Early Years Science

Age 4 - 6 | Age 7 - 10 | Christmas Science | Early Years Science | Just for Fun | Scientific Enquiry | Scientific Enquiry | Sensory and Messy Play

Christmas Density Jar
ByEmma Vanstone December 20, 2014December 17, 2025

This simple science demonstration is a fantastic way to learn about density! Liquids can be stacked in a glass or jar in order of their density. As an additional challenge, children can experiment with small items to determine which floats on each layer. Christmas Density Jar You’ll need Sugar SyrupWaterFood colouringVegetable OilSmall items to test…

Read More Christmas Density Jar
Christmas Science | Early Years Science | Sensory and Messy Play

Christmas Spice Play Dough – Match the smell to the spice
ByEmma Vanstone December 1, 2014December 2, 2024

I made this fun and easy Guess the Christmas Smell Play Dough for our school Christmas Fair and the children, loved it. I laid out three different types of Christmas spice-flavoured play dough in bowls, and the Christmas spices in another, then asked the children to match the spice to the play dough. How to…

Read More Christmas Spice Play Dough – Match the smell to the spice
Early Years Science | Understanding of the World

Ice decorations
ByEmma Vanstone November 28, 2014March 29, 2022

We first saw these ice decorations a couple of years ago on Red Ted Art, but this is the first time we’ve had chance to try them for ourselves. They are super simple and look beautiful hung on a tree outside. What you need Decorations – lego, glitter, sparkly bits Freezer String Ice cube tray…

Read More Ice decorations
Age 4 - 6 | Christmas Science | Early Years Science | Just for Fun | Understanding of the World

Magnetic Olaf
ByEmma Vanstone November 21, 2014April 5, 2016

Olaf is made using the same principe as our Mini Magnet Maze and Christmas Tree. We made his buttons magnetic but you could use his eyes, nose or eyebrows. You could even make a smaller version and make Olaf’s body parts moveable. Can you think of any other Frozen crafts you could make using this method? What you…

Read More Magnetic Olaf
Age 7 - 10 | Chemistry | Pirate Science Experiments | Scientific Enquiry

Treasure maps and concentrations
ByEmma Vanstone November 16, 2014July 29, 2020

Have you ever made paper look older by soaking it in tea? We used the same idea to learn about concentrations and made treasure maps at the same time, which were great for starting to learn about directions. You could also use the opportunity to think about good experimental practice, what variables you have and which…

Read More Treasure maps and concentrations
Early Years Science | Halloween Science

Scary Vegetable Monsters
ByEmma Vanstone October 28, 2014October 2, 2024

We had to make vegetable monsters for a Halloween competition at school last week, so I took the opportunity to try and teach my youngest child the names of some vegetables and how to recognise the names when written down. We also tried a bit of weighing and measuring. The vegetable monsters all looked very…

Read More Scary Vegetable Monsters
Age 4 - 6 | Early Years Science | Halloween Science | Sensory and Messy Play

Play Dough Monsters
ByEmma Vanstone October 28, 2014April 5, 2016

My girls love play dough, both home made and the the shop bought variety. There’s something about rolling and squishing that calms them down and always leads to fun, creative play. I set up this Monster version for Halloween, using a fantastic play dough recipe from The Imagination Tree. It was ready in less than 5…

Read More Play Dough Monsters
Age 4 - 6 | Age 7 - 10 | Early Years Science | Just for Fun | Understanding of the World

Which drink makes the best bubbles?
ByEmma Vanstone October 4, 2014October 2, 2024

Like most children, if given a straw, my four will blow bubbles till the cup overflows, which gave me an idea for a fun investigation. We tried to find out which of three different drinks made the best bubbles, using it as a fun exercise in experimental design. Bubbly Drinks Challenge Find out whether purple…

Read More Which drink makes the best bubbles?
Early Years Science | Halloween Science

Guess what’s in the pumpkin
ByEmma Vanstone September 27, 2014October 2, 2024

Autumn is definitely with us, and supermarkets here have filled their shelves with lots of lovely squash varieties. We used them to make a fun ‘Guess what’s in the pumpkin’ game as a Halloween science activity. I hollowed each pumpkin out and decorated them with a pumpkin face using a crayon pen. I then filled…

Read More Guess what’s in the pumpkin
Age 4 - 6 | Christmas Science | Design and Technology | Early Years Science | Edible Science | Just for Fun | Understanding of the World

Make your own Olaf
ByEmma Vanstone September 25, 2014November 6, 2020

Do you remember when we designed a house made of sweets and tried to find the best materials for its construction? We’ve followed the same concept with this fun edible science investigation to make a marshmallow Olaf from Disney’s Frozen. What are the best sweets for Olaf? Marshmallows were the obvious choice, and we decided three…

Read More Make your own Olaf

End of content