The idea behind this worksheet is that children take it outside, listen to the sounds around them and tick the things they can hear.

There are three worksheets to choose from: things I can hear at the beach, in the forest and a general one.

How do we hear noise?

The simple explanation

Sounds are made when an object vibrates, sending waves of energy towards our ears. The stronger the vibrations, the louder the noise. When the air vibrations reach the ear, they shake tiny hairs connected to nerves. These nerves send a message to the brain, telling it that a noise has been heard.

Let's make it a bit more complicated

Sound waves reach the eardrum and cause it to vibrate.

Eardrum vibrations are passed on to small bones in the ear called the ossicles, then through the semicircular canals and to the cochlea.

The cochlea turns the vibrations into electrical signals that are sent to the brain.

The brain interprets the signals as sounds.

More activities about sounds and hearing

Make a model eardrum by stretching plastic wrap over a bowl and placing rice or salt on the top. When a noise is made, the salt or rice will jump.

Find out if you can hear sound in space.

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Over the many years I've been writing Science Sparks, Autumn has always been my favourite season for designing themed activities. I love the colourful leaves, dark nights, cooler weather, and, of course, the run-up to Christmas is always exciting, too! This collection of fall science experiments and activities makes me smile every time I read it and hopefully has something to excite kids ( and adults ) of all ages. Kids can discover why leaves change colour, how trees disperse their seeds, why animals hibernate and more!

I also have a fun collection of fall STEM challenges you might like!

Fall Science Experiments for Kids

Seeds and Leaves Science

Create your own exploding seed device or spinning helicopter seeds to learn about seed dispersal. These lovely hands-on activities work especially well after going on a treasure hunt to search for different types of seeds.

Playdough to Plato has a brilliant leaf chromatography experiment.

Find out how to predict the weather with pinecones!

Fall Kitchen Science Experiments

Learn about changes of state in the kitchen by making toffee apples and treacle toffee. Which is your favourite?

Make spiced apple cider and learn about filtering at the same time. Our spiced apple cider is not only a great science activity, but it also tastes amazing!

Try some apple bobbing to discover why apples float on water. Apple bobbing is a great Halloween party idea, too!

Fall Sensory Science Activities

Get creative indoors or out with some lovely autumn themed ice. Try adding a little salt ( be careful as this makes the ice feel much colder ) to melt it faster, or use a pipette to drop warm water over the surface.

Use leaves to make prints in play dough and learn to identify different types of leaves.

Get messy with some Autumn gloop. Cornflour is a lovely sensory material that can be scrunched up into a ball when pressure is added and turns back into a liquid when the pressure is removed. Cornflour gloop or slime is known as oobleck and is a Non-Newtonian liquid.

Have some sensory fun with blackberry playdough, from Rainy Day Mum.

We love this beautiful autumn sensory table from The Imagination Tree.

More activity ideas for autumn

Go on a walk and collect autumn treasures for a scavenger hunt.

Try to model the changing seasons with LEGO. This is a great team activity and can be made into a challenge to find different ways to show how the changing season affects the environment.

Try some autumn themed weighing and measuring with pumpkins.

Estimating the height of trees in the forest is a clever trick that always makes our forest walks a lot more fun!

Science crafts for autumn

Find lovely autumn-coloured leaves for our hedgehog printable.

Make some leaf rubbings and think about different textures, a lovely idea from Red Ted Art.

Try these fun activities with sticks and leaves.

What about trying an autumn version of this floating art experiment from Learn with Play at Home?

Autumn Games

Tic Tac Toe Printable

Try our autumn tic tac toe game. Colour the leaves and trees autumn colours, cut them out and play!

Autumn Science eBook

I also have a FREE Autumn Science eBook you can print for free!!

Activity ideas for Halloween

If you're having a Halloween party, we've got some great ideas to make it memorable and some fun Halloween science experiments, too.

I also have a simple collection of ideas for outdoor science in the forest that you might like.

Do you have any more fall science experiments or craft ideas for us?

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The last two days have been so hot in the UK that we've had the paddling pool out, so it seemed like the perfect time to try some water based investigations.

For each mini investigation, I asked the children a question, and then we discussed what we thought would happen and why.

I've also got many non paddling pool water experiments you can try!

Five things to investigate in your paddling pool

Will the sun make the water warmer?

My five-year-old thought the sun would heat the water if we left the water in the paddling pool during the hottest part of the day. We didn't use a thermometer as I didn't have one to hand, but that would have been a good idea in retrospect.

We found that the water was much warmer if the paddling pool was filled up in the morning and left for a few hours in the sun rather than just filled and used immediately.

Can you make a boat move?

We used a small plastic boat. Z tried to move it by blowing initially, which worked well but found he could make it move much faster by placing the hosepipe behind it. We had lots of fun making the boat race around the pool.

Another idea is to make and test your boats made from recycled materials.

Will the water level rise if we all sit in the pool?

We decided the water level would rise, but the children couldn't tell me why. So we tried it, and the water did rise a little bit. Do you know why this is?

It's all down to the Archimedes Principle!

Will a heavy ball float?

Everyone thought the heavy ball would sink, but it floated!

If you can find a ball that does sink, try covering it with bubble wrap. It should now float, as adding bubble wrap makes it less dense.

Objects need to be less dense than water to float.

More Science in the Paddling Pool

Try making boats with tin foil and investigating how many coins you can put before they sink.

Mix sand with some water in a small pot or tray and leave in the sunshine while you splash around. The water will evaporate, leaving just the sand behind.

Freeze some plastic fish into ice cubes with string and do some paddling pool fishing!

Make a small toy figure float

Use materials from around the house to make a small toy figure float!

Can you think of any more science for the paddling pool?

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The UK is hot, hot, hot at the moment, so today, I'm sharing some fun and cooling summer science experiments that are great for kids of all ages on a sunny day!

Sometimes, science experiments outside feel so much easier than making a mess inside. They are a great way to keep kids entertained during school holidays. A mini outdoor lab is easy to set up, and kids can keep coming back to it all summer long.

We love making slushy drinks with ice and salt, tracking the sun's movement with a DIY sundial, and, of course, making delicious s'mores!

What are you waiting for? Grab some supplies and fill your summer with science experiments and STEM challenges.

Summer science for hot days

Science experiments with ice

Summer 5-minute slushy drink

One of our favourite summer activities is exploring the melting and mixing of colours by making slushy drinks with fruity ice.

You'll need salt, ice, two sealable plastic food bags and various different fruit juices to make a colourful slushy drink in minutes!

Paint on ice

Painting on a sheet of ice is a lovely, creative science activity for summer. The paint slips beautifully over the ice, making it a fantastic sensory activity and a creative way to learn about melting and changes of state.

Melting ice cubes

Make ice cubes and investigate where they melt the fastest. Try them inside, in the fridge, outdoors in the sunshine and outdoors in the shade.

Or, try creating an ice excavation. You could go all out and make a huge one or set up lots of mini ones icy rescues.

Make ice cream in a bag

Find out why salt melts ice, and use your new knowledge to make ice cream in a bag or cool a drink down quickly.

The ice and salt trick means you can have cold ice cream made from flavoured milk or a chilly, refreshing drink ready in less than 5 minutes!

Science in the paddling pool

If you have a paddling pool, I have 5 paddling pool science activities that make playing in the pool even more fun than usual!

Lolly stick races

Challenge your friends to a lolly stick race. These are great fun and an unusual water table or paddling pool activity.

Once you've finished racing, use the soapy water to clean outdoor toys!

Sink or float experiments

Finally, testing objects to see whether they sink or float is always fun! Older children can try wrapping objects that sink in bubble wrap to find out if reducing their density helps them float, or make mini boats for sinking objects.

Science in the kitchen

Do you love ice cream? How about making some ice cream soup like Rainy Day Mum? Melty ice cream in the sun is a lovely, tasty treat and a delicious way to learn.

Or, make s'mores in an easy garden solar oven?

Cool a drink quickly using the cooling power of ice and salt. This uses the same science concept as ice cream in a bag.

Adding salt to a mixture of ice and water lowers the freezing point of the ice. The melting ice draws heat from the drink, cooling it down!

Outdoor summer science activities

DIY sundial

Track the movement of the sun with a sundial made with a stick or straw. This sundial looks impressive and is a very visual way to see how the sun's position changes throughout the day.

Water Wall Ideas

Little ones love a water wall, and it's easy to make a DIY version using my homemade water wall ideas. Water walls are a great design challenge for older children, too.

Shadow frames

Shadow frames are brilliant fun. Another idea is to make an empty frame and draw a picture in the middle to cast a shadow!

Drawing the shadow a toy creates is a simple, creative activity that allows children to observe how the shape of the shadow changes throughout the day.

More summer science for kids

Our 50 fun summer science activities will keep you busy all summer long!

If you prefer a challenge, my summer science challenges could be just what you're looking for! NOW with FREE printable challenge cards!

The post Summer Science for Hot Days appeared first on Science Experiments for Kids.

This very simple STEM challenge is a great way to find out why arches are such an important structural shape. Bridges often have arches to make them stronger and more stable. The arch shape allows any load on the bridge to be spread outwards along the curve of the arch.

Pont du Gard is a brilliant example of a bridge constructed of arches.

Arch Bridge STEM Challenge

You'll need

Books

Paper

Paperclips or other small objects

Instructions

Set up two piles of books the same height with a small gap between them.

Place a sheet of paper over the top to make a bridge.

Carefully place paper clips on the top until the bridge collapses.

Record the number of paper clips added before the bridge collapsed.

Remove all the paper clips and bend the same piece of paper into an arch shape between the piles of books.

Add paper clips again until the bridge breaks.

Can you add more paper clips to the arch shape or the flat bridge?

You can see that the arch shape tolerates a lot more paper clips before collapsing than the flat bridge with no support.

Build a Bridge STEM Challenge Worksheet

More bridge building ideas for kids

Teach Beside Me has a brilliant popsicle stick bridge.

Experiment with different types of paper bridges.

Build and test an eggshell bridge. It might be stronger than you think!

The post Build an Arch STEM Challenge appeared first on Science Experiments for Kids.

Toy cars are a great tool for learning about forces such as friction, momentum, inertia, and the effect of changing ramp gradients.

For some activities, you'll need a few extra items, but hopefully, you already have most of them around the house.

Grab some toy cars and start experimenting!

Science investigations using toy cars

1. Toy car friction ramp

Our DIY friction ramp uses a large sheet of thick cardboard split into several lanes. Each lane is covered with a different material. This activity is a great way to demonstrate how some surfaces have more friction between themselves and another object than others.

2. Balloon-powered toy car

This fun balloon-powered car is made from LEGO. A balloon-powered car is a great way to learn about kinetic energy, potential energy, conservation of energy and Newton’s Laws of Motion.

3. Learn about momentum with a toy car

All moving objects have momentum. Another way to think about momentum is how hard it is to stop a moving object. It’s harder to stop an object moving quickly than an object moving slowly.

Use a toy car to demonstrate and learn all about momentum.

4. Gradient and speed investigation

Use a ramp to investigate how the distance travelled by a toy car is affected by the slope gradient and the ramp's surface.

5. Magic magnetic cars

Make simple magnet-powered cars to learn about magnetism. Race them, steer them and even design your own race track! These are simple to make and work brilliantly!

More science experiment ideas for preschoolers

Embrace the messy side of science with a sensory science station. Make fizzy potions, oobleck slime and lots more.

Frugal Fun also has some great ideas for science experiments with toy cars.

Try some magic opening flowers made using just paper and a tray of water or one of my other preschool science experiments!

The post Easy Science Experiments Using Toy Cars appeared first on Science Experiments for Kids.

Today's post is part of my United States of Science series. The idea is you print a map of the USA and colour each state as you learn about it with a fun science activity.

New York

New York City in the state of New York is the most populated city in the whole of the United States, with a population of over 8.5 million people.

The Statue of Liberty is just one of the iconic landmarks in New York City. It's made of copper, which has oxidised naturally to form a green patina coating which actually protects the copper underneath.

It took about 20 years for the Statue of Liberty to change from copper coloured to green!

Why is the Statue of Liberty Green?

Some simple copper chemistry will help us to find out. Copper coins can be cleaned with vinegar and salt.

What you need to clean coins

Vinegar

Salt

Small bowl

Copper coins

How to clean coins

1. Put about a teaspoon of salt into a bowl

2. Add about 50ml of vinegar and stir to dissolve the salt.

3. Leave the coins in the vinegar and salt solution for 5 minutes.

5. Take them out and compare them to other dull copper coins!

You now have sparkling copper treasure!

Why does vinegar clean coins?

The reason copper coins don't stay shiny is that the copper reacts with oxygen in the air to form copper oxide, which is a dull greenish-grey colour.

When you mix salt (sodium chloride) with vinegar (acetic acid), sodium acetate and hydrogen chloride form. Hydrogen chloride is an acid which works well at rapidly cleaning the surface of the copper coin, leaving it beautifully shiny and removing the oxide.

If the coin is exposed to the air again, it will quickly react with oxygen to form the dull greenish copper oxide layer.

The Statue of Liberty is coated in a thin layer of copper which has turned green due to reactions with air and water.

Now you know why the Statue of Liberty is green!

This activity would be great for a school science fair project.

If you enjoyed this activity, don't forget I have lots more fun Chemistry science experiments for kids of all ages!

How else can you clean coins?

Anything acidic will clean coins, and if it's acidic and salty, even better!

A fun way to extend this investigation is to try to clean copper coins with other substances. Ketchup, coke and lemon juice are all good things to try first!

Do not eat or drink anything you've used to clean coins.

New York Facts

The Statue of Liberty gets struck by lightning multiple times a year.

New York is nicknamed The Empire State.

The capital city of New York is Albany, not New York City!

New York is bordered by Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and Canada!

Niagara Falls borders New York and Canada.

The post New York - Why is the Statue of Liberty Green? appeared first on Science Experiments for Kids.

Bubble snakes are super easy to make, don't need many materials and are great fun for kids of all ages. Younger children will enjoy blowing lots of bubbles easily, while older children can design their own unique bubble makers and even create an investigation using them.

This is a brilliant summer science investigation for home or school!

What you need to make a bubble snake

Small tube or plastic bottle

Elastic band

Bubble mix - shop bought or make your own

Old cloth or sock for the end

Sharp scissors or pen knife

Bubble Snake Instructions

Carefully cut the bottom off the water bottle—ask an adult for help, as the end might be sharp.

Cover the end of the bottle with a piece of cloth and secure tightly with an elastic band.

Dip the cloth end into the bubble mix.

Blow carefully down the other end of the bottle and watch as a bubble snake appears!

Remember to blow down the bottle, NOT suck!!

Make it an investigation

Experiment using different types of bottles ( with wider and thinner bases ) to create the ultimate bubble machine!

Try blowing softly and then with more force to find out how this changes the shape of the bubble snake.

Extension Tasks

Can you spot a rainbow in the bubbles?

Try adding food colouring to your bubble mix to make a coloured bubble snake!

How does a bubble snake work?

When you blow air through a bubble snake maker, hundreds of tiny bubbles form. The bubbles stick to each other, creating a big, long snake!

Why are bubbles round?

Bubbles consist of a thin film of soapy water filled with air. When you blow a bubble, the film expands outward. The forces acting between the molecules of the bubble cause it to form the shape that encloses the most volume with the least surface area — a sphere.

Why can you see colours in bubbles?

Colours are seen because of light diffracting through the soap film.

How can you make this a science fair project or investigation?

Try using different materials on the end of your bubble snake. Can you predict which will make the best bubbles?

Can you find a material that will give you bigger bubbles?

What happens if you blow more slowly?

Can you find a recipe for the BEST bubble mix?

Make a double bubble snake!

What do you think of this?

More Bubble Experiments for Kids

Build a bubble blowing machine like Teach Beside Me.

Make giant bubbles with a hula hoop.

Find out why bubbles pop!

Finally, how about making a square bubble? It might be easier than you think!

The post How to Make a Bubble Snake appeared first on Science Experiments for Kids.

This simple shadow activity is very similar to my DIY sundial, but is more about observing the size, position and shape of the shadow than following the time.

We see shadows when light is blocked by an object. In this activity the small octopus toy blocks the light which creates a shadow in the shape of the toy on the floor. Light travels in straight lines so cannot bend around the toy.

If you're learning about shadows as part of a light topic, I have lots more shadow science activities you might like.

You'll need

Paper cup

Small toy

Wooden skewer

Chalk or chalk pens

A sunny day

Instructions

Carefully poke a hole through the paper cup with the wooden skewer.

If it's a windy day you might need to place a little play dough under the cup to secure it.

Place a small toy on top of the skewer and use the chalk to draw the shadow.

Draw the shadow every hour and watch how the size and shape changes.

Another idea is to make a figure from a pipe cleaners and draw the shadow as it changes.

Why do shadows change during the day?

You can see that my octopus shadows became longer as time went on. This is because I started drawing the shadows at about 1pm and finished at 4pm so the sun was lower in the sky for the later drawings.

The length of a shadow depends on how high the sun is in the sky. A low sun gives a longer shadow than when the sun is high in the sky.

If the sun is directly above, you might not see any shadows!

Science concepts

• light
• shadows

The post Follow the Shadow appeared first on Science Experiments for Kids.

Today's science investigation is a fun one! We're going to waterproof a boot - not a real one, as hopefully your boots are already quite waterproof, but a paper one! The idea is to print off the sheet, colour it in, cover it with different materials and then spray it with water to find out which materials are the most waterproof!

Which materials are the most waterproof?

What you'll need

Felt tip pens

Different materials to test – kitchen foil, paper, cloth, felt, wax crayon etc

Masking tape

Scissors

Boot Printable – or draw your own pictures

Water sprayer, or you can drip the water over the top using your fingers

INSTRUCTIONS

Colour in the boot with felt tip pens. Make it as crazy or as simple as you like.

Next, ask an adult to help you cut out small squares of the different materials.

Spend some time feeling and looking at the different materials. Which do you think will be the most waterproof? It might help to think about what each is used for.

Carefully tape the squares of material over the boot until the whole boot is covered.

Spray the boot evenly with water.

Look at the surface of each material. Do they look different? If the material is waterproof, the water will be visible in beads on the surface.

Carefully peel off the squares of different materials to check if the colours are wet.

Check to see which material is the most waterproof.

How can you tell if a material is waterproof?

Water will usually form beads on top of a waterproof material and be absorbed by a non-waterproof material.

The colouring under the waterproof materials should stay dry.

Extension tasks

Use your findings to design and create a sandwich bag that will keep a sandwich dry on a wet day.

If you enjoyed this, I also have a dinosaur waterproofing experiment!

More science experiments for kids

Design and build an umbrella for Incy Wincy Spider. This is a great activity for thinking about whether a material is waterproof and properties such as flexibility.

Find out why oil and water don't mix with these easy investigations.

Experiment to find out why some objects float and some sink.

Learn more about materials and their properties with my huge collection of materials experiments.

Don't forget to check out my FREE science experiment instruction sheets, too!

The post Waterproof a Welly Boot - STEM Challenge appeared first on Science Experiments for Kids.

I set up this froggy rescue for my 3 year old last year with all the frogs in one large ice cube, but another idea is to freeze frogs ( or another plastic animal ) separately in small pots and try different methods of melting the ice to rescue the animals.

You'll need

Plastic frogs

Plastic container

Freezer

Small bowls

Water

Spoons or droppers

Salt - optional

Instructions

Fill a medium sized container with plastic frogs and top up with water.

Place in a freezer until frozen.

Before you want the activity to start, remove the ice from the freezer and leave to melt for 5-10 minutes.

Use droppers or spoons to drip warm water over the ice to melt it.

Older children can sprinkle salt over the ice to help it melt faster.

Ideas for recording the results

Draw pictures or take photographs of what the ice looks like at set time intervals.

Key vocabulary - ice activity for preschoolers

Ice

Cold

Frozen

Warm

Cold

Slippy

Wet

Freeze

Melt

Water

Solid

Liquid

Extension tasks

Create a storyboard or cartoon about the froggy rescue.

Imagine what the frozen frogs would say if they could ask for help.

Freeze smaller ice blocks with just one frog inside and set up a froggy rescue race! Try leaving the ice blocks in different places, such as outside, inside, fridge, freezer, in the sun and in the shade.

Try to predict the order in which the ice will melt.

More icy experiments

Try one of my other easy ice excavations!

Have a go at painting on ice.

This rainbow ice excavation is gorgeous from Toddler Approved.

Find out why salt melts ice.

The post Frog Rescue - Ice Excavation appeared first on Science Experiments for Kids.

Magic opening flowers are a brilliant, super simple science investigation using just paper and water. The folded paper flowers open up as the paper absorbs the water. They are a great way to learn about capillary action and transport of water in plants too.

You can make these as simple or creative as you like. Try experimenting with different flower shapes, types of paper and sizes of flowers. This investigation is great for preschoolers who will love to watch the flowers open to reveal a drawing inside. Older children can use it as part of a plant science unit or use it to practice correct experimental procedures.

If you like this activity, you'll love my other paper science experiments!

You'll need

Tray

Water

Paper – sugar paper works best

Other types of paper to experiment with

Scissors

Waterproof pens - optional

Magic opening flowers instructions

Half fill the tray with water.

Cut out several differently shaped flowers from different types of paper.

Fold the petals up.

Draw a little image inside - optional

Carefully place the flowers on the water and watch as they open up.

If you don't want to cut out your own flowers, try my template.

Make it an investigation

Place flowers made with different types of paper onto the surface of the water at the same time. Record how long each takes to open up.

Remember to make this a fair test, the flowers must be the same size and placed in the water at the same time.

What's happening?

Paper is made from lots of fibres. As they absorb water, they swell, the paper expands, and the flower opens up.

More Science for Kids

Mombrite has a great capillary action experiment using celery.

Make slushy drinks, ice excavations, create a mini water cycle and lots more water science experiments.

I also have an exciting collection of magic science tricks you might like too!

The post Magic Opening Flowers appeared first on Science Experiments for Kids.

This Three Little Pigs STEM Challenge is a brilliant science experiment for learning about the stability of structures and properties of materials. It's great for early years science age, but it can also be extended for older children.

If you like this, you might also like my Gingerbread Man science experiments.

We made six different types of Three Little Pig houses loosely based on the story.

Three Little Pigs STEM Challenge

You'll need

Sticks

Straws - plastic and paper

Marshmallows

Elastic bands

Cardboard

LEGO

Squeezy bottle or small fan to use as wind

Sugar cubes

Three Little Pigs STEM Challenge Instructions

In the classroom, I set up five different areas with different materials for the house building and let the children explore each area.

3 Little Pigs Stick House

We talked about the properties of sticks, which make them suitable for house building. The best sticks were quite smooth, without too many bumps and all a similar size.

3 Little Pigs Straw House

I bundled the straws up to make them easier to build with and let the children work out the best way to put them together.

Sugar Cube House

This one was the most popular and kept the children occupied for a long time. Once finished, you could extend this task by spraying the house with water or sticking the cubes together with different materials, such as icing sugar or marshmallow fluff, or even just dampening the cubes to see if they stick that way.

Paper/Cardboard/Straw walls

I built a frame using LEGO and then cut paper and cardboard walls to test, as well as a wall that could be built from straws. The children then used a squeezy bottle to blow "wind" onto the walls and observed what happened.

LEGO/Brick House

I built this LEGO house and left one side of the roof empty so the children could test sticks, ripped cardboard and the LEGO tiles to see which protected against the squeezy bottle wind the most. I placed some tissue paper squares inside the house so the effect of the wind was visible to the children.

Marshmallow and Straws

The children loved this one, but it did get a bit sticky, and the houses were not very stable. Smaller, harder sweets and cocktail sticks might work better.

These FREE printable design sheets might be handy, too!

FREE Three Little Pigs House Design Sheets

Click on the image to download.

Three Little Pigs STEM Challenge Extension Tasks

Ask children to spray each house with water and observe what happens. They can also make predictions too.

Children can shake their test houses to find out how stable they are.

Suggest and test other materials.

Don't forget to check out my other storybook themed science experiments too!

Science concepts

Exploring and using media and materials

Safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function.

Key Stage 1  Science Topics

Everyday Materials

Uses of Everyday Materials

Working Scientifically

More science for early years

The post Three Little Pigs STEM Challenge appeared first on Science Experiments for Kids.

If you've got a child who loves superheroes, you'll really love these easy superhero science activities! Each works brilliantly on its own, or several could be used for a special superhero science day!

You can also find these activities in my Playful Science series, which is full of simple, play-based science for kids!

Easy superhero science experiments for kids

Superhero spinners

These superhero-themed spinners are a simple twist on our classic paper spinners. Once you've made them using the template, experiment with smaller and larger versions to find out how the speed of the spinner falling changes.

Make a superhero float

The idea behind this activity is that children choose from a selection of materials to find some that can help make a toy superhero float. We used bubble wrap and an old pool noodle, but you can be as creative as you want.

What's the best material for a superhero cape?

Design, make and test superhero capes created from different materials. This is a lovely, creative science investigation that works well as an outdoor activity too.

Diving Superhero

Make a superhero dive by turning him into a cartesian diver!

Send a superhero into space

Send a superhero into space ( or high into the air, at least ) with a superhero film canister rocket!

Remember to stand back as these shoot up with a bang!

Trap a superhero

Trap a superhero in oobleck! Oobleck is made from cornflour and water. It's super easy to make and feels deliciously icky!

Make Ice like Elsa

It's frost rather than ice, but this frost on a can still looks super cool!

Make a Robo Arm

A robo arm is a great STEM challenge for older children or a fun family project to do with younger kids.

We made ours Spiderman themed!

Rescue a Superhero

Investigate to find the fastest way to rescue a superhero from a block of ice.

Warm water and salt are good things to try, or you could just leave the ice in a warm place to melt.

Another idea is to find a way to keep the superhero frozen...maybe in the fridge or wrapped in bubble wrap or other insulating material.

More superhero science experiment ideas

Warm up Elsa with these melting Elsa hands from Happy Hooligans, or try this instant ice from Raising Lifelong Learners.

The post Superhero Science Experiments appeared first on Science Experiments for Kids.

This collection of science experiments for learning about the human body is perfect for encouraging kids to learn about their bodies! I've split the ideas into three age groups: preschool, primary age ( 5-11 ) and secondary ( 12+) but these are very loose recommendations. Hopefully you'll find something that sounds fun to try!

I've also got lots of fun STEM challenges and science printable instructions you might like too!

Human Body Science Ideas for Preschoolers

If you have a big piece of paper or cardboard, get the children to draw around themselves, they can then measure arms and legs, label body parts and even draw in organs.

Learn about bones with this fun doctor role play activity using modroc as a cast on dolls.

Listen to your heart beat by making your own Stethoscope.

Make a model of a human brain using playdough.

Learn about keeping your hands with this hand hygiene activity.

Discover the relationship between arm span and height.

Human Body Science for Primary School

Did you know that taste is linked to smell?

Use eggs to learn about tooth decay. Soak them in vinegar, coffee and coke to see what happens to the shell.

Investigate heart rate. This can be done by recording your pulse rate at rest then doing some exercise and measuring it again.

Did you know you can test your reaction time using just a ruler?

Have some fun finding out how strong your bones are.

These printable organs from Adventure in a Box are just brilliant!

See a close up of your fingerprint using a balloon!

Find out why you get dizzy with this great guest post from Red Ted Art

Learn about your lungs with this fake lung experiment.

Human Body Science for Secondary School

Make a model of a pumping heart using a jar.

Make a model of an animal cell. An edible version is especially fun!

Another easy edible experiment is my candy DNA model!

Follow the journey of food through the digestive system with this easy activity using tights!

These edible neurons from My Mundane and Miraculous Life are just brilliant too!

Find out how you can 'see sound' with these easy sound activities.

Try some of these brilliant blood experiments for learning about the heart, circulatory system and red and white blood cells.

Link to a scientist

Marie Curie's research into radiation led to the discovery of radium which is now used to treat some cancers.

Marie M. Daly did groundbreaking research in the relationship between high blood pressure, cholesterol and clogged arteries.

Can you think of any more human body science experiments for us?

You might also like my NEW book! Gross Science is now available to buy and is full of icky, slimy and gross science experiments for kids including lots about the human body!

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We've yet to see any real snow this year, despite promises of downfalls in November, so we decided to make some fake snow of our own.

We made three different types of pretend snow and set about exploring their different properties for a wonderful snowy sensory experience.

Don't forget to try my other winter science experiments too!

How to make fake snow

Cornflour Snow

Add a small amount of water to some cornflour.

This is just goop or oobleck. My littlest child was fascinated when it was in the bowl as it felt quite solid, but when we put it in our tray it started to flow like a liquid.

Baking Powder Snow

Add a small amount of water to baking powder until you get the consistency you want.

I liked the feel of this fake snow the best as it was quite smooth and silky.

Snow Dough

I used this snow dough recipe from The Imagination Tree. We liked this one the best as we could mould it into snowballs, and it felt quite squeaky ( I can't think of a better word ).

You can see how the snow dough is slightly yellow in colour because of the vegetable oil, and we had to build a dam to stop the cornflour and water running into the others.

Have you made any fake snow this year?

More snow science ideas

For older children, you could experiment with quantities and try to work out exactly how much of each ingredient makes the perfect snow recipe.

What happens if you add too much oil or water?

Can you mould the oobleck into a solid ball?, what happens if you drop it?

Snow sensory ideas

This fizzy snow from Inspiration Laboratories looks like great fun!

We can't wait to try No Time for Flash Card's floam recipe.

This melted snowman idea is very cute as well!

If you enjoyed this activity, we've got lots more fun winter science ideas you can try too!

Warning - Do not let children eat the snow.

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Welcome to our Halloween density demonstration. Density sounds complicated, but it is a very cool concept to explore, leading to many fun, creative science opportunities.

The image below shows a traditional density jar made with honey, golden syrup, washing-up liquid, water and vegetable oil.

I adapted the activity slightly to make a creepy Halloween version!

What you need to make a density tower

Treacle

Tall glass or jar
Golden Syrup
Water
Food colouring
Vegetable Oil
Small items to test for floating

Density Tower Instructions

Pour each liquid into the glass slowly, starting with the treacle, then the golden syrup, followed by the water with added food colouring and finally the vegetable oil.

Drop a few small items into the jar and watch to see which layer they float on.

In the image above, you can see a plastic bug floating on top, a LEGO brick floating on the water, and a paper clip floating on the treacle. Why do they do this?

Why does a density tower work?

Each liquid has a different density. The more dense a liquid is, the heavier it is. In the demonstration above, the most dense liquids are on the bottom and the least dense at the top.

Objects and liquids float on liquids of a higher density and sink through liquids of lower density. The LEGO brick falls through the oil but floats on the water. The plastic bug floating on the oil is less dense than all the liquids used.

For a complete explanation, see my floating and density post.

If you liked this spooky activity, you'll love my collection of Halloween science experiments, including making fake blood, spooky potions and lots more creepy science for kids!

Don't forget to check out our other fun science activities for children, too!

You might also like my book Gross Science!

Affiliate links

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I'm very aware that many nurseries, schools and other childcare providers often don't have a huge amount of money to spend on resources, so with that in mind, I've put together a fun collection of very low-cost science activities perfect for Early Years Foundation Stage.

Budget Science for Early Years

Build and waterproof mini boats

This waterproofing activity just uses scrap paper. If you wanted a slightly more exciting version, you could make boats from egg cartons to waterproof or even create a GIANT boat using a big cardboard box.

This simple early coding/logic building activity just uses a blindfold and some masking tape.

Ice painting is a lovely, sensory experience for even very little ones.

This waterproof a welly activity is inexpensive and comes with a free printable welly!

Use a cardboard box to make ramps with different gradients to race cars down, can you record the time taken for each?

Test objects from around the house to see if they sink or float?

Make a super simple colour mixing wheel to learn about primary and secondary colours.

Make a tin can phone with some old tin cans. This is also a great one if you're reading The Lorax.

How about a magnet sensory bottle for introducing magnetism?

Make a density sensory bottle using just oil and coloured water.

Learn about push/pull and stretching forces with homemade play dough and some props from the garden.

Try some garden measuring with just a ruler.

Make a rain gauge from a plastic bottle.

Grow vegetables from seed recording their growth weekly, you could even cook with them once fully grown.

Work out how many feet tall you are.

Make simple patterns with LEGO or try some paint stamping.

We love this counting machine from The Imagination Tree.

Make fruity boats with leftover lemons, do they float? What happens if you add extra weight to them?

Learn about filtering using paper towels.

Or, how about a setting up a low cost chemistry lab with simple kitchen ingredients.

Lots more ideas coming soon!

Contains affiliate links

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What is a Mixture?

A mixture is a substance in which two or more substances are mixed but not chemically joined together, meaning that a chemical reaction has not taken place.

Mixtures can be easily separated and the substances in the mixture keep their original properties.

Imagine mixing skittles and full size marshmallows, the individual components (skittles and marshmallows) could easily be separated using a filter and each component of the mixture ( skittles and marshmallow ) doesn't change. 

How to make a mixture

You can make your own mixtures with items from around the house.

1. Firstly try to make a mixture of toys.

2. This time use cereals or sweets.

What is a solution?

A solution is made when a solid (which we call a solute) dissolves into a liquid (that we call the solvent) One example of a solution is salt dissolved in water. The salt and water can be separated again by evaporation ( the water will evaporate if left in a hot place leaving he salt behind ).

Investigation

Aim: To test out these three mixtures to see which form solutions and which don't

• Salt and Water
• Sugar and Water
• Sand and Water

Results Table

You should find that both salt and water and sugar and water dissolve and form solutions and that sand sinks to bottom!

How do you separate mixtures?

Can you separate the components out of the mixture again? Hint - to separate the sand from water you could use a sieve. This is possible as the sand is insoluble ( doesn't dissolve in water ).

Salt and sugar are soluble ( dissolve in water ) and can be separated by evaporation.

Another way to separate a mixture is by using a process called chromatography.

Challenge - how would you separate rock salt and water?

Rock salt is a mixture of salt and sand and is often spread on roads in winter to stop cars skidding.

Stage 1 - Grinding

First the rock salt should be ground using a pestle and mortar.

Stage 2- Dissolving

The ground rock salt should be dissolved in a beaker and stirred thoroughly.

Stage 3 - Filtering

The solution of water and rock salt should be passed through the filter paper where the sand ( which will not have dissolved in the water ) will collect.

Salt does dissolve in water and so will pass through the filter paper.

Stage 4 - Evaporating

To separate the salt from the water the water needs to be evaporated off, either by leaving the salty solution in the sunshine or placing under a heat source.

The salt will form as crystals - this process is called crystallisation.

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We've looked at how objects absorb water before using sponges, underpants and even the good old walking water experiment. Today, we're conducting an absorbing experiment with a twist, aiming to halt the process and investigate which materials absorb water and which don't.

Sugar cubes work well as they absorb water quickly, and if you add a little food colouring, it's fun to watch the cube change colour.

We experimented by placing different materials between cubes to find out if they stopped the water from travelling up the cube.

Absorbing Experiment Materials

1. Sugar cubes
2. Plate
3. Water
4. Food colouring
5. Aluminium foil
6. Cling film
7. Paper
8. Kitchen towel

Sugar Cube Tower Instructions

Add a few drops of food colouring to a little water and pour it onto the plate.

Add a stack of sugar cubes and watch what happens. The coloured water should move up the stack of cubes and eventually make them collapse. Check how many cubes the coloured water passes through before stopping. Ours only reached cube 3.

Add a small foil sheet on top of one sugar cube and stack some more on top. Does this stop the water from reaching the top cubes?

Try the same with clingfilm, paper, or tissue. Which works the best?

Can you try to predict which material will stop the water from spreading through the cubes the best?

Which falls down first?

Extension tasks

Design an investigation by thinking about how to make it a fair test. Think about the amount of water used, the number of cubes and the amount of material used to block the water.

Perhaps you could time how long each cube tower takes to fall!

Make it a Challenge!

Can you stop the tower from toppling?

More absorbing experiments

Can you waterproof a boot or a dinosaur?

Slightly different, but Tinkerlab has a brilliant activity where celery draws coloured water up through its stem. You can also use the same technique for making coloured flowers!

Suitable for Key Stage 1 Science

Investigating Materials

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We have a little magnet kit that we play with frequently. It's great fun, and the children are always so surprised that they can actually feel the force pushing the magnets apart.

To explain magnetism further, we made a magnet maze.

First, we played to see which type of objects a big magnet stuck to. Once we'd decided metals were the key, we made predictions about other objects and tested them. Another idea is to draw a table to make this activity more formal.

Remember - not all metals are attracted to magnets, but iron and steel ( steel is mostly iron ) are.

Mini Magnet Maze

You'll need:

• Thick cardboard or a paper plate
• A magnet wand
• Metal paperclip
• Cardboard
• Pens

How to make a mini magnet maze

• Draw a maze on the cardboard or paper plate
• Draw a cardboard bug or any shape you like.

• Place a paperclip over the bug.
• Place the paperclip at the start of your maze and the magnet underneath the paper plate.
• As you move the magnet, the bug should move, too.

I also have a car track magnet maze template you might like.

All about Magnets

Magnets attract some objects but not others and can have different strengths.

Magnets have two poles, one called the north pole and one called the south pole. Depending on which poles you place together, they either attract each other or repel. Opposite poles attract.

What can a magnet do?

Magnets attract magnetic materials. Iron, cobalt and nickel are naturally magnetic metals. Alloys containing these metals, for example, steel ( which contains iron ), are also magnetic.

If you rub a magnetic material with a magnet, it will temporarily become magnetic!

You can also use electricity to make an electromagnet.

More Magnet Experiments for Kids

Defy gravity with magnets with this cool science trick. The magnet on the top of the box attracts the paperclip underneath. The paperclip is fixed by a string, so it appears to float under the magnet.

Make a LEGO magnet maze. This is a brilliant activity because it involves planning and creating the maze first, so it takes a bit of time and allows children to work as a team.

We also love these magnet powered cars!

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All my children have loved Julia Donaldson books, especially the Gruffalo, so as it's almost World Book Day I've searched the web for my favourite Julia Donaldson science experiments and activities.

If you're looking for book themed science investigations you might also like our collection of Fairy Tale experiments for kids and Fairy Tale STEM ideas.

Room on the Broom Activities

We love this Room on the Broom sensory bin from Still Playing School.

Make a magical potion for the witch.

Oobleck ( cornflour/cornstarch and water ) coloured brown would be perfect to recreate the scene where the animals rise out of the mud to scare the dragon.

The animals all throw an item into the witches potion at the end. You could dissect a flower, make a pinecone weather station or search for twigs of different sizes.

A balancing or stacking activity would work brilliantly for Room on the Broom too - coming soon!

There are also some lovely learning ideas on the Room on the Broom website.

Gruffalo Science Activities

This Gruffalo coding activity from JDaniel4's Mom looks great.

If you have snow ( or fake snow ) make different animal footprints in the snow.

We loved playing with our Gruffalo's Child shadow puppets. Another idea would be to create lots of shadow puppets and retell the story.

Inspiration Laboratories has a brilliant build a logpile house STEM activity too.

Superworm Activities

This Superworm sensory tray is very cute and would also work well as a magnet activity, where children tests items to see if they are magnetic.

How about a homemade bug hotel? We made this one with toilet rolls!

This Superworm play dough looks great from Rainy Day Mum.

Bug oobleck is brilliant fun too!

Plain Vanilla Mom has a gorgeous bug fossil activity.

Another idea is to make worm hotel for Superworm.

Stick Man

I have some fun stick Man activities including making a stick man, building a raft with sticks and playing pooh sticks.

Children could also make shapes with sticks or collect items to make their own sensory tray.

Zog Activities

Build a zip wire or a catapult to help Zog fly.

More Julia Donaldson Activity Ideas

You could draw a map for What the ladybird heard and make a tin can phone to help spread the message.

Find a somewhere you can make an echo for The Highway Rat.

Can you think of any more Julia Donaldson activity ideas for us?

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Sometimes I forget that my youngest child hasn't necessarily taken part in preschool science experiments I did with the older children years ago, so when we had a bit of quiet time last week, I set up a simple science exploration station for her. We made fizzy baking soda and vinegar potions, experimented with oil and food colouring and watched colours fly through milk. These are all great science experiments for preschoolers.

Things you need for a messy science station

• Baking soda ( Bicarbonate of Soda )
• Food colouring
• Jars
• Water
• Vinegar
• Milk Oil
• Water
• Tray
• Pipette
• Vegetable oil
• Beakers

With the materials above, we tried three super simple science experiments suitable for preschoolers. My top tip is to set them all up in a tray to keep the mess contained.

Baking Soda and Vinegar Experiments

• Place a few drops of food colouring, water and a couple of teaspoons of baking soda into several containers.
• Use the pipette to add vinegar slowly, then stand back to watch the fizz.

This activity is a great first introduction to chemical reactions for older children, but for my 4 year old what was more important was how she learned to use a pipette and the correct way to pour a beaker, both things which I'd taken for granted she already knew!

Oil and Water Experiments

• Place a thin layer of vegetable oil in a flat container.
• Mix up several containers of oil and food colouring.
• Use a pipette to drop tiny bits of the water and food colouring onto the oil.
• Make a pretty picture.

The oil and food colouring doesn't mix with the water as oil and water don't mix.

In the interest of an honest post, my 4 year old declared this was 'boring' and insisted on adding some baking soda so she could make a fizzy picture.

Colourful Milk Experiment

Colourful milk is another brilliant preschool science experiment that works well at a science station. The science behind the reaction is a bit tricky, but young children will love watching the colours fly through the milk.

If messy science isn't your thing, you might like my science challenge bags instead. These are self contained mini bags of science activities for when you need a quick 5 minute time filler.

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Recycled boats are fun to make a great for exploring the concept of buoyancy or for little ones just very basic sink or float activity.

A sink or float experiment makes a great first science activity for preschoolers ( always watch them carefully around water ) and a fun first attempt at making a prediction or hypothesis for older children.

If you want to structure the activity like a real experiment you can also introduce the concept of variables where you only change one variable for each test. For example, use the same boat, but change the object inside. You can then follow that by using the same object but different boats and record the results.

What you need to make a recycled boat

Empty containers

Plasticine

Old magazines or newspaper

Straws

Double sided tape

Large container filled with water for testing

How to make a recycled boat

This bit is up to you! We made our recycled boats very basic, but you could make yours as fancy or simple as you want.

Red Ted Art has lots more homemade boat inspiration too!

Preschool floating and sinking science project

For younger children start by asking them to test different objects to see if they sink or float. Once they've tried a few ask them to predict whether the next one will sink or float. Empty ( and full ) water bottles, large stones, plastic or metal toys and pine cones are good things to start with.

The next challenge is to try to find a way to make an object that sank, float. One way to do this is to place it in a boat. Plasticine boats, aluminium foil boats or recycled boats like we made should work perfectly.

We had some lemons hanging around so made some lemon boats too, you can also make boats from melon, oranges, limes and other fruits with a thick skin. They float because the skin is full or air bubbles, which reduces the density.

Sink or Float - explore further

Find out how to make a lemon sink and why lemons float with this activity.

We love to theme our activities. Sink or float pirate style is always popular.

Keep it simple with a LEGO sink or float activity.

For older children discover why some objects float and some sink and find out how to make a ball that sinks, float!

For a slightly different sink or float experiment pour a layer of vegetable oil over water and try to guess which objects from a selection will float on each layer.

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Now summer seems to finally be here, we thought we'd get the sand table out and start playing. We tried to make sandcastles with the dry sand, which didn't work at all. They just collapsed.

Can you think why this is? What could you add to make the sand more 'sticky'?

We added a little bit of water, which made the sandcastles slightly better, but still not great.

We kept adding water until we could make an almost perfect sandcastle. It took several attempts to get the right combination of sand and water.

Too much water and the sandcastles fell apart and stuck to the inside of our bucket. Too little water and the sand just flowed out. We found that if we could squeeze the sand into a ball in our hands and it stayed together it made a good sandcastle.

How to make the perfect sandcastle

Sandcastle sand to water ratio

According to PBS the magic sand to water ratio is one bucket of water to 8 buckets of sand!

We put this theory to the test and it worked really well! The sand was sticky, but not too sticky...almost perfect!

Why does water make sand stick together?

You should have noticed that wet sand is much stickier than dry sand. This is because the water forms tiny bridges between the grains of sand which holds them together. This is due to the surface tension of the water. If too much water is added, water fills the space between the grains of sand and the bridges break down.

Read more about the physics of sand on Live Science.

More Science Activities using Sand

Use sand to filter water in this easy activity.

Make a volcano eruption using sand.

Or, try one of our 50 Summer Science Activities.

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Today we are looking at filtering and how it can be used to clean dirty water. This water filter science project is very simplified but gives kids a great overview of how water purification is carried out to give us lovely clean drinking water.

Do not drink the water in the activity

Water Filter Science Project

Filtering Water - What you need

Dirty water ( or mud and clean water )

Funnels

Coffee filter/paper towel/muslin

Sand

Stones

An empty bottle or other containers

Filtering Water Experiment

The great thing about this experiment is that you can design it however you like.

We set up coffee filters containing sand, stones and then just plain filters.

We carefully poured the same amount of water through each filter and observed the results.

More ideas to try - Water Filter Science Project

Set up an experiment where the conditions are:

1 coffee filter

2 coffee filters

3 coffee filters

Is kitchen roll better than a coffee filter, would just a sieve work?

You could also work in stages, so try a colander, then a sieve and then a paper towel. Each stage should trap smaller and smaller particles.

How do filters work?

A filter is a porous material which a liquid can be passed though to separate the liquid from solids suspended in it.

More Filtering Investigations

Make a toy filter.

Try filtering potions using a sieve and colander.

Can you filter water using sand and stones?

More Science for Kids

I've got a fun collection of water science experiments, including a water cycle activity, dissolving experiment, ice investigation and density trick!

Try one of our easy science experiments for kids to do at home! We've got egg experiments, ice experiments, paper helicopters, STEM challenges and lots more science fun for kids of all ages!

Suitable for Key stage 2 Science

Properties and Changes of Materials

Use knowledge of solids, liquids and gases to decide how mixtures might be separated, including through filtering, sieving and evaporating.

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Today I have lots of ideas for preschool science experiments to share. Science isn't just complex experiments for older children. Science is all around us and can be enjoyed and explored by children of all ages. Even just simply encouraging children to touch objects with different textures or observe the world around them is introducing simple scientific concepts that will hopefully inspire a love of science as they grow.

I've compiled a collection of our favourite preschool science experiments, including STEM and STEAM experiments. You'll have the BEST time exploring with your child if you give them a go.

Let us know what you think or if you have any other fun preschool science ideas for us to try.

Easy Preschool Science Experiments

Magic Opening Flowers

These magic opening paper flowers are easy to set up and work brilliantly! All you need is paper, scissors and a tray of water.

Filter Paper Butterflies

Filter paper butterflies are a lovely creative science activity. Learn a little about chromatography when making the butterfly's wings, and maybe read a book about butterflies and caterpillars once the butterflies are finished. These also make a lovely classroom decoration.

How many feet tall are you?

Work with children to discover how many feet tall they are. If they measure several people, there might be a pattern to spot too!

Numeracy at Home/School Box

Explore numbers with a Numeracy at Home box. This simple idea is great when children have spare time or finish a task early!

Jumping Frogs - Static Electricity Activity

Learn about static electricity with our jumping frogs

Another fun way to learn about static electricity is to rub a balloon on your hair to make it stand up on end or have a competition to see how many balloons you can stick to the wall at once!

Waterproof Investigations for Preschoolers

Investigate how and why some materials are more waterproof than others with this fun activity using soft toys.

Magnet Maze

We love magnet mazes! These can be made for any theme, and you can also add numbers and letters.

Gruffalo Shadow Puppets

Make a Gruffalo shadow puppet after reading the book. We made a mouse puppet, but anything from the book or more than one puppet would be amazing too.

Make a Filter

Ask children to design and make their own filter. We find LEGO or DUPLO makes the perfect mixture to filter.

Colour Mixing

There are many fun ways to learn about primary and secondary colours and how they mix. We loved our colour mixing squishy bags and colour mixing with food colouring and water. You could even make a colour mixing water wall.

Sort Materials

Set up a Little Mermaid themed sorting tray to sort items by colour, size or material.

Fairy Tale Science Experiments for Preschoolers

Make a raft for the Billy Goats, a house for the Three Little Pigs, witchy potions and lots more great fairy tale preschool science experiments.

Messy Preschool Science Experiments

Our messy science station will surely be a big hit with kids of all ages. Experiment with oil, water, food colouring and baking soda for wonderfully messy science play!

You might also like my collection of superhero science activities!

Can you think of any more science experiments for preschoolers we would like to try? Do let us know if we've missed anything you love.

Follow our Preschool Science Experiments Pinterest board for even more preschool science ideas.

Don't forget we have lots more fun science experiments for kids, so do let us know if you try any and what you like.

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Have you ever had a static shock from a shopping trolley or an escalator? The shock is because of static electricity, which can cause materials to attract or repel each other.

How does static electricity work?

Static electricity is what makes your hair stand on end when you rub a balloon on it. Static electricity occurs when an atom gains or loses an electron.

What is an atom?

All materials are made of atoms.

Atoms contain tiny particles called protons, neutrons and electrons (subatomic particles ). Protons and neutrons are found in the nucleus of an atom. Electrons orbit the nucleus but occasionally break away.

Balloons and some other objects, like a fluffy jumper, can steal electrons from other surfaces. The extra electrons give the balloon a negative charge, which attracts other objects, like the tissue paper we use in this activity.

A fun way to demonstrate static electricity is by making jumping frogs.

Static Electricity Experiment - Jumping Frogs

Equipment

Balloon

Paper, cut into shapes. We used sugar paper, but tissue paper would also work brilliantly.

Woolly jumper or hair

Method

Cut up your different types of paper into frog shapes ( or anything else you want to make jump )

Blow up your balloon and rub it on your jumper or hair. Hold above the frogs and watch them jump up.

How does this static electricity experiment work?

Rubbing the balloon on your jumper or hair charges it with static electricity. This attracts the tissue paper frogs, making them jump up to the balloon. They will stick until the charge wears off.

Make it an investigation

Experiment with different types of paper for the frogs.

Design an investigation to record how long the frogs stick to the balloon and if they stick for longer if the balloon is rubbed on hair for longer.

Investigate whether smaller frogs stick for longer than bigger ones.

Try other shapes and themes, like our jumping leaves for Autumn.

Science Kiddo uses static electricity to separate salt and pepper.

Inspiration Laboratories also has a very cool ghost static electricity activity.

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Sunny days are great for experimenting with shadows, but you don't need to let a lack of sun stop you, a torch works just as well.

One of our favourite books at the moment is The Gruffalo's Child. If you've read the story you'll know that the mouse makes the Gruffalo's Child think he has a scary friend by standing on a tree branch just as the moon comes out so his shadow on the ground looks huge to the Gruffalo's Child.

We used the story as inspiration for making Gruffalo shadow puppets.

If you've got a little Gruffalo, Superworm, Stick Man or Zog fan we've got lots more Julia Donaldson experiments and activities to share.

The Gruffalo's Child Shadow Puppets

Materials for making shadow puppets

Lollystick or craftstick

Black cardboard

Scissors

Tape

Torch

How to make a Gruffalo shadow puppet

Cut out a shadow shape featuring a character from the story. We used the mouse, but you could use anything, or make more than one. Attach the cardboard shape to a lolly stick or craft stick using sellotape.

Ask a friend to hold the torch behind the shadow puppet with the puppet near a wall or the floor, you should see a shadow form.

Try moving the torch further away from the shadow puppet to investigate how the shadow changes. Moving the shadow puppet closer and further from the wall or floor will also change the shadow shape.

You could also try making shadow puppets from different types of paper to see how that changes the shadow.

What is a shadow?

Shadows are made when an object blocks light. The object blocking the light must be opaque or translucent to make a shadow.

If you have a transparent object the light will pass through and you won't see a shadow.

Transparent materials let light pass through them in straight lines, so that you can see clearly through them.

Translucent materials let some light through, but scatter the light in different directions. We can not see clearly through translucent materials.

Opaque materials do not let any light pass through them.

Inspiration Laboratories have also used The Gruffalo's Child as inspiration for learning about shadows. Do check out their ideas too.

We've got lots more fun shadow activity ideas in our shadow round up post, do take a look if you enjoyed this activity.

More book themed science activity ideas

If you like this activity I have lots more book themed science ideas, including a zip line for Jack and the Beanstalk, a raft for The Gingerbread Man and lots more!

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We first tried painting on a sheet of ice many years ago, but as my littlest loves to paint I set it up last weekend to try with him. I made it slightly different this time by adding string to the top so we could hang our beautiful ice pictures up afterwards and watch what happened as the ice melted ( the ice sheets were actually quite heavy, so don't hang them anywhere they could fall on someone ).

You need to let the ice melt a little first or the paintbrush sticks to the ice, which my 1 year old thought was hilarious. I think for him that was actually the highlight of the afternoon.

The paintbrush sticks to ice rather like fingers stick to ice when you first take it out of the freezer. This is because the ice freezes moisture in skin ( or on a damp paintbrush ) making it stick to the ice.

The best thing about ice painting is you can paint on the ice over and over again, just wipe it clean and start again.

Another fun idea is to press a clean sheet of white paper over your ice picture, press down hard and leave to dry. You can then use this as a background for a picture drawn with pens or felt tips.

Things to think about and questions to ask

How does the ice feel as the paintbrush moves over it? It should feel a bit sticky to begin with, maybe the paint will even freeze as you paint, but as the ice starts to melt, the paintbrush should start to glide over the ice more easily.

What happens to the paint as it mixes with the water? Do the colours become more dilute?

Can you use the ice as a medium for mixing colours? Start with the three primary colours ( red, blue, yellow) and go from there.

More science experiments for kids

Try some colour mixing with water using food colouring, water and pipettes to make primary and tertiary colours.

How about some more experiments with ice?

Discover why salt melts ice with this easy activity.

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Now that Christmas is over, it's time to embrace winter and all the exciting science activity opportunities the cold weather opens up. I've assembled an exciting collection of winter science experiments and STEM challenges perfect for cheering up a dreary January.

Don't forget I've also got 100s more easy science experiments to do at home and not just for winter!

Easy Winter STEM Challenges for Kids

Ice Experiments

All my children love playing with ice. There's something about it being cold and slippy that really appeals to them. There are endless different ways to explore ice and melting, and all make a great winter science experiment.

Firstly, try a super simple melting activity to learn about changes of state.

Ice fishing

Discover whether ice melts faster in hot or cold water with my ice fishing activity. This is one of my favourite winter science experiments, but it is also great for summertime, too. All you need to do is freeze a plastic fish or small object in a cube of ice along with a piece of string. Tie the other end of the string to a stick, and you have your very own ice fishing rod!

Painting on ice

Try some painting on ice. This is another very simple science activity. Just freeze a sheet of ice and paint over the top. Children can paint, wipe the ice clean and paint again!

Ice decorations

We love these pretty ice decorations, when it's very cold outside I leave a water-filled ice cube tray outside, and we check to see whether the water freezes overnight.

Little Bins for Little Hands has some lovely frozen hands. These are very appealing to young children and great fun to melt!

Make some seasonal ice. Try adding pinecones and leaves in autumn, colourful petals and flowers in summer and perhaps some wildflower petals in spring.

How about this sparkly ice version? One simple activity is to find ways to make it melt faster. Try using warm water or salt to speed up the melting process.

Baking soda and vinegar ice

We had lots of fun with our baking soda ice cubes and love this frozen vinegar idea from Inspiration Laboratories.

Wire through ice

Move wire through ice. A grown-up might have to help with this, and you don't have to use a large piece as we did.

Make frost on a can

Try to make frost with ice and salt. This activity is always very popular in our house. Frost appears on the side of the can as you watch! For some extra fun, try decorating the can to look like a snowman or Santa!

More ice experiments and investigations

Do you know you can make hot ice? A hot ice illusion is a great science demonstration.

The Artful Parent has a gorgeous melting ice, salt and watercolour experiment.

Finally, and this is my favourite. Investigate how to help a toy car move across a sheet of ice. Try to find ways to stop the car slipping on the surface.

Snow STEM Challenges for Kids

If you're lucky enough to have snow, a snow volcano is a brilliant outdoor activity. You'll need snow, red food colouring, a small bottle or container, baking soda and vinegar.

Snowman Science Experiments

Find out how simple circuits work with this easy playdough light up snowman.

If you don't have snow, try to make your own snow with one of my three easy snow recipes.

Winter STEM Challenges for Kids

Learn about forces with a simple snowman catapult! Children can experiment with ping pong balls, pom poms and other small items.

We love this snowman stretch challenge from Feel Good Teaching.

Make a raft for a reindeer, or try one of my other festive STEM Challenges.

Winter STEM Challenge Printable

Finally, download my FREE winter STEM Challenges printable.

Ice Cube Shelter

The idea behind this activity is to build a structure that will slow down the speed at which an ice cube melts. This is a good activity for thinking about insulating materials.

Melting Marshmallows

Warm up with a hot chocolate STEM challenge. Make one drink warm and one hot to find out where the marshmallows melt the fastest.

Icy Rescue

Freeze a small toy figure or object in ice and rescue it using warm and cold water and salt!

Do you have any other winter or icy science ideas for us?

Which is your favourite winter science experiment?

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Just before Christmas the lovely people at DUPLO sent us a box of bricks and some challenge ideas. If you read Science Sparks regularly you'll know that we LOVE LEGO and DUPLO and use both frequently in our activities.

If you look carefully at the photos below you'll notice some of our bricks have numbers written on them from years of using DUPLO to teach children to count, and I've had to clean sticky areas from many a brick that's previously had something stuck to it. That's got to be the sign of a much loved toy!

I remember buying my eldest daughter ( who is now 9 )  a DUPLO house for her first birthday, a set I very much enjoyed building again earlier today with my almost 1 year old. It's lovely to have another little DUPLO builder in the house.

To celebrate all things DUPLO, we've put together a fun collection of our favourite DUPLO ideas from the last few years. I'll keep adding to the collection, so do pop back again.

DUPLO Ideas

DUPLO Tic Tac Toe

This was one of the the fab ideas sent to us by DUPLO which my daughter changed slightly to give each player different themed characters. This set up is Winnie the Pooh vs Toy Story!

I love Tic Tac Toe as it's easy enough for even very young children and nice and quick for those times when you want to play a game, but don't have much time.

Printing Patterns with DUPLO

Back when my big children were little, they loved creating patterns using paint and DUPLO bricks and people. Next on our list is to use the bricks to make pictures of flowers and trees.

DUPLO Ball Run

My 10 year old created this DUPLO ball run using DUPLO and paper to make the run down smoother. It took a few attempts, but he managed to find a way for the ball to travel all the way through without stopping.

This has been a great project as all the children have come back to it over and over again this half term, making the ball run bigger and longer each time.

DUPLO Monsters

Our DUPLO Monsters are a new creation for this week. You could make these symmetrical, write stories about them or draw their shadows to extend the fun further.

DUPLO letters

We made letters using DUPLO bricks and then used a crayon to run over the top to give the print of the letter on the paper.

DUPLO Ring Toss Game

Another idea sent to us by DUPLO was this great ring toss game. Ours had a festive theme, but you could easily change this for any time of year.

How about flower towers for spring?

More DUPLO Play Ideas

Can you work out how many DUPLO bricks tall you are?

Make a DUPLO Number tunnel.

Add DUPLO to your messy play.

Make a DUPLO Number line like In the Playroom.

Can you have a DUPLO tower building race? First see how tall your tower is after 30 seconds if you use two hands, then using just the hand you write with and then using the hand you don't write with!

If you have a rain track, can you make two gently sloping tracks with different gradients and investigate which one a car rolls down faster?

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Thank you to Science Sparks for inviting me to guest post on their blog today. You can find me over at Rainy Day Mum where I share play ideas, activities, crafts, learning experiences and fun for babies, toddlers and preschoolers. As a former Marine Biologist and science teacher, I love the ideas that Science Sparks shares and really hope you have fun trying out our Pine Cone Weather Station idea.

We come back from every walk with a collection of natural finds, and in that collection, there are always pine cones. So I decided to use them and set up a weather station to predict the weather.

How to make a pinecone weather station

Our pinecone weather station is set up on a window sill outside in our garden that we can see from another window inside the house so we can record what is going on with our pine cones each day. I have found out it's a good idea to attach them to the window with some blu tack or modelling clay so that they don't fall over as the weather changes, but apart from that, the experiment is set up.

When the weather is dry, the pine cones open up, and when it's going to rain, they close down. It's a really fun way for children to start thinking about the future and what the weather will be like.

Pinecone Facts for Kids

Pine cones open and close depending on the humidity to help seed dispersal. Inside the pinecone, there are lots of feather-light seeds. When the weather is dry the pine cone opens up, and any wind will catch the seeds and allow them to be dispersed in the air far away from the original tree.

When the humidity rises and rain is likely, the pine cone closes up to prevent the seeds from escaping. Because the seeds are so light, they will become waterlogged and travel only a short distance from the original source, which would be shaded and have to fight the "parent" tree for resources.

Cerys is a SAHM to two toddlers and blogs at Rainy Day Mum, where you can find lots of fun activities to do with your children, including messy play, imaginative play, baking and crafts.

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I posted a collection of fine motor skill activities a couple of weeks ago, which we had a LOT of fun putting together. Following on from those, we created a collection of Roald Dahl themed fine motor skill activity ideas that are perfect for World Book Day or Roald Dahl Day.

Willy Wonka Inspired Sensory Tray

How to colour rice

Simply pour uncooked rice into a ziploc bag, add a little food colouring ( you should find a little goes a long way ), give it a good mix, and leave it to dry. We use these gel colours from Wilton.

I added some colourful pom poms, and we used squeezy tweezers from Learning Resources to pick them out.

Younger children can try to move pom poms to the same colour rice or count the pom poms as they remove them.

For older children, try adding some labelled wrapped sweets with numbers or letters on. Children can then create words with the sweets after using the tweezers to remove them from the rice.

Mrs Twit Sensory Gel Bag

This sensory bag is made using cheap blue hair gel inside a sealable sandwich bag. I added ten spiders and covered the edges with masking tape to stop the bag leaking.

My 5-year-old has spent a lot of time today practising her number bonds to 10 by moving the spiders around the bag and then putting different numbers on each side.

Mr Twit's Wormy Spaghetti

Mr Twit's wormy spaghetti is similar to the rice sensory tray, but this time, we used coloured spaghetti with bugs in it, which is how I imagine the meal Mrs Twit served him to be.

The idea is to use the tweezers to remove the bugs, but my daughter couldn't resist sticking her hand straight in. It takes quite a bit of effort to move the spiders so hopefully good finger exercise.

How to make coloured spaghetti

Cook the spaghetti and leave to cool.

Add a little food colouring and a few drops of vegetable oil, then mix well.

Willy Wonka Chocolate Shop

Inspired by my lovely friend Anna over at The Imagination Tree we made some brightly coloured play dough and used it to make chocolates.

I made a menu for my girls to copy, for example, 4 green chocolates with 1 straw and two pom poms. They had a great time making my 'chocolates' for me.

Play dough is great for improving fine motor skills as it involves a lot of pushing, pulling, stretching and rolling. Even I could feel my hands being exercised as we played.

Enormous Crocodile Tree Races

We used LEGO to race each other to build trees using only one hand whilst being timed. We found it much harder using our non-writing hand.

Enormous Crocodile Lacing Card

This is only half finished, but I can't wait to try it. I just need to make more holes and find a shoelace.

Can you think of any more fine motor skill activity ideas for us?

Which is your favourite Roald Dahl book? Ours is Revolting Rhymes!

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I've found my 5 year old to be incredibly curious at the moment, always asking questions and wanting to know how things work. Even something as simple as a rain gauge has been VERY exciting for her. With that in mind I've pulled together a list of great science experiments for kids of all ages! The age ranges mentioned in this post are just a guide, most science is fun for all ages if you tweak the activity a little bit.

I've also got a couple of science books available if you fancy taking a look.

Science Experiments for 4-6 Year Olds

Bubble Snakes

Bubble snakes are very easy to make. Try blowing harder and then more slowly, and look for rainbows in the bubbles.

Paint on Ice

Ice painting has always kept my children busy for ages. Another idea is to freeze a 3D shape and paint that. Cake moulds work really well for this.

Filter Paper Butterflies

Make filter paper butterflies. This fun, creative chromatography experiment is great for younger children. Ink spreading through filter paper opens the door to lots of questions, and the fact that the dry filter paper can be turned into a craft is an added bonus.

Superhero Cressheads

These superhero themed cress heads are super cute and perfect for learning about germination.

How many feet tall are you?

Find out how many of your own feet tall you are. Is there a pattern?

What's inside the body?

Children can learn abour what's inside their body by drawing around themselves or a friend on a roll of paper and then adding in a skeleton or even organs.

Pine cone weather station

A pine cone weather station is a fun way to learn about the weather. Thanks to Rainy Day Mum for this one.

Static electricity and jumping frogs

Learn about static electricity with jumping frogs. The frogs are cut out from tissue paper and jump up the balloon when it's charged with static electricity.

Optical illusion

Trick your eyes with a super easy optical illusion. Optical illusions are fantastic because they can be themed in lots of different ways. We've made a fish in a tank, Santa in a chimney, and a face on a pumpkin.

Bubble wands

Another activity that inspires a lot of questions from younger children is creating bubbles from differently shaped bubble wands.

Waterproofing activity

Learn about waterproof materials with this fun activity using soft toys or try my Save the Dinosaur waterproofing activity.

Make a magnet maze and learn about magnetism. Can you make a huge version?

Explore freezing and melting with slushy drinks, you could even try some colour mixing.

Make some coloured ice cubes for more fizzy fun or how about some coloured rocks?

Find out about arm span and its relation to height in this easy activity.

Make some shadow puppets or a shadow frame and then put on a show. What happens to the shadow when you move it away from the light source?

Make mixture with toys. This is great for starting to lean about properties of materials.

Try some colour mixing with jelly.

Sort Ariel's treasures into groups depending on their properties.

Start to learn about what conditions green plants need to grow with this cress caterpillar.

Have some messy fun with oobleck!

Make some simple patterns using DUPLO.

How about setting up a  chemistry lab in the kitchen? all you need is some coloured water, oil and pipettes.

Science Experiments for 7-11 Year olds

Try a bit of science magic? Can you make an egg bounce?

Learn about oil and water not mixing and density with this density jar. Experiment with different objects floating on the layers to make it more fun. What happens when you shake it?

How about making some simple 'shooters' like Red Ted Art, what happens to them when it's windy? Do they move further if you blow harder?

We LOVE these candy science experiments!

Learn how to clean dirty water using filters or design and build a toy filter.

If there's a Science Fair coming up, we've got lots of easy and impressive science fair projects to try too!

Find out what makes the best sandcastle? Is dry or wet sand better?

More great science experiments for kids

Adult help is definitely needed for this one, but a Water Powered Bottle Rocket is always a big hit in our house.

Make honeycomb, pancakes, meringue and more in this collection of tasty kitchen science experiments and activities.

If it's coming up to Valentine's Day we've got lots of easy Valentine science experiments and activities too.

We've got collections of science experiments and investigations whatever the time of year:

Make a snow volcano, frost on a can and lots more cool winter science experiments.

Make a multicoloured cress caterpillar, colourful flowers and lots more spring science experiments for kids.

Stay busy all summer long with our huge collection of summer science experiments.

If autumn is more your season, we've got lots of fall related science activities too!

Contains Affiliate Links

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Did you know materials have different properties that make them suitable for different jobs? For example, windows usually need to be transparent and an umbrella and wellies should be waterproof.

The idea of this Little Mermaid activity is to sort a collection of items Ariel might have in her collection, depending on their properties.

Ariel  keeps her treasured human objects in a secret grotto. In this activity you can sort Ariel's objects into groups for her.

Sort Ariel's Treasures

Sort Ariel's treasures as well as you can, by looking at their properties.

Properties of Plastics

Strong

Waterproof

If heat is applied they can be moulded into shapes.

Not magnetic

Good insulators

Properties of Metals

Strong

Hard

Shiny

Good conductors

Iron and steel ( which is mostly iron ) are magnetic

Some metals are magnetic. Iron is the most magnetic metal. Steel is also magnetic because it is made of mostly iron.

Properties of Wood

Strong

Insulator

Properties of Glass

Transparent

Breaks easily - although thick glass can be strong

Properties of Fabric

Fabrics can be natural ( wool, cotton and silk) or synthetic ( polyester and nylon )

Fabrics can have different properties, including stretchy, insulating or absorbent.

A stretchy fabric would be good for sports clothing and insulating fabrics good for winter jackets.

 More activity ideas for learning about properties of materials

Design and build an umbrella for Incy Wincy Spider, remember to make it waterproof!

Make a bed for the Princess and the Pea.

Find the best material for a superhero cape.

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Summer is a great time to learn about shadows and as my children are a little obsessed with contact paper at the moment we thought a shadow frame might be a fun idea.

I've also got a collection of 10 easy shadow experiments you might like!

What you'll need

Cardboard

Contact paper / sticky back plastic

Decorative paper

A sunny day

Instructions

Cut the cardboard into a frame shape and stick contact paper on to one side.

Use your decorations to create a shape in the middle.

Take your frame outside and work out how to made a shadow.

How do shadows form?

Did you know a shadow is formed when an object blocks light. To block light an object must be opaque or translucent.

A transparent object will not make a shadow, as light passes straight through it.

Transparent materials let light pass through them in straight lines, so that you can see clearly through them.

Translucent materials let some light through, but scatter the light in different directions. We can not see clearly through translucent materials.

Opaque materials do not let any light pass through them.

Shadow Facts

The Sun makes the longest shadows at the beginning and end of the day, when it is is lowest in the sky.

The Sun makes the shortest shadows at midday, when it is highest in the sky.

Extension Tasks

Can you write down 3 examples of transparent objects, opaque objects and translucent objects?

Can you investigate how to make the shadow bigger and smaller?

Can you make a nature version using leaves and sticks or a weather picture?

More shadow science experiments for kids

Make a Gruffalo's child shadow puppet.

Make a sundial using just a straw and plasticine!

Rhythms of Play also has a great human sundial activity!

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Many years ago we went through a stage of painting on sheets of ice and then pressing paper on the top. Once the paper dried we used it as a fun background to draw on.

This activity is a little different as we're painting on ice shapes rather than a flat sheet. Ice is actually a very nice medium to paint on as it becomes slippy as it melts, allowing your paintbrush glides across the surface.

First we tried ice letters, I first came across these on The Imagination Tree and have used the letter shaped moulds 100s of times over the years.

The small ice cube towers you can see are a small set of 3 that I froze as normal ice cubes, let melt a little bit, stacked up and put back in the freezer so they stuck together. I think we'll try this again and see how tall a tower we can build.

The next day we painted mini ice castles and stars.

Then we went large, and painted on a giant LEGO brick. I used the lid from a lego storage block for this.

Questions to ask about ice

How does the ice feel? Is it slippy, sticky, slimy?

Does it get harder or easier to paint as the ice starts to melt? Why do you think this is?

Do you know why salt makes ice melt faster?

What happens to the paint as it mixes with the water?

Why does ice feel sticky when you first remove it from the container?

Ice feels sticky, because when you touch it, the ice immediately freezes the moisture in your skin, which makes the cube feel sticky. Always let ice melt a little before allowing children to play.

More Science for Kids

Make slime, a baking soda volcano, drinks dispenser and more exciting science fair projects!

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Making oobleck, also known as cornflour gloop or slime, was one of the first science activities I wrote about on Science Sparks. It's a brilliant indoor or outdoor science activity that only needs two ingredients, so it is super easy as well! I've given this very old post about how to make oobleck a bit of an update and refresh, so I hope you like it!

What is oobleck?

Gloop or oobleck is just cornflour and water. It's very easy to make and creates a lovely gooey slime that feels solid when you scrunch it up and like a liquid if you let it flow through your fingers.

Oobleck Recipe

• Cornflour
• Water
• Food colouring - optional
• Ice cube trays - optional
• Mixing bowl
• Colander, funnel and beakers - optional, but great for messy fun!

Instructions for making cornflour gloop

• Fill a cup with cornflour and pour it into a bowl
• Add water slowly, mixing with your hands, until you get a sticky, slimy gloop.
• If you want to make it coloured, add some food colouring ( be careful this can stain skin and clothes).
• Play with the slime and see how it behaves. Can you make it into a ball? What happens if you throw it onto the floor?

The Science of Oobleck

Did you notice that if you make a ball with oobleck or gloop, it feels solid, but if you drop the oobleck on the floor, it turns liquid again? The cornflour and water mixture is a Non-Newtonian fluid as it doesn't flow like liquids normally do.

Cornflour gloop ( oobleck )  is made up of molecules arranged in long chains. When the chains are stretched, the liquid will flow, but when you force them together, they stick together to form a solid.

Cornflour Slime Play Ideas

Try squeezing the cornflour gloop into a ball. It should feel solid. Open your hand and watch as the cornflour slime runs through your fingers.

Can you freeze the gloop? Our frozen Kool Aid oobleck smelled wonderful.

Try pouring the slime through a colander. What happens? Can you use the slime to trap a small figure or pretend spider?

Housing a Forest makes oobleck dance!

Try adding more and less water to find out if it changes how the oobleck flows.

Oobleck Challenge

Fill a tray of oobleck and try to walk on it!

I also have a printable instruction sheet available for this. Go to the experiment instructions page to find it.

If you liked this activity, you might like our other messy play ideas, too!

Once you're finished with the oobleck, leave it somewhere warm to dry out. Then, you can either save it to use again or throw it away.

This activity is also part of my playful science series, which is full of play-based science activities for kids.

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Discover how force affects the motion of a projectile and how changing the launch angle affects the distance travelled with this easy catapult investigation based on the Cow Jumped Over the Moon nursery rhyme.

You can see how to build a simple lolly stick catapult in this video.

I've designed this activity to appeal to young children, but it can easily be extended for an older audience.

Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle,

The cow jumped over the moon.

The little dog laughed to see such fun

And the dish ran away with the spoon!

Lollystick catapults are inexpensive, easy to make and appeal to children of all ages. I've given this one a Preschool/Early Years theme by simply drawing a cow on a ping pong ball, but you could also use a ball as the Moon and investigate the conditions needed to catapult the cow over the Moon or even draw planets and lay them on the floor as different targets.

Older children could design and make a target either stuck to a wall, a free-standing structure or as a real challenge, how about a target that flips backwards when hit?

Links to Literacy 

Write a new version of the traditional nursery rhyme, including the words catapult and force.

Write instructions for a game, including a catapult and a target.

Links to Maths

Create a target ( this could be Moon shaped ) with different numbers in different areas. The children can then keep track of either other's score over three attempts to hit the target.

Questions to ask about the cow jumped over the moon catapult

How do you think force affects the speed a catapulted ping pong ball travels?

How do you think force affects the distance a catapulted ping pong ball travels?

The greater the force, the greater the speed and distance.

How can we test this using a catapult?

The further down you push the milk bottle top, the greater the force applied to the ping pong ball and the faster it will travel.

How to work scientifically

Design a question to answer

Does the ping pong ball travel further if more force is applied?

Does the ping pong ball travel higher if launched from a greater angle?

What will happen if the centre part of the catapult is made taller using more lolly sticks?

Make a prediction - for example

If more lolly sticks are added to the catapult, the ping pong ball can be launched from a greater angle, meaning it will reach a greater height.

Design a fair test

Think about how to make the investigation fair.

• Use the same catapult
• The same person should apply the force
• Measure from the same release point.
• Repeat at least three times and find the average distance/height.

Design a method of recording data

How about a table or voice recording?

Do the observations answer the original question? Was the prediction correct? If not, why not?

How could the investigation be improved?

Extension tasks

Think about the angle the ping pong ball is launched from. To travel the furthest distance possible, a projectile should be launched from a 45-degree angle. More than this, and the projectile will go higher but cover less distance.

Can you draw this?

Projectile – an object that is launched into the air by a force.

Catapult – a mechanism that launches a projectile.

Thank you to the fantastic Imagination Tree for the inspiration for this activity.

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This is a super simple craft activity using the colours of the rainbow to demonstrate to preschoolers how rainbows form and to teach them about the colours of the rainbow.

I cut out a cloud shape, a sun, and a square for rain, and then asked my daughter to thread some fluffy wool around the cloud. She then coloured some small pegs, one for each colour of the rainbow, and attached them to the cloud in the right order.

I wanted to demonstrate that sunlight and rain are needed for a rainbow to form, so we attached those behind the cloud.

I then asked her to draw her rainbow, and we attached the clips again because they were fun and good for hand strength.

How to find rainbows in bubbles

Another easy rainbow activity for young children is looking for rainbows in bubbles. This can be extended by trying to make different shaped bubbles using shaped bubble wands, and observing how the bubbles are always a sphere even if the wand is square.

Fun Facts about Rainbows

Visible Light from the sun is known as white light. It contains a range of colours all with different wavelengths. The colours of the rainbow are:

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and violet

When white light shines through the bubble's film, it is dispersed, splitting into different wavelengths so we can see all the colours!

More rainbow activities

Find out how to make a rainbow when there's no rain.

Make a rainbow with a hosepipe on a sunny day, find rainbows in bubbles or use a prism.

Learn about weather with our easy weather science ideas.

Do you have a colour of the rainbow craft to share?

The post Easy colours of the rainbow craft appeared first on Science Experiments for Kids.

I try to make any learning we do at home fun and for me science is the most obvious way to do this. I'd love to know what you think of this collection of ideas for supporting literacy with science. I'm going to keep adding ideas so do pop back to see more.

Supporting literacy with science activities

Filter paper alternative words

This activity is designed to show children alternative ideas for a word.

Materials

Filter paper

Dropper

Water

Sharpie

Felt tip pen

Method

Write the most simple version of the word in felt tip pen and alternative words that would be better to use in permanent pen.

Children can drop water onto the filter paper and watch as the simple words washes away leaving the others behind!

Extension ideas

Experiment with different types of writing instruments to see which are affected by the water. Ask children to predict what they think might happen if they use crayons, biro, whiteboard pens etc.

More literacy and science ideas

Use chromatography to add a fun twist when preparing for the Year 1 phonics test.

Filter paper phonics activity

Try these Roald Dahl science and fine motor skills activity ideas.

Save Humpty Dumpty from breaking when he falls.

Can you build a bridge for The Gingerbread Man?

Or how about these Roald Dahl science activities.

Make a Stick Man and preserve leaves at the same time, make a raft to save him or other Stick Man science ideas.

Can you stop Incy Wincy dropping down the pipe or make test different materials for Incy Wincy's umbrella?

Grow a bean for Jack or a make a pulley for Rapunzel with this collection of Fairy Tale activities.

Love The Lorax? We have lots of great science ideas around The Lorax. Learn about sound by making your own Whispa-ma-phone? Or use it as inspiration for a science activity about pollution.

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Stick Man by Julia Donaldson is one of my favourite children's books. I think partly because it reminds me of Autumn and Christmas, which are my favourite times of the year.

Stick Man has inspired a lot of fun activities in our house recently. We hope you like them, and do let us know if you have any we haven't thought of.

How to make a Stick Man

Making a Stick Man is a great opportunity to test different materials to see which makes the best model.

This example is made using glu-dots to hold the sticks together, they were surprisingly strong and allowed a lot of movement of limbs.

We also tested elastic bands, string and normal glue. Glu-dots seemed to work the best.

Can you give your Stick Man some leaf hair or some clothes?

Or, maybe you'll be lucky enough to find the perfect Stickman stick like ours!

Red Ted Art also has some brilliant and beautifully decorated stick people.

We love this gorgeous Stick Man craft from Lalymom too!

More Stick Man Crafts

These Stick Man sun catchers from Rainy Day Mum are super cute.

Or, try some of these fun stick crafts. We especially like the peg leaf people.

Tree themed activity ideas

Do you know how to find out how old a tree is? Or how tall a tree is?

Make a map of the forest

Can you make a map for Stick Man showing all his adventures like this one we made for Little Red Riding Hood.

How about a game of pooh sticks? We sometimes decorate our sticks with leaves so we can tell the difference between them

Raft making is another fantastic stick activity. Once you've made the raft, find somewhere to test it and investigate to discover how much weight it can hold without breaking!

What stick crafts have you tried recently?

More Julia Donaldson Activities for Kids

I have lots more Julia Donaldson activities for you to try!

Make Gruffalo's Child Shadow Puppets, a worm hotel for Superworm or how about a zip line for Zog?

The post Stick Man Activity Ideas appeared first on Science Experiments for Kids.

All you need for this fun, messy activity is an empty box, some marbles or other small balls and paint.

Things to investigate

Can you blow the balls into goals? Is it easier to blow a heavy ball or a lighter ball?

What happens if you tip the box up? Does the ball move faster the more you tip the box?

Does using more paint make the balls move faster or more slowly?

Method

We made some goals with some spare cardboard and sellotaped them to each end of our box.

We then dropped to marbles into paint and each player used a straw to try and blow the ball into their opponents goal.

We tested marbles, ping pong balls and soft craft balls to see which were the easiest to move.

After the straw blowing test we then tried moving the box around to try to move the marbles in the direction we wanted.

The more paint we added the harder it became to move the marbles. Can you think why this is?

Other ideas

Could you use the marbles to try some colour mixing?

Can you think of anything else we could test?

Suitable for Key Stage 1

Everyday Materials

Describe the simple physical properties of a variety of everyday materials

Working Scientifically

Observing closely, using simple equipment

Performing simple tests

Using their observations and ideas to suggest answers to questions

EYFS – Early Learning Goal

The child knows about similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things. 

The post Easy Marble Painting appeared first on Science Experiments for Kids.

I've been trying to get my fizzy paint recipe perfect for a few weeks now and think I've finally found the ideal combination of viscosity and fizz. You could use this activity to learn about chemical reactions ( baking soda and vinegar ), practice writing letters or numbers or just be to be creative.

What you need:

Food colouring

Squeezy bottles

Cornflour

Plain flour

Water

Baking Soda

Vinegar

Method

For each colour 

Add a small amount of water to two tablespoons of cornflour, until it reaches a thick but liquid consistency. Add a small amount of food colouring and mix well.

Add two tablespoons of plain flour and two tablespoons baking soda to your mixture, add water until it resembles very thick paint.

Pour into a squeezy bottle and shake well. I usually do a little test here to make sure there is enough baking powder. Squeeze out a small amount and add some vinegar, if it fizzes you're good to go.

Repeat for each colour you wish to use.

Go and paint! We'd recommend outside, it's a bit messy and don't forget to wear old clothes.

Once you've finished painting pour a small amount of vinegar onto your creation and watch the fizz.

 Related posts

10 great Baking Soda Experiments

Follow me on Pinterest for even more fun Science for Kids

Follow Emma Vanstone's board Science for kids on Pinterest.

The post Fizzy Paint appeared first on Science Experiments for Kids.

A colour wheel is a great visual way to learn about primary and secondary colours and fun science crafts.

Mixing Colours

RED + YELLOW = ORANGE

YELLOW + BLUE = GREEN

BLUE + RED = PURPLE

How to make a DIY colour wheel

What you need

Two pieces of cardboard

One split pin

Coloured pens

Or, use my handy colour mixing template.

Instructions

Cut out two circles of white cardboard, one slightly bigger than the other.

Carefully cut a window into the smaller circle.

Place the smaller wheel on top of the larger one and push a split pin through the centre.

Using the correct colour pens, draw the colours like the image below.

Spin the wheel to find out which primary colours make secondary colours.

Colour mixing extension tasks

Try mixing paint to check your wheel is correct.

Can you add a third layer to show further colour mixes?

More colour theory activity ideas

We had lots of fun with our colour mixing water wall.

Try some colour mixing with Jelly.

Experiment to discover how many different colours you can make with coloured water. Start with the three prime colours and work from there.

Link to a book

This activity fits perfectly with the colourful books created by Erin Stoll Walsh.

Ellen Stoll Walsh - Mouse Paint, Mouse Count, Mouse Shapes

Mouse Paint is a sweet and playful story about three mice. It is perfect for introducing colour theory to young readers. The three white mice discover three paint pots on the white paper where they live. They dive into the paint to colour themselves, then splash in paint puddles and discover that primary colours, when combined, make different colours. The mice then wash themselves clean (in the cat's water bowl) and paint the paper with all the colours they've made, apart from a section of white where they can hide from the cat.

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We did our LEGO® printing outside to contain the mess. You can print with LEGO people, normal bricks or DUPLO bricks and make patterns or pictures as simple or complicated as you like.

We started with quite simple patterns, but have big plans for a big picture, coming soon.

More LEGO® Activity Ideas for Kids

Try one of my 15 easy LEGO® Science activities.

If you have younger kids, give one of my DUPLO® learning activities a go.

Learn about forces with a LEGO® catapult.

Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls has some brilliant LEGO® spinning tops.

Find out about air resistance with a parachute made using LEGO®.

We've had hours of fun making LEGO® mazes.

Use LEGO® to learn about symmetry.

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Objects float when they are less dense than the fluid they are in. If you dropped a tennis ball and a marble into a bucket of water, the marble would sink, and the tennis ball would float. This is because a tennis ball is full of air ( it is not very dense ), and a marble is solid ( it is very dense ). Huge ships float because although they are extremely heavy, they have a lot of empty space inside. Lemons float as they have lots of air pockets in their thick skin. The inside of a lemon actually sinks!

What do you think of our fruity lemon boats?

What you need to make a fruity boat

• Lemons, limes, melon or anything else with thick skin.

• Small sticks - we used cake pop sticks

• Paper to make sails

• Double-sided tape - for the sails.

How to make a fruity boat

• First, hollow out the fruit; I managed to cut the lemon and lime so we could eat the fruit and still use them for the activity.

• Decide how to cut the fruit to make the best shaped boat.

• If the skin is thick enough, push the stick into the flesh. If not, use a bit of play-doh to keep it secure.

• Add your sail and see if the boat floats.

( ask an adult to help with the cutting )

We found our thin melon rind didn't float at all, but the larger rind did float. Both lemon and lime boats floated easily.

Fruity Boat - Extension Activity

Try adding more objects to the boats. Do they still float or now sink?

Can you predict which boats will sink and which float before putting them on the water? Make a table to show your results.

What happens if you blow the boats? Can you have a race with a friend?

How can you make the boat change direction?

Can you make a boat from apple slices?

Suitable for Key Stage 1

Everyday Materials

Describe the simple physical properties of a variety of everyday materials

Working Scientifically

Observing closely, using simple equipment

Performing simple tests

Using their observations and ideas to suggest answers to questions

Suitable for Early Learning Goal 16

Exploring and using media and materials

Safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function.

Don't forget to try my other science ideas for Key Stage 1 too!

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The oobleck smelled delicious, thanks to the kool-aid, and we loved watching it melt into a cold gloopy mess.

Investigation Ideas

Can you time how long it takes the oobleck to freeze? Does water freeze faster?

Can you get your friends to smell the different coloured oobleck to guess the kool-aid flavour used?

How about placing the frozen oobleck in different places to see which melts first? Don't forget to use the same shapes so you have the same amount of frozen oobleck for each condition. If you want to be very accurate you could weigh each shape to make sure they're the same to make it a fair test.

Once melted, can you scrunch the oobleck into a solid ball? If you drop the ball what happens?

The Science of cornflour gloop

Did you notice that if you make a ball with the slime it is solid, but if you drop it on the floor it turns liquid again? The slime is a non – Newtonian fluid as it doesn’t flow like liquids normally do.

The slime is made up of molecules arranged in long chains. When the chains are stretched the liquid will flow, but when you force them together they stick together to form a solid.

More oobleck experiments

This pumpkin oobleck from Inspiration laboratories looks amazing.

Did you know you can walk on oobleck?

More summer science experiments for kids

Try one of our 50 summer science activities and experiments for kids.

I've also got an exciting collection of 20 fun outdoor science experiments perfect for summer days.

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I didn't measure the ingredients at all.

To make plastic milk, you will need

• Semi-skimmed milk
• White vinegar
• Food colouring
• A sieve
• Cookie cutter

Plastic milk instructions

• Pour about a cupful of milk into a pan, add some food colouring if you want it coloured, and heat until bubbles start to form. Be careful and ask an adult to help.
• Add a tablespoon of white vinegar and watch the solid and the liquid parts of the milk separate.
• Filter carefully using the sieve.
• Leave to cool and then mould as you wish

Why does milk separate into curds and whey?

Milk contains proteins and fats suspended in water. If the milk is fresh, the proteins move around freely. When the pH drops, the protein molecules stick to each other, creating lumps ( curds ). The liquid left behind is known as whey.

Curdling ( when milk separates ) is a sign that the milk has started to go off. The curds are made from casein. Casein protein chains in milk are usually curled up and dissolved, but the vinegar makes them take a different shape and form lumps that can be moulded into shapes.

This activity can also be found in my book GROSS SCIENCE!!

More science experiments using milk

Learn about emulsions with a colourful magic milk display!

Find out how to make glue from milk.

The post How to make plastic milk appeared first on Science Experiments for Kids.

This mini science activity is great for learning about properties of materials, particularly how waterproof they are. It can be messy but works well as an outdoor or bathtime activity.

The idea is to cover small soft toys in different materials to find out which have waterproof properties.

Equipment

• A container
• Water
• Small soft toys
• Materials to test, eg. foil, paper, food bag, fabric
• Sellotape

Method

Half-fill the container with water.

• Wrap a dry, soft toy in one of the test materials. Check for gaps where water can seep in.
• Carefully place the wrapped toy in the water for a few seconds.
• Remove the toy, and check to see if it is dry.

Variables

Things to keep constant.

Amount of time the test material is in the water.

Time the test material is in the water.

Amount of test material used.

Results

Assess whether the toy is wet by feeling it or weighing it before and after submerging it.

What is a material?

The word 'material' just means what an object is made from. Examples of materials are plastic, fabric, metal, wood, etc.

Different materials have different properties, which make them useful for different functions. For example, glass is used in windows because it is transparent; you can see through it.

Water cannot penetrate waterproof materials. We would expect the foil and plastic bag to be waterproof, as this is what makes them useful for wrapping food, keeping it dry and protecting it from smells. Raincoats often have a plastic coating because plastic is waterproof.

We would not expect the tea towel to be waterproof as tea towels are absorbent, which makes them great for drying dishes.

What are natural waterproof materials?

Rubber and wax are examples of natural waterproof coatings that are used to make materials waterproof. Leaves often have a waxy coating to protect the leaf and help it retain water.

Can you think of any more?

This activity is great for Key Stage 1 - Properties of Materials.

Similar activities

Can you waterproof a chicken? This activity uses a paper chicken covered in different test materials to find out which is the most waterproof.

The post How waterproof is it? appeared first on Science Experiments for Kids.

Most children love to play with bubbles. They're just fascinating, whatever age you are. We love to spot the shimmering colours of the rainbow and marvel at the sphere shape.

Giant bubbles are extra special. Both kids and adults will be amazed at how big they can be!

The best thing about making giant bubbles is you don't need any special equipment, just an extra strong bubble mix and some rope or a hula hoop!

The best giant bubble mixture

I tried the bubbles using an ordinary bubble mixture, which didn't work, so I turned to Red Ted Art for help. We followed Red Ted Art's bubble recipe, and it worked perfectly.

We made our bubble wands using string and straws. This photo shows our mini version. The idea is to hold the straws, not the string!

The big version made these giant bubbles!

We even used a tube to make a bubble pipe. I didn't think this would work, but it was fantastic. We used the inside of a roll of wrapping paper, so it was quite a long tube and made a satisfying noise as the bubble popped out. A plastic tube would work better as the cardboard got a bit damp.

How to make giant bubbles

Try using a hula hoop as a giant bubble wand. We used a tuff spot to stand in. You can see how our bubble is bending because of the wind, so it's best to try this on a still day. As a safety precaution, I'd also recommend wearing safety goggles in case the bubble pops in little eyes.

Questions to ask for a bubble investigation

Can you see the rainbow effect on the bubbles?

This is because light from the sun contains a range of colours, all with different wavelengths that form white light together.

These colours are:

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet

When the white light shines through the film of the bubble, it is reflected and dispersed, splitting white light into different wavelengths revealing all seven colours.

Is it easier to blow big bubbles or small bubbles?

Do you think the film of soapy bubble water is more likely to break the bigger it is and the more it stretches?

Why are bubbles always round?

Bubbles consist of a thin film of soapy water filled with air. When you blow a bubble, the film expands outward. The forces acting between the molecules of the bubble cause it to form the shape that encloses the most volume with the least surface area — a sphere. That is why whatever shape you use for a bubble wand doesn't change the end shape of the bubble.

More bubble experiments for kids

Create your very own bubble mixture. Experiment with different amounts of water, washing up liquid ( dish soap ) and glycerine until you get the perfect recipe, then try adding a little cornflour to make it even stronger!

Try to make a square bubble. You'll need to make a little frame for this, but the result is impressive.

Another fun bubble experiment is making a lava lamp

We also love our extra special bubble snake!

Contains affiliate links

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In the UK, we have chocolate covered sweets called Revels. Inside each bag are different-flavoured chocolates: Maltesers, plain chocolate, coffee, orange, toffee, and chocolate-covered raisins. They are delicious and great for a yummy sorting activity.

I set the children the task of sorting the Revels into different flavours without eating them.

We talked about how we could tell the difference between the flavours. The first method was how they looked, so we sorted by size.

We could easily find the plain chocolates and raisin-covered chocolates because of their distinctive shapes.

The Maltesers were also relatively easy to spot as they were a little larger than the other round varieties.

The final three were more tricky. Z wanted to weigh them. They all weighed between 1 and 3 grams, so we sorted accordingly.

Not satisfied with this method, we accidentally found that they made different noises when dropped on the table. We decided that the heavier sounding drop was probably the toffee.

Once we had our six piles, it was time to test.

The coffee, orange and toffee were not very well sorted, but we'd had a really good attempt and thought of some great sorting ideas along the way.

Would you have done anything different?

Can you think of any other candy we could sort?

If you enjoyed this activity, don't forget to try my other candy science experiments for kids.

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Fingerprints are a unique form of identification as the arrangement of ridges and patterns differs for everyone!

You only need an ink pad and paper for this easy fingerprint activity.

What you need

• A washable ink pad
• White paper or card

Instructions

• Press your finger down carefully onto the ink pad. Make sure the finger is covered in ink.
• Press down hard on the sheet of white paper or card.
• Write down which finger the print is for.

Fingerprint Investigation ideas

• Compare fingerprints with family and friends.
• Expand your fingerprints using a balloon to see them on a large scale.

Look for lines, creases and circles. Do any family members have similar fingerprints?

Make a chart of eye and hair colour for people in your family or a group of friends. Are they the same or different?

Some characteristics run in families, but fingerprints are definitely unique!

What are fingerprints?

Fingerprints are tiny ridges and patterns on the tip of the finger and thumbs.

Fingerprints are a form of biometrics, a science that uses physical characteristics to identify people.

What shapes can you see in your fingerprints?

More fingerprint activity ideas

Find out if identical twins have identical fingerprints

Expand your fingerprints on a balloon.

The post Investigating Fingerprints appeared first on Science Experiments for Kids.

Welcome to more Spectacular Summer Science. Today we've got a super fun baking soda experiment to share.

The girls wanted to have a tea party, so we used a bit of Science Sparks magic to make it more exciting.

What you need:

• Baking soda ( bicarbonate of soda )
• Baking powder
• Vinegar
• Washing up liquid
• Water
• Tea cups
• Food colouring
• Vinegar

Instructions

• I first added a some water to a bowl of baking soda and mixed it up with a bit of food colouring. This is what you can see in the little tea cups.
• I then did the same with some baking powder to see what would happen. The baking powder is the lovely purple dough in the cake cases.
• The sundae glasses contain, water, baking soda and washing up liquid.
• We put some vinegar in a teapot and then I let the kids go wild.
• If it doesn't work straight away give it a bit of stir.

Do be careful with the vinegar. It will hurt if it gets in your eyes, and DO NOT drink!

Did you find the baking powder worked as well as the baking soda?

Why does it work?

Vinegar (an acid ) and bicarbonate of soda ( an alkali ) react together to neutralise each other. This reaction releases carbon dioxide, a gas which is the bubbles you see. The addition of the dish soap/washing-up liquid gives a thicker foam.

Did you catch our splatter patterns yesterday?

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Welcome to Day 4 of our Spectacular Summer Science series.

Today, we've been on a minibeast hunt. The girls are fascinated by all bugs and insects and are not the least bit squeamish.

We downloaded some fun observation forms from Twinkl to make it more exciting and to encourage writing. S was thrilled to be given her own clipboard and set about her task in a very business-like manner.

These are some of the bugs we found. What can you find in your garden?

The eyes on this fly are amazing!

We found a few beetles and took the opportunity to draw some diagrams. Beetles have three main parts: the head, thorax, and abdomen.

We also printed off some spider lifecycle diagrams from Twinkl.

We'd love to hear all about the bugs in your garden.

New for 2025 is a FREE Minibeast Spotting Sheet.

This post is part of my special summer science series.

Day 1 -  Baking Soda Ice Cubes

Add baking soda to coloured ice cubes, add vinegar and watch the fizz.

Day 2 - Slipping and Sliding

Learn about friction and other forces with a simple slip-and-slide activity.

Day 3 - Fun Heart Rate Investigation

Discover the effect of exercise on heart rate with a simple investigation.

Don't forget to take a look at my other summer science experiments, too!

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Today is the first day of the summer holidays for us, and I have a big plan to post a science activity every day for the whole six weeks. We're kicking off with a favourite reaction, baking soda and vinegar. The reaction between baking soda and vinegar is a great first chemical reaction for children to learn about, and these baking soda ice cubes are brilliant fun.

Ingredients

• Ice cube tray
• Food colouring ( optional )
• Bicarbonate of Soda ( Baking Soda )
• Water
• Vinegar

How to make Baking Soda Ice Cubes

• Mix some baking soda with water and food colouring. I didn't measure how much baking soda, but you need about two teaspoons per large ice cube.
• Freeze for a few hours or overnight.

Warning - this bit might get messy, so go outside or use a big tray. Be careful not to get vinegar into little eyes as well.

• Let the cubes defrost a little, and then add some vinegar
• Watch the fizzing.

Baking Soda and Vinegar Reactions

Vinegar (an acid ) and bicarbonate of soda ( an alkali ) react together to neutralise each other. This reaction releases carbon dioxide, a gas which is the bubbles you see.

As the Baking Soda is frozen in the ice, it takes a while for the reaction to start in this activity, but it's worth the wait.

Don't forget to pop back tomorrow to see another fun science activity for kids.

Inspiration Laboratories froze the vinegar instead of the baking soda and also had great results. I really want to freeze both now.

More Baking Soda Experiments

If you enjoyed this activity, you'll love our other baking soda experiments for kids too.

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Traditionally, paper flowers are used which open up in water, but we changed it a bit to reveal LEGO® Men.

Hidden LEGO® Men Science Activity

You'll need

• Different types of paper cut into squares. We used thin paper, thicker notebook paper and cardboard.
• LEGO® men or other small toys.

• Water
• Tray

Instructions

Fold each corner of the paper into a triangle to look like the one below.

Before we started, we looked at each type of paper and talked about which we thought would absorb water the most easily. My 6 year old thought the thinner paper would absorb more water faster than the cardboard.

Why does this happen?

Paper is made of many fibres. As the fibres absorb water, they swell, causing the paper to expand and open up.

Different types of paper absorb water at different speeds. Thinner paper absorbs water more quickly, as it has thinner fibres.

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Trisha and I were really pleased to see so many people linked up to our Kitchen Science Challenge last month. Thank you to everyone who joined in.

This month we have something that we hope will be even more fun. We would like you to make some kind of vehicle. It can be anything, but we'd like it to be able to move either with a simple push or by a more complex mechanism.

For example, how about this tug boat, propelled by an elastic band?

Or, could you make something more impressive than our cotton reel car?

The Vehicle STEM Challenge

Make a vehicle which will move, either if pushed or by another mechanism.

Link up here or at Inspiration Laboratories and let us know how far your vehicle can travel on its own.

Challenge and Discover is in association with  Inspiration Laboratories

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Did you know arm span ( also known as wingspan or reach ) is approximately equal to height?

How to calculate arm span

We tested this against a wall using chalk to mark our reach and then standing next to the wall to see if it matched our height. You should measure from fingertip to fingertip and not have a flat hand, as in this photo.

We found my 6-year-old's arm span did equal his height, and my 4-year-old was a little taller than hers.

What is the ape index?

Ape index is the ratio of arm span relative to their height. So my little boy had an ape index of 1.

An arm span greater than height is thought to be advantageous in some sports, such as swimming, as longer arms may give greater propulsion. A shorter arm span is useful for weight lifters as they don't have to lift the weight as high.

How to calculate ape index

Ape Index - Method 1

Wingspan / Height

If ape index is greater than 1, wingspan is greater than height. If ape index is less than one height is greater than wingspan.

Ape Index - Method 2

Wingspan - Height

Ape index calculated this way is either a positive or negative number.

Can you work out your ape index or arm span?

Grab the instructions below. I have a basic investigation instruction sheet and also a slightly different format using a question.

More human body science ideas

Can you work out how many feet tall you are?

Make a model of a heart or a brain model.

Or, for little ones, try some of these great preschool science ideas.

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The weather has finally warmed up, and our garden is blooming.

As part of our challenge with Actimel, we are trying to grow a whole meal in the garden, learning along the way.

Z has been learning about plants at school, so he was very keen to tell his sisters and me about the purpose of the roots, which we could see beautifully when we removed the beans from the pot.

We rehoused the peas and beans in our planters from last year. Fingers crossed, the slugs don't get them. If you have any slug deterrent tips, do let me know.

S wanted to keep the smaller ones in our lovely new planter, so we put the greenhouse on top to protect them from bugs and keep them a bit warmer.

We found lots of worms along the way. We were careful not to hurt them and left them in the soil, now we know how good worms are for mixing soil up.

We also planted our carrot seeds and have some corn and lettuce coming along nicely too.

The post How does your garden grow? appeared first on Science Experiments for Kids.

Z has been learning about units of weight and measurements in school and has been keen to put what he has learned into practice at home with the girls with this fun weighing and measuring activity.

I gave them the kitchen scales and various things to weigh, and Z designed his own table to record the weights.

Things to do:

• Ask the children to find things of a certain weight. For example, we spent a long time looking for something which weighed 1 kg.

• Ask children to estimate how many grams something is before weighing it and find out how close they are.
• Record your predictions and actual measurements in a table.
• Try to find things that weigh about the same.
• Ask children to measure each other to see how tall they are.
• Make a metre ruler.
• Ask children to DUPLO bricks or another stackable item to find out how tall they are.

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My 5-year-old had a school project due in this week about swordfish. Together we found lots of fun swordfish facts.

Fun Swordfish Facts

• Swordfish are cold-blooded - exothermic, but have a special organ near their eyes, which keeps their eyes and brains warm so they can see and think better.
• They can swim up to 60 mph in short bursts.
• They commonly reach 3 m, but some have been found to be up to 4.5 m.
• They can weigh up to 650kg.
• They don't use the sword-like bill to spear but slash instead at prey.

• They don't have teeth!!!

I wasn't sure Z understood how long 3 metres was, so we made a 3 metre long tower of DUPLO bricks on the floor. It was LONG!

We counted this to be 158 DUPLO bricks. We also counted in hands and feet.

For the weight we calculated this to be the same as 650 bags of sugar, or about  22 five year olds!

Comparing the length and weight to things he could visualise seemed to really help him and me understand just how big swordfish can be.

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This simple, fun activity for learning about the body can be adapted for kids of all ages. Young children can draw features like eyes, nose, mouth, nails, etc. Older children can draw body parts, organ systems or even bones and muscles!

What's inside your body? STEM Challenge

You'll need:

A roll of paper - something like this from Melissa and Doug

Felt tip pens

A person to draw around!

All you do is draw around a willing volunteer and decide what body parts you want to learn about!

Ideas for preschoolers

Draw around several children and talk about who is the tallest and who has the longest legs and arms, etc!

Children can measure body parts, too!

We didn't worry too much about everything being perfectly drawn or placed, but it was a great start to learning about the locations of different organs.

My little girl chatted away as we did this about her 'wires' ( veins ) and the bugs in her tummy, which she hoped were awake eating her food. We spent a lovely half an hour just making observations, and it was great for me to get an understanding of how she sees herself.

Ideas for older children:

Draw and label bones

Draw and label muscles

Draw and label different organ systems

Draw and label parts of the body that help to fight germs.

More Human Body Science for Kids

Work out how many of your own feet tall you are.

Make a pumping heart model.

Discover why cleaning teeth is so important with eggs!

Test your reaction time with a ruler! This is a great investigation as you can investigate to discover if reaction time can be improved.

Make a model of how food moves through the digestive system.

Great for KS1 Science - exploring the body

You could easily adapt this activity for older children by asking them to draw and label major organs themselves. Maybe even plot the route of food through the body.

It also works well as a preschool science activity and for Early Years Foundation Stage.

Physical Development → Health and self-care → ELG

• Children know the importance for good health of physical exercise, and a healthy diet, and talk about ways to keep healthy and safe. They manage their own basic hygiene and personal needs successfully, including dressing and going to the toilet independently.

The post Draw Your Body! appeared first on Science Experiments for Kids.

Valentine's Day is almost upon us, so today, I have a selection of Valentine's Science experiments for you.

Valentine Science Experiments

Make a stethoscope and listen to a friend's heart beating.

Find out what happens to your pulse rate after exercise and how fast it returns to normal.

Explore respiration by making a pizza.

How about learning about melting by making these melt and pour soaps from Red Ted Art?

Red Ted Art also has a fantastic post about making candle wicks.

How about making some pretty flowers ?

The Imagination Tree has some lovely spin art cards.

Finally, as always, we have a themed lava lamp.

If you have any other ideas for me, please add them to the comments below, and if you try any of these, let me know how you got on.

We've got even more ideas in this updated Valentine's Day Science post.

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Today we are going to look at shiny and matte surfaces and how we can tell the difference.

Basically shiny surfaces reflect light well and matte surfaces don't.

For this you will need:

A flashlight

Shiny items for example:

• tinsel
• foil wrapping paper
• ornaments
• metallic ribbon
• bells
• metallic Christmas cards
• glittery items.

Dull items for example:

• felt Christmas stocking
• flat toned wrapping paper
• miniature Christmas wreath
• candle
• ornaments made of fabric
• ribbon

Method

Mix the objects up on a tray and create two piles...shiny and Dull. Shine your flashlight onto each of the objects and see how well it reflects light (the light bouncing off) to see which is shiny and which is dull. It is really a very simple pre-school sorting activity, but the importance of shiny and matt surface links into thermal radiation and absorption of heat later on which we will look at later.

For more Christmas ideas check out our 10 Christmas Science activities post.

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I reviewed Twinkl Educational Resources recently and was amazed by the sheer amount of fun and educational activities available. Twinkl has a huge range of free materials catering for Early Years, KS1 and KS2, which can be downloaded and printed, as well as extra premium resources that you pay an annual subscription to have access to.

The site is easy to navigate and helpfully divided into different subject areas. I was of course, drawn straight to the science section. My 5-year-old has been learning about materials at school this term, so I knew he would enjoy this transparent vs non-transparent activity, which is a great way to learn about transparent materials.

The idea is to decide whether the items on the squares are transparent or not.

We talked about how transparent objects look clear, and you can see straight through them, whilst non-transparent objects you cannot see through. We call these opaque.

I took the activity a step further and collected some objects from around the house, and asked the children to classify them as transparent or non -transparent.

They did a fantastic job sorting the objects for me.

As they did so well with the sorting, I then showed them some tracing paper. We talked about how we couldn't see through it when we tried to look, but if we put it on top of another piece of paper we could see the drawing underneath. Tracing paper is an example of a translucent object.

Why can you see through a transparent object?

The reason we can see through transparent objects is that they transmit light without scattering it.

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Don't forget to check out our BRAND NEW ebook for even more fun Christmas Science Experiment Ideas, it's available to download NOW and is completely FREE.

You can see an UPDATED version of our Christmas Science Ideas here.

How about growing some Christmas crystals? These can be made into lollies and given as gifts.

Make some lovely spiced apple cider and explore filtering at the same time.

Explore a mini Christmas tree, you could measure it, smell it and lots more.

 These peppermint creams are a fun way to learn about melting and wonderfully Christmassy.

Enjoy some sensory fun with this Christmas sensory tub from The Imagination Tree.

How about making some delicious smelling candy cane goo?

What about a sparkly ice exploration?

We loved making our Christmas shadow puppets, you could even tell a Christmas story as you play.

Or, how about some science kits to give as presents?

Lava lamp kit

Goo kit ( oobleck )

Finally, how about celebrating with a firework in a glass?

Do you have any other Christmas Science ideas for us? We have a few more in here ( published after this post )

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We love goo or oobleck at Science Sparks. It's wonderful to touch and play with and I am always surprised at how it can feel solid one minute and liquid the next.

Today we made a Christmassy Candy Cane version that smelled amazing!

How to make Candy Cane Oobleck

• Cornflour
• Water
• Peppermint essence
• Red food colouring

Instructions

I made up two batches of goo, one just normally with the cornflour and a smaller amount to which I added red food colouring, then swirled them together with a very small amount of the peppermint essence.

To make the goo, pour some cornflour into a bowl and add cold water very slowly until you get the consistency you want.

The peppermint smell was lovely and definitely made us feel Christmassy.

Note. Be careful with the red food colouring; it might stain clothes.

What is oobleck, and how does it work?

Did you notice that if you make a ball with the goo it is solid, but if you drop it on the floor it turns liquid again? Oobleck is a non - Newtonian fluid as it doesn't flow like liquids normally do.

The Oobleck is made up of molecules arranged in long chains. When the chains are stretched, the liquid will flow, but when you force them together, they stick together to form a solid.

 More oobleck ideas for kids

Possibly not the best idea for a cold day, but did you know you can walk on oobleck?

This rainbow oobleck is gorgeous from the Play Based Mom.

Make fluffy oobleck slime like Fantastic Fun and Learning.

This dinosaur gloop followed by a clean dinosaur bath, looks like great fun too.

What's your favourite oobleck activity?

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This collection of activities using ice for toddlers is great for any time of year, but especially good on a cold winter's day when talking about frost and ice outdoors or on a hot summer's day to cool down.

Activities using ice for toddlers

Ice Excavations

Ice excavations are brilliant for little ones. All you need to do is freeze some small plastic figures into a block of ice and use them with a pipette or small containers of warm water. Children can carefully drop or pour warm water over the ice to melt it.

Ice in a Balloon

This one is super easy and almost mess free. Pour water into a balloon and tie the end. Place in the freezer until frozen and leave to melt before giving to a child as sticky ice can hurt little fingers.

Supervise balloons at all times.

Make a Polar Scene

We used this to learn about melting polar ice caps, but it would also make a lovely sensory polar scene too!

Ice Fishing

This ice fishing activity is a lovely way for children to discover that ice melts faster in warm water than in cold water.

Paint on Ice

Freeze a sheet of ice and paint on the surface! This is a lovely sensory activity that older children will enjoy as well.

More activities using ice for toddlers

I LOVE these frozen ice hands from Happy Hooligans.

This fizzing ice activity from Life Over C's looks great, too.

Can you think of any more activities using ice for toddlers for us?

The Science of Ice

Why does water freeze?

Water can be a solid, liquid or gas.  In liquid form, the water particles can move around freely, so the water takes the shape of the container it is in. When you cool the water down, the movement of the particles slows down, and the particles become tightly packed together, which means the shape cannot change easily.

Why is ice sticky?

Ice feels sticky because when you touch it, the ice immediately freezes the moisture in your skin, which makes the cube feel sticky.

Why does salt make the ice melt faster?

This is because salt lowers the freezing point of the water. We saw another example of this when we made frost on a can.

Don't forget to check out our other ice and winter science experiments.

Warning - always keep a close eye on children playing with balloons, and remember the ice will be very cold to start with.

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You know how much I love cornflour gloop. So when we collected lots of pinecones, sticks and leaves yesterday, I couldn't resist making goo with an Autumnal feel.

Little H helped me make it this time. We didn't measure it out. We just added water to the cornflour slowly. She loved the sticky feel of it and kept letting the goo run down from her fingers.

If it feels too thick, add more water; if it's too thin, add more cornflour.

As always, the DUPLO people got involved and were very messy with us.

This is such a great sensory activity for little ones, H doesn't understand the science behind the way the goo feels, but she got so much out of just being left to explore and play by herself. It was lovely to watch.

Who would you add to your goo?

The science behind cornflour gloop

Did you notice that if you make a ball with the gloop, it feels solid, but if you drop it on the floor, it turns liquid again? The goo is a non - Newtonian fluid as it doesn't flow like liquids normally do.

The goo is made up of molecules arranged in long chains. When the chains are stretched, the liquid will flow, but when you force them together, they stick together to form a solid.

More cornflour slime ideas for kids

Did you know you can walk on oobleck?

This frozen oobleck is brilliant too!

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Apple bobbing is a traditional Halloween/Autumn game with some interesting science and history behind it.

We used a large container filled to near the top with water. I removed the stalks so they didn't poke anyone in the face and asked the children to try to pick up the apple with their teeth.

The first time everyone tried, they pushed the apple down when trying to bite it, and then it bobbed up again to the surface. My 4-year-old cheated and held it to get a bite. After that, it was much easier to get a grip on the apple!

Why is apple bobbing so hard?

Whether an object floats or sinks depends on its density. Density is how tightly packed the material inside an object is. Just because something is heavy does not mean it will sink. For example, ships are very heavy but not very dense, so they float.

For an object to sink, it must be more dense than the water. The apple is less dense than water, and so bobs back up to the surface after being pushed down.

More apple bobbing ideas

Try different kinds of apples. One idea to to set up an investigation to find out whether waxy apples are easier or harder to grip. What if you chop the apples in half?

Supervise children during this activity

More science with apples

Learn about filtering by making apple cider.

Find out how many pennies it takes to pull an apple up a ramp with Kids Minds.

Discover how to stop apples rotting with salt and vinegar.

Read about the history of apple bobbing.

Science concepts

Density

Floating

The post How does apple bobbing work? appeared first on Science Experiments for Kids.

Shadows are formed when light cannot pass through an object. As light moves in a straight line, shadows are the same shape as the object making the shadow. To demonstrate this, you can make shadow puppets.

Easy shadow puppets for kids

What you need

• card
• scissors
• straws or lolly sticks
• tape
• torch or light
• Pens

What to do:

• Draw some shapes onto some cardboard, and cut them out.
• Attach the shape to a lollypop stick or straw.
• You can decorate if you wish. We made a butterfly and decorated it with glitter, using pipe cleaners and little balls for the antennae.
• In a dark room, hold the shadow puppet against a wall and shine the torch or light at it.
• You should see the shadow on the wall.

Try moving the puppet further from the wall to make the shadow bigger and closer to the wall to make it smaller.

A Real Life Example - Shadows

Shadows are formed during a solar eclipse. An eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the Earth, casting a shadow over the Earth. If the shadow blocks out all the light from the sun, it becomes dark during the day.

For younger children, The Gruffalo's Child is a great book about shadows. The mouse makes a shadow of himself to scare the Gruffalo.

More Shadow Activity Ideas

How about making some themed puppets like our Christmas shadow puppets?

Can you make lots of small puppets and make up a story? Or act out a story you've read?

Steam Powered Family has a beautiful shadow puppet theatre you might like.

Or, try one of my other easy shadow activity ideas.

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Today Science Sparks brings you lots of fun and deliciously spooky science experiments. Some of these you might have seen recently, some are from last year, and all are a lot of fun! Do let us know how you get on.

First up is how to make your own fake blood. This would be perfect to use with fancy dress costumes or just for some imaginary fun.

Then our spooky lava lamps. These are super simple to make, you could even add some glitter for a bit of sparkle.

Followed by some creepy density jars. We had so much fun with this one. Can you think of spooky things to float on the different levels?

Would you like to scare your friends with some spooky noises? Try an eerie sound device. Again, this is very simple but very effective. Who would you like to scare?

We love goo or oobleck here at Science Sparks, and this glow in the dark version is especially spooky!

How about setting up a creepy monster tea party, and learning about baking soda reactions at the same time?

We even have some great ideas for learning as you carve a pumpkin.

Find out what your spine looks like with as part of a skeleton model.

Finally, how about exploring magnetism with a spooky ghost?

See here for a more recent round-up of even more fun Halloween Science for kids.

What are your favourite Halloween activities?

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I absolutely loved this post on glow-in-the-dark play dough from Sun Hats and Wellie Boots, so we thought we'd try the same technique to make glow-in-the-dark oobleck!

All you need to do is make oobleck and add a little child friendly glow in the dark paint.

What you need

• a big bowl
• cornflour
• water
• food colouring (optional )
• child friendly glow in the dark paint

Instructions

Fill a cup with cornflour and pour into the bowl.

Add water very slowly, mixing as the water is added.

Add a little food colouring and glow in the dark paint.

Spooky!!!!

Make sure you check out some of my other Halloween Science Ideas

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Todays preschool plant activity is very simple and is especially aimed at younger children.

We wandered around the garden looking at all the plants and flowers discussing which were big and which were little and talking about the different colours. Then we talked about what the different parts of a plant are called.

Once back inside I made some labels and asked the girls to stick the correct labels on this wooden toy plant.

Flowers are usually brightly coloured. Do you know why this is?

Why are plants brightly coloured?

Plants are brightly coloured to attract insects, which spread pollen from the flower and fertilise other flowers allowing them to make seeds.

What are leaves flat?

Leaves are flat because the leaves use sunshine to make food to grow. This process is called photosynthesis.

What happens in the stem of a plant?

The stem is like a big pipe, which takes water and nutrients to all parts of the plant. Do you remember our transpiration experiment?

We also talked about roots and how they are used by the plant to suck up nutrients and water from the soil.

The post Simple Science - Plants appeared first on Science Experiments for Kids.

We love a good baking soda experiment. I spotted this brilliant and simple idea on Reading Confetti, who kindly said I could post it here. These are our fizzing rocks.

How to make fizzy rocks

You'll need

Water

Bicarbonate of soda/baking soda

Vinegar

Food colouring

Instructions

Mix a little water with the bicarbonate of soda. I used a whole packet of bicarbonate of soda and added water slowly until I had a very thick paste type mixture.

Add a few drops of food colouring, mould the paste into rock shapes, and leave it to dry for a few hours.

Once the rocks have hardened, slowly add vinegar and watch as they fizz and dissolve.

The science behind baking soda rocks

Vinegar (an acid ) and bicarbonate of soda ( an alkali ) react to neutralise each other. This reaction releases carbon dioxide, a gas that causes the bubbles you see.

Other ideas

Add small objects to the rocks and drop them into a bowl of vinegar like Reading Confetti did.

Make one big rock and see how much vinegar is needed to dissolve it.

Try one of my other fantastic baking soda experiments.

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It is wonderful to be back here at Science Sparks to share some Science bits and pieces. Normally I blog over at Red Ted Art where I love to get crafty, and Life At The Zoo, which is all about stories from our family life (and lots of cake). So it is great to have a little science outlet too! Today we are going to find out why we get dizzy!

Do you like to go on Roundabouts? Do you like whizzing around and around and around? Do you get dizzy? Do you have to hold on tight? Did you ever think about what may be happening to you?

Well.. next time you go to the park. Go and have a go at the roundabout and see what happens. You can even take a tennis ball with you and do some experiments.

Roundabouts are GREAT for learning about science….

But first. What IS the science?

There are two parts – one about the feeling you get of being “pushed out” (which is why you hold on so tightly) and the second is about why you feel dizzy!

Holding on – Centrifugal Forces:

There are lots of “forces” in the world that make us do things. There is gravity, which is what makes things fall down. There is a reactive force when someone pushes us. And then there is something called a “centrifugal force”. When something is rotating around itself or a central axis, a force is created which pushes things in an outward motion. This “force” is created by the fact that the roundabout is constantly changing direction.

This is why you have to hold on really tightly on a roundabout, or else you would “fly off”. At our roundabout, you can see my daughter, Pip Squeak, holding on tightly – she is on a “new design” roundabout with a safety rail behind her. As the roundabout goes round and round, she is pushed against it. But she won’t fall off, as the rail has been placed in such a way that it holds her in place.

Here is your experiment: Take your ball and put it on the floor of the roundabout. Start turning the roundabout. First slowly and then faster and faster. Can you see what happens to the ball? [It will fly off!] Why don’t you experiment – what happens to a small ball (say a marble) vs a big ball (say a football)? Will a banana fly off too? [It may not at first] Why not? [oooh, now we have another topic, friction….].

Part Two – Dizziness

Why do we get dizzy?

Well.. blame it on your ear! My ear? I hear you shout. What does my ear have to do with anything?

Basically, when we walk or stand upright, our body is constantly balancing. It is figuring out how to stay up without falling over. The way it does this is by a clever mechanism that is inside our ears. We have some liquid, bones and fine hairs in the ear that pick up any movement and changes of direction. They send this information back to our brains, telling us what we need to do to keep our balance. When we spin round and round really quickly, the liquid is sloshing around in our ears and telling our brain what is going on.  When we suddenly stop, the liquid carries on sloshing for a bit longer, making us feel like we are still moving, even though our eyes know we have stopped.  This makes us feel quite strange.

Well. I think you have now deserved a trip to the playground! Have fun.

Maggy

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Have you wondered why balloons make a funny noise when you let them go? Have you also noticed how they move fairly gracefully in circles, then shoot super fast right at the end.

Today we experimented by blowing up a long balloon and letting it loose in the garden.

The kids couldn't believe how high the balloon rose in the sky and how much noise it made!

Why do balloons fly when you let them go?

The neck of a balloon is very tight. Air slips through it slowly, bit by bit. When we looked at it, the neck seemed to flap open and closed, which we think is why it's noisy.

It moves because the balloon is a big piece of elastic. The rubber of the balloon is stretched and wants to return to its normal size. This forces the air out of the balloon. Air leaving the balloon in one direction exerts a force on the balloon in the opposite direction, pushing it forward. This is an example of Newton's Third Law in action.

The balloon's flight speeds up at the end because that is the point at which the elasticity of the balloon has the most inclination to return to its original shape. Have you noticed when you blow up a balloon that it is hard to get it going and then suddenly gets easier?  The same applies as it returns to its normal size, but in reverse.  So at the very end you have that quick shrinking to its original size which makes it surge forward...

Questions to think about

Is there a way we can make the balloon go in a straight line?

Can you make a balloon make different noises?

Why does the balloon end seem so wet after a few goes?

More science experiments using balloons

Make Balloon Rockets with Preschool Play and Learn.

Create burping balloons with baking soda.

Blow up a balloon with lemon juice to learn about chemical reactions.

Place a skewer through a balloon without bursting it.

Make sure you check out some of our other fun science experiments for kids.

Science concepts

Gravity

Newton's Laws of Motion

Elasticity

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My 5-year-old is always asking how big or tall things are, and me telling him a number followed by cm or metres doesn't really mean much yet, so we set about exploring measuring with this fun measuring activity.

I gave him a ruler and asked him to go and measure whatever he wanted in the garden.

First, he measured the distance from the ground to his knee.

Followed by some leaves

After that, we measured slugs, spiders, our toes and some blades of grass.

We then measured each other by drawing lines on the side of a storage unit and measuring with a tape measure, and we even made our own metre ruler using a giant piece of paper.

What would you measure?

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A few weeks ago, when we had a brief hot spell, we added water to some sand and left it outside to see what would happen. This activity is a great, easy way to learn about evaporation, the water cycle and changes of state too!

Evaporation and the Water Cycle

Within 36 hours, the water had disappeared!

How can you separate sand and water?

The water evaporated because of the heat from the sun. Evaporation is when a liquid vaporises.

Many factors affect evaporation, but the main driving force is solar energy from the sun.

Make it an experiment!

If you wanted to set this up as an experiment or investigation, one way to set it up is to leave the wet sand in different places ( sun, shade, indoors etc.) and observe how the sand in each area changes over a period of time.

Evaporation is an important part of the water cycle

Condensation - this is when a gas turns back into a liquid. The water vapour in the air gets cold and turns back into a liquid to form clouds.

Precipitation is when so much water condenses that the clouds get heavy, and water falls back to earth as rain ( or snow ).

Collection - this is when rain collects in rivers and oceans, and the cycle starts again.

Try pouring a cold drink into a glass on a hot day, and watch what happens on the side of the glass. What do you think this is an example of?

More water cycle experiments for kids

Make a Mini Water Cycle with a bowl, cup, water and clingfilm.

Learn about The Water Cycle and Flooding.

We've also got a fun collection of weather science experiments for kids, including a rain gauge, barometer and storm in a jar!

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Last year we tried to grow peas, beans and tomatoes but unfortunately lost most of them to slugs! This year, we set ourselves the task of trying to deter slugs naturally and without harming them. Stopping slugs from eating plants is challenging, but we learned a lot from our attempts.

What is a slug?

Slugs are gastropods. Gastro means stomach, and pod means foot. Gastropod literally means stomach foot!

Slugs and snails use slime to help them move. Slime protects the underneath of their body from bacteria and sharp, prickly objects and also helps them stick to surfaces when they climb.

Five ways to stop slugs eating your plants

Copper tape

We had mixed success with copper tape. There definitely seemed to be fewer slugs around the planters with tape around them, but the tape did erode slightly, allowing slugs to enter through the gaps.

Why do slugs not like copper tape?

Copper tape gives slugs a harmless mini-electric shock when they try to pass over it, which is why it works as a deterrent.

Eggshells

Crushed-up egg shells are sharp, and so, in theory, should provide a barrier between slugs and plants. We did find some brave slugs who crossed the barrier, though! If you don't eat eggs, try spiky holly leaves instead.

Coffee Grounds

Keep your unwanted coffee grounds (or ask your local coffee shop nicely) to sprinkle around your plants. Coffee acts as a natural deterrent to slugs.

Introduce a natural predator

It's not the nicest solution, but if you attract birds into your garden with a bird feeder, they may eat the slugs too!

A beer bath

Slugs seem to be drawn to beer! If you place a flat container with a small amount of beer inside near the plants, the slugs will be drawn to the beer instead of the plants!

My children seem to be rather fond of our army of slugs. I found my 23-month-old crouching down next to one yesterday, telling him he was 'cute', and my 5-year-old timed how long it took one to crawl across a path. It's a shame about the beans, though.

Do you have any slug deterrent ideas to share with us?

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If we want to grow a plant, we usually do this by planting a seed. The seed is produced by sexual reproduction (two parents), meaning that the egg from one plant and the pollen from another have met and formed a seed, resulting in the plant having qualities from both its parent plants.

However, what if you had a most beautiful plant with the prettiest colour flowers and you wanted to ensure that another plant had that colour flower - what could you do?

Clone them?

Not as silly as you might think.

Tissue cuttings are the simplest way to produce a cloned or identical plant.

How to clone a plant

What you need

• compost
• small plant pot
• small plant trays
• an original/parent plant ( we used geraniums)
• rooting powder or gel

Instructions

1. Take a healthy plant (I used geraniums) and cut a small length from the stem

2. Place this in water for a few minutes

3. Dip the end into rooting powder or gel

4. Pot the plant up with some lovely compost

5. Keep the pot away from direct sunlight and cover it in a clear plastic bag to keep it moist.

Your cutting will now grow into another plant exactly the same as your original!

You then need to nurture them, like any parent would!

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We've talked about respiration before when we made bread and used yeast to make the dough rise. Blowing up a balloon with yeast is another very easy experiment to demonstrate respiration in action and is quicker than making bread if you are short of time.

What is respiration?

Respiration is a chemical reaction which occurs in animal and plant cells. It releases energy from glucose. Aerobic respiration needs oxygen, but anaerobic respiration doesn't need oxygen.

Anaerobic respiration produces less energy than aerobic respiration. It occurs in humans when not enough oxygen reaches muscle cells ( for example, during hard exercise ). Bacteria and other microorganisms can also use anaerobic respiration, and yeast actually carry out an anaerobic process called fermentation.

Respiration occurs in the mitochondria of cells. You can find out more about mitochondria by making a model of a cell.

Blow up a balloon with yeast

A balloon

A small clear drinks bottle

A packet of dried yeast

Warm water

1 teaspoon of sugar

Instructions

1. Blow the balloon up a few times to give it some stretch. This just makes it easier for the experiment to work.

2. Fill the small bottle about 3cm full of warm water.

3. Add the yeast and 1 teaspoon of sugar.

4. Place the balloon over the open top so no air can escape.

5 Over the next half an hour, watch what happens. (Obviously, do other stuff and come back, it may be a little boring to actually watch it for half an hour!)

Yeast and Respiration

Yeast is a living organism. In order for it to survive, it needs to make energy. In its dried form, the yeast is dormant, but as soon as you provide it with warmth, water and sugar (its food), it 'wakens' and becomes active. The yeast uses the sugar (glucose) and oxygen from the bottle to make water, energy and carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a gas, and this is what you see filling the balloon.

Remember, yeast can respire anaerobically when there's not enough oxygen for aerobic respiration.

Fermentation

Glucose -> ethanol and carbon dioxide + energy

Aerobic Respiration Equation

Glucose + Oxygen --> Carbon Dioxide + Water + energy

The image is taken from Snackable Science which contains SEVENTY fun edible experiments and investigations!

Science concepts

Enzymes

Respiration

Contains affiliate links

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Jelly is a great way to learn about changes of state as first it dissolves in hot water and then sets to become solid as it cools.

Why does jelly set?

Jelly sets because of a protein called collagen. Collagen is made up of three protein fibers wrapped around each other.

Jelly contains gelatin, which is made from collagen from animal bones and skin. When the gelatin is heated and mixed with water, the protein fibers unravel and come apart, so the jelly from the packet melts. As the jelly cools, the fibers coil up again, trapping water between them, which makes the jelly set.

We watched the jelly from the packet melt as we added the hot water and talked about bonds breaking down and how they reform as the jelly cools, causing it to set.

We also tried mixing different colours of jelly, which was a fun way to learn about primary and secondary colours.

To make multicoloured, layered jelly, you need to let each layer set before adding the next.

Do you know fresh pineapple stops jelly setting?

What other colours do you think we could make?

Suitable for KS1 - changes of state.

Don't forget to check out my other kitchen science experiments.

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Looking at food groups is such a fun thing to do. It gives children a real insight into the types of food they eat, and you can use it as an opportunity for taste testing.

For younger children, you can introduce food groups in terms of what they are: There are five basic groups.

Then on an old plate or paper plate, divide it into five with a whiteboard pen board pen and label as the groups - this will easily wash off, and using the sheets below cut out the foods and add them to the plate portion you think they belong too.

Food groups work sheet

You can then ask your child which ones they would like to try and maybe plan a trip to the shop to purchase and hold a little tasting session.

Moving forward with older children, you can then introduce the nutrient food groups.

There are seven basic nutrient food groups. These include:

Each group is needed by the body for different reasons and can be found in different types of foods.

I have included this table for you to use in a sheet below.

Food groups Table

Food Group Activity

Take an empty muffin tin, and in each of segment put a different type of food.

Make some flags using cocktail sticks and paper and label each one with a letter to represent the food group.

Discuss each food describing how it looks and maybe taste it to see if that gives any clues - is it rich or grainy or smooth like dairy? Then stick a flag into the food that it belongs to!

Finally, you could then print out the table above, chop it up and use it as a card for a revision exercise.

Have Fun

Kerry

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Bubbles are one of the most fun things to play with...but what colour are they?

Transparent? Clear? See-through?

Did you know you can see all the colours of the rainbow in bubbles?

How to make rainbow bubbles

An empty clear bottle

Washing up liquid

Water

A sink

An overcast day (works best)I

Fill the bottle about three-quarters full with water

Add a squirt (scientific measuring there) of washing up liquid

Quickly tip the bottle and pour the water out fast.

You will find that the bottle is left full of bubbles.

These will look clear and normal, to begin with, but place the bottle on a windowsill and wait and watch over the next 30 seconds.

You will find that the bubbles will start to show signs of colour that will get stronger and stronger and that each bubble will look like it has been coloured like a rainbow!

Why can you see a rainbow in bubbles?

Visible Light from the sun is known as white light. It contains a range of colours, all with different wavelengths that, when together, form white light.

The colours of the rainbow are:

Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and violet

When white light from the sun shines through the film of the bubbles, the light is reflected and dispersed, splitting white light into its different wavelengths, revealing all the colours of the rainbow!

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Playing detective is one of my little ones' favourite games, but to be a real detective, you need lots of science! So today, we're going to make a magnifying glass.

This activity is part of my playful science series, so don't forget to check out the other simple science ideas too!

How to Make a Magnifying Glass

Materials

A clear plastic bottle

A dry marker pen

A pair of scissors

Water

How to make a magnifying glass

1. Draw a circle at the neck of the bottle. It needs to be on the neck so that when you cut it out, it will create a disc shape.

2. Cut out the circle

3. Pour a little water into the disc.

4. Hold it over your book or paper to make the letters bigger. It works really well!

Why does this work?

The disc shape you have cut out curves outwards. It is a convex shape. By adding the water, the light that passes through is refracted. This means it is bent inwards, creating a lens effect enlarging the size of the letters. You now have your very own magnifying glass!

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Every time we go for a walk at the moment, my children look for dandelions with a full seed head to pick and then blow so they can watch all the tiny parachutes float away in the wind. We started talking about why they fly so well and their purpose. This is also a fun way to find out about air resistance.

We decided to try to make our own parachutes

How to make a dandelion parachute

You'll need

Paper

Scissors

Sellotape

Optional paperclip

Instructions

Cut an A4 piece of paper lengthways in half so you have two long strips of paper.  Roll each into a tube and stick it in place with sticky tape.  Drop the tubes from somewhere high.  You could try to time their fall (or just note it)

Now use the scissors to cut down the tube in several places. (We gave one tube wide flaps and one very thin flaps.)

Drop the tubes from somewhere high and watch them fall. Does one fall faster than the other? You could also compare the speed of a tube with no flaps falling from the same height.

You can add a paperclip to the bottom to add some weight, but this is not necessary.

How does a dandelion parachute work?

When a dandelion has finished flowering, the flower head dries out, and the parachute ball opens into a full sphere. Eventually, the seed-bearing parachutes expand and are released. The seed drops off the parachute when it hits the ground or another object.

In our models, we were able to make the paper tubes stay in the air longer by providing flaps which offer more air resistance.  This gives them the opportunity to float further away from where they were released.  With dandelion seeds, this means they can spread out further from the main plant, meaning they can populate wider areas than if they just dropped straight off the plant.

Have a look at other ways plants disperse their seeds.  We did notice our models spun as they fell to earth, which reminded us of sycamore seeds.

More dandelion and seed dispersal activities

Find out what happens to a dandelion in water.

Make spinning helicopters like a sycamore seed.

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We are VERY excited to announce ( if you missed it ) that we are finalists in TWO categories for the MAD Blog awards. While we both hoped this would happen, we didn't dare get our hopes up too much, so last week's announcement has still not really sunk in. There are so many amazing blogs out there, and we are honoured to be selected as finalists.

We are in 'the best MAD schooldays blog' and 'most innovative MAD Blog' categories.

A brief history

The last year has been a bit of a journey for Kerry and I. We met through Twitter and our personal blogs, discovering our shared love for science through a meme started by Kerry. I mentioned my passion for science and how I would love to blog about science experiments. Kerry later offered via Twitter to help, and I asked if she wanted to do it together.

We live about a 3 hour drive from each other, so opportunities to meet up are few are far between, usually limited to blogging events in London, but we do tweet, e-mail and Skype frequently.

I feel very lucky to have met some amazing people on Twitter and through blogging, and Kerry is right up at the top of my list. We are quite similar personalities, and I'm sure had we met in 'real life' we would have still become firm friends.

We both have three small children, and found ourselves unable to return to work due to the cost of childcare, which motivated us to start our respective blogs.

Science Sparks started out as just a post each week on one of our blogs, it was only after CyberMummy last year that we were inspired to give Science Sparks a stand-alone site.

We have floundered many times along the way, struggling mostly to find the time to manage our homes, children and two blogs. At times it feels like we are doing a full-time job with no childcare.

I have to give a huge shout-out to Maggy from Red Ted Art, who spotted us struggling and gave us a much needed boost and push to carry on.

We are both overwhelmed by the amount of encouragement we have received along the way. Every lovely tweet, e-mail or comment makes us smile and gives us the confidence to keep going and keep improving on what we do.

So a huge THANK YOU to everyone for supporting us, and please please consider voting for us.

Emma and Kerry

My aim with Science Sparks is to show people that science isn't scary or boring and you don't need expensive or hard to find equipment. The investigations that are the most fun are those you can do with ingredients you already have around the house.

I love seeing that spark of interest develop in my children. A spark that leads to questions and more questions, helping develop a little enquiring mind.

Emma

'As a teacher by trade, I have a huge passion for science and an awareness of the shortage of scientists in the country, and I want to make science more accessible for all and something that can be done as a family. We all read stories and attempt maths homework, but we never really think about science, and yet it is all around us. For me, at pre-school and primary level, it is not about understanding how, although that is fab, it is more about getting the 'Wow!' and sparking children's imaginations and minds to want to know more! Science is not a scary subject, and our aim is to bring it into the home and make it easy and fun!

Kerry

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Coin poppers are a brilliant experiment to demonstrate air pressure!

What you need

A small empty plastic drink bottle

A 2p coin

A small square of kitchen roll

Method

1. Put the empty bottle in the freezer for about an hour to cool.

2. Cut a small square of tissue paper and put it on top of the 2p piece

3. Pour a little water over the tissue to stick it to the 2p

4. Without removing the bottle from the freezer, place the 2p on top of the bottle, tissue side down, to seal as a lid.

5. Leave for half an hour

6. Bring out and warm the top of the bottle with your hands!

7. Watch the magic!

Why does this work?

We assume we have put an empty bottle inside the freezer, but of course, it is actually full of air which is a mixture of gases containing nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide, amongst others. As the gas cools, it shrinks, lowering the pressure, but because the lid is off, more air can enter the bottle from the freezer. Once you placed the coin lid on, you have sealed the top. As the air inside warms up again from your hands, it expands and forces more pressure on the inside of the bottle and the lid, compared to outside the bottle. It creates enough pressure to break the seal and pop the lid!

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This germination science investigation is very simple but fascinating. Did you know you can grow a bean in a jar with just a little water? Once the seed has germinated, you can place it in soil for the plant to finish growing.

The jar allows children to see the seeds, roots and shoots easily.

What is germination?

Germination is the sprouting of a seedling from a seed.

Three factors are important for germination.

Water—Seeds need water for germination to occur. When a seed absorbs water, it starts to swell, the outer coat cracks and roots start to grow through.

Oxygen - oxygen is needed for a plant to grow (oxygen is needed for respiration to occur ). Seeds buried too deeply in the soil won't grow.

Temperature - the temperature can be important ( warm or cold ), depending on the type of seed.

Once a seedling has used all the nutrients from the seed, it then needs to take nutrients from the soil. Once your seed has germinated and grown a little bit, you'll need to transfer it into a pot of soil.

Light is not needed for germination but is needed for a plant to grow.

Roots grow downwards to anchor the plant in the ground and find nutrients, and shoots grow upwards to find light.

How to grow a bean in a jar

What you need

• A broad bean seed
• Jar
• Kitchen towel or a napkin
• Water

Instructions

• Swirl a small amount of water around the jar.
• Fold your napkin or kitchen roll and place it in the jar ( we also made the kitchen roll very slightly damp).
• Place the bean seed in the jar resting on the napkin.
• Spray some water on the bean every few days.

The bean should start to grow roots after a few days. This is called germination.

We kept one bean in the dark and one in the light. Both seeds germinated and grew into small bean plants. This shows that light is not necessary for germination.

You can see here that the plant grown in the dark is slightly less green than the one grown in the light. We have seen this before when growing cress.