My children have gone loom band crazy. Every morning starts with a conversation about how many bands they can take to school and ends with them showing me their latest creations. Even my 3-year-old can make them! Here at Science Sparks, we like to add a bit of science fun to everything, so we brainstormed…
My 7 year old loves patterns and symmetry. When he builds a LEGO or DUPLO house they always follow either a pattern or are symmetrical. I think symmetry appeals to his mathematical brain. Today we’re sharing lots of fun ways to learn about symmetry, which might sound boring but is actually fascinating. Did you know…
We scoot to school every day. Our journey takes us along a lovely tree-lined tarmac path, uphill on the way to school and downhill on the way back. Over the last few months, the kids have made lots of observations about the ease ( or difficulty ) of scooting without realising the science behind it….
This post is all about adding a bit of science sparkle to role-play. The activities should hopefully add a stimulating and educational twist to an already fun game. My little boy is usually a bit reluctant to join in with role-play games, but if I add in a task or some props, he is much…
My 6-year-old came out of school last week incredibly happy and excited as he had spent the afternoon building a candy house. As soon as we got home, he wrote me a shopping list of what we needed to do a similar activity at home. This would also be great for a Three Little Pigs…
This baking soda powered boat is a great mini engineering challenge for kids. It involves lots of scientific thinking and is a fantastic hands-on science activity. Little scientists need to think about how the gas produced by the reaction between the baking soda and vinegar will escape and if this will be powerful enough to…
In the UK, we have chocolate covered sweets called Revels. Inside each bag are different-flavoured chocolates: Maltesers, plain chocolate, coffee, orange, toffee, and chocolate-covered raisins. They are delicious and great for a yummy sorting activity. I set the children the task of sorting the Revels into different flavours without eating them. We talked about how we…
I’ve been admiring DIY water walls on Pinterest for months, and finally got around to making one of our own. A water wall is a system that allows water to flow down a wall through various pipes, ramps and containers. We used a trellis to hold the parts and added a colour mixing segment too….
Z and I have been cycling near our house trying to see how far we could get on our bikes without peddling. We start at the top of a hill and just roll down. Z was curious as to whether we would get further on a steeper hill, so I set us the challenge of…
Today we’re looking at materials which absorb water, in particular sponges. Can you make some predictions first based on your knowledge of the materials being used, and can you design a table to record your results? Definition of Absorb Take in or soak up (energy or a liquid or other substance) by chemical or physical…
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