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A weekly blog during lockdown with ideas for things that might be interesting to do with your kids.

Welcome to my first ‘Things to do with Kids’ blog post.  I am planning to collect together various resources that I have come across that I think that you and your kids might enjoy. 

Big Science Event / Space Suit Science

Back in another life, I used to coordinate the Big Science Event which was a competition where children devised their own experiments and then carried them out.  It was always incredibly inspiring and kids were very motivated by being in control of the whole process.  Although you won’t (as far as I know) be able to take part in the competition itself, you might want to have a go at planning and carrying out your own experiments.  There is much more information and some downloadable resources here.

Alternatively, Space Suit Science, was a resource put together that follows the same idea (pupils coming up with their own experiments) but has a specific problem to solve (design an experiment to test material for an astronaut glove).  This goes through the whole process in more detail and might be a good place to start off.  You can find the files on our intranet page (along with other links and resources mentioned here.

Science Treasure Hunts

A friend of mine and excellent physics/science teacher, Mrs Lloyd, put together this Easter activity for her Year7/8 classes.  After requests from friends she also created a version for younger pupils too.  Why not have a go at one or both of these and send us your answers.  I’ll pick a random winner from all the entries received and they will receive a small prize once I work out how to get it to them!

Chocolate Saucepan

Finally, here’s a quick activity that is good for primary school children on materials.  Write down a list of six everyday objects (eg Chair, Pan, Umbrella, Door Handle, Bag, Window) and six materials (eg Glass, Metal, Plastic, Wood, Jelly, Chocolate) assign a number to each set from 1-6 and then roll two dice.  Discuss the pros and cons of whatever you come up with eg A metal pan is useful, but you might burn yourself on the handle, a glass umbrella would be waterproof, but fragile and difficult to fold, a chocolate chair might hold you up, but it might also melt in hot weather (handy for snacking, though).  What combinations can you come up with?

That’s all for this week – I’ll post more activities and ideas next week. Do email me suggestions of things you've tried and would like to share with others.  Also I'd love to see some photos if any of you try out the activities above.