This is a really fun way to learn about magnetism. First, have a play to find out which objects stick to your magnets, what do you notice about them? Can you gather together a set of objects and predict which will stick to your magnet? Remember – not all metals are attracted to magnets, but…
We LOVE Dr Seuss, especially The Lorax, which always leads to lots of lovely chat about the environment and how we can be more mindful of our planet. It’s hard to believe that The Lorax is over 40 years old, and its environmental message is even more poignant today than ever. This collection of Lorax…
Following on from our solar system-themed activities is this easy layers of the Earth model made with play dough. My 7-year-old wasn’t very impressed when I showed him my composition of the Earth model, but once I carved it open, he declared it to be ‘quite cool’. It’s not perfect and not really to scale…
I think our garden zip line using teddies is one of my favourite activities we’ve ever done, just because it’s so adaptable to children of all ages and abilities. My 4-year-old uses it as a big imaginative game, talking to her teddies, telling them not to be scared and lining them up so everyone gets…
This week, my 6-year-old has been enthusiastically learning about the solar system and the Earth’s orbit around the sun. However, she has been struggling to understand the difference between stars, planets, and moons. To help her understand, we tried a fun demonstration in the garden. Sun, Moon and Earth Orbit Demonstration First, I made simple…
A shoebox catapult is a fun way to learn about elasticity, elastic energy, potential energy and kinetic energy. Children can experiment with different size and shape objects to catapult and with how far they push down the catapult arm. Shoebox catapults are a great activity for practising correct scientific procedures or as a fun engineering project. How…
First up in our coding for kids series is practice at writing instructions. This is a really simple activity with potentially very funny results. I asked my 7 year old to write me two sets of instructions, one for packing his bag for swimming and one for making his favourite sandwich. He did really well, but…
I’m super pleased to be joining the A-Z STEM series again today with a post on science experiment safety. Although the experiments and activities on Science Sparks are very unlikely to cause any harm, proper care should be taken at all times, especially when working with very young children or when using a heat source….
Computer code is everywhere: in electronic games, this website, and tills at the supermarket. Even though you can’t see it, computer code is a huge part of our world, so it is important to introduce children to the key principles of computer science from a young age. The actual concepts involved in computer coding aim…
Welcome to another post from the A-Z STEM series. Today we’re learning about patterns. Â What is a pattern? A pattern is a repeating symbol, shape or picture which can be easily repeated many times. The design is often influenced by nature. Can you see the pattern in our beetroot slice? Ideas for making patterns For…
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