We are still really enjoying our new science curriculum, CKE Earth & Space. In the past few weeks, we’ve been learning about the Earth’s layers (you can see our Layers of the Earth model here), tectonic plates, volcanoes, and earthquakes. This was one of the hands-on activities suggested to go with the teaching on earthquakes.

Materials needed:

metal cookie sheet
wooden blocks
Lego bricks

First the kids constructed a tower on the cookie sheet using the wooden blocks. Then two of the girls sat on either side of the cookie sheet and shook it as if there were an earthquake. Not surprisingly, the tower crumbled with very little shaking and the blocks fell.

The metal cookie tray is meant to represent a tectonic plate and the shaking represents the shifting that happens with an earthquake.

Next, we all worked together to construct a tower with interlocking Lego blocks. The kids, our boys especially, are always excited when Lego and school collide! We made it approximately the same height and shape as the wooden block tower. It took much longer of course to make the Lego brick tower, which led to a discussion about how sometimes doing things the right way takes more time.

We set the new tower on the cookie sheet and the same two girls got on either side (in order for the experiment to be as scientific as possible, we wanted to use the same people so they could attempt to create the same earthquake force). At first, the girls recreated the same shaking they had the first time and the tower stayed intact.

They became more and more forceful with the shaking, eventually lifting the tray up and banging it up and down as well as side to side before they were able to knock the tower over and dislodge a few of the bricks.

This simple earthquake experiment was an easy way to demonstrate to the kids why buildings in earthquake prone areas need to be built differently to withstand the fallout of the quakes.

If you are looking for other hands-on Science activities for learning about the Earth, you may be interested in following my CKE Earth & Space Pinterest board.

Follow Sharla Kostelyk’s board CKE Earth & Space on Pinterest.

Layers of the Earth Hands-On Science Activity

Make Your Own Windsock

10 Jello Science Experiments

A few weeks ago, the kids were learning about wind turbines in homeschooling. This naturally led to some discussion on wind direction and wind speed, so I decided that we should make a windsock to help demonstrate both concepts.

I was able to use items that we had around the house already which not only make this project inexpensive (free actually!), it also had the added element of making it a reuse project as well.

Materials needed:

1. one large blue recycle bag
2. one empty plastic container such as a yogourt or sour cream tub
3. clear packing tape
4. string or yarn
5. optional: ribbon or streamers to decorate

Note: you will also need scissors and either a hole punch or the tip of a sharp pencil

Instructions to make your own windsock:

1. Cut the rim off an empty plastic yogourt or sour cream container to create a ring (see picture below).
2. Lay out a blue recycle bag and keeping one corner intact, cut it into a large triangle. You will now have a blue cone.
3. Put the cone into the ring you created with the open side up, pulling almost all the way through. Wrap the edge of the bag over the ring and tape into place with clear packing tape.
4. Snip the end off the corner on the bag (now the end of the cone) so that the wind can pass through.
5. Hole punch the bag right near the ring. If you don’t have a hole punch, you can use the tip of a pencil.
6. Loop a piece of string around the ring (which now has the blue bag attached) through the hole you just made and tie a double knot. Leave a long end on the string.
7. Tie the long end of the string to a post or high railing outside.

Now that your windsock is assembled, you can use it to observe and record wind speed and wind direction. The wind direction will be the opposite of the direction the windsock is pointing. So if the cone is pointing north, the wind is blowing south. This is a great way to also talk about compasses and to have your kids get some practise with direction.

Wind speed can be gauged by the windsock’s angle relative to the pole it is attached to. When there is very little wind, the windsocks droops and at high wind speed, it flies horizontally.

This homemade windsock obviously won’t be as accurate as the real ones, but it will give kids the chance to observe and make record of their observations from day to day or even compare wind speed or direction at different times of the day and see if they can find any patterns. This can create many different science experiments as their interest is peaked.

My kids were surprised at how easy it was to make our DIY windsock. I was surprised that it actually worked!

If you are looking for more easy science experiments to do with your kids, you may want to follow my Simple Science board on Pinterest.

Follow Sharla Kostelyk’s board Simple Science on Pinterest.

This year, we have been using a new (to us) science curriculum, CKE Earth & Space, and are really liking it so far. I’ve been looking for years to find a science program that would work well to teach multiple ages at the same time and we have finally found it!

The program is laid out so that there is a teaching time and a hands-on time. The kids also have notebooks that correspond with what they are learning. It’s working really well for us. They like the hands-on activities the best.

The most recent lesson was on the structure of the Earth. There were several hands-on activities suggested in the CKE book, including this one for demonstrating the layers of the Earth.

To create this 3D model of the layers of the Earth, you will need 5 colours of modelling clay and waxed dental floss.

Form a ball to represent the inner core. We chose red to represent the intense heat of the inner core.

Next, roll out a circle of another colour and wrap around the ball and roll gently. This next layer represents the outer core.

Each subsequent colour will need more modelling clay than the last. You will need a colour to represent the lower mantle, another for the upper mantle, and the outer layer for the crust.

You will not want to press the layers too firmly together so that the colours don’t mix.

Once your ball of 5 layers of modelling clay is complete, use a piece of waxed dental floss to cut the ball down the middle, revealing all the layers underneath.

The CKE notebook also includes a diagram to go along with this lesson that my kids were able to colour when we completed our 3D model. This way, they could use the same colours as the modelling clay that we used to further reinforce what they had learned.

If you are looking for other hands-on Science activities for learning about the Earth, you may be interested in following my CKE Earth & Space Pinterest board.

Follow Sharla Kostelyk’s board CKE Earth & Space on Pinterest.

Science can be fun and it doesn’t have to be complicated. This simple experiment allowed me to introduce several new science concepts to the kids.

For this experiment, you only need 2 items: a container (we tried using a glass container and a tall plastic cup and we preferred the glass container as it made more noise which contributed to the fun factor!) and a long string of plastic beads or a beaded garland. You can achieve this by using beaded necklaces (I bought mine at the dollar store) and cutting them once to form a single strand and then tying them together to create a long strand.

Put a piece of tape on each end of your beads. I used clear packing tape but I’m sure that any type of tape would be fine.

The experiment is so simple. Place the strand of beads into the container, ensuring that it doesn’t get tangled, hold it up and give the end of the strand a slight tug, causing the strand to begin falling. Before long, instead of falling straight down, you will see the beads begin to arch upwards. It is so cool!

This experiment depicts Newton’s law of inertia (Newton’s first law) which is basically that objects at rest have a tendency to stay at rest while objects in motion have a tendency to stay in motion.

I also used this experiment to talk to my kids about momentum. To give a further demonstration of momentum, I had them begin running and then suddenly told them to stop so that they could see that their body continued to propel forward. They found this to be quite a fun demonstration as well!

This video shows our gravity defying bead experiment. First, Snuggle Puppy is holding the container and then Granola Girl (who has a really funny reaction to watching the beads go higher and higher!). I’ve also put Granola Girl’s in slow motion to better show how it works.

If you are interested in other easy hands-on science activities, you may want to follow my Simple Science board on Pinterest or check out our other simple science for kids ideas.