School Science Lessons
2024-03-13
Primary Science Lessons, Year 1
(year 1)
Contents
Suggested answers to the teacher's questions are shown within [square brackets]
1.38 Air games
1.39 Air in bags
1.44 Area game
1.02 Animals and plants
1.40 Blow soap bubbles
1.03 Different animals
1.06 Different leaves
1.04 Different plants
1.46 Different seashells
1.47 Different seeds
1.22 Different shapes game
1.23 Different new shapes game
1.27 Drinking glass garden
1.42 Drinking straw game
1.37 Examine soil with magnifier
1.41 Falling parachutes
1.18 Feelie bag game
1.15 Five senses
1.45 Float different objects
1.34 Good soil and bad soil
1.35 Green leaves health
1.28 Grow plants from seeds
1.16 Hearing sounds game
1.07 Knocking sounds
1.19 Length game
1.01 Living and non-living
1.20 Measure distance in paces
1.11 Mirror game
1.21 Mobile balance
1.26 Plant names
1.05 Plant pictures
1.33 Plants need soil
1.30 Plants need sunlight
1.31 Plants need water
1.25 Pouring water game
1.36 Protect topsoil
1.13 Same and different
1.24 Seeds and seed pods
1.14 Stones in Water
1.08 String sounds
1.09 Shadow game
1.10 Spinning picture
1.12 Spinning top
1.17 Touch and feel game
1.48 Watch seeds germinate
1.01 Living and non-living
See diagram 9.3.40: Pond community
Teach the children to explain the difference between living things and non-living things.
Use different living things and nonliving things.
1. What is the difference between things that are living and things that are not living?
[Living things 1. need air and water 2. can grow in size 3. can change shape and 4. can produce baby animals or baby plants
5. can move by themselves 6. can eat food or make food.
Non-living things 1. do not need air or water 2. 3. usually remains the same size and shape 4. cannot produce a baby
5. cannot move by themselves, and 6. do not eat food or make their own food.
Make a list on the chalkboard.]
2. Were some nonliving things alive in the past? [Yes.
For example, wood is a nonliving thing, but in the past it was part of a living tree.]
3. Classify the following things into 1. living things 2. nonliving. [Use * to mark things that were living, but are now nonliving.]
living cat girl fish tree beetle leaf potato fly egg seed
No
living		 pencil * stone water chalk wood * plastic sand air milk * glass
4. Some examples of living and nonliving things:
Most of your hair is dead, but the root of your hair is living.
Water is nonliving, but all living things contain water and living things such as fish live in water.
Paper is nonliving, but they make it from pieces of wood that were once part of a living tree.
Collect living and nonliving things from the school grounds.
Classify the items as you did in part three of this lesson.
Explain how you know whether something is living or nonliving.
1.02 Animals and plants
Teach the children to list the characteristics of animals and plants.
Use examples of plants and animals.
1. See, and, perhaps, touch examples of animals and plants:
Animals: cat, dogs, ants, lizards, fish, birds, butterfly, mouse.
Plants: grass, pine trees, bananas, mango, sugar cane, weeds.
Say the name of each plant and animal and where they are found.
2. What are the differences between plants and animals seen in the class?
Animals can move, plants cannot move, but wind or water can carry seeds.
Animals have different colours.
Plants leaves are mostly green.
Animals lay eggs or have babies, plants make seeds.
Animals eat plants and other animals.
Plants make their food from the air, the soil, and the sun.
Animals have a head, body and legs, plants have roots, stem and leaves.
3. Play the animal and plant game.
Divide the class into pairs.
Point to one child and say "animal" That child has to say something about animals, e.g. "they can move".
The other child of the pair has to say the difference with plants, e.g. "they cannot move".
4. Nature Walk
How many kinds of plants and animals can you see?
Remember that some funguses, e.g. mushroom, toadstools, bracket fungus on dead trees, are neither an animal nor a plant.
1.03 Different animals
See diagram 9.300: Different animals
Teach the children to recognize different animals.
Use pictures and examples of one of each group:
1.1 coral, jellyfish, sponge [Coelenterate]
1.2 flatworm, flukes, tapeworm [Platyhelminthes]
1.3 earthworm, leeches, marine bristle worms [Annelid]
1.4 snail, slugs, shellfish, oysters, octopus [Mollusc]
1.5 starfish, sea urchin, brittle star, sea cucumber [Echinoderm]
1.6 mosquito, butterfly, cockroach, spider, centipede, crab, prawn [Arthropod]
1.7 fish [Bony fish]
shark, ray [Elasmobranchs]
1.8 frog, toad, "walking fish", salamander [Amphibian]
1.9 lizard, snake, turtle, tortoise [Reptile]
1.10 parrot, ostrich, kiwi, sparrow, pigeon [Bird]
1.11 dog, cat, mouse, rat, flying fox, bat, dolphin, whale [Mammal]
1. Show pictures of animals.
What other animals do you know?
2. Can you describe the different kinds of animals?
[1. Live in the sea, small, may have a stony wall, can sting,
2. Live in the ground or inside you, very flat and small,
3. Live in the ground or rock pools, body divided into rings,
4. Have a shell, a slimy foot, eyes on stalks,
5. Live in the ocean, body divided into five parts, hard skin,
6. Live on the land, have jointed legs, hard skins, some can fly,
7. Live the sea or river, have a skeleton, have scales or a tough skin,
8. Have soft wet skin, can swim and jump, lay eggs in fresh water,
9. Have legs and scales, dry skin, lay eggs on the ground,
10. Have feathers and scaly legs, can fly, lay eggs in the nest,
11. Have hair, soft skin, four legs, warm body]
3. Make a wall chart of the different animals.
4. Take the children for a nature walk.
How many different animals can you find?
1.04 Different plants
See diagram 64.3: Cassava
Teach the children to recognize some features of different plants.
Use different kinds of plants for this lesson.
Some plants should be weeds and some plants should have parts you can eat, e.g. potato.
1. How do you recognize plants?
[Plants have green leaves, live in sunlight, do not eat food, but they make their food from the air and the soil, they cannot move, but their seeds can move, they have baby plants inside seeds.]
2. How are plants different from each other?
[Some plants are very big and some are very small, some are hard and woody.
Some are soft and can be bent, some have flowers and some have no flowers, some have fruit you can eat.
Some plants have no fruit that you can eat.]
3. Name the plants you know.
4. Hold up different plants and point to them.
Is it a plant?
Is it big or is it small?
Is it hard and woody, or is it soft and can be bent?
Does it have flowers?
Does it have fruit you can eat?
5. Take the children for a nature walk.
How many different kinds of plants can you find?
Collect plants to bring back to the classroom and describe.
1.05 Plant pictures
Teach the children to make different shapes using flowers and leaves.
Use leaves and flowers.
Leaf and flower Pictures.
Children become more familiar with the shapes of leaves and flowers when they can use them to make shapes.
1. Give each pair different leaves and flowers.
Describe the shapes of different leaves and flowers, e.g. big and round flower, long and fat leaf.
2. Use the leaves and flowers to make shapes:
Can you make a house?
Can you make a boy or girl?
Can you make a boat?
3. For the next lesson, bring leaves and flowers from home.
You will have a competition for the best leaf and flower picture.
1.06 Different leaves
See diagram 9.66.2: Shapes of leaves
Teach the children to describe different leaves.
1. Each group go outside to collect many different leaves from all kinds of plants.
2. Count the number of different types of leaves each group collected.
1. Are all the leaves the same shape and size?
Describe the differences.
2. Are all the leaves green? [No.]
Name the other colours.
3. Name some different trees and describe their leaves.
[Leaves are the factories in the plant to for make food.
Most leaves are green.
They have veins that bring water to the leaves from the roots.
Also, veins carry food made by the leaves to the other parts of the plant.
Some leaves have parallel veins and others have a network of veins.
A simple leaf is in one piece.
It has one leaf blade only, which you may divide into sections that are not completely separate.
A compound leaf has many separate leaflets.
Each leaflet has a separate stalk, but all the leaflets are joined to a common leaf stalk.]
4. Leaf Collection
Collect different shaped leaves and classify them.
Before the lesson collect different shaped leaves as in 2. below.
Collect some extra leaves for use in 3. Groups of four children.
Give each group a pile of leaves from different plants.
Show the children that all leaves have three parts:
4.1 a thin and flat part; [leaf blade]
4.2 a thin and round part, like a handle; [petiole]
4.3 a little knob at the end of the handle.
This is where the leaf joins the stem. [the leaf base]
2. Divide the leaves into piles:
Pile 1. Hand shape, e.g. chilli, hibiscus, taro.
Pile 2. Long and thin shape, e.g. mango, coconut leaflets.
Pile 3. Dented shape, passion fruit, snake gourd, papaya.
Pile 4. Divided into little leaves, e.g. Pueraria, cassava.
3. Look at the extra leaves.
Which pile do you belong to?
4. Display different leaves on a wall board.
5. Trace the shape of different leaves on paper.
Can you colour them?
1.07 Knocking sounds
Teach the children to make different sounds by knocking things together, identify sounds that are loud or soft, high or low.
Which musical instruments make sounds by knocking things together? [Drum, bells, xylophone.]
Use things that children can hit together: pencils, cardboard boxes, knife or other metal object, bottles, rulers, tins.
Also, collect some musical instruments: bells, drums, rattles.
1. Knock together pairs of the same thing, e.g. two pencils together or two boxes together, to make a soft sound and a loud sound.
Then knock together pairs of different things, e.g. a pencil and a tin, a marble and a box, a ruler against a tin.
2. Make as many different knocking sounds as you can.
Which group can make the greatest number of different knocking sounds?
3. Sounds game
Take turns in shutting your eyes and guessing what two things are being knocked together by other members of the group.
4. Fill a bottle with water and hit with a metal object such as a knife.
Listen to the sound.
Pour out some water and hit the bottle again.
Is the sound the same? [It sounds a higher note.]
Keep pouring out water and hitting the bottle until it is empty.
5. Ring a bell and let the children touch it.
Hit a drum and let the children touch the skin.
Say "hum" for a long time and put your finger on your throat.
What can you feel? [The bell, the drum skin, and the throat are moving in and out.
They are vibrating.]
Hit the drum then push your hand on it.
Or ring the bell then grab it tightly.
What happens? [The sound stops.]
6. Which musical instruments make sound by hitting? [Drum, rattles, bells, castanets.]
7. Keep very quiet.
Then tell the children to describe all sounds they heard when they were quiet.
8. Make simple musical instruments.
1.08 String sounds
See diagram 26.194: Stretched rubber band | See diagram: 26.2.1: Rubber band over ruler / box
Teach the children to make sounds from a ruler and rubber band, show how to change the sounds made by strings.
Use rulers, rubber bands, open tins.
1. Hold a ruler flat on the desk with about half of it over the edge.
Make a musical sound by pulling up the end of the ruler and letting it go.
Press down firmly on the part of the ruler over the desk with one hand then pull up the part that hangs over the edge with the other hand.
2. Does the ruler move? [Yes.]
Does it make a sound? [Yes.]
Can you hear the sound when the ruler stops moving? [No.]
Change the length of the ruler over the edge.
Pull it up and let it go again.
Is the sound the same as before? [No.]
If the length of the ruler over the edge is longer or shorter, is the sound higher or lower? [The shorter the length over the edge, the
higher the note.]
3. Stretch rubber bands between your fingers then pluck them to make a sound.
4. Make a guitar by stretching rubber bands around an open box or a drink-can or a big plastic drink bottle cut in half lengthways.
Pluck the rubber bands to make them vibrate and make a sound.
5. Use long and a short rubber bands that have the same width.
Which rubber band vibrates quicker? [The shorter rubber band vibrates quicker]
Which rubber band gives the higher musical note? [The shorter rubber band gives the higher musical note.]
6. Use a thin and a fat rubber band that have the same length.
Which rubber band vibrates quicker? [The thin rubber band vibrates quicker.]
Which rubber band gives the higher musical note? (The thin rubber band gives the higher musical note.]
7. Which musical instruments make music in a similar way to the rubber band or ruler? [Guitar, jew's harp.]
How do you make the sounds louder or softer? [Pluck the string harder.]
How do you make the sounds higher or lower? [Make the string shorter or longer.]
1.09 Shadow game
See diagram 28.105.3.1: Shadow gamezzz
See diagram 28.105.3: Shadows, umbra, penumbra
Teach the children to show how to make shadows, play games with shadows, recognize the light is necessary to make shadows.
Use a bright sunny day and level ground, a stick one metre long.
The Jumping on shadows game is best played in the early morning or late afternoon when shadows are long.
1. Play the jumping on shadows game.
Fix a stick in the ground that measures one metre above ground level.
Put a small stone on the end of the shadow of the stick every half hour during the day.
At the end of the day see where the shadow has been.
2. Stand so that your shadow is: in front of them, behind them.
3. Touch your shadow, jump on your shadow, shake hands with your shadow, catch shadows on your hands.
4. Work in groups and try to make shadows with four arms and four legs, six arms and six legs.
5. Show how to form shadows of animals with your hands such as butterflies and birds.
Hold your hands about 50 cm above the ground. Let the children try in pairs.
Draw around the shadows with sticks.
How can you make shadows bigger or smaller by moving your hands? [The closer the hands are to the ground,
the smaller the shadow.]
6. Put a stone on the ground.
Show that you can make the shadow of your hands touch it.
Walk away from the stone so that the shadow hand still touches it.
7. Stand on a path with your back to the light.
Walk along the path away from the light.
Compare how fast you are walking with how fast the top of your shadow is moving away from you.
8. Draw a circle about five metres across on the ground.
Choose four children to show how the game is played.
One is the chaser.
The other five run around within the circle.
The chaser has to jump on the shadow of another children and shout "STOP".
That child then leaves the circle until the game is over.
The last child caught becomes the chaser in the next game.
8. Make a shadow with circular hoop, e.g. a bicycle wheel tyre.
The shadow can be a circle, an ellipse, a straight line.
9. What is needed to make shadows outside? [The sun, and an object that stops the light from the sun reaching the ground,
e.g. a stone, but not a piece of glass.
The stone is opaque, but the glass is transparent.]
Why are there no shadows on a dull day? [The sun is covered by cloud.]
Can clouds have shadows? [Yes.]
Can you see your shadow in the shade or when you are standing under a tree? [No.]
What kind of day do you need to see shadows? [A sunny day.]
What does your shadow look like? [Draw it with chalk on the ground.]
How can you make the shadow of your hand on the ground bigger or smaller? [The shadow is smallest when your hand is closest to the ground.]
What do you need to make shadows inside the house? [A light and an object.]
Show the shadow of your hand on the wall.
Can you make funny shadows on the wall? [Use your hand to make a dog shadow and
use two hands to make a butterfly shadow.]
What are shadows? [If you put an opaque object in the path of the light, it blocks the light that hits it.
Because light does not bend or go around corners, the area behind the object will receive no light and be dark.
The dark area will have the same shape as the object.
The dark area is the shadow.
Light from the sun causes all opaque objects to form shadows.
Other sources of light, e.g. candles and torches, can also form shadows.]
1.10 Spinning picture, Thaumatrope, persistence of vision illusion
28.143 Spinning picture, persistence of vision illusion
Teach the children to make a spinning picture so that two separate pictures appear as one.
This experiment is called the persistence of vision illusion or thaumatrope.
The illusion occurs, because the retina of the eye retains an image for about 1/16 of a second.
The movie industry uses 24 frames (pictures) per second, FPS.
You will need: pieces of light cardboard, scissors, coloured pencils or paints or crayons, reel of cotton thread or thin string.
Suggested Pictures: FRONT / BACK | A bird in a / cage. | A pig behind a / fence. | A fish in a / bowl. | A boy in a / tree. |
The picture on the back must be upside down.
The piece of cardboard should be about 10 cm × 8 cm.
When the card is spinning very fast an image of each picture forms in your eyes at the same time so you see the two pictures as one.
The image of an object remains in the eye for a short period of time, a fraction of a second.
So if separate photographs are taken of a moving object a person seeing the separate photographs flashed sequentially on a screen
see the continuous motion of the object, not the separate images.
This phenomenon is called persistence of vision - the illusion of continuous motion instead of separate images.
A cinema film run at 24 frames per second.
The inventor of the first spinning picture in 1824 called it a thaumatrope, "wonder turner".
1. Give out the materials to them.
2. Show your completed spinning picture to them.
Show how to make it spin.
3. Draw the first picture on one side of the card, draw the second picture, upside down, on the other side of the card.
Make two holes on each side of the card, thread and tie cotton into these holes.
4. Spin the cards by pulling outwards on the string.
5. If you spin the card slowly how many pictures do you see? [2. ]
If you spin the card quickly how many pictures do you see? [1. ]
6. A moving picture can be made by drawing a figure in different positions on successive pages of a book called a flip book.
Where you flick through this book, the figure appears to move.
When the Sydney Harbour Bridge was being constructed photographs were taken of it from the same place every few days.
Later these photographs were transferred to a flip book so that children could flip through the book and see the bridge growing
steadily until it reached full size.
Draw a simple picture of a horse with four feet.
Then draw more pictures on same size piece of paper of the same body and head, but change the position of the feet.
Put the pages together to make a flip book.
Flip though the flip book and see the movement of the feet.
This method is used to make cartoons, e.g. Mickey Mouse.
1.11 Mirror game
See diagram 28.109.1: Lateral inversion
Teach the children to see things by using a mirror.
Use mirrors and some objects like bottle tops, stones, flowers, pencils.
1. Give out one mirror to each group.
Look at the edge of the mirror.
Describe what you see. [A piece of glass with one side covered by silver paint.]
2. Reflect the light from the sun to make it shine on the classroom room.
Do not let the children shine the mirror into their eyes.
3. Write these numbers on the chalkboard.
Tell the children to look at them with their mirrors: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
Which numbers look the same in the mirror? [0, 1, 8.]
4. Write these letters on the chalkboard.
Tell the children to look at the letters with their mirrors: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T.
Which letters look the same in the mirror? [A, H, I, M, O, T.]
5. Look into the mirror and touch one eye with your finger.
Which eye is touched when you look in the mirror?
[If you touch your right eye, this eye appears to be on the left side of the face in the mirror.
The image is laterally inverted.]
6. Play the mirror game.
One child lies on top of the desk and holds a mirror to see under it.
Another child holds different objects under the desk and the child holding the mirror has to say what they are.
7. Two mirrors game
One child sits very still with one mirror in each hand.
Put a small object or piece of paper on the back of the neck.
The child has to use two mirrors to see what is on the back of the neck.
1.12 Spinning top
Teach the children to make a spinning top and spin it for a long time.
Use a spinning top, bottle tops, nails, a hammer, thin pieces of stick, large thorns, used matches or coconut, brooms, stiff cardboard.
When in action a spinning top balances, but when it stops spinning it loses balance and the top falls over.
1. Show your completed spinning top.
Show how to make it spin. Give each child a bottle top, a nail and a piece of stick.
Punch a hole in the bottle top using the nail and something heavy.
Push the stick through the hole.
Try to spin the top.
Does the spinning top fall over? [No.]
When does it fall over? [When it stops spinning.]
The spinning top balances, but when the top stops spinning it falls over.
2. Spinning Top Game.
Who can make their top spin the longest?
Can you make the top spin in the palm of your hand?
On your finger?
Stand on one leg, raise your heel and keep your arms folded.
How long can you balance?
Let the children to do it again, but this time let the children wave your arms.
How long can you balance? [You can balance longer if you are allowed to wave your arms.]
1.13 Same and different
Teach the children to observe how we are the same and how we are different.
This lesson is designed to help young children to make controlled observations about other children.
1. Children sit on the floor together and later break into two groups at different ends of the classroom.
In what ways are you all the same?
[A. We all have the same physical features: two eyes, one nose, two ears, two arms, two legs.]
[B. We all have the same needs: eating, breathing, drinking, sleeping, going to the toilet]
[C. We all have the same kinds of feelings: happy, sad, interested, bored.]
2. In what ways are you different?
[A. We can be boy or girl.
We can have different height, hair length, eye colour, skin colour.]
[B. We are all always breathing, but we have the other needs at different times.]
[C. We have different feelings at different times.]
3. What differences are easy to see?
[Physical differences, e.g. tall or short.]
Which children are short? | Which children are tall? | Which children have curly hair? | Which children have straight hair?
Describe all them in the class.
4. Play the Difference Game.
Call out a difference and point to one end of the classroom.
Those children run to the place where you point.
The other children run to the other end of the classroom.
For example, call out: "girl" or "curly hair" or "two eyes" or "wears a dress" or "wears shoes" or "is breathing" or "is sleeping"
or "is happy" or "does not listen"!
Did you always run to the end of the classroom? [No]
When were all them the same and when were they different? [For some things, e.g. breathing, we are all the same, but for many things
we are different]
5. Look at the palms of the hands.
Draw the lines.
Do some children have the same lines? | Which children have the same lines? Which children have different lines?
Some people believe that they can understand the character of a person from observing the lines in the palm of the hand and bumps
between them.
The main lines are given names like "heart line", "head line" "life line".
This belief is called palmistry or chirognomy and has no basis in science, but it is a very old belief and occurs in many countries.
1.14 Stones in Water
How to make the level of water go up and down.
Use four container of water, four big stones which will fit inside the glass jar, string, lots of small clean stones.
Tie a piece of string to each of the big stones.
Groups of four children.
1. Give each group the glass jar, big stone on the string and small stones.
Hold the end of the string and lower the large stone into the empty jar.
Then add water until the level is near the top of the jar.
2. How can you to raise the level of the water until it just fills the jar without adding any more water to the jar. [Add the little stones
until the water level comes to the top of the glass jar.]
3. How do you make the water fill the jar again without adding any water. [Lower the big stone into the jar.]
Do this in your jar.
5. Take the big stone out then put some more little stones into the glass jar.
What will happen if the big stone is lowered into the jar again? [Water will overflow out of the jar.]
Now do this.
Why does the water overflow? [The volume of the stone is more than the space left in the jar.]
6. How you tell which finger has the greatest volume? [Put each finger into the jar of water, the finger which makes the water go up must
be the biggest.]
1.15 Five senses
See diagram 1.13: Smelling a gas
Teach the children to investigate the properties of things by using the five senses: sight, smell, taste, hearing, touch.
Use suitable objects such as pineapple or other fruit, or jam, sugar, water or kerosene.
Be careful about asking the children to taste things.
Our senses are any of the special body faculties, especially sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch, commonly called "the five senses",
which allow us to perceive external objects and stimuli.
Other senses allow us to perceive internal stimuli relating to balance and motion
1. Play the senses game.
Show a drink or a fruit.
Can you describe it? What does it look like? [Sight.]
What part of the body do you use for seeing? [Eyes.]
What part of the body do you use for smelling? [Nose.]
Describe the taste. What part of the body do you use for tasting? [Tongue.]
What part of the body do you use for hearing? [Ear.]
What does it feel like? [Touch.]
What part of the body do you use for feeling? [Skin.]
2. Repeat the other steps using other objects.
Use your five senses on other objects.
3. The blindfold game
One child closes the eyes or has a blindfold.
Give the child a fruit.
Tell me what it is without looking at it, but using the other senses.
Repeat the game with other things, e.g. describe a piece of chalk using the five senses.
1.16 Hearing sounds game
| See diagram 26.192: Bell from a spoon
| See diagram 26.195: String telephone
| See diagram 26.3.1.6: Bottle sounds
Teach the children to recognize and describe the sounds.
Use some objects that make different sounds when hit, e.g. glass, spoon, bell, drum.
Collect two bottles, one bottle full of water.
1. The ear is in two parts, the outer ear and the inner ear.
2. Feel your outer ear.
Can you move your ears? [Yes, when you raise your eyebrows.]
Can animals turn their ears? [Yes, cats and dogs can turn their ears.]
3. The inner ear contains a little piece of skin called the ear drum.
Close your mouth, hold the nose closed, then try to blow your nose.
The funny feeling comes from the eardrum.
Never put sticks or pencils in your ears, because this will damage the eardrum.
4. Tap the desk and then keep tapping and press your ear on the desk.
What do you hear? [The sound is louder when your ear is on the desk.]
Tap the back of the hand.
Press the hand against one ear and tap again.
What did you hear? [The sound is louder when your hand is pressed against your ear.]
Tap an empty bottle, keep tapping and pour in water.
What do you hear? [The sound was high, but it gets lower as you put more water in.]
5. Play the hearing sounds game.
Tap different objects with a spoon and listen to the sounds.
Turn around so you cannot see what is tapped.
Tap different objects again.
Can you remember the sound?
Can you say what was tapped without looking?
6. Make a string telephone using two drink cans and a piece of string.
Stab a hole in the bottom of each drink can.
Thread the string through both holes and tie a knot in each end of the string inside the drink cans.
Pull the drink cans apart until the string is tight.
Speak into one drink can and listen to the other.
7. Use same size bottles and add water to different levels.
Blow across the bottles and hear the different sounds
8. Bend your ears into the smallest size.
9. Draw ears from two children.
Are they the same shape?
1.17 Touch and feel game
See diagram 9.243: Touch with dividers
Teach the children to describe the touch of different objects and say which parts of the body are the most sensitive.
Use objects that are hard, soft rough, smooth, wet, dry, light, heavy, e.g. stone, cotton, sandpaper, nylon, fishing, damp soil, dry chalk.
1. Play the touch and feel game.
Put a pile of different objects on the floor.
Let a group sit around it.
Hold up an object that is hard, soft, rough, smooth, wet dry, light, heavy.
2. Each child to pulls out a few hairs.
Touch the following points of the body: tip of tongue, finger tips, corner of the mouth, inside the lip, tip of the nose, palm of hand,
the heel, back of hand, the forearm, upper arms, the middle of the back.
Can you feel the hair at all these places?
Where can you feel the touch of the hairs best and worst? [Usually in the order above, "best" is on the tip of the tongue and "worst" is
on the middle of the back.]
3. Play the two hairs game.
One child closes the eyes.
Another child touches a part of the body with one or two hairs.
Can the child point to where the body was touched?
Was it one hair or two? [When the hairs touch close together, they feel like one hair.]
4. Instead of using hairs, use two sharp pencil points.
Nerve ending in the fingers are closer together than in other parts of the body.
Test the tongue, back, arm, leg, back of the hand.
Test how far apart the pencil points must be to feel two separate pencil points.
5. Close the eyes and touch the cheek with each object.
Hold the palm of the hand very close to the cheek, but not touching it.
Can you feel the radiant heat from the cheek?
1.18 Feelie bag game
Teach the children to feel and recognize things using the sense of touch.
Use a feelie bag for each group and small objects like shells, matchsticks, bottle tops, nuts.
Put them in the feelie bags so they cannot see the objects.
1. Play the feelie bag game.
This game is not a guessing game, you must:
1.1 describe what you feel, e.g. "it feels soft", "it feels round",
1.2 then say what they think the object is, e.g. "it is a bottle top".
2. Put your hand in the feelie bag and feel an object.
Describe it to the class.
What do they think the object is?
Take out your hand.
3. Let the children take turns to reach into the feelie bag, describe the feeling of one object, then say what they think it is, then take the
object out and show it to the other children.
4. When all the objects have been taken out, put them in again and play the game again.
5. Collect pairs of small objects, e.g. two pencils, two marbles.
Put one of each pair in the feelie bag and the other on the floor.
Give one child the feelie bag, but not looking at the objects on the floor.
Ask that child to describe an object in the bag.
Another child has to pick out the same object from the collection on the floor.
1.19 Length game
| See diagram 2.1.0: Length 1
| See diagram 2.1.1: Length 2
Teach the children to conserve length by showing that the position of two sticks does not change their size.
Young children do not conserve length.
They do not understand that an object can only get longer or shorter by adding something to it or taking something away.
They think that an object can change in length when they change its position.
Before their children start measurement, they must think like this:
"It looks longer in that position, but it cannot be longer, because I did not add anything to it", or
"It looks shorter in that position, but it cannot be shorter, because I did not take anything away from it".
The following test will help you to know if their children are thinking like this.
The answer to every question is "yes".
You will need for each group: two sticks, equal in length, 15 cm long, or two pencils equal in length.
1. Put the two sticks side by side, with a space between them.
Are the sticks the same length? [Yes]
If the child answers "No", let the child pick up the sticks, compare them, and then put the sticks back in the same position.
If the child answers "Yes", move one stick about 4 cm to the right.
Tell the child again: "Are the sticks the same length?
" If the answer is "No", ask "Which is longer? and "Why is it longer?
Let the child compare the sticks.
If the child answers "Yes", ask the child "Why?"
The child should always answer "Yes, the sticks are still the same length, only their position has changed".
3. Repeat the question, but move one stick to the right and the other stick to the left.
4. Now move the sticks at right angles to each other when you change their position from that shown in No. 1.
5. Ask the child: "Are the sticks the same length? " [Yes]
Put one stick standing up instead of moving it sideways.
"Are they still the same length? " [Yes]
6. Get eight sticks of chalk or pencils that all have the same length.
Put them in two equal rows.
When them are sure that the two rows are the same length then arrange the sticks in the following way.
"Are the two rows the same length" [Yes]
"Explain their answers." [If them think that one row is longer than the other, replace the sticks in the original position]
1.20 Measure distance in paces
Teach the children to measure distances consistently using paces.
Before the lesson, find a medium size child and tell the child to walk ten paces in a straight line.
Mark this distance inside or outside the classroom and mark two lines at right angles to it at the start and finish.
Make sure the children can count to twenty.
Find two trees about fifteen child's paces apart.
1. Line up the children on the start.
Walk steadily for ten steps, then stop.
2. Show the finish line.
Some have stopped before it and some have stopped past it.
Start again.
You have to walk ten even paces and stop on the finish line.
Let the children do this many times until they all have the same size paces.
3. Pacing Game
Divide the class into two groups.
Send each group to a tree.
Call out the name of one child in each group.
When you say "go", the child walks towards the other tree counting the paces.
The winners walk the same number of paces.
4. Divide the class into two groups outside the classroom door.
Each group walks around the classroom in different directions and counting paces until they come back to the door.
Is the number of paces the same? [Yes.]
5. What is the length in paces of the football field, cricket pitch, a school playground?
How many paces from school to home?
1.21 Mobile balance
See diagram 8.14: Balanced mobile
Teach the children to make balance mobiles.
1. Make a mobile with sticks, cardboard shapes and small objects.
When it is finished, hang it from the ceiling of the classroom.
1. Start by making balance A.
Find a point on the stick where it will balance.
Tie the string at that point.
Take a longer stick to make B.
Tie A to one side of it and another object to the other side.
Make C as you have done A.
Tie B and C to a longer stick.
Tie a string to this stick so that it will all balance.
Why are all the strings not tied at the centres of the sticks?
2. Examine a hanging mobile.
The stick is horizontal.
Move the attachment of one string.
Examine the hanging mobile again.
The stick is not horizontal.
3. Tell the students to make a simple mobile, but do not hang them.
Leave them flat on the desk.
Examine the different mobiles on the desks.
Predict which mobile will hang with the stick horizontal.
The students pick up their mobiles.
Which mobiles are hanging with the stick horizontal?
Which predictions were correct?
1.22 Different shapes game
See diagram 2.1.2: Shapes
Teach the children to compare different shapes and put them in order of size.
For each group in the class cut out two cardboard squares with sides 10 cm.
On one square draw and label the shapes A, B, C, D, E, F, and G as in the diagram.
You can also colour them different colours.
Cut out each shape.
1. Give each group a plain cardboard 10 cm square and a pile of the seven shapes A to G.
Let the children play with them.
2. Are C and E the same size or different?
[They are the same size, because one shape can fit exactly on top of the other.]
Can you use C and E to make D? [Yes, they can fit together to make D, see diagram 2.]
3. Are C and D the same size or different? [C is smaller than D.]
4. Are E and F the same size or different? [E is smaller than F.]
Can you use C and E to make F? [Yes, they can fit together to make F, see diagram 4.]
5. Are C and G the same size or different? [G is bigger than C.]
Can you use C and E to make G? [Yes, they can fit together to make G, see diagram 5. .]
6. Are D and F the same size or different? [D and F are the same size, because D is equal to C and E, and F is equal to C and E]
7. Are D, F, and G the same size or different? [D, F and G are the same size.]
8. Can you make A using three smaller shapes? [Yes, you can make A with F and C and E, see diagram 8.]
9. Can you arrange the shapes in order of size on the desk?
[Yes, largest A and B, medium size D and F and G, smallest C and E.]
10. Can you fit all the shapes together on top of this shape, the plain cardboard square? [Yes, see diagram 10.]
11. The names of the shapes
Square (D) has four sides, four corners and the angles are the same.
Triangle (C, E, G) has three sides and three angles that may be the same or different.
Parallelogram or "squashed square" (F) has four sides and four corners, with opposite angles the same.
If the parallelogram has four equal sides and equal opposite angles, two acute angles and two obtuse angles, then is called a rhombus.
12. Find the following shapes in the classroom and in the school buildings: square, triangle, parallelogram (squashed square), rhombus
1.23 Different new shapes game
See diagram 2.1.2: Shapes
See diagram 2.1.3: New shapes
Teach the children to put together three simple shapes to form new shapes and describe them.
For each group you will need to cut out the same shapes as in year one.
The shapes are A and B, two large triangles, G, one medium triangle, C and E, two small triangles, D, one square,
F, one "squashed square" (parallelogram)
1. Give each group three of the shapes and then describe the new shape.
2. See the combinations of shapes in diagram 2.1.3: CFD "House", CFF "Bird", DFC "Bird: .
3. Can you make any other shapes?
1.24 Seeds and seed pods
See diagram 9.113.1: Bean pods
Teach the children to identify, collect and classify seed pods and classify seeds in order of size.
Use a large collection of seed pods.
Collect seed pods before the lesson.
Find many different kinds and keep two of each kind.
Look for big and small, hard and soft seed pods.
1. How many different kinds of seed pods have their group collected?
Put all the seed pods on the desk.
Which group has collected the most seed pods?
2. How many different kinds of seed pods have you collected?
Which group has the shortest seed pod?
Which group has the longest seed pod?
3. Arrange all the seed pods in a line in order of length, the longest at one end and the shortest at the other.
Each group hold up its longest seed pod.
4. Arrange all their seed pods in a line in order of width, the widest at one end and the narrowest at the other.
Which group has the widest seed pod?
Which group has the narrowest?
5. Open their seed pods and look at the seeds inside.
How many seeds can you find in the pod?
Which seed pods contain the largest seeds?
Which seed pods contain the smallest seeds?
Take out the seeds.
Arrange their seeds in order of size.
Find the biggest seed, the smallest seed and the medium-sized seed.
6. Collect different seeds in a glass jars.
1.25 Water pouring game
Teach the children to estimate how much water and sand in different containers.
Use tins and bottles of different sizes, clean sand, water.
1. Show three containers A, B, C.
Show the height of sand or water in container A.
container B, and container C.
2. Point to the height on the other containers where the water or sand would reach if poured into them from container B.
3. Give out three containers to pairs of children.
4. Play the pouring water game.
One container has water or sand in it.
One child points to the height on another empty container, the other child pours to see if the height is correct.
Let the children try to guess the height for different containers.
5. Pour B into A, A into C, C into B.
Has the volume changed? [No, the volume has not changed.
However, the same amount of water or sand is at different heights in the containers.]
6. Fill two containers with the same amount of water or sand.
Fill the third container with either more or less than that amount.
Which two containers have the same amounts of water or sand?
1.26 Plant names
Teach the children to state the correct names of garden crops.
Before this lesson, visit the local market.
Note all the food plants being sold and where they were grown.
Teach the children to recognize all the food plants in the market and what they are used for.
1. Take the children to the market or bring food plants to the classroom.
What are the names of the food plants?
2. Where do they come from?
3 .Can you eat them?
Can you cook them?
1.27 Drinking glass garden
See diagram 9.3.50: Drinking glass garden
Teach the children to grow seeds in a drinking glass and watch the seeds grow.
Use bean seeds and maize grain, two for each child, water, watering tins with holes in the bottom, good garden soil, containers,
e.g. tins, coconut shells, wide bamboo, chalk boxes, plastic bottles.
1. Give each child a container.
Make holes or splints in the bottom so that water can pass through.
Fill the container nearly to the top with soil.
2. Give each child two seeds.
Plant each seed 2 to 3 cm deep in the soil, then pour water onto the soil in the tins.
3. Look at your plants each day and notice any changes that take place.
Keep the soil damp.
4. Which seeds grow the fastest? [Beans grow faster than maize.]
Why do you put water on the soil? [To make the seeds grow.]
5. Plant out when the plants are too big for the cans.
Dig a hole, fill it with water and let it drain.
Hold the can upside down with one finger each side of the stem.
Hit the bottom of the can sharply.
The plant and soil will fall out into your hand.
Put the soil and plant in the hole carefully without damaging the roots.
1.28 Grow plants from seeds
| See diagram 9.113.1: Seeds
| See diagram 9.113.2: Soaked bean seed
Teach the children to describe the changes in seeds when they germinate.
The seed is already alive, but given the right conditions of moisture and air it will grow to form a new plant.
Use seeds of beans or maize or any large seed, coffee jars or any large containers, wet soil, paper.
Allow a few days for this activity.
Give each group three seeds.
1. Describe the shape, colour and size of the seeds.
2. Each group plants the seed in a jar.
Plant the seeds close to the wall of the jar.
3. Observe the seeds every day.
When do the roots appear?
When does the first shoot begin to grow?
Does the seed become bigger or smaller?
4. When the seeds have germinated, show the different parts.
5. Grow some maize in the home garden.
Describe what happened to the seed in your garden.
1.30 Plants need sunlight
See diagram 9.145.1: Band of foil on leaf
Teach the children to show that plants need sunlight.
Use a young plant growing in the ground or in a tin or half coconut. Also, you will need a box or tin with a hole cut in the side.
1. What are the differences you notice between day and night? [Hotter / colder and sunlight / no sunlight.]
2. Where do the hotness and light come from? [The sun.]
3. Do you need the sun? [Yes, to warm us and give us light to see things.]
4. Do plants need the sun? [Yes, they need the light and warmth to make them grow.]
5. How can you show that plants need sunlight? [Plants do not grow well in shade.]
Set up an experiment to observe what happens when plants do not have sunlight.]
6. Plant growing towards the light.
Put the box with the hole in the side over the plant.
After a few days the plant grows towards the light.
Draw the plant growing towards the light.
7. Leave a stone or piece of wood on the grass.
Look under it after a few days.
What do you see? [The grass becomes yellow when it loses its green colour.
Later the grass dies.]
8. Do any plants grow better in the shade? [Young plants need some shade to protect them from the hot sun, but they cannot grow in
the dark.]
1.31 Plants need water
Teach the children to show that plants need water.
Use plants that wilt easily, growing in tin cans or half coconuts or in the ground.
Take some juicy stems or leaves to the classroom.
1. Show the juicy stems or leaves.
Squeeze them until some juice comes out.
What is coming out? [Water.]
Plants contain lots of water.
2. How do you show that plants need water? [Set up an experiment.
Give some plants water and the others no water.
The plants given no water will droop down and wilt.]
3. Draw two plants:
One plant given plenty of water
One plant that has wilted, because it was given no water
4. Can plants die, because of too much water? [If there is too much water in the soil, the roots cannot breathe and the plant will die.]
5. Pour some water on the soil and then dig down to see where it went.
1.33 Plants need soil
Plants need soil for the following reasons:
1. Soil holds up the plants.
It supports them and holds them firmly.
2. Soil holds water for the plants.
Plants need water to grow.
3. Soil holds foods for the plants.
Plants must have these plant foods or they cannot grow.
Teach the children to show that plants need good soil to grow well.
Use examples of plants growing in good garden soil and plants growing in poor sandy or gravel soil with little organic matter.
1. Show plants growing in good and bad soil.
What differences can you see ? [Differences in the size of the plant, whether there are flowers or fruits, size of the fruit, any diseases.]
2. Why do plants need soil? [Soil is needed to hold the plants up, to give the plants water, and to give the plants food.]
3. What are the three things all plants need to make them grow well? [Sunlight, water, good soil.]
4. Where do you find good soil and bad soil? [good soil in the forest, near rivers, new gardens on slopes, near the beach, old gardens.]
5. Try to dig up some good soil and bad soil without breaking them.
Put them into glass jars for display in the classroom.
1.34 Good soil and bad soil
See diagram 6.26: Soil profiles
Teach the children to show the difference between good and bad soil.
1. Take the children to a place where there is good soil with small plants growing in it.
Dig a hole about half metre deep. [What you see when you look at the side of the hole from the inside is called the soil profile.]
2. Show the two main layers of the soil: the topsoil and the subsoil.
What differences can you see? [The topsoil is narrower and darker and contains most of the roots of small plants.
The subsoil is very deep and lighter and only the roots of big trees are in it.]
Measure the depth of the topsoil with your finger.
3. Now move to some bad soil and dig a hole.
What difference do you see between the bad soil and the good soil? [The topsoil is thinner or there is none at all. It contains fewer
roots of small plants.]
4. Dig holes in different places in the school garden and describe differences in the depth of topsoil.
Where do you find the most / the least topsoil? [You find most topsoil where there is plenty of plant cover.
You find least topsoil where there is little plant cover or on slopes.]
Feel good soil
Teach the children to describe the feel of good soil and then understand the importance of rotting leaves.
Use a place where lots of leaves are rotting into the soil.
1. Show the rotting leaves.
Let the children feel leaves 1.1 that are not yet rotten, 1.2 that are rotten.
What is the difference between the feel of the living leaves and the rotten leaves? [The living leaves feel smooth.
The rotten leaves feel sticky.]
2. What is the feel of the topsoil? [It feels sticky.]
What happens to the rotten leaves? [They go into the soil.]
What colour are the rotten leaves? [Black.]
Is the subsoil black? [No.]
Why is the subsoil not black? [There are no rotten leaves in it.]
3. What is the difference between good soil and bad soil? [Good soil has lots of topsoil.]
Why is the topsoil so good for plants? [It had rotten leaves in it.]
4. How do rotten leaves make the soil better?
4.1 They give plant food to the soil.
4.2 They make soil softer and easier to dig.
4.3 The soil sticks together and holds water for the plants.]
5. The rotten leaves form humus.
This is the black sticky substance found in the topsoil.
Subsoil does not feel sticky, because there is no humus in it.
6. Where do you find good soil and bad soil?
1.35 Green leaves for health
Teach the children to explain the importance of amaranths, ferns, kankong, and other green leaves in the diet.
Before the lesson tell the children to bring different kinds of green leaves which people eat.
1. The green leaves of many plants can be eaten.
If the leaves are cooked quickly they can be an important part of the diet of children, because they are healthy foods.
Children should eat lightly cooked leaves every day.
Examples of edible leaves: Kumara, taro, beans, pumpkin tips, wong bok, fern, kankong, watercress, chilli, bok choi, hibiscus
cabbage, basella, comfrey, pit, tulip tree.
These greens may be more healthy than introduced vegetables such as cabbage and lettuce.
3. Amaranths or pig weed usually grows wild, but it can be grown in gardens.
Collect seeds by rubbing the seed head between the hands.
The seeds should be dried for a few weeks then sprinkled onto damp soil.
It is harvested first by thinning then eating the plants pulled out.
Later the leaves can be pulled off.
4. About the different kinds of green leaves eaten in the home.
Write a list of them on the chalk board.
Show the children Amaranths growing in the gardens nearby.
Show them how to harvest and plant seed.
These green leaves should be part of your diet every day, because they contain healthy foods.
5. Collect the seeds or cuttings of different kinds of greens used by local people and plant them in the garden.
1.36 Protect topsoil
See diagram 6.62: Water on slopes
Teach the children to take care of the soil so that it can give us good crops.
Use a place where topsoil is washed away.
Show where topsoil is washed away.
1. The topsoil is the part of the soil that holds the plant foods.
If the topsoil is lost then plants cannot grow well.
2. How can the topsoil be lost? [It can be washed down slopes and into rivers where it is washed away.]
3. How can you prevent soil from being washed away? [Cover the bare soil with leaves such as coconut fronds.
Do not dig soil on a steep slope, but plant crops across the slope and not up and down the slope.]
4. How do farmers stop the soil from being washed away? [Make terraces.]
5. If you have to use steep land, Show how to construct terraces of flat land on the slopes.
1.37 Examine soil with a magnifier
Teach the children to identify components of soil.
Use for each group a magnifier, a handful of topsoil, jar or bottle.
Give each group a handful of garden soil taken from just below the surface.
1. Take a little bit of the soil.
Use the end of a pencil to divide it into different things: stone particles, roots and leaves, little animals, black sticky stuff.
2. What can you see when you use the magnifier? [You can see the parts of the soil.]
3. Are the earth particles all separate or are some particles stuck together, like crumbs? [Some of it forms crumbs.]
The black sticky stuff is called humus.
It binds together some stone particles to form crumbs.
Good soil has crumbs of soil particles.
4. What colour is the soil?
Rub some wet soil on paper, what is the colour? [The colour is red-brown and other colours.]
Let the paper dry.
Does it change colour? [Yes.]
Keep the paper on a wall board.
The colour of the soil when rubbed on white paper is called its streak.
Make the streak of different soils.
1.38 Air games
Teach the children to explain that air is all around us.
Use a book, a sheet of paper and a little piece of scrap paper for each group of two.
1. Breathe in through your nose, then blow out on your hands.
Fan your faces with your hands, then fan your friend's face with a book.
Hold out your arms and spin around quickly.
2. Can you see air? [No.]
What did you feel in your nose? [Air.]
What did you feel when you blew on your hands? [Air.]
What did you feel on your face? [Air.]
What did you feel on your hands? [Air.]
Can you feel air when the air is not moving? [No.]
Can you feel air when the air is moving? [Yes.]
Can you feel air when your hands are moving? [Yes.]
Can you feel air when you are not moving and the air is not moving? [No.]
3. Air Game
Give each pair of children a piece of paper or a book.
Make a ball out of scrap paper.
Draw a soccer ground on the floor with a half way line and two goal lines each end.
Put the paper ball on halfway.
When the teacher says "Go" each child tries to fan the ball over the opposite goal line.
You can draw a bigger soccer ground and allow more than two players.
4. Take the children outside on a windy day.
Can you see air? [No.]
How can you tell if air is moving near us? [You can feel it on your face.
How can you tell if air is moving near trees? [The leaves move.]
How can you tell if air is moving near water? [Ripples on the water surface.]
How can you tell if air is moving in the sky? [You see clouds moving.]
1.39 Air in bags
Teach the children to fill bags with air and describe the feeling of air in the bags.
1. Fill your bag with air by opening the bag and moving it quickly.
Then quickly close the bag by twisting the end.
When you have caught lots of air in the bag, tell the children to try to feel the air in the bag.
2. Hold the bag full of air between your two hands.
Can you push your hands together? [No.]
What keeps your hands apart? [Air.]
Let the air out of the bag.
Why can you now push your hands together? [There is not much air between your hands.]
3. Hold an open jar or bottle over a bucket of water.
Push the jar into the water open side down.
Does the water fill the jar? [No.]
What keeps the water out? [Air.]
Was the jar really empty? [No, it was full of air.]
4. Put the jar under the water, open side down.
Now turn it slowly, open side up.
What do you see? [Bubbles come out.]
What is inside a bubble? [Air.]
What is inside the jar now? [Water.]
Why can the water get into the jar? [There is no air inside the jar to stop the water coming in.]
5. Stand in front of the children.
Say "What is between you and me? [Air.]
Can you see it? [No.]
How can you prove to me that it is there? [Feel the air by waving the hand.]
6. Push some clothes or cloth under water.
Do they sink? [No.]
What keeps them up? [Air is trapped in them.]
1.40 Blow soap bubbles
Teach the children to blow soap bubbles and describe them.
Use drinking straws (or papaya stems or bamboo stems) jars of water, soap or detergent, wire loops.
Make the soap solution the day before.
1. Show how to make soapy water by putting the pieces of soap or some detergent into the water in the jar and shake.
2. Put some soapy water in the palms of your hands.
Press your hands together so that a small hole forms.
Blow through this hole.
Can you blow bubbles?
3. Dip one end of the stem or straw into the soapy water and blow gently through the stem in the air.
Can you blow bubbles?
4. Dip a loop of wire into the soap solution.
Is there a thin film of soap across the loop?
Can you see it?
Blow through the loop slowly.
Can you blow a big bubble?
5. How do you blow big bubbles and small bubbles? [To make small bubbles blow quickly, to make big bubbles blow slowly.]
6. What is a bubble made of? [A bubble has a skin of soap and inside is air.]
7. Describe the shape and colour of a soap bubble.
8. Why does a bubble break? [The skin is too thin, if it hits something the skin breaks, if the air inside gets bigger the skin breaks.]
9. Bubble game
Who can blow the biggest soap bubble?
Whose bubble lasts the longest before it breaks?
1.41 Falling parachutes
"Monkey Parachutists", air resistance and parachutes (commercial)
Teach the children to make a parachute, throw it, and describe its fall.
Use sheets of paper, stones, string, squares of cloth, one demonstration parachute.
1. Stand on the desks and drop a piece of paper, flat surface down.
Describe how it falls. [It floats from side to side, so it does not fall straight down.]
2. Crumple the paper into a ball then drop it.
Describe how it falls. [It drops straight down. It falls quickly.]
3. Drop a piece of cloth, some string and a stone.
Describe how they fall. [They fall straight down.]
4. Look at the small parachute made of cloth, string and stone.
Throw it up.
Describe how it falls. [The parachute falls straight down. It falls slowly.]
5. Why does the parachute fall slowly? [The air under the cloth of the parachute stops it falling quickly.]
6. Children can make their own parachutes and throw them up in the school grounds.
Who can throw the highest?
Which parachute falls quickest?
Which parachute falls slowest? [If the weight attached to the parachutes are the same, bigger parachutes will usually fall more slowly.]
1.42 Drinking straw game
See: Straws (Modern Teaching Aids)
See diagram 12.305.2: Air supports water in a glass tube
Teach the children to pick up water and carry it using a straw.
Use drinking straws (or the petiole of a papaya leaf, or the hollow stem of grass), a bucket of water and a rag.
1. Press your left index finger against the bottom end of the straw. Pour water into the straw or dip it into a bucket of water.
Dry the outside of the straw.
Press your right index finger on the top end of the straw.
Take away your left finger from the bottom end.
The water will stay in the straw.
Is there any water in the straw? [Yes.]
Raise their right index finger and the water will drop out.
2. Give each group a straw.
Show how to push the straws under the water in the bucket, then press their fingers against the top end then take the straw out with
the water inside.
Take the straw full of water across the room then drop the water into a jar.
3. Water carrying game
Each child has to pick up some water with the straw and carry it across to a jar.
The group that carries the most water to their jar wins the game.
4. Medicine dropper
Hold water in the straw held vertically by covering the top end with the index finger.
Bend the finger slightly to let one drop at a time fall into the bucket.
The straw is now being used as a medicine dropper.
In a laboratory liquids are transferred in the same way using a pipette.
5. Drinking with a straw
Dip the end of a straw in water in a glass and suck it half way up the straw.
Put the index finger over the top of the straw and raise the straw above the water.
Air pressure is in all directions, down, sideways and up.
When you suck on the straw you take some air above the water into your mouth.
So the air pressure down on the surface of the water in the straw is less than the air pressure on the surface of the water in the glass.
If you remove your finger from the top of the straw, the air pressure above and below the water in the straw is the same, so the water
falls down.
So if you use a straw to "suck" a drink into your mouth, you are removing the air inside the straw to allow air pressure to push the
drink into your mouth.
6. Water drop game
Each child has to fill a straw with water and let three drops only fall into a jar.
The group that does this the most times wins the game.
1.44 Area game
See diagram 2.1.2: Shapes
Teach the children to conserve area.
The following tests for conserving area.
You will need: two rectangular pieces of cardboard, 20 cm × 15 cm.
Eight small rectangles of cardboard 4 cm × 3 cm.
Before you start, be sure that the two large pieces of cardboard are identical and that the small pieces are all identical.
1. Arrange the cardboard and small pieces as shown below.
Do the small pieces cover the same area as the big piece of cardboard? [Yes.]
2. If the children say "Yes" then arrange the small pieces as shown below.
Do the pieces on this card cover the same area of cardboard as the pieces on the other card? [Yes.]
Explain your answers.
If the children say "No" bring the four small pieces together again.
3. Draw lines on one piece of card.
Are the squares the same size? [Yes.]
If the children say "No", let the children compare the shapes by putting one on top of the other.
Do the two squares cover the same area of floor, or table? [Yes.]
4. Cut off the piece A and place it as shown.
What does it look like? [A bird.]
Do these shapes cover the same area of the floor? [Yes.]
If the children say "No", put piece A back to its original position.
Compare the pieces again by putting one on top of the other.
5. If the children say "yes" above, cut off another piece, arrange it differently.
Ask them, "Do these shapes cover the same area of the floor as the square"? [Yes.]
6. Put all the pieces back together.
1.45 Float different objects
Teach the children to observe things that float and things that sink.
Collect wood, ball, bottle tops, stones and other objects.
You will need also Plasticine (modelling clay) or putty, jars, water, bottles, little stones, a container with water.
1. Let the children make things float.
Are you all the same depth in the water? [No]
Give each group a bottle or Show how to make a paper boat.
2. Add little stones to the floating bottle or paper boat.
Do they stay the same depth in the water? [No, they get deeper until they sink.]
3. Give the children things that sink including a lump of Plasticine.
What happens when things sink? [The water level in the container rises.]
Make a canoe out of the Plasticine.
If the walls are very thin, it will float.
What is the difference between the Plasticine sinking and floating? [When it floats the water level in the container is higher, the volume
is bigger.
4. What other things can be made to sink or float? [Galvanized iron canoe, an iron boat.]
1.46 Different seashells
See diagram 9.305: Shells
Teach the children to classify shells into groups based on observed similarities and differences.
Collect different types of shells and ask the children to bring some.
Groups of four children.
1. Give each group a pile of mixed shells.
2. Sort the shells into small groups.
You must be able to say why you put shells into a particular group.
Do not tell the children how to do it.
Let the children decide on your own groupings.
3. Pick out one shell from a group.
Why did you put it into that group?
The possible answers are: they look the same, same colour, same shape, same markings etc.
4. Do you know the names for each group, e.g. scallop, top shell, cone shell, snail shell, cowrie, clam?.
5. Arrange the shells in each group in order of size.
6. Draw the middle size shell of each group in your book.
7. Make a collection of shells for the class.
Label the shells with language name and English name.
1.47 Different seeds
Teach the children to recognize the differences between different seeds.
Make a collection of 4-5 different kinds of seeds, e.g. peanuts, other legumes, corn, pumpkin, melon,
tomato, pandanus, papaya.
You will need 12 seeds of each kind and a clock face.
Groups of four children.
1. Divide the children into groups so that each group has 12 seeds of one kind, e.g. Group 1: 12 pumpkin seeds, Group
2: 12 peanut seeds, Group 3: 12 papaya seeds.
2. Are all the seeds the same size? [No]
Put the seeds in one line, biggest to smallest, then count the seeds? [12]
3. Show the children a clock face.
Arrange the seeds like the numbers on the clock face.
Put the biggest seed on the one and the smallest seed on the 1.
2. Are the seeds on the five and six are big or small? [Middle size]
4. Do all the seeds have the same pattern and the same colour? [Most will be the same, but there are some differences.]
5. Give each group has three seeds of each kind.
6. Repeat steps three and four with the different kinds of seeds.
7. Collect different kinds of seeds in the school playground and at home.
Who can find the most seeds?
1.48 Watch seeds germinate
| See diagram 9.113.4: Maize
| See diagram 9.112: Epigeal germination
| See diagram 9.110.1: Hypogeal germination
Teach the children to describe the changes in seeds when they germinate.
Allow a few days for this observation.
Collect seeds of beans or maize or any large see, coffee jars or any large containers, wet soil, paper.
Give each group of five children three seeds.
1. Describe the shape, colour and size of the seeds.
2. Each group plants the seed in a jar.
Plant close to the wall of the jar.
3. Observe the seeds every day.
4. When the seeds have germinated, show the children the different parts.
5. Grow some maize in the home garden.
Describe what happened to the seed in your garden.