Light, dark and shadows
Investigate light, dark and shadows in your setting using the light box, torches, dark den and other equipment in our loans box.
Who could use this?
EYFS settings or Year 1 working on the Early Learning Goals could enhance their provision with our light, dark and shadows box. You could challenge the children in your setting to investigate, sort and trace items on the light box, use torches to make shadows in the dark den or create their own puppet show using the equipment provided.
Curriculum links
ELG: The Natural World – Understand some important processes and changes in the natural world around them, including the seasons and changing states of matter.
What’s in the box?
As well as containing a dark den and home made, easy to replicate light box, our light, dark and shadows box contains:
- Rechargeable torches
- Dark den
- Variety of lights to use in the dark den
- Home made light box
- The Black Rabbit by Phillipa Leathers
- Black Rabbit shadow puppets
Download the complete contents list here.
Careers links
The Primary Science Teaching Trust has some additional careers links you may like to look at. These are called “A scientist just like me” and introduce children to a diverse range of scientists.
The downloadable power point relevant to this box is laser physicist Professor Colin Webb.
Water
If you have no room for a water tray or would like to try some new water play equipment, we have everything you need (including the trays) in our Water loans box!
Who could use this?
EYFS settings or Year 1 working on the Early Learning Goals could enhance their provision with our Water box. You could challenge the children in your setting to use the different objects and containers to find different ways to transport water. This box suitable for extending learning inside or outside.
Curriculum links
ELG: The Natural World – Understand some important processes and changes in the natural world around them, including the seasons and changing states of matter.
What’s in the box?
As well as containing 6 large water trays (approx 1m x 50cm), our Water box contains:
- A variety of buckets, containers, sieves and spades
- Tubing
- Connecting pipes
- Different sizes syringes and pipettes
- Nets
- Fiction and non – fiction books
Download the complete contents list here.
Careers links
The Primary Science Teaching Trust has some additional careers links you may like to look at. These are called “A scientist just like me” and introduce children to a diverse range of scientists.
The downloadable power point relevant to this box is water scientist Dr Alison Parker.
Mini Beasts
Our Mini Beasts box has lots of mini beasts in resin for you to examine and sort as well as all of the equipment you will need to go outside and find your own mini beasts!
Who could use this?
This box could be used by EYFS settings to develop understanding of the natural world or for a mini beast topic. Year 1 and 2 could use this during their animals or living things and habitats topics in Science.
Curriculum links
ELG: The Natural World – Explore the natural world around them, making observations and drawing pictures of animals and plants
Year 1 Science: Animals Including Humans
- identify and name a variety of common animals
- identify and name a variety of common animals that are carnivores, herbivores and omnivores
- describe and compare the structure of a variety of common animals
Year 2 Science: Living Things and their Habitats
- explore and compare the differences between things that are living, dead, and things that have never been alive
- identify that most living things live in habitats to which they are suited and describe how different habitats provide for the basic needs of different kinds of animals and plants, and how they depend on each other
- identify and name a variety of plants and animals in their habitats, including microhabitats
- describe how animals obtain their food from plants and other animals, using the idea of a simple food chain, and identify and name different sources of food.
What’s in the box?
Our Mini Beast box contains:
- Mini beasts in resin
- Pooters
- Magnifying bug pots
- Magnifying glasses
- 3D posters of mini beasts
- 3D glasses
Download the complete contents list here.
Careers links
Download The Entomologist poster
The Primary Science Teaching Trust has some additional careers links you may like to look at. These are called “A scientist just like me” and introduce children to a diverse range of scientists.
The downloadable power point relevant to this box is ecological entomologist Dr Ben Woodcock.
Magnets
Use our magnets box to investigate magnetic and non-magnetic objects and surfaces around your setting. Use the contents to find out how magnets can pull and push. What else will you discover about magnets?
We have an EYFS magnet engineer unit with activities to accompany this box.
Curriculum links
ELG: The Natural World
Understand some important processes and changes in the natural world around them, including the seasons and changing states of matter.
What’s in the box?
Our magnets box contains:
- A wide variety of magnets
- Magnet doodle board
- Magnetic trains and track
- Magnet fishing games
- Magnetic building blocks
Download the complete contents list here.
Careers Link
Download the magnet engineer poster
Build a City
Our Build a City boxes are full of construction materials that you can use to design and build your own village, town or city. There is a selection of stories included for inspiration. What sort of environment will you create?
Who could use this?
The Build a City boxes would be perfect for enhancing role play or construction areas in EYFS and Year 1 and could be used for indoor or outdoor play. This box would support local knowledge and surroundings topics and well as topics based around buildings and structures.
Curriculum links
ELG: People, Culture and Communities – Describe their immediate environment using knowledge from observation, discussion, stories, non-fiction texts and maps;
ELG: Creating with Materials – Safely use and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques, experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and function; – Share their creations, explaining the process they have used; – Make use of props and materials when role playing characters in narratives and stories.
Key Stage 1 Human and physical geography – use basic geographical vocabulary to refer to key human features, including: city, town, village, factory, farm, house, office, port, harbour and shop
Key Stage 1 Design Technology
- Design – generate, develop, model and communicate their ideas through talking, drawing, templates, mock-ups and, where appropriate, information and communication technology
- Make – select from and use a wide range of materials and components, including construction materials, textiles and ingredients, according to their characteristics
- Evaluate – evaluate their ideas and products against design criteria
- Technical knowledge – build structures, exploring how they can be made stronger, stiffer and more stable
What’s in the box?
The box contains:
- Playmats
- Train sets
- Foam bricks
- Jigsaw road pieces
- Trundle wheels
- Tool sets and much more!
Download the complete contents list here.
Careers links
| The Primary Science Teaching Trust has some additional careers links you may like to look at. These are called “A scientist just like me” and introduce children to a diverse range of scientists.
The downloadable power points relevant to this box are civil engineers Jyoti Sehdev and Kath Waring. |
Water filters
Overview
Water must be clean so that it is safe to drink. One of the ways our water is cleaned is by filtering. In this activity you will make your own filter and clean up some dirty water, using an empty bottle and a coffee or paper filter.
This page will print, but won’t look great. Click the button for a print-friendly PDF version.
What to do
Step 1
Children in EYFS Before you start, you may want to listen to the story on the left called Hey, Water! by Antoinette Portis. This non-fiction picture books shows how water is all around us, but can take different shapes and forms.
Step 2
First make some dirty water. Collect some dirt (mud, leaves, grass, stones etc) from outside in a container. Add water and stir.
Step 3
Take the label and lid off your bottle. Squash your bottle flat about a quarter of the way from the top. Cut the top part of the bottle off.
Step 4
Put the top part of your bottle into the bottom part with the lid end facing the bottom. This will make your filter. Put your coffee filter inside your filter. If don’t have a coffee filter you can make your own, see the “Other things to try – filtering using different materials” section below.
Step 5
Carefully pour the dirty water into your filter and watch the clean water come out of the bottom of the funnel.
Step 6
Look at the difference between your dirty water and your filtered water. Is the filtered water any cleaner?
Things to discuss
Take a look at what you can see left in your filter paper. How do you think a filter works?
How it works
When you poured your mixture of dirt and water through your filter, the water could pass through the tiny gaps in the paper but the dirt (soil, grass, leaves, gravel) particles are too big and are left on the surface of the filter paper. The water that passes through the filter is called the filtrate and the dirt that is left on the filter paper is called the residue.
Although your water might look clean(er) it is still not safe to drink. You have removed some of the solid dirt, but there is still dirt in the water that you can’t see. This includes bacteria, parasites and viruses which can make you very ill.
To find out more about how our drinking water is cleaned, younger children might like to watch this episode of BBC’s Maddie do you know? and older children might like to look at the water treatment process on the Thames Water website.
Other things to try- filtering using different materials
Step 1
Choose some materials you would like to test as filters. You could try fabric, card, foil, kitchen towel- anything that you can make into a filter shape. You will need about 20cm by 20cm of each material to make your filter.
Step 2
Put the top of your bottle onto the middle of your material. Draw around the bottle leaving an extra 2 – 3cm of your material around the bottle. Cut out the circle.
Step 3
Fold the material into quarters. Open out and cut along one of the fold to the centre point.
Step 4
Slide the paper on one side of the cut on top of the paper on the other side of the cut so that a funnel is formed.
Step 5
Put the filter paper into your funnel and pour in your dirty water.
Step 6
Repeat the investigation using filters made from different materials. Remember to rinse the top and bottom of your plastic bottle filter each time so you don’t have any dirt remaining from the previous filtering. You could pour each lot of filtered water into a different container so that you can compare it at the end.
Other things to try
Record your investigation in a table
You might want to predict which material you think will make the best filter before you begin, and record which filter produced the cleanest water.
To make it a fair test, mix up a large amount of the dirty water solution before you start and pour the same amount of water into each filter paper.
Time how long it takes for each material to filter the water
Do some materials take longer than others to filter the water? Use your watch, a timer on a phone or a kitchen timer to record how long it takes to filter your water. Do the filters that take the longest produce the cleanest water?
Make a more efficient water filter
Try this homemade filter on the Lovetoknow.com website. You will need gravel, sand and activate charcoal in addition to the equipment you have been using.
What you’ll need
- An empty 2 litre pop bottle (any size will do but 2 litre is easiest to put the filter in)
- A coffee filter or circle of paper (sugar paper or an old brown envelope) with a diameter of about 20cm
- Scissors
- Dirty water (mix mud, grass, leaves and small stones from your garden with water
- An old container to mix this in
- A stirrer (a stick or old wooden spoon)
Duration
20 minutes or so.
Suitable for…
Age 3 and up.
Safety notes
You know your children better than anyone, and you should judge whether they’re ready for this activity. You might want to think in particular about:
- Supervision: you you might want to supervise children when they are cutting the bottle and watch out for sharp edges.
- Always wash hands after touching dirt and avoid touching your mouth or face.
- Thoroughly wash any containers or stirrers used in this activity before using again for other purposes.
WARNING!
Do not drink your filtered water- it needs a lot more treatment before it is safe!
Does everybody in the world have clean water to drink?
We are lucky in this country to have clean water pumped straight to our taps. Did you know that 1 in 10 people in the world don’t have running water in their houses? They need to collect it each day from rivers, ponds and lakes. This water isn’t clean or safe. It is sometimes shared with animals. It can be full of dangerous diseases.
Visit the wateraid website to find out a lack of clean water stops people from having an equal chance to be healthy, educated and financially secure.
Careers Link – Water Quality Scientist
Water quality scientists ensure water quality standards for safe drinking water are met. They test and analyse water samples and ensure these meet the water quality standards. They may specialise in working with drinking water, ground water or surface water including rivers, lakes and estuaries. Water quality scientists may need to work closely with businesses, the public or other water industry professionals.
Attributes: communicator, logical, observant
Meet Laura Wilkinson
Laura is a Technical Advisor for the waste water project team at Northumbrian Water. Watch this video to find out more about her work.
Growing seeds
Overview
Have you ever wondered what happens to seeds when we add water to them? Do you know what seeds look like as they start to grow underneath the soil? To observe this, all you need is a clear freezer bag, paper towel, staples and some seeds.
This page will print, but won’t look great. Click the button for a print-friendly PDF version.
What to do
Step 1
Before you start, you may want to listen to the story on the left called Little Cloud by Anne Booth. It is a great introduction to the water cycle and to understanding why water is so important for plants and animals to grow and survive.
Step 2
Take your sheet of paper towel and place it inside your plastic bag. Try to get it as flat as possible.
Step 3
Place your plastic bag on your stapler, with the bottom of the bag as near to the hinge as possible. Put a staple in the bag as near to the edge as you can.
Step 4
Put staples all of the way across the bag. Try to get the staples as close together as possible. This will make a ledge for the seeds to grow on. The roots should grow downwards underneath the staples and the shoots should grow upwards.
Step 5
Carefully sprinkle your seeds onto the staples. Make sure the seeds are all on the same side of the paper towel and that they are spread evenly across the bag.
Step 6
Add a small amount of water to your bag. This should all be absorbed by the paper towel.
Step 7
Put your seed bag in the light and observe the seeds each day. You could use magnets to stick your bag to your fridge or sticky tape to stick your bag to the window. Check to make sure that your paper towel remains damp.
Things to discuss
- Have the seeds changed? How have they changed?
- Can you see any shoots or roots?
- Which direction are the shoots growing in? What about the roots?
- Why do you think we need to keep the paper towel wet?
- Why do you think we need to put the bags in the sunlight?
- What else do you think the seeds need to grow?
How it works
In order for a seed to grow, it needs to germinate. For germination to happen, a seed needs water.
A seed contains an embryo, a young plant waiting to be activated to grow, and a food source, where the embryo gets it’s energy to grow. These are surrounded by the seed coat to protect them.
A seed is dormant or not active until conditions are just right for germination and for the plant to survive.
When a seed gets wet, it soaks up the water and this activates the release of energy from it’s food store. The embryo swells and gets longer.
Next, the embryo breaks through the seed coat. The root is activated and pushes downwards, then the leaves break out and the shoot is activated.
Watch the clips below to watch this happening.
Other things to try
Where is the best place for seeds to grow?
Why not investigate growing seeds in different parts of your home? You could try a putting your seeds on a window or in a room at the front and at the back of your home and record which seed bag grows fastest or which shoot grows taller. You could investigate what happens if you put your seeds in a dark cupboard. How about if you put your seed bag in the fridge or in the bathroom?
Observing clouds
You will need:
- A cloudy day
- Something to draw with (white or grey chalk is great but pencil or crayon would work too)
- Something to draw on (blue or dark coloured paper works well, but any paper or the paving works too)
- Pictures of different clouds. You can download our cloud identification guide here.
What to do:
Stand, sit or even lie down on the floor and look up into the sky and carefully draw the clouds you see. You could ask:
- What colours are the clouds?
- Are the clouds moving or still?
- What do you think is moving them?
- Can you see any shapes in the clouds?
- What do you think the clouds would feel like if you touched them?
- Do you think it is going to rain? Why?
Use the cloud guide to identify the clouds you can see. Cumulonimbus and nimbostratus are rain clouds. Do you think it will rain today?
You could also compare the drawings made of clouds on different days or make a cloud diary and record whether it rained or not that day.
What you’ll need
- A clear, plastic freezer bag- any size is fine
- One sheet of paper towel
- A stapler and staples
- Seeds
Duration
10 minutes or so plus growing time
Suitable for…
Age 3 and up
Safety notes
You know your children better than anyone, and you should judge whether they’re ready for this activity. You might want to think in particular about:
- The activity involves small items (seeds and staples) so there’s a choke hazard.
- The activity involves a plastic bag so there’s a suffocation hazard.
- Smaller children may put seeds and staples up their noses and in their ears.
- Watch out for fingers when using the stapler!
Careers link: The Meteorologist
Meteorologists need to know what the weather is doing now, calculate how this will change in the future and use their expert knowledge to refine the details. Meteorologists:
- Observe and record the weather 24 hours a day across the globe and combine this with satellite pictures to see how the Earth’s atmosphere is behaving: in terms of temperature, precipitation, air pressure and cloud cover.
- Use thermometers to measure temperature, barometers to measure air pressure and anemometers for measuring wind speed.
- Use weather balloons to measure temperature, air pressure, wind speed and wind direction in the troposphere, the lowest layer Earth’s atmosphere and where almost all weather conditions take place.
- Feed the weather data collected into a supercomputer that performs complex equations to create models that predict the future weather.
- Check their models to make sure their forecasts are going to plan and adjust them where necessary.
Did you know that some weather presenters on television and radio are meteorologists?
Constellation Tubes
Overview
Do you want to look at the stars but don’t own a telescope? Make a constellation tube and you can see the stars whenever you want to. All you need is a cardboard tube, a sharp pencil, scissors, glue and our constellation printout.
This page will print, but it doesn’t look great. Click the button above for a print-friendly PDF version.
What to do
Step 1
Before you start, you may want to listen to the story on the left called Look Up by Nathan Byron. The story is about a young girl who spends her days dreaming of the stars and sharing her passion with anyone she meets.
Step 2
Print out the constellation tube sheet. Choose a constellation pattern and cut it out.
Step 3
Use your pencil or skewer to poke through the star into your sticky tack to make a hole. Continue to poke through all of the stars in your constellation pattern.
Step 4
Glue on top of the rim of one end of your tube and stick the constellation pattern in place.
Step 5
Now look through the open end of your tube to see your constellation.
Things to discuss
- Can you see the light clearly through your holes?
- What happens if you make bigger or smaller holes?
- Look at the names of your constellations. Does the pattern you have created look like an animal or person?
How it works
In ancient times, people saw patterns of stars in the sky and told stories about them. You may have heard of some of these, such as Orion the hunter, Gemini the twins, or Taurus the bull. Different cultures had different stories about the constellations. Younger children might enjoy the song below which tells you all about this. When astronomers made maps of the stars they included these patterns on their maps and called them constellations. The individual stars in a constellation may appear to be very close to each other, but they can actually be separated by huge distances in space and have no real connection to each other at all. Different constellations can be seen depending on where you are on the Earth and different constellations can be seen at different times of the year.
Other things to try
Project your stars!
If you have a torch, you can shine this into the open end and project your constellation onto a wall.
Online planetarium
Click here to visit an online map of the sky that will show you what you can see in the sky right now. You can change the location so that the planetarium shows you the sky above your house. You could also watch the video below to find out about the night sky. Use this to help you spot stars and planets from your back garden.
What you’ll need
- A toilet or kitchen roll tube or rolled up piece of card or paper
- A print out of our constellations sheet
- Scissors
- A sharp pencil, pen or skewer to make holes
- A small lump of sticky tack, playdough or plasticine to help make holes
- Glue or sellotape
Duration
10 minutes or so.
Suitable for…
Age 3 and up.
Safety notes
You know your children better than anyone, and you should judge whether they’re ready for this activity. You might want to think in particular about:
- Supervision: a sharp pencil or scissors could cause injury.
- Glue can damage carpets.
Careers Link: The Astronomer
Astronomers are a type of scientist that study objects in space. They use telescopes, satellites and spacecraft to collect data and use this to help us understand events in the universe. Visit our Astronomer activity page for more information and activities.
Attributes: open-minded, self-motivation and patient.
If you become an astronomer, you might work in an observatory like this one in Kielder.
Make Paper Aeroplanes
Overview
In this activity, you will make planes using paper. Then you’ll test how fast and far they can fly. All you need is paper, timer, tape measure, somewhere inside to test the plane.
What you’ll need
- Paper
- Timer
- Tape measure
- A place to test the plane
Duration
20 minutes or so.
Suitable for…
Age 4 and up.
Safety notes
You know your children better than anyone, and you should judge whether they’re ready for this activity. You might want to think in particular about:
- Do not fly your plane towards someone; the front bit of the plane is pointy!
- Be cautious of the paper you are using, you could get a paper cut.
What to do
Before you start, you might want to listen to the story on the left as inspiration for your paper aeroplanes. It is called Violet the Pilot by Steve Breen. The story is about a young girl with a gift for engineering, who uses her creativity and hard work to build flying machines.
Step 1
Use a piece of A4 paper. Fold the paper in half to make a long thin rectangle. This makes a crease in the centre. Now unfold the paper. If you want to watch how to fold the plane instead, this video might help.
Step 2
Fold both top corners so that they meet the centre line.
Step 3
Fold the new left and right corners to the centre line.
Step 4
Fold plane in half from right to left.
Step 5
Now fold one edge back out to make a wing. Use your fingernail to help make the tip as pointy as possible. Turn the plane over, then fold other wing to line up with the first wing.
Step 6
The final step is to unfold the wings slightly so that it looks (a bit) like an aeroplane.
Testing the plane
You’re ready to start testing your plane.
Put your tape measure on the floor. This is your test-flight area. It’s sensible to test the planes somewhere out of the way of other people.
Stand at one end of the tape measure. Carefully launch your plane so that it flies along above the tape measure. When the plane lands, you can then measure how far it flew. You’ll need to try a few throws to get an average distance.
You can make different size planes by using smaller rectangles of paper.
Try to predict which plane will fly furthest.
Fly your aeroplanes, and record the distance of each flight to the nearest cm.
Which went farthest? Was your prediction right?
Things to discuss
You could ask questions like:
How does it work?
Other things to try
Learn how to make other paper planes such as: a Star crusher plane, Spy plane, Headhunter plane. Once you have made your planes you could test them all to see which one flew the furthest.
What you’ll need
- Paper
- Timer (a Smartphone works perfectly)
- Tape measure (you could pace out the distance instead)
- A place to test the plane
Duration
20 minutes or so.
Suitable for…
Age 4 and up.
Safety notes
You know your children better than anyone, and you should judge whether they’re ready for this activity. You might want to think in particular about:
- Do not fly your plane towards someone; the front bit of the plane is pointy!
- Be cautious of the paper you are using, you could get a paper cut.
Careers Link: Aerospace Engineer
Aerospace engineers design, build and maintain aircraft, spacecraft, satellites, and missiles. They may be involved in creating and testing prototypes, researching ways to make fuel efficient parts, developing navigation systems, or supervising the manufacture and maintenance of aircraft or spacecraft.
Attributes: creative, passionate, tenacious
Foil Boats
Overview
In this activity, you’ll build a simple boat using tin foil. Then you’ll test well it floats by adding pennies, or other small things. to see if it sinks.
All you need is tinfoil, some coins, and a container filled with water.
This page will print, but looks a little funky. Click the button for a PDF version which looks a bit better. This is a stop-gap while we work on a better solution!
What you’ll need
- Tin Foil
- Scissors (or you can tear the foil)
- Pennies (or something heavy to sink your boat)
- Shallow plastic container or a sink that can hold water (or the bath!)
- Water
- Towel
Duration
30min to an hour
Suitable for…
Age 3 and up.
Safety notes
You know your children better than anyone, and you should judge whether they’re ready for this activity. You might want to think in particular about:
- Supervision: the activity involves pennies, so there’s a choke hazard.
What to do
Step 1
Use the scissors to cut the foil into a square. If you don’t have scissors, you can carefully tear it into a square. The foil squares can be any size you like, and you don’t need to be exact. Later, you might try making another bigger or smaller boat.
Step 2
Fold the edges of the foil to form a boat shape. If you want to try out different shapes, you could use different types of boats. Or you could draw pictures of boats before you start building.
Step 3
Carefully half-fill your container with water and put it on a towel to soak up any spillages. If you’re making a bigger boat you could float it in the sink or bath.
Step 4
Gently, put your boat in the water. Well done if it floats!
Now add pennies (or other coins) one-by-one in the boat until it sinks! Make sure you count how many pennies it takes for the boat to sink, this will help you work out how good it is.
You could write down your results in a table like the one in the picture.
Step 5
Completely sunk?!
Try again.
Can you hold more coins with a different boat design?
Keep a record of your results using your table.
How does it work?
When your boat was floating on the water there was one force pulling it down due to gravity (the weight) and another pushing it up called buoyancy. To work out whether your boat floats we need to think about how heavy it is and its shape.
To start with your boat was light but it got heavier as you added pennies. So how could it hold so many pennies? The shape of the boat is important, a shape which contains lots of empty space (like a boat) will be good at floating because it’s able to push more water out of the way. This makes a bigger buoyancy force keeping the boat from sinking. But when more pennies are added, the weight of the boat becomes bigger than the buoyancy force and the boat sinks.
Things to discuss
Ask questions to get your child thinking about why objects sink or float:
- How many pennies was your boat able to hold? Did it matter how or where you placed the pennies in your boat?
- After testing your boat, did you make any changes to the shape of your boat?
- What shapes seemed to work the best?
- What could you change to make your boat hold more coins before sinking?
Other things to try
Your first boat was made of tin foil. Now try:
- Making a boat from a different material, paper, cardboard, plastic
- Making an origami boat – here’s a good video to show you how
You can test these other boats in same way, by adding pennies or small objects. Record your results so you can work out which is the best boat.
What you’ll need
- Tin Foil
- Scissors (or you can tear the foil)
- Pennies (or something heavy to sink your boat)
- Shallow plastic container or a sink that can hold water (or the bath!)
- Water
- Towel
Duration
30min to an hour
Suitable for…
Age 3 and up.
Safety notes
You know your children better than anyone, and you should judge whether they’re ready for this activity. You might want to think in particular about:
- Supervision: the activity involves pennies, so there’s a choke hazard.
Watch the story together
Sit down and watch the story ‘Who sank the boat’. If you can, find somewhere comfortable and watch it together.
Careers link – naval architect
Naval architects design, engineer and manufacture boats, ships, oil rigs… they care very much about what sorts of things float. They also sometimes care about the sorts of things that sink – naval architects design submarines, too!
Attributes:
Naval architects are curious, organised and creative.
