Make a cave

Using your dining room table chairs and a dark blanket, make a cave for you and your toddler to crawl into. Take a torch or two in with you and lie in the cave with the torch on and look at the lights. Make them dance together, try and make shadow animals in the glow and just enjoy this time together.

Transparency

Collect different articles from around the home – vase, ball, oven glove, serviette, paper, wooden ornament etc. Let your preschooler shine a torch on one side and then see if they can see the light through the object. Let them shine the torch through their hand and see if they can see the light on the other side.

Talk about how light cannot shine through all objects. Objects that let light through are transparent. Object that block light are called opaque. Objects that let only some light through are called translucent.

Shadows

On a sunny day go and look for your shadow outside. Remind your preschooler that their bodies don’t let light through and we are therefore opaque.

One night just before lights out find a nice wall to make shadow creatures.

Mirrors

Using a hand held safety mirror and a torch experiment with how you can make light “bounce” off ceilings.

Carefully help your child with this next preschool science activity. Help them to place the safety mirror on the bridge of their nose, just under their eyes. Get them to walk very slowly while looking into the mirror. Do they feel like they are walking on the ceiling?

Colour slides

Cut out some squares of colour cellophane paper. Let your preschooler hold them one by one in front of their torch and shine it against a white wall. Then double up on the colours and see how the torches beam changes.

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