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Archive for the ‘Preschool Science’ Category

by Rachel Paxton

Wind is exciting for preschoolers to watch. It blows tree branches back and forth and chases dried leaves across the yard. Wind can also be fun to listen to – it howls, whispers and whistles. A fun preschool activity is to pretend to be the wind – but make sure there are no breakables in the area first!

Here are some easy preschool science experiments to help your child understand that wind is moving air and that air is all around us, even when we can’t see it move.

Air Takes Up Space

Here is a science experiment to show your preschooler air takes up space, even when we can’t see it.

What You Need:

2 paper napkins
Drinking glass
Deep bowl filled with water

What You Do:

Ask your preschooler what he thinks will happen if he puts a paper napkin into a bowl of water. Have him try it to see if his guess was correct.

Now, tell your child you’re going to put a paper napkin in the water and, this time, it won’t get wet.

Crumple up the paper napkin and push it to the bottom of a drinking glass.

Fill the bowl with enough water to cover the glass.

Turn the glass upside down and push it straight down into the water, so the rim of the glass touches the bottom of the bowl. Without tipping the glass, quickly pull the glass back out of the water.

Ask your preschooler to take the napkin out of the glass. The napkin is dry!

Why does your child think the napkin didn’t get wet, even though it was in the water?

You can explain that no water could get into the glass because the glass was already filled with air. Air takes up space so the water couldn’t get in and make the napkin wet.

We Can Feel Air Move

Explain to your preschooler that air is all around us, and we can feel it move on a windy day.

What You Need:

Bubble solution (recipe below)
Bubble wands
Windy day

What You Do:

Take your preschooler outside on a windy day. Bring along the bubble solution and bubble wands.

Blow bubbles together, and watch where the wind takes them!

Wind makes the bubbles move. Which direction is the wind blowing today?

Recipe for Bubble Solution

1/2 cup dishwashing liquid (Joy works best)
4 1/2 cups water
4 tablespoons glycerin
A large covered container

Mix the dishwashing detergent, water, and glycerin in a large container. Keep the mixture covered until you’re ready to use.

When it’s time to blow bubbles, pour some bubble solution into a shallow container. Dip bubble wands into the solution and blow. If you don’t have bubble wands, cookie cutters work well too.

Copyright 2008, Christian-Parent.com. This article may not be reprinted.

Wind resources: Feel the Wind by Arthur Dorros and Can You See the Wind? by Allan Fowler

by Rachel Paxton

Does your preschooler know what wind is? You can explain that air is all around us, and we can feel it move on a windy day.

Before you complete the following preschool science experiments, you may want to introduce the topic by reading some books about wind to your child. One good book about wind is The Wind Blew by Pat Hutchins. Another is Gilberto and the Wind by Marie Hall Ets.

Here are two preschool science experiments to help your child observe what wind does and discover how wind makes things move.

Make a Windy Day

In this experiment, you will help your child explore how air moves and observe how wind affects a variety of objects.

What You Need:

• Fan
• Various small objects of different weights and sizes, such as paper, feather, string, ribbon, a small ball

What You Do:

Set up the fan and place the objects in a tray or box beside you.

Ask your child to think about what wind does to objects outside. Has he seen a ball blow out of someone’s yard, or a hat blow off someone’s head? That was wind.

Explain that you are going to hold some objects in front of the fan. Together you will watch to see which objects are easily moved by wind, and which aren’t.

Pick up one object at a time, or let your preschooler choose the objects, and ask your child if he thinks the wind will make it move.

Then turn on the fan, and find out if your child’s guess was correct. You may want to try different fan speeds and see if that changes the results.

Continue until you run out of items, or until your child loses interest in the experiment.

What You Learned:

Wind makes things move.

Wind affects different objects in different ways.

Make a Windy Picture

In this next activity, your child can pretend to be the wind and explore how wind makes clouds move across the sky.

What You Need:

• Thin white paint
• Blue paper

What You Do:

Place a small amount of white paint on the blue paper. Tell your preschooler the white paint is a white cloud in the blue sky.

Have your child blow gently on the paint, like a breeze. Together, watch how the paint moves across the paper. Look for pictures in the in the clouds your child makes.

What You Learned:

Wind makes the clouds move across the sky.

Copyright 2008, Christian-Parent.com. This article may not be reprinted.

Wind resources: Feel the Wind by Arthur Dorros and Can You See the Wind? by Allan Fowler