The activity set I would explore in the junior classroom is Stars. I would introduce the lesson with the book ‘How to catch a star’. We would then brainstorm how the students would go about catching stars. Then we will make our very own shooting star in a jar.
Materials needed:
-Food colouring
-Water
-Small Jar with lid (one per table)
-Large clear glass jar, bottle, or vase
-vegetable oil
Method:
Fill each small jar half way full with oil.
Drop food colouring into the oil (these droplets will be the stars)
Shake the jar. (Shake up high, shake down low, blast off like a rocket ship, but don’t let go!!)
Add the contents of the small jar into the bigger jar filled with water.
The gravity will bring the colours down into the water as they pull away from the oil creating a shooting star like pattern.
The children will enjoy seeing the speed at which the ‘stars’ are moving and this can be used to expand on with discussions of the galaxy and milky way etc.