Pinecone Learning Activities for Kids

In the winter there aren’t as many natural materials to work with and learn about in a lot of the world. But if you live where there are deciduous trees, you’ll always be able to find pinecones, so let’s do some learning with pine cones!

Learn and label the parts of a pinecone and record other observations about pine cones with these printables from Superstar Worksheets. And grab these cute pinecone coloring pages from Nature Inspired Learning.

We love a good science project, and this investigation from Lemon Lime Adventures into why pinecones open is a good one. Basically all you need is pinecones, jars and water and some observant and curious kids. MomBrite has a similar experiment but goes more into the science of why pinecones open and close, rather than just observing that it is happening.

Because the opening and closing has to do with humidity, you can use pinecones to predict the weather. Rainy Day Mum made a pine cone weather station she shared about at Science Sparks, complete with printable worksheets you can use to record your observations.

I’ve said before that just about any classic STEM experiment can be altered to fit whatever season it is, and this post from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails proves it by making a fizzy pinecone experiment.

Use pinecones and other natural materials in a find and count activity like this one from Little Pine Learners. Go on a nature walk to collect materials or use natural stuff you already have (just me?) like rocks, acorns, even seashells. You can count each thing, make a chart of how many you have of each, make repeating patterns, build creatures and so much more with a nice stash of natural materials in the classroom or home.

And of course there are so many crafts you can make with pinecones! One of my favorites since I always have yarn handy is a yarn-wrapped pinecone, which you can see over at Laura Radniecki. Or make cute animals with your pinecones like these owls from Curated by Michelle.

Amazing recycled shovel giant pinecones [Recycled Crafts]

Beautiful Zinnia Flowers Made from PINECONES! [Home and Garden]

Free Thanksgiving Printables for Kids

If it’s hot where you live, you might be looking for some fun activities you can do with kids inside the house. And while bubbles are generally a strictly outside the house kid of activity, these special bubbles are ones you can play with inside. It’s both a lot of fun and a science lesson.

These bubbles aren’t blown into the air, you blow them onto a tabletop gently through a straw.

What’s really cool about them is that they will stay on the table top without popping. You can even blow another bubble inside the first bubble, or stack bubbles on top of each other.

Why does this work? It’s thanks to a special ingredient in the bubble solution: sugar.

This particular recipe is from Play Party Game, but I’m sure you can find it other places with similar ingredients as well. But this post has a good explanation for what is normally happening with regular bubble solution made mostly with just soap and water, as well as why the sugar helps to make bubbles stronger and helps them last longer.

You could make this into a full on science experiment for your kids, comparing regular bubbles (this time you’ll want to do it outside or somewhere easy to clean) to the “unbreakable” bubbles, letting them hypothesize about what ingredients might help make bubbles stronger or what the sugar does to the solution.

You can talk about the molecular structure of the bubble being altered by the sugar, which makes it stronger and longer lasting.

They even have an activity kit you can buy to help guide your explorations and that offers extension activities for you to try.

Or you could just play with them. No judgement here; it’s summertime.

Grab the recipe and more of the science behind the bubbles from Play Party Game. And while you’re playing with bubbles you can also check out my giant bubble solution recipe over at Our Daily Craft.

[Photo: Play Party Game]

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