Kindergarten, Science, Week 5

We finished up our unit on Light this week. These experiments are from the Science Experiences book.

• Monday we discovered that block light makes shadows.
• Make a dark area to work in. Get a flash light and turn it on. "Light shines through air."
• Put a glass of water in front of the beam. Does light shine through water?
• Try wax paper, tissue paper, and other items
• Put something up (such as a paper doll) that the light won't shine through. "Light only shines on one side of the doll. There is a dark place where the doll blocked the light. It's a shadow."
• Let your child make shadows with their hands.
• Tuesday we learned that "night" is caused by earth's shadow.
• Get a globe and mark it to represent where you live. Put a strong flashlight or a lamp across a darkened room.
• Just as the light only shone on one side of the doll yesterday, it only shines on one side of the globe.
• Turn the globe as the earth spins and see what happens to the mark you placed on it.
• Wednesday we did Shadow Math.
• You need a sunny day for this.
• Go outside in the morning and have your child stand in the sun (needs to be a place where there will be sun all day). Trace around his feet (so he can stand in exactly the same place and way each time) and trace his shadow.
• Do this again about noon and later in the afternoon.
• Compare the shadows. Which is longer? shorter? what causes this?
• You can pull out the globe and flashlight again to help understanding.
• Thursday we learned that everything reflects light, but shiny things reflect light best.
• Take a mirror, stand by a window and reflect light onto a wall. Place a white sheet of paper where the reflection hits.
• "The mirror is reflecting the light from the sun. Do you think other objects will reflect light?"
• Try aluminium foil, colored paper, towel, shiny box, etc.
• Friday we learned that bending light makes things look different.
• Put one drop of water on a clear plastic lid. Put the drop over writing (newspaper, book, etc.) and ask child what happens where the drop is.
• Look at the drop. Is it curved or flat?
• Add more water so that it is flat. Put over writing, what happens? What has changed?
• Look at things through a glass of water.
• Notice that a magnifying glass is curved.