At-Home Activities

Printable Coloring Sheets

What is This!?

Ask an Educator

Welcome to the Hands On! Activity Page!

Make a Fish Mummy!

You will need:

  • a raw fish from the supermarket
  • two boxes of baking soda
  • kitchen scale
  • plastic container with a lid

Directions:

  1. Weigh the fish on a kitchen scale.
  2. Coat the fish inside and out with baking soda, and bury it completely in baking soda in the plastic container. Let it sit this way for a week in a cool shady place (in a refrigerator, if you like).
  3. After a week, take it out, dust it off, and weigh it again. Re-bury it in fresh baking soda, for another whole week.
  4. Take it out and weigh it once more.

What does the fish look, feel, and smell like after the first week? After the second week?


For more cool experiments to try at home check out: www.pbskids.org/dragonflytv

Create Your Own Terrarium!

A terrarium is a small, enclosed world made up of living things, soil, water, and air. Its covering lets in leight.

The earth we live on is like a huge terarium. Plants and animals need soil, water, air, and light in order to survive in both a terrarium and on the earth. If any of these things are missing or are damaged by pollution, the plants and animals will suffer.

You will need:

  • A clear, wide-mouthed jar (like a peanut putter jar)
  • 2 handfuls of small rocks or sand
  • 2 handfuls of soil
  • 1 handful of dead leaves
  • Some moss (look for it in a forest or vacant lot)
  • Several small ferns or plants from a forest, a vacant lot, or a plant store (you may need to ask for permission if you are not on your own property.)

Directions:

  1. Cover the bottom of the jar with the sand. Then cover the sand with the same amount of soil. Spread it out on top of the sand. Next, place the dead leaves on top of the soil.
  2. Using a pencil, tongs, or a chopstick, make holes in the soil covering. Then plant your plants. Use the moss to fill in around the plants after you have tapped the soil down gently.
  3. Water your miniworld with a squeeze bottle or sprinkle water with your hands. Do not put too much water - the covering should not be soaked.
  4. Place the lid on your jar. Keep the lid closed. Your miniworld should now have everything it needs. Place the jar in a place that has good liht, but not in the direct sun.

Each day watch for changes in your terrarium.

Taken from Try-Its for Brownie Girl Scouts ©2000 by Girl Scouts of the United States of America

Try this ICY experiment!

You will need:

  • ice cubes
  • cup of water
  • string
  • salt

Directions:

  1. Float an ice cube in the cup of water.
  2. Carefully lay one end of a piece of string on the floating cube.
  3. Sprinkle a pinch of salt onto the string and wait for about 30 seconds.
  4. Pick up the string, and WOW! You caught an ice cube.
  5. What else can you use besides salt? Try sugar, pepper, sand, flour, you name it. See what works, and what doesn’t, and try to figure out why!


What else did you use to try and catch an ice cube? Record your findings for each experiment.


For more cool experiments to try at home check out: www.pbskids.org/dragonflytv