Category: Activities

Erosion – Activities

FOCUS: Our study of the geosphere begins with a look at how, over time, the powerful agents of erosion have shaped and formed our landscape. Gravity, water, wind, and ice are constantly weathering, wearing away, and moving rocks, soil, sand, and sediments and depositing them elsewhere. We’ll also consider the impact humans have on erosion, deposition, and our ever-changing landscape.

INTRODUCTION
Objective: To begin to explore and ask questions about erosion.

Find a good example of erosion on the school grounds for children to visit, and ask children what they think is going on.

Alternatively, have a basin of soil similar to what the children will get for the Design Challenge. Demonstrate erosion by pouring water on it with a watering can or spraying with a spray bottle. Ask children if they can think of other places where erosion has changed the landscape.

DROP BY DROP
Objective: To use a model to investigate the effects of water drops falling on bare soil.

Ask the children if they think that a drop of water could be an agent of erosion – could it move soil, sand, or fine sediment around? How could we find out? Continue reading Erosion – Activities

Rocks and Minerals – Activities

FOCUS: Studying rocks helps us to piece together the story of how the geosphere, the Earth’s rocky outer layer, has been shaped and changed over time. We’ll meet some rocks that formed by three different processes, examine some minerals we find in rocks, and look for fossils of ancient creatures. Underlying all the Earth’s land and water, rocks provide a foundation that supports the living world, gives clues about past life forms, and provides us with many materials that we use in our everyday lives.

INTRODUCTION
Objective: To begin to explore and ask questions about rocks and minerals.

In small groups, have the children sit in a circle. Give each child a paper sandwich bag containing a small rock. Have the children feel their rock without looking at it, noticing its smoothness, texture, any irregularities in the shape, if the edges seem rounded or sharp etc. Then, on the count of three, have the children put their bag in front of the person on their right. Now have them feel the pebble in their new bag, pass again, and repeat until everyone has had a chance to feel three or four different rocks, or continue until everyone has their starting rock back again. Finally, let the children take the rock they have out of the bag to look at it. Have them set all the rocks out in front of them so everyone can admire the whole collection. Ask children for ideas about why rocks can be so different from each other.

Materials: brown paper lunch bags, small rocks (from one to four inches in diameter) with different textures and shapes, one per student.

ROCKS UP CLOSE
Objective: To examine granite, looking for the mineral crystals in it, and meet some other rocks.

Give each child a piece of granite to examine with a magnifying lens, looking for the different-colored mineral crystals in the rock. Continue reading Rocks and Minerals – Activities

Blanket of Air – Activities

FOCUS: The air we breathe is part of the Earth’s atmosphere, a layer of gases that surrounds the planet, protecting us from harmful radiation and keeping us warm. Although air is invisible, we’ll discover that it takes up space, exerts pressure and has weight, can be heated, cooled, and compressed, and always seeks to equalize its pressure. It is important to understand our atmosphere, because without air, animals and plants could not survive.

INTRODUCTION
Objective: To begin to explore and ask questions about air.

Give each small group of children an empty bag, and ask, “What’s in the bag?” Now ask children to twist the neck of the bag shut with a twist-tie, and have them feel it again. Is the bag really empty?

Materials: Plastic bag and twist tie, one for each group.

PUPPET SHOW “Half Full or Half Empty?”
Objective: To learn how air is important to living things.

Perform the puppet show, or have a group of children perform it for the class. Afterward, ask questions to review the key details and vocabulary in the story. Why is air needed by animals? (For energy.) By plants? (To make leaves, stems, etc.) Holding up each puppet, review how each one gets air. What is the part of air that people and animals especially need to breathe? (Oxygen.)

Materials: puppets, script, stage, props.

JUMPING JACKS
Objective: To demonstrate air’s importance to our bodies at work

Have the children count how many breaths they take in one minute. Then have them do ten to twenty jumping jacks. Now have them count their breaths again. Is there a difference? Why?
Continue reading Blanket of Air – Activities

Nature of Sound – Activities

FOCUS: Sound is what we hear when something is vibrating. The vibrating object – whether a violin string, a singing bird, or a gurgling brook – creates a sound wave that travels to our ears, where we interpret its meaning. Sound waves need a medium like air, water, or a solid through which to move; they cannot pass through a vacuum. The Earth’s atmosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere provide a way for sounds to travel. Many animals depend on sound to learn about their surroundings and to communicate with others of their kind.

INTRODUCTION
Objective: To begin to explore and ask questions about sound.

Ask children to put their hands on their own throats as they make a noise like a frog and sing like a bird. What do they notice? Next, ask all children to make a “shush” sound. Do they notice a difference?

PUPPET SHOW “Calls of the Wild”
Objective: To learn how different animals hear and make sounds, and how sounds are important in their lives.

Perform the puppet show, or have a group of children perform it for the class. Afterward, ask questions to review the key details and vocabulary in the story. How was sound important to the different animals in the puppet show? (Chickadee – contact calls, listening for danger; woodpecker – finding food, advertising territory; jay – alarm, warning others; hare – knowing the weather, knowing where he is, listening for predators.) What are some other ways that sound is important in our lives or those of animals? (Calling for help, young begging for food, crossing roads, enjoying music, speaking, etc.)

Materials: puppets, script, stage, three signs for audience participation.

PAINT STICK ORCHESTRA
Objective: To investigate what is happening when something makes a sound.

Give each child or pair of children a paint stick. Have one child place the stick flat on a table or bench, so that about two thirds of it extends out beyond the edge. Continue reading Nature of Sound – Activities

Water – Activities

FOCUS: The Earth’s water is in oceans, lakes, and rivers, in the atmosphere and underground, inside plants and animals, and frozen in glaciers. The water present today is the same water that has been here for billions of years, though it is constantly in motion, moving from place to place. Water evaporates into vapor, condenses into clouds, precipitates as rain or snow, and transpires through plants as it moves between atmosphere and land, over and over again in a cycle that is powered by the sun and essential to living things.

INTRODUCTION
Objective: To begin to explore and ask questions about water.

Look around the school grounds and notice where water is found. What form is it in (frozen as snow or ice or liquid in puddles or dripping off roof)? Ask children what they notice and wonder about water.

Alternatively, give each small group of children a bucket of water, a bowl of ice, some cups, and some spoons. Allow them to explore the materials, and ask what they notice and wonder about water.

Or ask them this riddle:

I can run, but I can’t walk, and I don’t have any legs.

I can fall but I don’t get hurt.

I am deep underground and high up in the sky.

I’m strong enough to carve rocks, but light enough to be blown away.

I’m always in motion and never die.

I am sticky but am used to clean.

I am in you (making up more than half your body) and every living thing on Earth.

What am I?

Materials: basin of water, spoons, cups, and ice, set for each group; optional: funnels.

HOT, COLD, AND FROZEN (Grades 3-6)
Objective: To compare the density of water at different temperatures.

Ask the children what happens to air when you heat it up. (It gets lighter and rises.) Would water get heavier or lighter when heated? Ask for ideas about a way that you could test this. Continue reading Water – Activities

Wind and Clouds Aloft – Activities

FOCUS: Winds, or flowing air currents, are caused by warm air rising and cool air flowing in to take its place. Winds pick up moisture from bodies of water, and clouds form when the moisture in them condenses into tiny water droplets. Depending on the conditions of wind, moisture, and temperature aloft, different kinds of clouds take form. Together clouds and wind interact to bring us all kinds of weather. Wind power can be harnessed for our use, with old and new technologies.

INTRODUCTION
Objective: To begin to explore and ask questions about wind and clouds.

Have children lie on their backs, on a tarpaulin if the ground is damp, to observe the wind and clouds. Ask them to close their eyes, and ask them how the wind feels and sounds. Ask them to open their eyes to look at the clouds. Ask them to describe the clouds. Do all of the clouds look the same?

Materials: Optional: large tarpaulin.

CLASS CLOUD SORT
Objective: To look for patterns of similarities and differences in photographs of clouds.

Lay out a large tarpaulin and divide children into small groups around each corner. In small groups, have children examine a set of cloud photos, noticing similarities and differences. Then have them sort them into piles, placing similar clouds together. How many different piles did they make Continue reading Wind and Clouds Aloft – Activities

Get Your Bearings – Activities

Focus: Many aspects of the physical world provide important cues for us and other animals as we move from place to place. We’ll see how animals use the position of the sun, features of the landscape, and the Earth’s magnetic field for orientation and navigation. These features, together with compass, maps, and other tools, can help us find our way.

INTRODUCTION
Objective: To begin to explore and ask questions about navigation.

Ask children to close their eyes and to point to things as you say them. You might ask them to point at the swingset, slide, sandbox, front entry to the school, etc. How do they know where things are?

MIND’S EYE MAP
Objective: To see how our mental map enables us to visualize familiar places.

Ask the children to imagine that they are standing in a familiar place. Have them close their eyes and imagine being in the doorway to their kitchen. Ask them to point to the stove, refrigerator, table, sink, microwave, place where the cereal is kept, clock, etc. Now have them imagine being in the entrance to the school. Continue reading Get Your Bearings – Activities

Spiders: Web-Builders and Wanderers – Activities

FOCUS: Spiders come in a variety of shapes, colors, and sizes, but they all share some specific characteristics: two body parts, a hard exoskeleton, eight legs. They all make silk, too, though not all weave webs. Here we take a close look at web spinners and wandering spiders, examine their anatomy, and consider their special adaptations. We’ll learn about their lives as small predators and scout outdoors for spiders and webs.

INTRODUCTION
Objective: To begin to explore and ask questions about spiders.

A day or two ahead of time, gather a variety of spiders and put them in jars with perforated lids, only one spider per jar, and include a moist cotton ball and bit of vegetation in each jar. Keep spiders and jars out of the sun. Give each small group of children a spider in a jar to examine, and ask what they notice and wonder about it. 

Materials: live spiders in clear jars with perforated lids with moist cotton ball and bit of vegetation, only one spider per jar; magnifying lenses.

SPIDERS UP CLOSE
Objective: To observe closely and compare a variety of different live spiders.

Using the spiders in jars from the Introduction, encourage children to use their magnifiers to look closely at the different parts of a spider. Can they distinguish Continue reading Spiders: Web-Builders and Wanderers – Activities

Tremendous Trees – Activities

FOCUS: Wood, leaves, bark, roots, flowers, and fruits: disassembled, these various parts don’t begin to convey the majesty of a mighty tree in full summer foliage. However, each part of the tree serves an important function that contributes to its survival. Roots reach into the soil for water and nutrients, wood provides strength for the trunk, branches hold the crown of leaves up to the sunlight. Like other living organisms, trees grow, reproduce, and die, but they are more to us than just tall woody plants: they are neighbors that grow and change with us through the years.

INTRODUCTION
Objective: To begin to explore and ask questions about trees.

Hold up a small cardboard box and tell the students that you’ve discovered a beautiful object that can turn sunlight into sugar, pump gallons of water a day, purify air, move and split rocks, change color with the season, and provide shelter and food to all sorts of animals. What do they think it is? Open the box and present the small sapling hidden inside.

Materials: cardboard box, small sapling.
Continue reading Tremendous Trees – Activities

Grasses and Grains – Activities

FOCUS: Grasses are hardy plants that grow over much of the earth, flourishing in harsh conditions. They are able to withstand high winds, hold onto slippery slopes, and grow back after being mowed, burned or grazed. Grasses have fascinating and unique adaptations that make them extremely resilient and set them apart from other kinds of plants.

INTRODUCTION
Objective: To begin to explore and ask questions about grasses and grains.

Give each child a grass stem with flower/seed head, and ask what children notice and wonder about their plant.

Materials: grass stems, one per child; magnifying lenses.

GRASSES UP CLOSE
Objective: To make observations about the structure of grasses and consider how these function for the plant.

Working in small groups, give each team a complete grass plant with roots, stems, leaves, and flower head. Ask each group to share one observation about their grass plant. Other groups compare to see if their grass plant has the same or similar feature(s). Continue reading Grasses and Grains – Activities