Very basic science type experiements for a 5yo please

[HappyAsEyeAm]

Can anyone recommend anything please? It has to be basic and preferably have instant results (rather than say leaving it on the windowsill for a fortnight). As much mixing and adding various things as possible

[AngryPrincess]

You could give them a magnet and get them to test what things around the house are magnetic and which are not, get them to guess first.
You can give them a bowl of water and get them to test what things dissolve and which don't.
And get some soapy water and see which utensils are good for blowing bubbles.
I like leaving some celery in water with food colouring. You can cut the celery and see where the water goes up the stem.

[TheSporkforeatingkyriarchy]

I recommend The Happy Scientist which has a lot of experiments divided by interest as well as age as in the link I gave by grade group, the kindergarten level has quite a few mentioned here and some more.

[AmyMumsnet]

Hi there,

We've moved this thread to education so you don't lose your great ideas. Hope that's okay!

[CheckpointCharlie]

Make bubble mixture. Washing up liquid, a few drops of glycerin and water, you could experiment with quantities of each one, (more glycerine will make mega strong bubbles) you could make different blowers, eg with pipe cleaners etc.

[Noggie]

Get a little bottle of sparkling water- have a gulg then pop some raisins in and watch them 'dance' up.....

[BikeRunSki]

The book people have got anUsborne book at tge moment called Junior Science Encyclopedia or something.it's £4 andhas home science experiment ideas.

We play a game called "Sink or Float" where we get things of similar shape and size, but different material (metal spoon , plastic spoon; golf ball, ping pong ball) and a big bowl of water and guess if they are going to sink or float before we put them in the bucket.

[YoullNeedATray]

Make ice cream! www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/~/media/Educators/Educators_downloads/icecream_in_bag.ashx

Lots of other ideas here if they've not already been linked. www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/educators/teaching_resources/activities.aspx

[DisgraceToTheYChromosome]

Get an oscilloscope app and measure the frequencies generated by blowing over the tops of various sized bottles.

[NotCitrus]

Possibly for the summer - study centrifugal forces by filling a bucket of water and swinging it round over your head.
Make a toy roundabout and have fun flinging Lego people off it as you spin it.
Balancing lots of coins on a see-saw - challenge.them to balance the thing when you put a number of coins in one place, but they can't just do the same.

Sieving soil or sand or compost with a colander and sieve to see what size bits are there.
And the classic sending them on a ladybird/woodlouse hunt in the garden (while you have a cup of tea)

[Allthingsprettyreturns]

Google bird in a cage optical illusion or stick it in you tube

The diet and non diet drinks experimemt is easy.

Get your ds to guess which cans will float or not. Sugary ones will sink and diet ones will float

[Mumoftwoyoungkids]

This is brilliant! Marking place.

Put lemon juice and bicarbonate of soda in a film canister, put the lid on and give it a shake. Then run very far away as the lid is likely to shoot off at serious speed. (To be done outside, with lots of supervision and preferably safety specs!) Alternatively (and much much safer) put a balloon over the canister rather than the lid and watch the balloon blow up all by itself!

If anyone lives near Cambridge have a look at this site for something sciencey and fabulous on the 15th March. My best friend ran this back in the late 90s and I fell in love with my dh watching him demonstrate the lemon juice experiment to a really cute little boy.

www.chaosscience.org.uk/

[Opheliabumps]

This is fab, it's got to go into classics! My DC have just finished half term, but now I can't wait for the Easter holidays to try some of these.

[Farrowandbawl]

Make a cornflake move about in milk using only a magnet.

The iron in the cereal is attracted to the magnet so you can chase it around the bowl.

[CaffeinatedKitten]

Make ice without a freezer. In a big bowl, mix lots and lots and lots of salt and water. In a smaller bowl put plain water and sit it in the big bowl, making sure no salt water enters it. The water in the smaller bowl will start to crystallise:)

[Weliveinabeautifulworld]

During the summer you could teach him the difference between solid and liquid by making ice-lollies :)

[BoulevardOfBrokenSleep]

Great thread - hope you don't mind, have asked MNHQ to move it so it doesn't disappear (it might take me more than 90 days to get round to some of these )

[slug]

Once you've done the volcano experiment, use the same principals to make honeycomb

[ReadyToPopAndFresh]

torando in a bottle! www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/tornado-in-a-bottle

oil and water

www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/oil-and-water

[HappyAsEyeAm]

Oh wow. Thanks very much everyone for all the ideas.

[Penguin0fMadagascar]

Ooh just thought of another - the "floating arms" experiment. Stand in a doorway with your arms by your sides, then raise them so that the backs of your hands press against the frame. Push outwards as hard as you can and count to 30. Then step out of the doorway - your arms will float upwards without any effort from you because your triceps will continue to contract. Not sure how well this will work with a 5-year old as they may struggle to reach the doorframe or to stand still for 30 seconds!

[zommerslefteyeball]

my 5yr old was amused for half a day with just the "will it float or sink" game by finding something to put in a bowl of water.
Obv. some supervision is needed before they put an ipod in there though!

[SundaySimmons]

Bend a Straw with Your Eyes

Using the power of your eyes, bend a straw sitting in half a glass of water without even touching it! It sounds like magic but it's really another amazing scientific principle at work.



What you'll need:

A glass half filled with water
A straw
2 eyes (preferably yours)


Instructions:

Look at the straw from the top and bottom of the glass.
Look at the straw from the side of the glass, focus on the point where the straw enters the water, what is strange about what you see?


What's happening?

Our eyes are using light to see various objects all the time, but when this light travels through different mediums (such as water & air) it changes direction slightly. Light refracts (or bends) when it passes from water to air. The straw looks bent because you are seeing the bottom part through the water and air but the top part through the air only. Air has a refractive index of around 1.0003 while water has a refractive index of about 1.33.

[SundaySimmons]

Test Your Dominant Side

Check out this cool experiment that will teach you more about how your body and brain work together. Test your dominant side by completing a series of challenges. Which hand do you write with? Which foot do you kick with? Do you have a dominant eye? Do you throw with one side of your body but kick with the other? Are you ambidextrous? Answer these questions and much more with this fun science experiment for kids.




What you'll need:

A pen or pencil
Paper or a notepad to write your findings on
An empty tube (an old paper towel tube is good)
A cup of water
A small ball (or something soft you can throw)


Instructions:

Write ‘left’ or ‘right’ next to each task depending on what side you used/favored.
When you’ve finished all the challenges review your results and make your own conclusions about which is your dominant eye, hand and foot.


Eye tests:

Which eye do you use to wink?
Which eye do you use to look through the empty tube?
Extend your arms in front of your body. Make a triangle shape using your fore fingers and thumbs. Bring your hands together, making the triangle smaller (about the size of a coin is good). Find a small object in the room and focus on it through the hole in your hands (using both eyes). Try closing just your left eye and then just your right, if your view of the object changed when you closed your left eye mark down ‘left’, if it changed when you closed your right eye mark down ‘right’.


Hand/Arm tests:

Which hand do you use to write?
Pick up the cup of water, which hand did you use?
Throw the ball, which arm did you use?


Foot/Leg tests:

Run forward and jump off one leg, which did you jump off?
Drop the ball on the ground and kick it, which foot did you use?


What's happening?

So what side do you favor? Are you left handed or right handed? Left footed or right footed? Is your right eye dominant or is it your left?

Around 90% of the world’s population is right handed. Why most people favor the right side is not completely understood by scientists. Some think that the reason is related to which side of your brain you use for language. The right side of your body is controlled by the left side of your brain, and in around 90% of people the left side of the brain also controls language.

Others think the reason might have more to do with culture. The word ‘right’ is associated being correct and doing the right thing while the word ‘left’ originally meant ‘weak’. Favoring the right hand may have become a social development as more children were taught important skills by right handed people and various tools were designed to be used with the right hand.

Around 80% of people are right footed and 70% favor their right eye. These percentages are lower than those who are right handed and this could be because your body has more freedom of choice in choosing its favored foot and eye than that of its favored hand. In other words you are more likely to be trained to use your right hand than your right foot and even more so than your right eye.

It’s not strange to find people who favor the opposite hand and foot (e.g. left hand and right foot), and some people are lucky enough to be ambidextrous, meaning they can use their left and right sides with equal skill.

Try testing others and coming to your on conclusions about what side the human body favors and why.

Extra: Are you more likely to be left handed if one of your parents is left handed? What are some of the possible disadvantages for left handed people? (Tools, writing materials etc) Do left handed people have an advantage in sports?

Interesting fact: In 2009, only 7% of the players in the NBA were left handed while in 2008 around 26% of MLB pitchers were left handed.

Is it better to be left handed in some sports than others? What do you think?

[SundaySimmons]

Invisible Ink with Lemon Juice

Making invisible ink is a lot of fun, you can pretend you are a secret agent as you keep all your secret codes and messages hidden from others. All you need is some basic household objects and the hidden power of lemon juice.







What you'll need:

Half a lemon
Water
Spoon
Bowl
Cotton bud
White paper
Lamp or other light bulb


Instructions:

Squeeze some lemon juice into the bowl and add a few drops of water.
Mix the water and lemon juice with the spoon.
Dip the cotton bud into the mixture and write a message onto the white paper.
Wait for the juice to dry so it becomes completely invisible.
When you are ready to read your secret message or show it to someone else, heat the paper by holding it close to a light bulb.


What's happening?

Lemon juice is an organic substance that oxidizes and turns brown when heated. Diluting the lemon juice in water makes it very hard to notice when you apply it the paper, no one will be aware of its presence until it is heated and the secret message is revealed. Other substances which work in the same way include orange juice, honey, milk, onion juice, vinegar and wine. Invisible ink can also be made using chemical reactions or by viewing certain liquids under ultraviolet (UV) light.