bottom of the other cup and tie another knot. The } is a cup on it's side and the ---- represents the string. It should look like this: }-----{ Have one child talk in one cup while another listens with the other cup. How long can the string be before the phone won't work?
SUN PRINTS
Spully the child with a dark piece of paper. In the morning, on a very sunny day, with little or no wind, havethe children find items to place on their paper. Every child should recieve one rock, to keep the paper from blowing away. Have the children arange sticks, grass, acorns and such on the paper. At the end of the day see how the sun made a picture for them.
ABSORPTION
Supply the children with pieces of material to test like pieces of cotton, plastic, wool, tin foil, etc. Supply the children with eye droppers and a cup of water. Which materials absorb water and which do not?
STAR VIEWER
Wrap a black piece of paper on the end of a paper towel tube. Seal it with tape. Poke pin hole in the paper, then look into the tube at a bright light, to see the stars.
WATER CYCLE BRACELETS
Yellow, solar energy, energy provided by the sun for the never ending water cycle.
Clear, evaporation, vapor created when the sun heats water in lakes, streams, rivers or oceans
Green, transpiration, vapor created when plants and trees give off moisture.
White, condensation, tiny droplets of water formed when water vapor rises into the air and cools.
Blue, precipitation, moisture released when clouds become heavy and form rain, snow, hail, etc.
Brown, percolation, movement of water through the ground.
WATER BRACELET 2
black - thundercloud
blue - raindrop
green - grass
yellow - sun
glitter - evaporation (I had some directions that said to use clear,but the glitter made the "invisible" water real for my kids)
white - cloud
States of Matter
Solids
A solid's a solid.
It doesn't change shape.
It can't move around;
It stays in one place.
Your desk is a solid
And so is your chair.
Just look in your classroom
Wow! They're everywhere!
Gases
Air is a gas.
We can't see it, that's true;
But often we feel it
In things that we do.
It keeps up a kite.
Air fills up a bubble.
Without it to breathe,
We would be in BIG trouble.
Liquids
A liquid moves smoothly.
We say that it flows
From one place to another
How quickly it goes!
We know that most liquids
Are easy to see.
With no shape of their own,
They're not like you or me.
MAKE CYCLONES
Use round plastic water bottle (no curves in bottle).
Fill 2/3 full with water. Drop few drops dish soap, blue food coloring , and glitter. Replace top and scure with tape.
Child swirls bottle to make a cyclone inside.
TEACHING ABOUT GASES
Take a latex glove ( I buy a box of 50 at Smart and Final) pour baking soda into the thumb. You can make a lot of these ahead of time. Holding the thumb to prevent the child pouring liquid into it have the child pour vinegar into the fingers. Knot the top of the glove. The child shakes it to mix the baking soda and vinegar. The carbon dioxide released will blow up the glove like a balloon. The child can draw a face on the glove with markers.
Do this when teaching states of matter (gas). You could also use it if you teach about acids and bases.
PLANT SUNFLOWERS
Have children sponge paint the outside of a styrofoam cup. After it dries, fill it with potting soiland plant sunflower seeds. If you have room in your classroom, grow them at school. As a group activity, show what happens if you don't water, what happens if you don't have light. Place several plants away from the light and watch how plants reach for the light.
BUBBLES
Mix one gallon of water with one cup liquid detergent and 50 drops of glycerine. Blow bubbles and have the children pop them.
GOOP
Mix 2 cups water with a little food coloring, add 6 cups of cornflour/cornstarch to make goop. A great outdoor summer activity.
RAMP IT!
Provide the children with an inclined plane. (Can be made with a propped up board.) Have each child pick an item from the class room and sit down, before you explain what you are going to do. Show the children a few basic items, like a car with wheels, a marble and a book. Ask the children if the item will roll down or slide down the ramp, or if it will not move. Then try it with each item. Have each child guess what the item that they picked out will do.
PAINTING WITH WATER
You just need a paint brush, and water in a bucket, oh yeah, and a nice warm summer day. Let your child "paint" with the water, and watch how the water evaporates in the warm sun. Paint rocks, trees, the sidewalk anything!!!
BALANCE PLAY
Part of science is weighing items. Provide your children with a scale or balance for them to experiment with, and plenty of various items. This can usually be tied in with your theme. If you are doing winter, let them weigh snow vs water. Which weighs more? If you are doing valentines day have them weigh heart shaped beads.
MEASURE IT
Another part of science is measuring. Provide the chidlren with plenty of opportunities to measure things. Provide measuring cups in your sand and water table, and containers of various sizes.
SALT ART
Saturate hot water with salt. Let the water cool, and have the child use the salt water to paint on black paper. Then after it dries, have the child look at the crystals of salt on the paper.
PLANTS WE EAT
Show the children some common plants we eat. Name the different parts of the plants, while you show the plants to the children. Help the children sort the plants. By types of fruit, and veggies. Sort again by the part of the plant we feats, like we eat the roots of carrots and potatoes, and we eat the leaves of lettuce, and spinach.
FLOAT OR SINK
Have serval different items on a tray, and a dish pan of water. Ask the children if they think an item will sink or float. Try it!
OCEAN BOTTLE
Clean out an empty plastic pop bottle. Add water, blue food coloring, and glitter, and maybe a few pebbles. Seal the bottle closed using a little hot glue, allow to completely dry before the children can play with it. Tip the bottle back and forth. roll the bottle on the floor.
SENSORY FISH
You need:
Blue Hair Gel
Ziplock Bag small
Plastic fish
Glitter
Place the fish, glitter and gel into the baggie. Seal the bag, and then tape it shut. Let the children feel and play with the bag at a table. Observe closely so the bag is not punctured.
MAKE A TELEPHONE
Poke a hole in the bottom of two strofoam cups. Place a piece of string in the bottom of one cup and tie a knot at the end of the string to prevent the string from coming completely out of the bottom of the cup. Then thread the string through the bottom of the other cup and tie another knot. The } is a cup on it's side and the ---- represents the string. It should look like this: }-----{ Have one child talk in one cup while another listens with the other cup. How long can the string be before the phone won't work?
SUN PRINTS
Spully the child with a dark piece of paper. In the morning, on a very sunny day, with little or no wind, havethe children find items to place on their paper. Every child should recieve one rock, to keep the paper from blowing away. Have the children arange sticks, grass, acorns and such on the paper. At the end of the day see how the sun made a picture for them.
ABSORPTION
Supply the children with pieces of material to test like pieces of cotton, plastic, wool, tin foil, etc. Supply the children with eye droppers and a cup of water. Which materials absorb water and which do not?
STAR VIEWER
Wrap a black piece of paper on the end of a paper towel tube. Seal it with tape. Poke pin hole in the paper, then look into the tube at a bright light, to see the stars.
TOOTHPASTE FREEZE
Submitted by Nancy
Ziplock bag
cube of ice
one squeeze of tooth paste (Blue tooth paste does best)
Place the ingredients in the ziplock bag, make sure you get most of the air out of the bag and make sure the zip lock is good and sealed.
For the children that likes to put things in their mouth place this bag inside of another bag.
Let the Children squeeze and shake as long as they like.
Language is developed by talking about the feel, color, what is taking place as they squeeze the bag.
To add to this bag you can also use liquid soap for more bubbles.
SNOW
Dehydrated mashed potato flakes work great in the sand table for snow. Add water and you can actually make snowballs. Safe to eat
too!
GAK IN FUNNELS
Another thing we have done recently- I string funnels up from the ceiling and put a little gak in there. As it begins to ooze, it comes down onto the tables in strings. It is VERY fun to watch and if you do several funnels, it is interesting to see what different patterns it makes as it piles up on the table below.
CORNSTARCH AND WATER
In this activity it's best to let the children discover what you're doing step by step, not to tell the whole story ahead of time.
Let children handle thedry cornstarch. Listen to their language — squeaky, silky, soft, scratchy,gritty. Now add a little water and let them mix and feel it again. After this lumpy stage you can add a little more water until it's all moist. It forms an unstable material, which makes people smile and giggle at itsunexpected behavior. It breaks, but it also melts. If you pick up a chunkcan you hold it? Give a child a lump of the material. What happens to your gift? Some people find it vaguely scary, other people find it freeing.Children are interested in it because it's funny stuff. It doesn't behave like glue or like milk or like wood; it's a liquid and it's a solid. Working with it develops the hand and stimulates language. After playing with it your hands feel nice and soft.
If you rest your fingers lightly on the surface of the cornstarch-water mix, it will let your fingers drift down to the bottom of the container. If you try to punch your way to the bottom it will resist you, like some other encounters in "real life."
Your pacing during the introduction of cornstarch really matters. Once a child wanted to leave while the stuff was still lumpy and I told her no, because I didn't want her to miss just how much fun it can be. I hurried to add enough water to make it nice. As soon as it was goopy and she had tried it, I gave her permission to leave. By then, of course, she didn't want to leave.
I saw my responsibility as making sure that she had the experience. I would have overstepped what I think of respectful teaching had I held her at the activity, after it was in place. I can lead her to water, but she herself must judge her thirst.
Cornstarch works well in a baby bathtub set on a table, with a limit of two or three children using the whole pound. If you leave it in it's tub overnight,by morning it's dry. Now add some water and it becomes the wonderful stuff again. Be sure to invite the children to watch this event.
It's a clean sort of messy play. The white, powdery mess on the floor can be picked up with a dustpan and brush, or a vacuum cleaner, or you can rub it into the rug. Hanging around with little children you're always going to have cornstarch or something on your trousers.
You can add food coloring to your cornstarch, but you might not want to. I don't, since my feeling is that to change its color is a side trip, adigression. This stuff is about texture and feel, not color. The childrencome back to it again and again because it feels good and behaves inaninteresting way
SENSORY TABLE IDEAS
Submitted by Heather
Worms in the sensory table.
We put live earthworms in the sensory table along with some potting soil. We keep them in the table for 5 days. Afterwards, we set them free outside. Make sure the soil is damp. The kids absolutely loved holding and playing with the worms!
Feeder Goldfish
We put feeder goldfish in our sensory water with cold, clean water. We only leave them in the table for one day. An adult needs to supervise to make sure the fish are not taken out of the water. The kids love holding them!
SENSORY TABLE
Submitted by Catherine
I've put to name just a few....
colored water
rice
grits/coffee
easter grass w/plastic bugs or animals
cedar shavings/animals
cornmeal/with plastic snakes and ants
scraps of constuction paper for tearing
soap mix for bubbles or bathing dolls
colored popcorn kernels and animals
popped popcorn with bags and scoops
cooked spaghetti with a touch of oil (some red and some blue)
potting soil and flower pots
add hay straw to your water table for an experiment in texture changes.
Un popped pop corn around Thanksgiving
Bows (For presents)
Flour (Just a light coating) and matchbox type cars to make roads.
Pieces of Wrapping paper and kid safe scissors
Sand , Fake flowers and a small child size watering can.
Feathers
Cotton
Scrap fabric
leaves and acorns
rocks
rice
sand
little bit of water and plastic frogs
I have small plastic astronaut I got from the toy store I put them in with a
little sand.
Plastic jewels and sand
Pumpkin seeds (clean and dry.)
Bags filed and sealed with apple sauce.
Packing Peanuts
Old lack hook yarn
Macaroni
SENSORY TRAIL
Submitted by Carolyn
Have you tried putting bird seed, rice, small smooth stones, oatmeal etc. into separate pans (jelly roll pans large enough for feet to fit in or similar low edged plastic pans). Line them up one after the other...have the children take off their shoes and walk through the different pans. The texture is great! It's subtle but they can tell the difference. I love to do this myself..the birdseed is especially relaxing for my feet(don't use the kind with sunflower seeds, just the regular bird seed). If this activity doesn't work well for you all these things can be used for collage and the seed can be used for bird feeding. The children at my center love this...so do the adults.
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