Clever Activity Teaches Kids about Refraction

$playing with refraction with water and light$ 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.]

Next Plan Idea:

How to Draw a Bird

Not all of us live where there is a lot of snow in the winter (or even where it is winter as I write this, but it can still be fun to learn about snow, what it is and why it falls, so let’s get into it!

First, let’s talk snowflake science with The Homeschool Scientist. They have a free prinatble snowflake science less that’s more than 60 pages long and good for multiple grade levels. The blog post linked here includes some fun snow facts, information about how snowflakes form and why they are both six-sided and (probably) all different.

Expressive Monkey has a great post about how snowflakes are formed and why they have six arms, and also shows some of the pictures taken by W. A. Bentley in the 1920s (more on him below).

You can also grab a free snow facts worksheet with space for kids to draw their own unique snowflakes from Education.com. Simple Living Creative Learning also has a paid snow study resource set that includes things like different types of snowflakes, the snow cycle, symmetry drawing with snowflakes, tips for snow safety, snow-related vocabulary and more.

Homeschool Superfreak has another great page for learning about snowflakes, which includes information about Snowflake Bentley, a great book to read (and person to learn about). It includes lesson plan ideas and links to activities.

Speaking of activities, if you happen to have snow around you can make snow ice cream or maple candy, paint on snow or with snow, or do some snow science experiments. If you get a ton of snow you could maybe even build an igloo or snow structure.

If you don’t get snow you can learn about how animals keep warm in the snow and cold temperatures with this experiment from I Can Teach My Child. Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls can help you learn why big paws (or snowshoes) make it easier to walk in the snow. Or make a snowstorm in a jar like this one from MomBrite.

Next Plan Idea:

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