Science Activities for Children

 Bear Hunt; This links t.o the Delightful Learning website.  This activity relates to the classic children's    book We're Going on a Bear Hunt.  This book is often a favorite with children and this website provides a video read aloud of the story from the author as well as ides for story sequencing and motions to act out the story with kids.  It also provides an activity in which children can create a bear hunt sensory tub using very simple materials.  Along with those, it suggests many other ideas an activities for children to do that are related to the book. 

         Colorful Absorption; The Jameson's Lab is ALL FOR KIDS.  This activity allows children to explore the concept of absorption through the use of water, food coloring, and paper towels.  This simply activity really brings to life for kids what absorption means. It also has an activity in which the children can experiment and determine that combining two colors will make another color.  

       Melting Ice; This is mom's blog with science experiments and ideas she had to do with her children.  This activity has children determining what melts ice the fastest: water, vinegar, salt, or sugar.  This interactive experiment allows children to make predictions and test their hypothesis to see if they were correct.  This is a fun, simple activity that can be done with simple household materials.  

       Freezing Waters; This blog is written by a teacher who wanted to share some creative and fun activities for children.  This activity allows children to experiment with how animals stay warm in the icy, winter waters.  Using vegetable shortening this will demonstrate to children how animal's fat works to keep their bodies warm, in water temperatures that humans could never live in.  

Iron in your Cereal?; This website provides an activity to proves that there is truly iron in the cereal we eat for breakfast.  Testing multiple cereals children can use magnets to determine which cereals have the most iron.  This high interest activity will have children surprised at what they eat!

  Energy Stars; This is an interactive website that allows children to explore energy; what is it? where does it come from? what is it important? and why must we save it?  All of these questions and move can be answered through this website.  Children can learn about the many different forms energy can come in as well as read some "fun facts".  The website also provides a parents and teachers resource link. 

 Explosion!; This is a fun activity for children to explore the idea of explosions and see how they can happen. All you need are some simple supplies and you can experiment with baking soda and vinegar to watch how they react.  Children will love this experiment and can test how other materials: salt, pepper, sugar, etc. will change the reaction or explosion.

Starry Day; This is an activity that allows teachers or parents to teach their children about star constellations during the daytime. This blog has a set of whole punched pieces of cardboard.  The holes represent each individual star in the constellations; teachers or parents could make something very similar instead of buying this.  Using a flashlight indoors to reflect on the wall, or sunlight outdoors to reflect on the ground this would be a great, easy way for children to learn about stars and constellations.  The best part is that it can be done during the day time.

Homemade Glue; This is a fun activity in which children can make glue using vinegar and milk!  This would be a fun and easy experiment for kids.  They can test their glue and compare the "stickyness" to store bought glue.  They could also expand the experiment by testing what happens when they add other ingredients.

Balancing Eggs; Can you balance an egg on a flat surface without it continuously falling over? Most likely not.   Have kids try and ask for ideas on how they could get the egg to stay still.  This experiment uses salt to show how the cube-like crystals help to form a pedestal for the egg and it will balance.  Kids will be amazed by this activity and want to keep trying it.  Extend the experiment by seeing if anything else works to balance the egg: pepper? sugar?

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Science Lessons for Kids

        Recycling; Taking care of the planet has become a very well know topic in today's world, and this lesson will introduce this idea to kids in a fun way but also in a way that they can learn the importance of recycling.  This lesson includes a sorting activity in which children look at different objects to determine which ones can be recycled and which can not.  Children can explore all aspects of recycling including what can be recycled and why do we need to recycle?  This lesson could easily be expanded to children in ages from Pre-K-4 and is a great introductory way to get them thinking about our planet and the importance of taking care of the world we live in.  

        Rock Sorting; This lesson teaches children that rocks can come in all different shapes, sizes, and colors.  It explains that rocks can be sorted into three categories: igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary.  The lesson defines and explains the characteristics of each type of rock and explains where the types are typically found.  The activity has children looking at and exploring many types of rocks in order to classify them into a category based on the characteristics that they observe.  An extension to the activity would be to have the children go outside and collect their own rocks that they find on the playground or at home and use them to sort, rather than having the teacher provide rocks for the students.

       Inventors and Inventions; This activity gets children thinking about how everyday objects such as Velcro sticky notes came to be.  Allow students access to the internet, books, and encyclopedias to do research and determine answers.  This lesson also touches on students' interest by allowing them to research an object or invention that they are very curious about and would like to learn more about it.  This allows children to see that inventions and products must go through many processes before they are sold or shown to the public.  Students will research this process to determine how their product has been transformed over time.  This lesson provides objectives and questions for the children to think about while conducting research.  

        Biology Basics; This introductory lessons teaches children the basics about biology and allows them to experiment with tools such as microscopes.  Teach the general definition of biology: the study of living things; have children brainstorm ideas about what does a biologist do?  Allow the children to explore hair strands, food, plants, and clothing using the microscopes.  This lesson can also be used as an introduction to the study of bacteria as well as the human body and it's many systems, such as the  muscles, respiratory, and pulmonary systems.  

        Worms, Worms, Worms; This is a blog; however, it is written by a teacher and provides activities and stations that could be set up in the classroom for children to learn about worms.  This is a lesson that would occur over multiple days and is cross curricular.  The room is divided up into three stations and each station takes approximately ten minutes to complete.  One of the stations includes exploring and observing live worms through the senses.

Earth v. Mars; This science lesson has children compare characteristics of Earth and Mars to see that they are very similar in some ways.  In this lesson students conduct research and find pictures to compare the geological features of Earth and Mars.  This is an interesting lesson to do with children because they always learn how different Earth is from the other planets; it puts a new twist on the solar system lesson.  Students can compare pictures side by side and determine which picture is of Earth and which is of Mars.  They will also write descriptions of the features being compared and discuss how the feature may be useful in supporting life on both planets.  This lesson plan includes discussion questions, evaluations, and extensions to the lesson.

Water and Oil; This lesson demonstrates for children how oil and water will not mix.  In order to distinguish between the water and oil it suggests putting food coloring in the water.  It has students pour both liquids into one bottle and shake them up in an attempt to mix them.  Water usually mixes with other liquids to for a solution, but water and oil refuse to mix and children will be amazed to observe the bottle and watch water and oil separate from each other.

Escaping Gravity; This simple science experiment uses a full glass of  water and a piece of card board to demonstrate how differences in air pressure can help the water to defy gravity.  When the glass is put upside down the great difference in air pressure works to keep the card board attached to the glass and the water does not pour out.  Children will be amazed by this phenomena and it is a great way to introduce children to the concept of gravity.  By starting their thinking on the concept of what goes up must come down can lead to many other lessons and discussions about gravity, air, and how the atmosphere works.

Colder Than Ice; This activity gets children thinking about scientific reasoning as they try to explain the outcome of the experiment.  This activity explores the effect that salt has on the temperature of ice.  Children will use thermometers and check the temperature of ice and how it changes when mixed with salt.  This is a great introduction for children to being making scientific predictions and testing their hypothesis.  They can discuss and compare results as well as mix other things with the ice to see if they have similar results to temperature changes.

Scientific Inquiry; This is a lesson about pollution and the environment that gets children thinking about the many different ways that people affect the environment.  It discusses how pollution is harmful not only to humans, but plants and animals as well.  It also touches on the idea of recycling and children can do at school to reduce, reuse, and recycle.  This is a very important topic and should be very interesting to children.  It is an active lesson that gets them involved in their school community to work towards a goal of living in a cleaner environment.

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Good Science Reads for Children

Diary of a Worm By: Doreen Cronin

This is a picture story book about a worm who lives with his parents, plays with his friends, and even goes to  school. This hilarious story tracks the daily life of worms through the perspective of the worm family's young son. This is a great book to introduce a worm unit to children and get them thinking about what goes on in a worms daily life.  The book gives worms very human like characteristics and children could compare the worm's life to their own.  

Oh, Yuck! The Encyclopedia of Everything Nasty By: Joy Masoff and Terry Sirrell

Kids love everything gross including liquid, solids, gases, creepy, crawling, slimy things. Oh Yuck! is an ants to zits encyclopedia covering people, animals, insects, plants, food, and more. Kids will love this book and enjoy learning the facts about anything gross you can think of.

The Skeleton Inside You By: Phillip Balestrino

This book describes the importance the skeleton to children.  It discusses everything your skeleton allows you to do: somersault and touch your toes.  Through this picture storybook children can learn facts about the skeleton and how ligaments and joints work to hold their bodies together.  Through this story about a Halloween skeleton children can learn exactly what the skeleton does and the purpose it serves.

Tornado Alert By: Franklyn M. Branley

This book explains this weather phenomenon in simple terms that are easy to understand for children.  The author describes the formations of a funnel cloud and what it does during a tornado.  The book ends explaining to children that the idea is not to panic about these storms destroying their towns, but rather to learn and prepare to be safe if an emergency were to happen.  

The Beetle Book By: Steve Jenkins

One out of every four living things on Earth is a beetle and there are over 350,000 different species named.  This book gives children all kinds of facts about beetles as well as endless pictures of the many different types.  Steve Jenkins presents a fascinating array of these insects as well as information on the many adaptations that they have made to survive.  Children love insects and bugs and will be very interested in this book.

The Planets in Our Solar System By: Franklyn M. Branley

You live on Earth, but do you know about its place in the solar system? How many days does it take for Earth to orbit the sun? This book provides a lot of information on the solar system and characteristics of each planet.  It compares the size and orbit of other plants to Earth.  It also includes instructions for making your own solar system mobile.  It contains a "Find Out More" page in which you can learn how to track the moon  and visit the best websites for more information on the planets in the solar system.

Actual Size By: Steve Jenkins

This book by Steve Jenkins will become a favorite in the classroom becomes sometimes the facts and figures just don't give the whole story.  This book provides pictures of all kinds of animals and their actual size for children to compare.  Imagine a tongue that is two feet long or an eye ball bigger than your head.  Children will become mesmerized by this incredible book that just justice to some of Earths largest and smallest animals.

Coral Reef By: Caroline Bingham

This book follows the life cycle from the animals point of view.  This book includes colorful illustrations that bring children face to face with animals that live and gather around the Coral Reef everyday.  This book approaches the natural world in a unique way; written in a conversational style, it will pull in readers of all ages.  Children are very interested in animals and this is a great way to introduce them to many animals they may not have know even existed.  Life under the sea can be a very interesting and exciting topic for young learners.

The Moon Seems to Change By: Franklyn M. Branley

Due to the moons rotation around the Earth, it seems to grow and shrink.  Children can read and learn about the phenomena of the moon's phases.  They can conduct an experiment using an orange, a pencil, and a flashlight to see why and how the moon looks different at different times throughout the month.

A Drop of Water By: Walter Wick

This science book about water contains not only information for children but wonderful photographs as well.  The camera has stopped the action and magnifies it so that all the stages of water can be observed: water as ice, rainbow, stream, frost, and dew.  Readers can examine water as it pours from a faucet or splashes on a hard surface; they can count the points in an actual snowflake and discuss how many drops of water are needed to form a cloud.

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Creepy Crawlers Investigation Box

I created an investigation box that will allow studetns to observe bugs in their envrionment and explore books to see differences between bugs.  Students will have the opportunity to observe worms specifically hands on as well as go outside to observe a bugs habitat. This investigation box is intended for use on a first or second grade level.

First, children will have the opportunity to look through multiple books about worms, bugs, and insects to gain information about thess critters: where do they live? what do they eat? what do they look like? While looking through the books, students will pick three bugs they want to focus on.  They will write 3 facts about each bug and draw a picture of what each bug or insect looks like. 

  Teacher will set up a section of the classoom with worms (can be found at Walmart). Students will be able to feel, look, at, and observe the worms.  They can write any observations they have made and draw a picture of what they observed while looking at the worms. Children will be allowd to touch and pick up worms (Cleanliness and teacher direction will be very important for this part).

Using a magnifying glass children will have the opportunity to go outside (garden or playground area) to observe other bugs and insects in their natrual habitats.  Using clipboards, children should write observations and draw pictures of any insects they saw or observed while outside .  If they are unsure of a type of bug they saw, they can use the books provide to attempt to identify which type of bug or insect it is. 

After observing bugs and insects children will have the oppurtunity to create their own bug using any craft materials provided.  They will create a bug or insect and give it a name.  Along with creating the bug students must also give their insect charactersitics including: what does it look like? where does it live? and what does it eat?