earth science Archives - Page 14 of 14 - Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

If you’re looking for rainforest science activities for kindergarten, you’ll love this living terrarium craft. Look for my other kindergarten tips and crafts on my page Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum. Also, look at my pages Rain Forest – Amazon and Rainforest Activities for Kids.

Are you learning all about the beautiful and fascinating rainforest habitat?

You can have your child make a diorama the old-fashioned way or try something new and end up with a beautiful living decor piece.

Rainforest Science Activities For Kindergarten Amazing and Fun Living Terrarium

This living rainforest diorama terrarium can be a great hands-on way to teach your child about the animals and plants of the rainforest and a lesson on self-sustaining environments.

This mini ecosystem becomes a self-sustaining environment with living plants once the lid is closed.

And it is a beautiful addition to your homeschool or living room. Add this idea to your rainforest science activities for kindergarten.

Nature Book

Also, I wanted to share this beautiful resource I found with you that is perfect for adding some botany into your studies.

Botanicum is an oversized book which has gorgeous illustrations that look like vintage museum prints.

There is a good section with information on rainforests including tropical trees and plants

Also, beautiful, detailed pictures that are great for tracing or using as inspiration to draw your own.

Also, here are some rainforest facts.

Rainforest Facts

The Amazon Rainforest is the largest tropical rainforest.
In addition, there are two types of rainforests- tropical and temperate.
The average temperature in the rainforest is 82℉.
6% of the earth is covered by rainforests.
More than ⅔ of the world’s plant and animal species live here.
It can take all the way up to 10 minutes for a raindrop to fall to the ground because of the thick canopy cover of the trees that slows it down.
25% of medicines in production come from the rainforest regions.
The rainforest contains over two million types of insects!
Most animals and plants live in the canopy area of the rainforest.

And the rainforest is made up of 4 different layers:

The dark, damp Forest floor.
The Understory, the part that makes up the shorter tree space between the canopy and the forest floor.
The Canopy, the lush thicker tree filled area where most animals live.
The Emergent Layer, the thick treetops that stretch up into the open air.

Other Kindergarten Resources

Too, be sure to not miss these other homeschool kindergarten resources.

Additionally, you love some more rainforest activities.

You’ll love all the Amazon Rainforest resources.

More Amazon Rainforest Activities

19 Fun Hands-on Rainforest Activities for Kindergarten
Rainforest Crafts for Kindergarten: Make an Easy Paper Plate Monkey
3 Free and Amazing Amazon Rainforest Lapbooks for Kids
These slithering Paper Chain Pythons.
The Ultimate Guide to the Flora and Fauna of the Amazon Rain Forest
An adorable Paper plate Sloth.
Plants and Animals in the Tropical Rainforest cards make a great resource.
Fun Pineapple Candle
100+ Best and Free Tropical Amazon Rainforest Educators Resources

Now, let’s dive into making this amazing living terrarium.

How to Make a Rainforest Living Terrarium

First, you will need the following items.

Potting soil
A large sealing glass jar, a gallon size is perfect.

Small succulents-real or faux
Other small tropical plants
Small rocks or pebbles
Rainforest animals

Moss. I used dried moss from Dollar Tree and you can include live moss on the forest floor if you have some.
Sticks or small limbs from the yard
Hot glue gun/glue sticks
White labels

Then, here are the directions.

Add a 1” -2” layer of small rocks or pebbles carefully to the bottom of the jar, this will help with drainage.

Next, place 2” of potting soil on top of the rocks.

Before planting the succulents spritz them well with water or give them a good dunk under water.

Now you can use real or fake succulents if you don’t want to keep up with watering but the care for succulents is minimal.

And once established, they need little care.

Plant your succulents and spread around the jar. We used a mix of real and fake succulents to fill the space.

Now to create the tall full lush trees we used some sticks we gathered from the yard.

Break them down to size so that they fit a couple inches below the lid once pressed into the dirt.

Make your trees by putting hot glue all around on the top of the stick.

Then, roll it around and press it into the moss.

Rainforest Science Activities For Kindergarten

You may repeat this step to fill in your tree as full as you would like.

Don’t forget to add some to your lower branches if your tree has them.

Once the glue has hardened you can press them down into the soil and rocks.

Finally, add in some rainforest creatures to live in your habitat.

Additionally, these toob animals come in handy for so many projects. Try to spread them out among the 4 different layers.

Spritz everything well and close up the lid.

Now your habitat is also a fantastic demonstration on the water cycle as moisture will form on the inside and on the plants.

That moisture will drip down and water the soil.

The cycle will repeat itself over and over. It is good to open the lid once a month for a few minutes and allow the plants to get fresh air.

Now, to learn a bit about the 4 layers -use a white label to write the 4 layers that make up the rainforest- The Emergent Layer, Canopy, Understory and Forest floor.

Have your child place them in the correct place on the side of the jar to label each one.

Your terrarium just needs indirect sunlight and do not place directly in the sun.

If you’re looking for homeschool science experiments, you’ll love this easy instant ice activity. Add it to your winter season unit study.

If your kids are like mine, they prefer to get hands-on with their learning rather than just being read to from a book.

Although we love reading, we also love doing.

Simple and Easy Instant Ice Kids Activity Homeschool Science Experiments

Whenever you start a new unit, a new week, or a new concept consider adding something that requires a lot more of their involvement like this instant ice homeschool science experiment.

This homeschool science experiment is easy to set up, perform, and requires very little prep.

Other than a watch and wait for the bottles to almost freeze, it’s simple and fun.

Freeze extra bottles so that it can be repeated.

But don’t stop with this hands-on winter experiment, keep the learning going.

Look at how to turn simple ideas into a fun little unit for you and your curious learners.

Fun Winter Ice Facts

Check out Why Does Water Turn Into Ice and Where do Icicles Come From to learn more about incredible ice.

Read a few interesting ice facts to see what you both can learn and reinforce what they already knew.

Interesting Ice Facts:

Fresh water will freeze at 0 ℃.
Ocean water will freeze but at a colder temperature of -2 ℃.
The Inupiaq of Alaska have 100 names for ice.
There are two types of ice on the earth. Land ice consists of fresh water and sea ice is made of salt water.
More than ⅔ of the earths fresh water is in the form of glaciers.
Ice is not only on earth but it can also be found on some of Saturn’s rings, in comets, the Moon, and on Jupiter.
The thickest ice ever recorded was 2.97 miles thick by an Antarctica research aircraft
Scientists believe there to have been 5 different ice ages which are the Huronian, Cryogenian, Andean-Saharan, Karoo Ice Age and the Quaternary glaciation.
Glaciers do not melt in very cold areas like the arctic but continue to build up and create massive ice sheets.
Ice is a mineral and meets all four of the requirements to make it a mineral.

The four requirements are it’s naturally occurring, a solid, has organized crystal structure and is inorganic.

So, technically, ice is a rock.

Ice Vocabulary Words

Next, add a few science words about ice.

Supercool- a liquid that is below its freezing point without solidification or crystallization.
Ice- Frozen water, a brittle transparent crystalline solid.
Freezing- When the temperature of the air falls below the freezing point of water- 0 ℃.

Then move into learning about the science behind instant ice.

Instant Ice Science

First, purified water can be chilled below its freezing point and remain in a liquid state. This is a supercooled water.

There are not enough impurities in the water for ice crystals to grow on. Hitting it on the counter or pouring it over the ice gives it a kick start.

When a new material phase begins to form that is the water changing to solid ice.

It is called nucleation.

Nucleation is when there is an imperfection in the substance.

For instant, dust in the water that the state it is changing to (ice) can anchor to and thus create a nucleus.

Just one molecule forms an ice crystal at the nucleus.

And the molecules next to it and on top of it begin to change state due to the icy surface.

This creates a chain reaction of ice until your supercooled water forms a little tower of ice.

We used the ice cubes to help us get that process started.

Take this experiment further and use different types of water in the water bottles.

Try these different waters.

tap,
salt water,
filtered,
add coloring, or
sugar.

Do you get the same results?

Have your child record it in a science journal and tell them the why of the bottled water working after they have tried their different ones.

Instant Ice Homeschool Science Experiment

This experiment will amaze your kids.

You will need:

Ice
5 or 6 water bottles
Sheet pan or tray
Small bowl or cup

Open and reclose the caps.

This will help keep it at the supercooled state later without disturbing it too much when you open.

Place bottles in the freezer for an hour (set a timer so you don’t forget) how long it takes to freeze will depend somewhat on your freezer, how full it is and etc.

Check them after one hour, then after 30 minutes, and then every 15 minutes.

You want them to be close but not yet frozen.

A good way to test this is to remove one and hit it on the counter.

If you see a bit of slush form at the bottom of the bottle it’s perfect.

Here is a quick video of me tapping it on a chair to demonstrate that kick start effect of your supercooled water.

Fill your bowl or cup with ice when you are ready.

Learn from our mistake. Put a tray or baking sheet under it to catch overflow.

Carefully remove your bottles from the freezer and set them down gently.

Quickly remove the cap from your water and slowly pour the water over the ice from just slightly above it.

You should see an ice tower begin to grow.

You should be able to get at least 2” to 3” before it begins to melt.

You need to be sure to work quickly because the ice will begin to melt within 30 second.

Therefore it’s a good idea to freeze a lot of bottles so you can try it over and over.

Want to see it in action?

More Winter Homeschool Science Experiments

Also, you’ll love these other winter homeschool science experiments.

What do you think? Ready to give it a try?

earth science