Preschool Science Concoctions Lab

Welcome to my Young Scientists at Play series where I create colourful fun preschool science activities. The goal here was for my two youngest girls to handle science equipment and explore confidently. During this particular week in our homeschool Lillie helped me to create and run a preschool science concoctions lab.

Check it out! I’ve already written about our first foray into coloured vinegar and bicarb…in my preschool science colour and fizz post

Preschool Science Concoctions Lab: Contents

One of the best things about these preschool science lessons is that all of the ‘ingredients’ can be found in the kitchen cupboard! Yes, we did buy in special preschool science equipment but this is not necessary. Just grab some containers, icing sprinklers, turkey basters, sieves and funnels and just do it!

The tray here contains coloured water, coloured vinegar and coloured milk; also it has baking powder, bicarb, flour, cornflour and icing sugar…literally use anything you have on hand! Both the girls had a small tray with mixing bowls, sieve, spoons, syringe and goggles:

The Rules

There is only one rule and that is that there are no rules! Obviously you know your children best. If you have cheeky vibrant tactile children, it may be a good idea to take your preschool science concoction lab to your bathroom. Or even better, outside. There is something magical about a child not having any constraints. They are able to shrug off the normal shackles that adults place on them and just get down to the serious job of exploration.

Let the Fun Begin! 

We are always as hands off as possible during preschool science.  This is chiefly exploratory time for them and as such I have NO end result in mind.  This is one of the most freeing ways to home school, yet the children are still learning loads.

Abigail (Age Four)

Rebecca (Aged Two)

For Becca, it was one of the few times in our week when I seemed to have her full attention…

Where her utter sense of wonder prevailed over everything…

As she sprinkled…

Pipetted…

Turkey basted…

Spooned…

Poured…

Mixed…

And generally captured the heart of all and any who happen to be in the room:

Becca. at two, was by far my hardest baby to keep content.  She was unsettled A LOT of the time.  Yet for one hour a week she was peaceful, absorbed, with no expectations hampering her learning. 

Preschool Science Concoctions Lab: Revisiting the Previous Week

I had one last activity for my little ones, to reinforce what they had learnt the week before.  Abigail was very excited.  She has always been such a pleasure to teach, lapping up anything and everything I did with her.  It has always been such a privilege to home-school! 

This time I filled them a small tray each, full of bicarb.  Next, I filled up a couple of trays of test tubes with vinegar which I coloured lots of different colours:

The goal was for them to pipette different colours of vinegars onto the bicarb, not just to see the fizzy reaction, but to notice the mixing of colours:

This one hour of science play helped open my eyes to see the potential in Becca. It was a peek into her way of learning, into the activities which interested her.  Of course, now, aged fourteen, she is an artist through and through, and works mainly independently. Exploration remains one of the best ways she learns.

This was one of the most successful ideas I had ever implemented in our school.