I'm looking for simple science projects for preschoolers.
Jean from Midway, PA
Add your voice! Click below to answer. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
Preschoolers love to watch things grow. Take a zip type storage or freezer bag, put a moist paper towel inside and place a couple of the large lima beans in with the towel, Seal it and tape to a window or on a wall where the sun will shine on it. Watch it root.
Another good one is to put colored water in a container and a cut flower. In a day or two the flower will take on the color of the water.
Preschoolers love to watch things grow.
Place a moist paper towel in a zipper freezer bag with a few lima beans. seal it and place in a window or hang on a wall where the sun shines in and in a few days time it will begin to sprout.
Colored water in a clear glass conrainer with cut flowers (white or yellow work best) ... In a day or two they will start to streak with the colored water. Little kids love it!
Mine loved some of these hope they help:
Grow hair, have the parents send an egg to school, chip off some of the top fill with soil sprinkle with grass seed and place in egg carton that the top has been removed from have the kids put a face on the egg and wait the for the hair to grow.
Sweet potatoe vine is always a good one.
tn.essortment.com/
www.suite101.com/
Here are a couple of places for more ideas. Have fun:)
One spring, we borrowed an old science fair project that was a chick incubator, got a dozen fertile eggs, and every day, took those eggs into our bathroom, without a window, turned out the lights, and "candled" the eggs, by shining a flashlight on the bottom of the eggs. For the first couple of weeks (chicks take 21 days) you can watch the developement of the circulatory system and then the first forming of the chick. After that, it is just a dark spot as the chick grows.
Get an empty metal gas can if you can find one, warm it up with 1/4" boiling water in it so they can see steam emerging, then let it cool with the cap on tight, and they will be impressed watching the vacuum inside crush the can completely within like 20 minutes. I never forgot that one.
www.mainstreetmom.com/
Valerie
Grow a Carrot Forest
Cut the tops off some carrots (unpeeled)
Place a tissue folded, onto a saucer or plate
Wet the tissue
(note** tissue should be watered daily & kept
moist at all times)
Place the carrot tops on to the tissue
Put the saucer in a sunny window and
In a week or so, you'll have started to sprout
your very own carrot forest.
You can keep this project going for quite a while as long as you keep the tissue wet.
Making Raisins
Place an assorted variety of grapes on a plate in a sunny window, and within a week or two you will see how they turn into raisins.
Gooy Cornstarch Fun
Mix up a cup of cornstarch with a cup of water and some food colouring. Blend together well and pour into a shallow container. Let the Kids see how it settles into a "solid", but when they squish it with their hands, it becomes "liquid"....this is a fun project and an easy clean up.
Have Fun!
You could do some experiments with magnets. Have them go around discovering what else besides the fridge that magnets will stick to. Also they could do a search to see where there are magnets in the house -- ie frigde seal, cupboard latches, many toys, etc. Be sure they don't put the magnets on the tv screen or computer monitor. Magnets can also damage video and audio tapes, but it usually takes a very strong magnet.
Static electricity is nifty to experiment with. Rub a balloon on your hair, and stick the balloon to the wall. Create static on a nylon comb and then attract or repell little styrofoam balls or bits of paper. A nifty trick is to stick the paper sleeve from a plastic straw to the wall after you remove it from the straw.
You could make a "volcano" with baking soda and vinegar. Or you can put some vinegar in a pop bottle -- say 1/4 cup-- and a couple tablespoons of baking soda into a balloon. Pull the top of the balloon over the top of the bottle and the baking soda will fall into the vinegar. Shake or swirl it abit to dissolve the baking soda, and the balloon will "blow itself up" as the baking soda neutralizes in the vinegar and creates carbon dioxide.
Cooking is good science for kids too. Bake something with regular yeast, so the kids can see the yeast grow in the sugar and water solution. They can smell the yeast to find out that it is giving off gas, which is what will cause their bread to rise that they will bake with you!!! Growing yeast will also blow up a balloon, but it takes a little bit longer than the baking soda and vinegar.
Have fun.
Louise, Nipawin, SK, Canada
I remember in first grade growing bean seeds in little milk cartons. It was so fun watering and watching the beans grow. We got to take them home when they got big enough.
Freeze water in large containers. When solid, pop out of the container. Tint table salt with liquid water colors and dry thoroughly. Let kids sprinkle the colored salt on to the ice. The salt creates holes and the color allows the kids to see the melting process. You will definitely hear OOOHs and AHHHS!
If you live in an area with white flowers like Queen Anne's Lace you can demonstrate osmosis by putting them in colored water.
I'd be careful to give pre-schoolers anything but BIG magnets that they can't swallow.
We like to take cornstarch and water add food coloring to it and it become ooblick. My boys have had hours of fun playing with their dinosaurs in it.
Adopt a Manatee. Go to www.savethemanatee.org. They will send you a list and a description of the manatees that need to be adopted. The manatees are usually ones that were injured by blades from boats. Then you pick one and for a small fee they will send you a birth certificate and a picture of your new family member. Gary Dominicus
Cut open a diaper and pull out the fluffy stuff mix with water and you have diaper slime, its messy but kids love that and one diaper makes a ton!
Add your voice! Click below to answer. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
