Children’s Museum
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Let’s Talk Science – Try these 68 activities
Explore the world around you by asking questions, discovering solutions and experimenting with objects found around your home! Our hands-on at-home activities encourage you to take a look around you and discover the science in everyday life.
Teachers, check out their curriculum and grade level aligned programs for preschool to Grade 12 and discover how you can bring Let’s Talk Science’s STEM activities into your classroom.
Let’s Talk Science – Try these activities!
- Is it possible to change water into cola?
- What is white light?
- How do movies move?
- Why is rain not salty?
- How do scuba divers sink?
- Is a green apple always green?
- What do magnets do?
- What makes soil hard and compacted?
- Which materials bounce?
- How much of an iceberg is on top of water?
- Why is everything so small down there?
- How do I see colour?
- How can you see underwater?
- How can I move water with just a comb?
- How can I make an egg float?
- How big were dinosaurs?
- How much air do I breathe in?
- How many drops of water can you rest on one coin?
- How fast can you react?
- Is it a liquid or a solid?
- How do I construct a terrarium?
- What uses electricity?
- What kinds of transportation are there?
- What is an exothermic reaction?
- What happens when we mix liquids?
- How can I write secret messages?
- How can I make glue?
- What causes ocean currents?
- What are curds and whey?
- How can you lift a marble off a table without touching it with your hands?
- How can we make a paddle boat?
- What are the effects of acid rain on rocks?
- How is food packaged?
- How does rain become acidic?
- How can I make a volcano?
- How does detergent work?
- How can I engineer a raft so that it holds the most weight?
- How can a person walk through a sheet of paper?
- Can we make butter?
- How tall can you build a marshmallow structure that will support weight?
- What is immiscibility?
- What is your weight on another planet?
- What are the best materials to use for cleaning water?
- What happens when acids and bases mix?
- Why is it colder in the winter even though the Earth is closer to the Sun?
- Why do raisins dance in soda pop?
- What speeds up a chemical reaction?
- Why can we see shadows at night?
- Why do oil and water not mix?
- What is the best way to clean up an oil spill?
- Is feeling always believing?
- How does water move up a plant?
- How does a wheelbarrow help you carry heavy loads?
- How do vacuum cleaners work?
- How do animals stay warm in the winter?
- How can you make popcorn kernels dance?
- How can I stop bananas from turning brown?
- How can I tell which way is north at night?
- How can I get a quarter through a dime sized hole?
- How can I build a rollercoaster?
- How does sound travel?
- What is the Greenhouse Effect?
- How can I make a Vortex Cannon?
- How can I make my own weighing scale?
- How much power is generated when climbing a set of stairs?
- How can I make a bottle rocket?
- What would happen if a meteor hit Earth?
- Is there a difference between baking powder and baking soda?
Teach Current Events with LesPlan
LesPlan Educational Services Ltd. has been providing North American teachers with current events resources since 1990. Our goal is to help teachers develop students’ understanding of and ability to critically assess current issues and events by providing quality, up-to-date, affordable, ready-to-use resources.
Our team of classroom teachers, writers, and illustrators select the previous month’s top news stories, then craft age-appropriate, leveled stories summarizing the key points and perspectives for students. We include the background information often lacking from traditional news stories – as well as key vocabulary definitions – to help students understand the issue, and strive to present all sides of any debate. Our aim is to foster understanding and develop critical thinking so that students can develop their own positions on each story we cover.
Currents4Kids.com
Currents4Kids.com / Infos-Jeunes.com is an engaging, online interactive current events resource for students in grades 3 and up.
The Canadian Reader
The Canadian Reader / Nos Nouvelles is a classroom-ready current events resource for students in grades 3 and up.
What in the World?
What in the World? / Le Monde en Marche is a photocopiable current events resource for Canadian students in grades 5 through 10.
International Dot Day – Sept 15, 2018
Read.
International Dot Day is named for the classic Peter H. Reynolds storybook The Dot. Available in English and many other languages, the book shares the story of a girl who begins a journey of self-discovery after a caring teacher challenges her to “make her mark.”
Create.
Sign up and download the free Educator’s Handbook for International Dot Day. Here you will find suggestions and tools, including some great activities created by Peter H. Reynolds, to help you celebrate creativity in your classroom.
Learn.
See the many ways others have celebrated International Dot Day by visiting the Dot Gallery where you’ll find photos to give you more ideas and inspiration. And take a look at the videos below – more great ideas that you can borrow or adapt!
What is school for? Prince EA’s Innovation Playlist
Prince EA asks the question, “What is school for?” in this video:
At the end of the video he mentions his “Innovation Playlist” for teachers
https://teddintersmith.com/innovation-playlist/
Be sure to check out the Starter Projects section:
Girl Scouts: Raise your hand patch
When Girl Scout Junior Alice T. noticed that 
boys were aggressively participating in activities at a school fair, she started to worry that girls were fading into the background. Now, Alice has a message for girls everywhere to help them have more confidence, step up and become leaders: Girl Scouts Raise Your Hand
(patch pictured on right).
http://www.gscnc.org/raiseyourhand
Get involved with the Girl Scouts Raise Your Hand movement:
- Sign the pledge below and commit to raising your hand in class when you think you know the answer or have a question. Not 100% sure? That’s ok! Take a risk and try anyway.
- Recruit three girls (they don’t have to be Girl Scouts!) to take the Girl Scout Raise Your Hand pledge.
- Tell us how raising your hand made you feel. Did it become easier to raise your hand the more you did it? Take a picture showing us how you raise your hand, and upload it to Facebook.com/gscnc using#gsRaiseYourHand. In the caption, share with us how the challenge went.
How to order a Raise Your Hand participation patch:
- NEW! The Raise Your Hand patch is available online here.
- Visit our DC Girl Scout shop, or you can order by calling: 202-274-3312, or email: gsshop@gscnc.org with your name and contact information.
Rethinking Exemplars
Once, exemplars were touted as a necessary tool to be used in every classroom, with every assignment. The idea was that we needed to show students exactly what was being asked with them. “This is what a level 4 looks like!”
However, if you think about it, what are we really asking our students to do? Recreate exactly what we’ve shown them? Worse, then we sprinkle in the advice to, “Be creative!” How can a student be creative when we’ve shown them what their final project should look like? Sure, it makes it easier to mark. Sure, it’s easier to justify that mark to admin and parents. But what about the student who is being robbed of any chance to be creative? What if their ideas and skill set are vastly different from what is being asked of them?
While I’m not asking you to abandon exemplars, please give some consideration on how you use them in your own classrooms.
