Clever Activity Teaches Kids about Refraction

September 10, 2016 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

$playing with refraction with water and light$ This is a super simple activity that you can do anywhere you have a glass of water and some paper and a pen. Go Science Girls has a full rundown of different options and ideas for playing with refraction, starting with as simple a thing as drawing two arrows and then looking at one or both through a glass of water.

The arrows seem to change direction depending on how you look at them. Likewise, other things you draw will change position or how they look based on how you look through a glass of water at them and the position of the glass relative to the paper and your eye.

She explains how this works thus:

What we are seeing here is a physics concept called refraction, or the bending of light. When light passes through transparent objects (in this case, the front of the glass, the water, and the back of the glass), it refracts or bends. When the glass is full of water, it acts as a cylindrical convex lens, and produces an inverted image. The inverted image may appear larger, smaller or the same size, depending on where you position the paper, the glass, and your viewpoint. Another variable is the size (diameter) of the glass.

This is such a clever idea and it’s sure to keep even little kids entertained while waiting for food at a restaurant or whenever else you need a little activity to fill time. Older kids can draw their own pictures and observe how they change when looking through the glass. So fun.

[Photo via Go Science Girls.]

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Crafts from the Beach Kids Can Make

Whenever you go to the beach with kids, you’re sure to come home with some seashells and more than a little sand. Let’s use some of those treasures to make fun crafts.

This handprint craft is made with a sand-infused salt dough and some little shells from the beach. It’s a cute way to remember how little your kids were on that beach trip. Find the instructions at From Under a Palm Tree.

Here’s another take on sand dough that was used to make little ornaments and sculptures. Get the details from Pink Stripey Socks.

Moms and Crafters used air dry clay and seashells to make these cute necklaces. She used the storebought clay but you can also make your own air dry clay if you’d rather.

Crafts on Sea used a shell to make a whale, but I’m sure you could take this idea and make lots of different creatures. I love the idea of sea creatures made with shells like fish or a jellyfish or an octopus using the same method. They also have a seashell decoration made with salt dough that’s really cute and would be fun for kids to paint. Poke a hole before it dries for hanging if you want.

Or take a bunch of little shells and decorate a frame like these from Rhythms of Play. They used a handprint instead of a picture but you could also put in a picture from the beach trip.

This is probably one for the mamas to make because it uses epoxy, but I also wanted to share these cute and easy shell hair pins from Thrifty Mama Ramblings, which kids are sure to want for their mermaid pretend play.

Or how about some sensory play straight from the beach? Use store bought sand if you don’t have a beach nearby to make this beach sand slime from The Mama Notes. Thrown in some shells and kids will love playing with this one.

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