Food Chain Freeze Tag

This activity is inspired by Eecko World's "We're All In This Together." Rather than having kids play tag using organisms from a single food chain, make it more challenging by adding a variety of food chains!

Give each child a construction paper headband with a different plant or animal that is part of a food chain (include organisms from different habitats). Take students to a large open area outside. Kids have to look for a plant or animal that their organism consumes. They tag what they eat! If a child is tagged, they must freeze (stand still)! Who is left at the end of the game?!

Afterwards, have kids try to find organisms that belong to their habitat (creating small groups). Kids must problem solve and try to figure out who belongs in their "group." Also, where would you find the organisms in their group? What habitat do they live in?!

Wind Powered Balloon Squid

Explore the power of air and wind energy by constructing a balloon squid to play with in the pool! Estimate the distance you think your squid can swim. Then, measure the actual distance he travelled. Build more than one and have a balloon squid race! Click here for how to instructions from Monkey See Monkey Do!

materials: balloon, snap top from water bottle, ribbon, sharpie

Click here to learn how to make an air powered balloon boat!

Who made that scale?!

Read the Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister, talk about sharing, friendship, and being unique! Have each kid create an original, one of a kind scale for an oversized paper fish for homework. Along with their scale, have them write a couple clues that describe their scale. They bring the scale back in a brown, paper lunch bag with their clues. Remind kids not to share their scale, it's a secret! Lay all of their beautiful scales out on a table. Then, pass out  the clues to each child, making sure they don't end up with the clues they wrote. Students must try to find the scale that matches the clues. Who do they think made the scale? Could they find the correct scale that matches the clues? Did they guess the right artist? Then, use their scales to create a lovely fish!

Animal Adaptations

Featured Above:
1. A Second Grade Adventure set up a variety of stations where kids tried on different items that gave them an insight into how animals adapt, including some interesting gloves and side vision using toilet paper rolls!

2. Flower Garden has a fun lesson to demonstrate octopus adaptation, using slime and a funnel, to show how octopi can squeeze through super tiny cracks!

3. Ashleigh's Education Journey had kids use a variety of tools and instruments that represented different bird beaks. Kids tried picking up different sizes and textures of food. Check out her activity, as well as Sea World's!

4. Find out how blubber keeps arctic animals nice and warm with Steve Spangler's DIY blubber glove!

5. Teach animal adaptation with candy M&M's! Check out Science Buddies' M&M Survival Challenge!

6. Visit HubPages for a couple more adaptation experiments to incorporate into your classroom!

7. Play an echolocation game, to teach kids how bats and dolphins locate each other and prey! Click here for instructions (scroll down to the bottom of the article).

8. Make giraffe spit and see how giraffes are able to eat from thorny trees without getting pricked!

9. Herbivores vs. Carnivores - Visit Science Matters to see how dinosaurs chomped on leaves!

10. How do baleen whales eat (black pepper in water - comb and toothbrush) - MTSD-VT

11. Bird Feathers (oil glands) - Third Grade Thinkers

12. Hearing Without Ears (newts and salamanders) - Education.com

13. How do chameleons change colors? - Education.com

14. How does hair keep mammals warm? - Education.com

15. How do elephants use their ears to cool off? - Education.com

16. Butterfly Proboscis - First Grade Shenanigans

Build an Aquarium

Practice your money skills by creating an aquarium and purchasing accessories! First, kids design a unique salt water aquarium for pet fish (think of the TV show Tanked on Animal Planet). Then, you give them a certain amount of money. Kids watch their budget as they choose what they would like to add to their tank. They can mix and match gravel, plants, and fish if they'd like! Once they have purchased their items, they draw the aquarium accessories and fish in the tank they designed.

Go Fish Parts of Speech

Write down different words for each part of speech on bright colored paper fish. Then, flip the fish over so the word isn't visible. Mix them up in a pile. Kids have to catch eight fish. They have to find words that represent each part of speech. For younger kids, you could simply do nouns, verbs, and adjectives. After they have found each part of speech, they use their words to write a sentence or two. 

Note: Mix up the colors. For example, don't write all the verbs on green. Otherwise, the game will be too simple and kids will look for colors instead of recognizing the parts of speech. 

How to: Cover your paper fish in contact paper. You can find the above fish template here. Next, attach a magnet to the fish on the same side as the word. You can buy magnet strip rolls at Staples. Find a stick outside, attach a long piece of string, and add a round magnet around the end of the string. Now, go fish!

Air Submarine

Can you keep a piece of paper dry if submerged in water? The power of air can! Crumple a piece of paper into a ball, wedge it tight inside of a cup, turn the cup upside down, and submerge it straight down into a pool of water. Lift the cup straight up, the paper remains dry! This is a great experiment to teach kids about air pressure and also when introducing gas as one of the states of matter. Even though we can't see air, it's there! 

Colorful Convection Currents

Convection is the transfer of heat by the movement or flow of a substance from one position to another.

"Convection currents in the atmosphere are responsible for the formation of thunderstorms as the warm and cold air masses collide. They are also responsible for warm water currents that occur in oceans." With this experiment, you are going to show what happens when warm and cold water collide!" -  Steve Spangler

explanation: Warm water is lighter and less dense than cold water. 

Below is another take on the convection current experiment.
Red water = warm air mass.
Blue water = cold air mass.

"A thunderstorm is caused by unstable air. A body of warm air is forced to rise by an approaching cold front. A strong, persistent updraft of warm moist air is formed. The approaching cold front helps build the updraft into a cumulus cloud. When the warm air rises and meets the cold air, it condenses. The heat helps fuel the thunderstorm. The next stage is when the cumulus cloud has grown into a cumulonimbus cloud rising above 30,000 feet. Then a downdraft forms, bringing cold air and precipitation down to the Earth's surface." - Web Weather for Kids (Click here for written instructions from Web Weather for Kids!)

Acidic Ocean Experiment

Adventures of Ed the Bear did an awesome experiment to demonstrate what would happen if acidity in the ocean got out of hand, due to fossil fuels and global warming. "Acid oceans are caused by increased amounts of carbon dioxide absorbed by oceans, putting many marine animals in danger." - Adventures of Ed the Bear 

materials:
2 jars (one filled with vinegar, the other water)
2 seashells

Below is the seashell submerged in vinegar:

photos via adventures of ed the bear

Oil Spill!

Can you undo water pollution? Along the Way conducted an experiment to see if kids can get the water back to its original state.

Can marine animals get cleaned up after an oil spill? Visit the The Kitchen Pantry Scientist for instructions to conduct this experiment with kids on Earth Day!

Diving Ketchup! Experiment

This experiment shows kids that gas can be compressed!

Note: If the ketchup packet won't float, add 3 tbsp of salt and shake bottle. Continue to add salt, until the ketchup just floats towards the top. "Adding salt with adjust the density of the water." -  Science Bob

DIY Jelly Fish in a Bottle!

Visit Bhoom Play for instructions!