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What do I need in a Science Kit?

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science-kit

I am hoping all my science loving homeschooling parents/teachers can help me out. I am planning on putting together a Science style work station for my 5 year old for her birthday.

I think this will make a great present as she is not into the usual barbie dolls and trinkets. She loves making “concoctions” as she calls them.  She can make edible concoctions in the kitchen to making blends of different creams and oils to create a homemade salve for a make believe ailment.

What should this science kit contain?

I am thinking it would have containers of the usual science suspects – vinegar, baking soda, mentos, salt, oil, flour, corn flour etc.

I managed to get some PH testing strips off ebay 50 for $1 which I thought she could use for dipping and pretend testing things.

Please share your inputs here below and guide me into creating a magical science suggestion for her.

Check out this article on the best STEM gifts for kids.

Check out our Online store for special buys on Educational gifts  We find bulk items and end-of-stock supplies to bring you heavily discounted items. (make sure you check our store often so you don’t miss out on new stock).   We also have some free printable files, including a Science PDF for learning about Microscopes.

Comments

  2. Red cabbage! Boil it up and save the water – this makes a good indicator instead of pH paper.

    Sugar! Make a concentrated sugar solution and suspend a piece of cotton thread in it. Crystals will grow on the thread.

    Food colouring. Stand white flowers in it – or celery – and watch the colours move up the stem.

    I could keep going, but I’ll stop there!

  3. Don’t forget the protective gear! A pair of safety glasses and some kind of apron/coat to carry out experiments in. You could even personalise them for her.

  5. Having safety glasses and a lab coat (an old white dress shirt works great) is important. It starts her out with good habits and it is a physical reminder that she is doing something different. That is critically important to keep her from mixing her ‘science’ with her food and other things. While you are not going to get her anything that is toxic, you want to be sure that she doesn’t eat her experiments or put her pH paper in food she is going to eat.

    Also, provide her with a clear set of rules about what it is OK to experiment with (the things in the box) and what isn’t (the things in the fridge etc. You need to have rules for collecting things in nature as well. Make sure she has a place to store things that she wants to watch and make sure that she knows to clean up.

    Some other things you might find fun:
    -Science only plastic measuring cups and spoons… things to use to measure and weigh.
    – A lab notebook to record her experiments, draw pictures of results, make graphs… You can use this to help her plan her experiments, think about what might happen and explain things.
    – A large sheet of black craft foam as a ‘lab bench’ to help keep things clean.
    – A good quality magnifying glass.
    – tweezers (Good for developing manual dexterity).
    – Found objects to sort and classify.
    – a box of tissues for cleaning up little spills
    – plastic pipettes are fun http://www.sciplus.com/p/PIPET_44907
    – soil, seeds, pots or egg cartons
    – You might also add some kid friendly guides to rocks or plants.
    – zip lock bags for storing or keeping the air out.
    – A pocket microscope can be fun and likely better than any toy one you might find.

    – You can purchase some specialty items like plastic test tubes and petri dishes in small quantities through places like American Science and Surplus. http://www.sciplus.com/s/c_11 or Steve Spangler http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/products.html which may be pricier but has great resources for explaining the experiments.
    I am sure there are others but these two are set up to sell to the general public.

Have you read?

Learning Activities with Snap Cubes

A classic manipulative in the preschool and early elementary classroom is the snap cube, also known as math cubes, unifix cubes or unit cubes. These little one inch cubes often come in a set of 100 in 10 different colors, and they snap together so they’re easy to use for all sorts of math learning, measuring and more. 

No Time for Flashcards has a cute robot printable to use with cubes to measure the height of each robot. That one is free but they also have other printable cube mats that are a paid resource. 

Catherine & Co uses math cubes to teach kids about measuring volume. They make a letter from cubes and then measure the volume (there’s a printable worksheet in the post). 

Pattern recognition is another fun and easy activity you can do with the cubes. You can use printables like these from Planning Playtime, or just make a pattern from cubes and have kids repeat it or figure out what comes next. There’s another good set of pattern printables at English Created Resources. 

Because there are 10 sets of 10 cubes in a pack, these are great for teaching one to one correspondence, counting, sorting and basic addition and subtraction. English Created Resources has great printable number mats you can use to form the number from cubes and count out the number of cubes that corresponds to that number.

ParenTutor has a great collection of snap cube activity ideas, most of which are just pictures, but it’s work taking a look through the post for ideas for using them at home or in the classroom. 

To give just a few of their examples, you can match linked blocks to the corresponding number of pieces, use blocks to find different ways to add up to 10, compare numbers and determine which one is more or less, skip counting and weighing different numbers of blocks. 

You can also use unit cubes to learn letters, like with these super cute alphabet mats from Fun Learning for Kids. Kids can trace the letter, make it out of cubes and practice writing a word that starts with that letter.

Of course you can also use them to build things, since they are blocks, and there are tons of pattern mats on Teachers Pay Teachers. I also love these dinosaur themed mats from Lets Go to Learn on Etsy. 

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