Build an adventure park for ants and present it to the others.

(You can also build the adventure park during a forest outing, using cones, stones and other natural materials. Indoors, you can build the adventure park out of Lego, for example.)

Why not at the same time let the children make a promotional campaign for why the ants should choose their adventure course?

We thank MOI – Monilukutaitoa opitaan ilolla for the tip.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Some insect ideas to tinker with:

• Haltia has some nice cards that if printed double-sided should have a picture of an insect on one side and a short description on the other. Might be something to take on a forest outing. Haltias card (PDF, 2MB)
• If you want to make insect crafts, check out this Finnish site: https://sarjakuvakeskus.fi/kurssit/kurssit/10-lasten-kurssit/1269-lastenlauantai-25-4-oetoekaet-etaetehtaevae
• And finally, an insect-style memory where the cards move around can be found in the app: Insects and Bugs for Toddlers and Kids

When children have limited social interaction, it’s harder for them to take on the perspective of others, which is an important way children build empathy. This activity introduces a creative way to get children to put themselves in another’s “shoes.”

Instructions

1. Ask children to come up with a list of at least three animals that walk or run. For example, a caterpillar, a crab, and a giraffe.
2. Invite children to move across the room as each of those three animals.
3. When all children have had a turn acting like each animal, spend some time reflecting as a group.

Consider asking these questions:

• How did you move your body differently to match each animal’s movement?
• How does crossing the room like this make you think differently?
• What about the animal’s walk was different from the way you normally walk?

Thanks Bay Area Discovery Museum for the idea!

• Cut clouds, sun and raindrops from felt fabric.
• Glue them on a fabric bag with textile glue.
• Paint different weather symbols on the stones and put them in the bag.
• Let the children pick a stone from the bag and come up with a story from the picture on the stone; for example, about a sunny day or a snowfall. What is the weather like? What is being put on? Are there any animals outside?

A small idea for when you go on an excursion.

Take an empty egg carton with task cards stuck on top. Then let them add in what the card shows. It could be putting in the same things, the same number, colour, shape, or maybe even something that starts with the same letter.

Materials to Make a Simple Paper Kite:

• Printer paper
• Scissors
• Yarn (This worked ok with me, but I wish I used a lighter string.)
• Tape
• Popsicle Stick
• Markers
• Hole Puncher
• Stapler
• Ruler

 

Directions to Make a Simple Paper Kite: 

 

1. Draw a design on both sides of your paper.  (Chuck and I did this collaboratively.)

   2.  Fold your paper in half. (Half the length.)

   3.  Using your ruler, make a mark at 2 1/2 ” and a mark at  3 1/2″ on the folded edge.

   4.  Now curve both corners of your paper down and staple them at the 2 1/2″ mark. (Don’t fold them down, make sure the paper is curved.) Your kite should now look like this.

5. Punch at hole at the 3 1/2″ mark.  Then, cut a long piece of string and tie it to your kite.

   6.  Tape the other end of your string down to a popsicle stick.  Wind your excess string around the Popsicle stick so it doesn’t get tangled.

Now  go fly your own kite!    It takes a strong gust of wind to lift your kite, but if you run around (or ride your bicycle really fast), your kite will float along beside you too.

Explore together concepts such as heavy and light, or heavier and lighter, using (unused) face masks.
Ok. You’ll need a clothes hanger too. And the face masks can be replaced with two equal-sized cans with handles if you want.
Hang one face mask on each end of the hanger. Be careful that they hang the same distance from the middle to get an accurate scale.
Then you can start compare different things. You can start by letting the children feel each hand and guess which one is heavier. First perhaps with things that have a little more difference, a raisin and an apple then you can try things closer together.
For a bigger challenge, swap the clothes hanger for a stick and work together to get the empty scale balanced first.

What you’ll need

• old pair of cotton socks
• plastic bags
• water
• tape

What to do

Instead of putting seeds into the bag, running around in socks is how they’ll collect the seeds – directly from nature. Depending on your location and where you want to do your “collecting,” you can decide whether to let the kids just wear socks or whether you want to put the socks over their shoes. If you’re just running around your yard or neighborhood, I suggest the former. If you want to take a long hike, I’d suggest the latter. Both are pretty fun for kids!

Start by having the kids put on a pair of old socks (on their feet or over shoes). Next, since you want the seeds to stick, get the socks wet. Have the kids step in a bucket of water or just spray their feet with the hose. Once their socks are wet, set the kids loose!

Encourage them to explore wooded areas, under trees and bushes and other low traffic areas. Make sure they squish their feet into the ground to pick up as many seeds as possible. Step on dandelions, shuffle through fallen leaves, walk gently through the garden. Finally, have them find a muddy area to squish their feet in! This will pick up a bit of dirt to help the seeds grow.

When the socks are nice and filthy, take them off and place each one in a plastic bag. Tape the plastic bag to a window that gets a good amount of daily sunlight. If the socks feel dry, add a small amount of water. Now all you have to do is wait!

When they’ll sprout

Within a few days, you should notice some sprouting. By two weeks, your socks should have some serious blooms.

If at first you don’t succeed, try it again.

Grow your socks

Growing your socks is such a fun and easy science project for kids. It teaches them all about germination and what plants need to grow. You can experiment by growing socks from various locations to see the differences in the types of plants you get. If you want to go a step further, try identifying the sprouts you’re growing and figure out what each plant will look like when fully grown.

 

 That is the Question!

Introduction

Have you ever found an egg in your refrigerator and wondered if it was cooked? Although eggs drastically change inside their shells when cooked, it is still remarkably difficult to distinguish a cooked egg from a raw one without cracking it open. In this activity, you will find out how physics can help you tell the difference!

Materials

• At least six chicken eggs similar in size and color
• Sauce pan
• Stove (Use caution and ask an adult to help you use the stove and handle hot items in this activity.)
• Water
• Timer
• Slotted spoon
• Pencil
• Two small plates
• Sheet of paper

Prep Work

1. Place three eggs in the saucepan. Add enough water so there is half an inch covering the eggs. Put the saucepan on the stove.
2. Heat the water until it comes to a rapid boil and keep it boiling for seven minutes.
   How do you think the eggs are changing during this time?
3. Turn off the heat.
4. Use the slotted spoon to take one egg at a time out of the hot water, rinse it under running cold water (optional), and store it in a safe place where it can cool completely.
5. Use a pencil to make a small mark on the three raw eggs. Keep the mark subtle, as this will make it easier to test your ideas in an unbiased way.
6. Store the raw eggs together with the cooked ones. This ensures that all eggs are at the same temperature when you start experimenting.

Procedure

1. Choose a raw egg and crack it open on a plate.
   How does the content of the raw egg look?
2. Repeat the first step with a cooked egg.
   How does the content of a cooked egg differ from that of a raw egg?

The goal of this activity is to find a test that can identify whether an egg is cooked or raw without cracking the shell.

What are your ideas?

1. Choose one cooked and one raw egg from the four uncracked eggs that are left. Put the other pair of eggs aside for now.
2. If you find a difference, note it on your sheet of paper. Remember there is a mark on the raw egg. This will help you identify which type shows a particular characteristic.
3. Look at the eggs, smell them, and weigh them in your hands.

Does one look different, smell different, or seem heavier than the other?

1. Gently tap your pencil against the cooked and raw egg and listen.
   Can you hear a difference?
2. Shake the eggs one at a time close to your ear.
   Can you hear which one is raw?
3. Put one egg on its tip and spin it. Lay it flat and spin it. Try it a few times before switching to the other egg.
   Does one spin more easily than the other?
4. Perform any other test or look for any other distinguishing characteristics you can think of.
5. Review your notes.
   Did you find differences? If so, do you think this difference appears because one of the eggs is cooked and the other is not? Why or why not?
6. If you found one or several differences between the raw and cooked egg, test if these differences also appear in your last pair of eggs. Try not to look at the little mark on the raw egg while doing the test.

Does this difference distinguish the raw from the cooked egg in this pair, too? If you found a difference that held up for both pairs, do you think it can differentiate all cooked eggs from raw eggs? Why do you think the differences occur?

What Happened?

Did you notice that the inside of a raw egg is liquid, while the inside of a cooked egg is solid? It was probably impossible to tell the difference without cracking the shell until you tried to spin the egg. Even though it is difficult to spin a cooked egg, spinning a raw egg was probably much harder. This is expected.

When you boil an egg, the inside becomes solid. It does not change how the egg looks or its odor, so you cannot see or smell the difference. Shaking a raw egg does not make a sloshing sound because the liquid in the egg is contained in a membrane and only a small air bubble is present. Neither egg is hollow, so tapping it does not produce a clear audible difference.

You can tell the difference between a cooked and a raw egg by spinning it: a cooked egg is easier to spin. As the inside of a cooked egg is solid, the particles inside cannot move around relative to each other or the shell. The whole egg moves in unison. When you spin the cooked egg by twisting its shell, the hole inside moves along with the shell. In a raw egg, the inside is still liquid. The particles that make up the liquid can slide and move around relative to each other and the shell. When you spin the shell of the raw egg, the liquid inside does not start spinning right away—it needs some time to ”catch up,” and friction between the shell and the liquid slows down the spinning motion. Since it is easier to balance an egg on its tip by spinning it faster, this also makes cooked eggs easier to balance than raw eggs. It also helps that the inside of the cooked egg is less wobbly since it does not move around (its center of mass is fixed).

SUITABLE PLACE:
At the table with access to sink and water. (Or out in the rain?)

MATERIAL
Two identical glasses for each child, a teaspoon of metal and preferably several small jugs of water, which the children themselves can pour out.

DESCRIPTION
Before starting to explain briefly: ”We will learn new words with the help of water in glasses- We will learn words like more, less and as much. You will get two glasses each a small jug of water. First you will fill your glass, so that there is the same amount of water in both- ”When the children are done with this, we see if some children have the same amount, if some have less, etc.- By using the teaspoon we can hear if there is the same amount of water in all the glasses – does it sound the same?

VARIATION
Feel free to do the same activity in other words, such as higher, lower and equally high.