My two boys, ages five and seven, love to play outside whenever the weather is nice. When it’s sunny it’s like a bonus – they get creative ideas all on their own for little science experiments. Now, this isn’t anything unique, and I’m sure you’ve done it with your kiddos before, but here is a quick little sun experiment to do. If you’ve done it earlier this summer, try it again now and see if your kids notice anything different!
Our little experiment? Making a chalk sundial of sorts! Just make sure to do it on a day you’re not expecting any rain or it will wash away your progress!
When you wake up in the morning (with the sun shining, cuz if you have kids like mine they might be up before it gets light), or the first time you go outside for the day with your kiddos, simply have your child stand in one place and outline their shadow with chalk. Outline where their shoes were, too.
The next time you think of it (it could be 5 minutes or 5 hours -like after school) have your child stand in the outline of their shoes. Then trace their shadow again. Talk about what you observe. If you did this earlier in the summer as well, talk about how their shadow looks now as compared to then.
Keep outlining their shadow at different times throughout the day and talk about what you see each time. My kiddos really want to try outlining their shadows every hour on the hour sometime and see what the result is.
When you try this with your child give them time to voice their observations. My boys noticed right away that their shadow was much longer today than when we did this experiment earlier in the summer at a later time in the day.
You can ask questions like: Does your shadow stay the same size? Does your shadow’s head always point in the same direction?
0 Comments