Homeschool activities

Homeschool science activities, Pre-K to Grade 8

Science at home starts with noticing. Test what sinks and what floats, race toys down ramps, grow a seed all the way to a plate, track a shadow, keep a moon diary and meet the dinosaurs, with a question to ask at every step and a version for every age.

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• A bean in a jar: A bean your child grew, and their drawing of its root. (Pre-K to Grade 1–2)
• A bird feeder: A bird feeder your child made, hanging level, and a week of birds counted. (Kindergarten to Grade 3–4)
• Bread in a bag: A small loaf your child measured, mixed and watched rise. (Grade 3–4 to Grade 7–8)
• A cardboard dinosaur: A cardboard stegosaurus that stands on its own. (Kindergarten to Grade 5–6)
• A cardboard house: A box house for a real toy, built to pass a test. (Grade 1–2 to Grade 7–8)
• A cup telephone: A cup telephone your child made and tested, and the counts that show which string carries a whisper best. (Grade 1–2 to Grade 5–6)
• The dough table: Prints your child pressed in play dough, and at K a print they read like a clue. (Pre-K to Kindergarten)
• Boats that hold the most: A foil boat your child improved by testing, and the numbers to show it. (Kindergarten to Grade 5–6)
• Fruit faces: A smiling face your child made from fruit, and then ate. (Pre-K to Grade 1–2)
• Keep the ice: A test your child ran on real ice, and a record of which wrap kept it longest. (Grade 1–2 to Grade 7–8)
• Leaf rubbings and pressed flowers: Crayon rubbings of three leaves and two pressed flowers, made by your child. (Pre-K to Grade 3–4)
• What a magnet can pull: Your child finds out for themselves what a magnet pulls, how far its pull reaches, and how it makes a needle point roughly north and south. (Grade 1–2 to Grade 5–6)
• A marble run: A marble run your child built and fixed until the marble lands in the cup. (Grade 1–2 to Grade 7–8)
• A paper bridge that holds a book: A paper bridge your child made that holds a book, and the test that proves which shape is strongest. (Grades 5–6 and 7–8)
• A parachute that lands softly: A parachute your child made that lands a peg softly, and the drops that show why. (Grade 1–2 to Grade 5–6)
• A periscope from two cartons: A periscope your child built that sees over the sofa, and the light's path to explain it. (Grades 3–4 and 5–6)
• A rain gauge and a week of weather: A rain gauge your child made, and a week of rain measured. (Grades 3–4 and 5–6)
• Ripples in a tray: A tray of water, a bottle cap and a measured answer to whether the water travels with a ripple. (Grade 3–4 to Grade 7–8)
• Shadow puppets: A shadow puppet your child made, and a shadow they can make twice as big on purpose. (Grade 1–2 to Grade 5–6)
• A soil sponge: Three soils tested side by side by your child, and an answer to which holds the most water. (Grades 3–4 and 5–6)
• A sundial: A sundial your child made that tells the time the next day. (Grade 3–4 to Grade 7–8)
• Our week of rubbish: A week of your household's rubbish, sorted and counted by your child, and one change proposed with the numbers. (Grades 5–6 and 7–8)
• What the colours do: A new colour your child made by mixing two, and can tell you how. (Pre-K to Kindergarten)
• Big and small (dinosaurs): Was a dinosaur bigger than your car? Your child finds out. (Pre-K to Grade 1–2)
• Circuit rescue: Your child finds the break and lights the bulb again. (Grade 1–2 to Grade 5–6)
• The nest (dinosaurs): From a dinosaur's nest to the birds outside your window. (Kindergarten to Grade 3–4)
• Grow it: A real bean on the sill, and a daily look at what changed. (Pre-K to Grade 5–6)
• Kitchen changes: Real changes on your worktop, and whether they go back. (Grade 1–2 to Grade 7–8)
• Light around corners: Aim a torch beam round a corner with a mirror. (Kindergarten to Grade 5–6)
• Magnet hunt: A real magnet, a hunt round the house, and a rule. (Grades 1–2 and 3–4)
• Meat, or plants?: What an animal eats is written on its mouth. (Kindergarten to Grade 3–4)
• Moon diary: Two minutes at bedtime, and the moon's pattern appears. (Grade 1–2 to Grade 5–6)
• Our solar system: The sun and its planets, in order, at their true sizes. (Kindergarten to Grade 7–8)
• Paper carries a load: One sheet of paper, folded right, holds a pile of coins. (Kindergarten to Grade 5–6)
• Pet, or wild?: Who feeds it? One question sorts the animals. (Kindergarten to Grade 3–4)
• Plant-eater or meat-eater? (dinosaurs): Your child reads a dinosaur's teeth to find its dinner. (Kindergarten to Grade 3–4)
• Pull one out: Your child reads a food web and follows what changes when one plant or animal is taken out. (Grades 5–6 and 7–8)
• Ramp race: A fair test with a toy car and a pile of books. (Grade 1–2 to Grade 7–8)
• Read the rocks: Your child reads a cliff of rock layers from the bottom up and sees what the fossils and the rocks say about Earth's past. (Grades 5–6 and 7–8)
• Same spot, four seasons: One favourite place, visited each season, and what changed. (Pre-K to Grade 3–4)
• Seed to plate: What a seed needs, and how a bean becomes new beans. (Kindergarten to Grade 1–2)
• Shadow tracker: Your child finds a pattern in the sky for themselves. (Kindergarten to Grade 5–6)
• Sink or float?: Guess, try it in real water, and see what happens. (Kindergarten to Grade 1–2)
• Sort the zoo: Your child sorts the things from their own storybooks: alive or not, then animal or plant. (Pre-K to Kindergarten)
• Sound safari: Your child finds out that every sound is something moving. (Kindergarten to Grade 3–4)
• The moths on the tree: Your child sees where a moth's colour comes from and how the birds change a whole population over the years. (Grades 5–6 and 7–8)
• The night sky: Look up, find a shape, and learn its name. (Grade 1–2 to Grade 5–6)
• The sun's path: the zodiac: The year as a ring of star shapes the sun passes through. (Grade 3–4 to Grade 7–8)
• Two windows: A call to someone far away becomes a look at the world. (Kindergarten to Grade 3–4)
• Weather window: A daily look at the sky becomes a pattern. (Pre-K to Grade 3–4)
• What do you notice?: Your child learns to look closely and ask a question. (Pre-K to Grade 3–4)
• What lives in the pond?: Find the pond's living things, and one true fact about each. (Pre-K to Grade 1–2)
• Where does it go?: Your child follows air, food and blood through the body and sees how the parts work together. (Grades 5–6 and 7–8)
• Where the ice goes: Follow one real ice cube and find where the water goes. (Kindergarten to Grade 3–4)
• Who is faster?: Your child races the animals, with their own real speed. (Kindergarten to Grade 3–4)
• Who lives here?: A loop of string on the ground becomes a small world. (Pre-K to Grade 5–6)