Fun Sparks: A little bit of Sparkle

Welcome back to fun sparks and this week we have another Christmasy themed post!

Today we are going to look at shiny and matte surfaces and how we can tell the difference. A really simple practical, but one that needs the ‘stuff’ and Christmas time is that perfect time of year!

Basically shiny surfaces reflect light well and matte surfaces don’t.

For this you will need:

A flashlight

Shiny items for example:

• tinsel
• foil wrapping paper
• ornaments
• metallic ribbon
• bells
• metallic Christmas cards
• glittery items.

Dull items for example:

• felt Christmas stocking
• flat toned wrapping paper
• miniature Christmas wreath
• candle
• ornaments made of fabric
• ribbon

Method

Mix the objects up on a tray and create two piles…shiny and Dull. Shine your flashlight onto each of the objects and see how well it reflects light (the light bouncing off) to see which is shiny and which is dull. It is really a very simple pre-school sorting activity, but the importance of shiny and matt surface links into thermal radiation and absorption of heat later on in teaching and we will do a practical in the new year to look at this!

So have a go and Have fun!

We’d love you  join our Science Sparks community on G+ and  follow us on  Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

If you take any videos or photos of you and your children doing any of our activities please share on G+ and tag us using #ScienceSparks. I’d love to see and share them around.