Preschool Science Experiments

This is lesson plans for 2 days of preschool science. The children were ages 3 and 4. All of the links will take you to other posts within ldscraftproject and give you directions and pictures on how to do the experiment.

Preschool Ideas: Science day 1

Objective: To help the children experiment and see reactions.

Lesson Plan: April 23 & 24  Letter “S” Science

Gathering (9-9:15): Day 1: Color mixing in Ziplocs on table

Weather/Calendar/Letter/Song(9:15-9:25): Letter S-Fridge Alphabet letter “S”,

The E says “s” the S says “s” every letter makes a sound the S says “s” (also letters M-Matthew, D-Dexter, T-Tyson, H-Hope, W-Whitney, L-Lydia)

Lesson & Activity (9:25-10): Discuss what experimenting is and what happened when mixing the colors, what they thought might happen and what did.

• Lava lamps


• Baking soda, colored vinegar, droppers, foil pans


• Colored milkn8

Snack (10-10:10):

• Strawberry or chocolate milk (let the kids mix their own and watch the milk change colors


• Graham crackers, marshmallows,

Music/Movement (10:10-10:25): Primary songs,

Book (10:25-10:40) Books on color: Mouse Paint, A color of his own, A bad case of stripes

Free Time(10:40-pick up): Outside time

 

Preschool Ideas: Science day 2

Lesson Plan: April 23 & 24  Letter “S” Science

Gathering (9-9:15): Day 2:  Crystal trees, balloons with pennies

Weather/Calendar/Letter/Song(9:15-9:25): Letter S-Fridge Alphabet letter “S”,

The E says “s” the S says “s” every letter makes a sound the S says “s” (also letters M-Matthew, D-Dexter, T-Tyson, H-Hope, W-Whitney, L-Lydia)

Lesson & Activity (9:25-10): Discuss what experimenting is and what happened when mixing the colors, what they thought might happen and what did.

• Sharpies, Fabric, Cups, Rubber bands, Alcohol, droppers


• Grow sponge animals


• Elephant Toothpaste


• Growing Soap

Snack (10-10:10):

• Ziploc bag slushies


• Graham crackers, marshmallows,

Music/Movement (10:10-10:25): Primary songs,

Book (10:25-10:40) Books on color: Mouse Paint, A color of his own, A bad case of stripes

Free Time(10:40-pick up): Outside Time

Preschool Science Slushie Drinks

For snack time we made homemade slushies today. Super yummy and super easy. Only a few ingredients needed and a few minutes squishing a bag! Here's what you need:

• 2 cups Ice


• 1/2 cup rock salt (found near homemade ice cream makers)


• 3/4 to 1 Cup Soda or juice already cold (this just makes the process quicker if it has already been in the refrigerator)


• Quart ziploc


• Sandwich ziploc


• straws or spoons

Place the ice & rock salt in the quart ziploc bag. Pour soda or juice in the sandwich ziploc and seal the bag. Place the sandwich bag in the quart bag and seal. Start squishing! It only took the kids about 5 minutes before they were enjoying a homemade slushie!!



We drank right out of the bag with a straw or used a spoon to eat it!

Preschool Science Growing Soap

Did you know Ivory bar soap grows? All you need is a bar of Ivory Soap and a piece of wax or parchment paper. Place the soap on the wax paper and microwave for about 2 minutes. Be sure to watch the microwave to see it grow!!
I sent a bar home with everyone to try it at home. I wrote the directions on the bar of soap with a sharpie:

All lined up to watch!

Preschool Science Sharpie Tye Die

This experiment allowed the kids to see how the colors would bleed into each other and create patterns. We used:

• Squares of white cotton fabric


• Different colored Sharpie markers


• Plastic cups


• rubber bands


• Eye droppers


• Rubbing Alcohol

Cut square of white fabric, place over a cup and rubber band on.

Color patters, picture and designs with the sharpie marker.

Using an eye dropper, drop alcohol onto drawing and watch the colors grow and change.


Allow to dry.

Preschool Science Crystal Trees

I found the details about making crystal trees while searching for fun ideas for this week of science based activities. This was my personal favorite. I love that you have a quick interesting result that kids can see and experience. Also all of the ingredients are easily accessible. Here's what you need:

• 1 TBSP salt


• 1 TBSP water


• 1 TBSP liquid bluing (Mrs Stewarts brand, they did not have it at Walmart, but did at our local Albertsons)


• 1/2 TBSP amonia


• disposable bowl, cardboard (we used TP rolls, but you can also cut out cardboard stand up shapes)

Mix well in a sealed jar.


Place cardboard in bowl and pour solution into bowl.

Watch grow!! (this is after about 1.5 hours)

In several hours you'll see a bit of growth and after 8+ quite a bit of growth. (This is overnight)


We tried using sharpies to draw on the TP rolls and see if we got colored crystals. We did not. You can use food coloring and it will produce some coloring on the crystals.

Preschool Science Colored Milk

This was a fun way for the kids to mix colors. All you need is:

• Milk


• Plates


• food coloring


• q-tips

Pour milk into a shallow plate,

Plate two dots of food coloring, not touching each other. Let the kids mix the colors using a q-tip.

Preschool Science Lava Lamps

A big hit with the kids were homemade lava lamps. Here's what you need to make your own:

• empty water bottle (with a lid)


• vegetable oil


• water


• food coloring


• alka seltzer tablets (the generic Walmart brand is about $2 for 36 tablets, each child used about 1 whole tablet)

Pour several inches of oil in the bottom of a water bottle. Then pour several inches of water on top. Put in several drops of food coloring. Let kids watch the food coloring for a bit. It slowly sinks through the oil. Place small pieces of alka seltzer tablets and watch the action!! Once done put the lid tightly back on and they can be fun to observe the oil water mixture. Open up again and again and put more alka seltzer in to see your lava lamp in action!

Preschool Science Colored Vinegar and Baking Soda

One of the favorite activities we did with science. Here's what you need:

• Disposable foil pans (the dollar store is a great place to get these)


• baking soda


• white vinegar


• food coloring


• eye dropper


• cups

Cover the bottom of a pan with baking soda. Mix vinegar with a few drops of food coloring.

Using eye droppers let children drop different colors of colored vinegar into baking soda.



When almost done let children pour cups of vinegar over baking soda.

Preschool: Color mixing

A great opening for preschool with minimal supplies. Here's what you need:

• Paint (I used finger paints, but tempura or craft paints would also work)


• Large Ziploc bag


• Tape (I used blue painters tape, but regular masking tape would also work)

Squirt desired colors into ziploc in separate corners. Carefully squeeze out as much air as possible without mixing the colors. Tape down to the table.

Allow children to mix colors, draw pictures and write letters in the paint.

Topsy Turvy Garden Planter

Today I set out to recreate something I had pinned on Pinterest. This doens't always work in my favor, but today it did!! Woohoo!! I made my own topsy turvy garden planter!!

Here's what I used to create it:

• Rubber garden bucket (I got it last season on clearance at Wal-mart for $3.00)


• 5 - 6inch plastic posts also found at Wal-mart for $.97 a piece


• 1 4 ft piece or rebar (this was around $3 at Home Depot)


• soil


• flowers


• drill

My bucket didn't have holes in the bottoms for drainage so I drilled some holes in and stuck the rebar through the holes. I also put some broken bricks in the bottoms to use up some of the space so I didn't have to use quite as much soil.


The plastic pots also didn't have drainage so I drilled a whole for the rebar plus a few more for water drainage and started stacking.

Fill each pot with soil and turn them as you go for the "topsy turvy" effect!


Then fill them up with flowers, water and enjoy!!


I think it really brightens up the flower bed right by our front door, plus it has our house number on the bucket (I used black vinyl for the house number and Welcome)!