Teaching science to kids can be creative and fun! It’s easy to make school at home interesting and interactive to inspire a love for learning. I am not a natural teacher; I am super crafty, kind of disorganized and I go with the flow but I find ways to enforce my kids’ daily routine and make our homeschool schedule work. My oldest child is in kindergarten this year and she’s been learning how to write her letters, do basic math and explore simple scientific principles. We love doing experiments with color and learning about the 5 senses! Here are a few projects we’ve enjoyed to mix up our daily homeschool routine.
Make Radial Designs with Rainbow Skittles
Kids will love watching the colors from these sweet treats flow into a radial design! For this colorful project you need a plate, a handful of Skittles and water. Arrange the Skittles candies around the edge of the plate and pour 1/8 inch of water onto the plate. The water will cause the Skittles colors to bleed and run towards the center of the plate.
Sort Salt & Pepper Using Static Electricity
You can use static electricity to sort salt and pepper with this simple kids’ science activity. Kids will also discover that salt is heavier than pepper. Blow up a balloon and rub it against something fuzzy like the arm of your sweater or the top of your head to “charge it”. Mix together a quantity of salt and pepper and hold the balloon over the mixture. The charged balloon will attract and pick up the lighter pepper and leave the heavier salt behind.
Create a Playdough Volcano Eruption
My husband helped my kids make these colorful playdough volcanoes. Kids can form a mountain shape and create a hollow in the middle of the volcano. Pour in a small quantity of vinegar, add a scoop of baking soda and watch the volcano erupt!
Explore Speed & Velocity with Water Beads
The other day we created an interactive water bead activity to explore speed and velocity. Connect several tubes of PVC pipe together to make a track and place a tub at one end. Elevate the other end of the tube and send water beads down the track! Kids will learn that water beads roll faster when the tube is elevated higher and slower when the tube angle is lowered. They can also send water beads down the track individually or pour in a whole cupful all together. We used a medium storage box at the end of the tube to keep the water beads from rolling all over the floor.
Analyze Flavors with a Taste Test
Lunchtime can be transformed into a science project with a taste test! My kids love examining different flavors and sampling an assortment of foods with a taste test. Fill a small muffin tin with a few pieces of different foods. I usually include foods such as blueberries, banana slices, pickles, ham, cheese, sour cream, olives, salsa, crackers, carrot sticks, chocolate chips, marshmallows and yogurt. My kids love identifying the different flavors as sweet, salty, spicy or sour.
Teaching my kids is much more fun for me and them if I make our school lessons interesting and fun! Of course my daughter still has to complete her schoolwork but I try to plan a few engaging educational activities per week. I hope you enjoy trying out any of these creative science projects with your kids.
Hi, I’m Katie! I live with my husband and 3 kids in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. I love Jesus, coffee, creative projects, taking photos and traveling. I’ve previously worked as a web designer, journalist and barista. I hope you enjoy our creative projects and family adventures!
thanks for the ideas, loved the taste test on and we are going to try the skittles one tomorrow.
You’re welcome! I love doing activities with my kids and it’s always a fine line between engaging them with fun projects and not creating too much of a mess. The skittles activity was super fun and colorful!