Feeling air

Air is all around us all the time but preschoolers and toddlers won’t really think about this fact. But they will think about it when the wind blows and they can feel it!

Collect empty squeezable bottles. Rinse them well and let them dry out. Let your preschooler squeeze them onto their arm and feel the air being forced out of the bottle.

You can ask questions like:

“Is there anything in the bottle?”
“What is it that you are feeling on your arm?”

Moving air

Use this template to make a dancing snake. Print it out onto normal paper. This preschool science activity shows how hot air rises.

Cut out your snake on the lines and tie a thin thread to the end. Hold it by the thread over a light bulb in a lamp that is switched on. The snake should begin to bounce.

Explain to your toddler that even though they cannot see the air moving it is going upwards which causes the snake to move.

Floating

You will need some feathers, inflated balloons and two sheets of paper – one scrumpled into a ball the other flat.

Clear a space in a room for your preschooler as this can become quite a busy activity. From a height let your toddler drop each item and watch them float one at a time.

Thereafter play a guessing game about which will get to the ground first. (The ball of paper will as it has the least amount of contact with air and therefore not the same surface area for the air to hold up.

Pollution

Clean air is vital to all life. One way to see if air has lots of oxygen in it is to look for signs of lichen growing on tree limbs. You can also keep an eye out for bird and insect life. Explain to your preschooler that cars, factories and the creating of electricity all put bad substances into the air which affects health and nature.

Together think of ways that you can save electivity and thus reduce your part in pollution. Some ideas:

Do not leave lights burning when you leave a room

Do not stand with the refrigerator door open

Switch off appliances when not in use at the plug if they have a pilot light

Have a shallower bath or shorter shower

Bake when you plan to have your oven on for dinner instead of heating up the whole oven for one item.

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