For today’s activity I thought I would show you two experiments that you could try at home.
The first experiment is a great way to show children the importance of washing their hands. Recently we have been encouraging children to wash their hands more often because of Coronavirus. This experiment will show them what happens to bad germs when they wash their hands.
Here is a short video about germs:
Stop Germs from Spreading: Wash Your Hands | Cincinnati Children’s – YouTube
This experiment demonstrates the cleaning power of soap and will help you to explain why it’s so important to use soap when washing our hands. The children get to chase away the “bad germs” in their own little bowl.
Before you start, put some pepper onto a plate and ask your child to dip their finger into the pepper and see what happens. The pepper should stick to the child’s finger – explain that in this experiment we will pretend that the pepper represents germs. (You can wipe the pepper off their finger after showing them that it has stuck to their finger just the same as germs do)
What you need:
- Water
- A bowl
- Pepper
- Toothpicks
- Soap/washing up liquid
Step 1 : Pour some water into a bowl (a few centimetres deep).
Step 2 : Ask your child to shake some pepper into the bowl of water. Explain to your child that the pepper represents germs.
Step 3 : Dip your child’s finger into the soap/washing up liquid or dip a toothpick into the soap/washing up liquid instead if they don’t want to use their finger.
Step 4: Then get them to dip their finger or toothpick with the soap on it into the middle of the bowl (that has water and pepper in it) and the “germs” (the pepper) will disperse! It’s magic!
Ask them what has happened ? Ask them why they think that this has happened ?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/watch/germs-experiment
Discuss and reinforce when we should wash our hands:
- Before a meal or snack
- After playing outside
- After being at a playground or busy area
- Before cooking or preparing a meal
- After using the bathroom
- After touching animals
- After coughing, sneezing or blowing your nose
Encourage your child to count to 20 while washing their hands. (You could count to 10 twice or count to 5 four times to suit different abilities)
The second experiment is another fun way to use soap.
What you will need:
- A bar of ivory soap (must be ivory)
- A bowl
- A microwave
Before you begin, you can let your child examine the bar of soap. Encourage them to use descriptive words as they hold it, feel it and smell it. Encourage them to describe the weight/size of the soap.
Step 1 : Unwrap your bar of soap and place it on a microwaveable plate.
Step 2 : Put your plate of soap in the microwave.
Ask your child what they think might happen to the soap?
Step 3 : Heat for 1-2 minutes. (You can’t really overcook your Ivory, but it will eventually reach a point where it stops expanding). While it cooks encourage your child to watch what is happening to the soap. Ask them why they think this is happening?
The microwave is putting a high volume of air into the ivory soap which makes it rapidly expand into a huge, fluffy cloud.
When your microwave stops get an adult to remove the soap from the microwave.
Caution! The plate and the soap will be hot for a minute or so after being removed from the microwave. Please give the soap a few minutes to cool before letting your children handle it.
Allow your child to explore the soap now it’s been cooked. Encourage them to use descriptive words to compare the texture, smell and look of the soap to before it went into the microwave. Also encourage them to compare the weight/size of the soap now it has been in the microwave.
Curricular areas covered:
Health and well being – learning about germs and the importance of washing our hands. To reinforce safety when items are hot.
Science – experimenting with water , experimenting with heat to create the expansion of soap.
Maths – counting while washing their hands. Comparing the weights/size of the soap before and after it has been in the microwave. Predicting what will happen to the soap.
Literacy – descriptive words to describe the texture, look and smell of the soap and what happens to the soap.
I hope you have fun trying these experiments and remember to send any photos to my email address.
sherrie.devlin@eastayrshire.org.uk
