Make your own bricks . . . with mud

A good children's activity for outside in hot weather is 'Mud, Mud, glorious mud; make your own bricks'.

This activity involves carefully measuring ingredients to make a pliable mud. The mud is then baked in the sun or in an oven to make bricks. The bricks can then be painted and/or used to make structures.

Other ideas for young children can be found in our ELI Early years category.

Make your own soil

Last week, we published 'Make your own bricks'. Today we have, 'Make your own soil; investigating the type and origin of the ingredients of soil'.

This activity can be used in any lesson about the environment, rocks and landscape, agriculture, gardening or investigations out of doors.

Go to ELI Early years for related activities.

Sensory treasure hunt

Today we continue with our ELI Early Years activities with 'Sensory treasure hunt; using senses to match objects with similar properties'.

This activity helps children to learn particular properties of a variety of objects. They can choose the objects themselves but try to encourage them to choose those with a variety of properties.

There are other activities suitable for children in our ELI Early Years category. Please let us know how you get on.

 

Sorting out the pebbles on a beach or anywhere you can find some

Have you ever tried putting the different pebbles you can find into families? Here are some ideas: 'Rock Explorers; putting rocks into families'.

In this ELI Early Years activity, as Rock Explorers, children investigate a variety of rocks and sort them into groups. They can sort rocks/fossils into groups using a range of criteria e.g. shape, size, colour, how heavy they feel. They can then create their own forms of classification.

Other ELI Early Years activities can be found in our Cross-Curricular activities.

Make your own scary scorpion and imagine how it lived

New ELI -  'Scary scorpions; make your own scorpion and imagine how it lived'.

This ELI gives an introduction to fossil aquatic scorpions; bringing the animal back to life and investigating the Silurian seas. You can also have fun making your own scary scorpion.

Related activities can be found in 'Evolution of Life' or, for a younger age group, in 'ELI Early years'.

The story of a sand grain

'A world in a grain of sand’ - what can a grain of sand tell us about its past?

Watch the teaching video

This ELI is a ‘thought experiment’ on erosion, transportation and deposition.

For younger ages, it could be used to write a story or draw a cartoon about the life of
Sandy Grain. Start with a grain of sand on a beach, and describe where it has come from and what will happen to it.

Related activities can be found in 'Sedimentary processes' and 'ELI Early years'.

ELI Early years - matching objects with similar properties

One of the activities in our ELI Early years series is fun to do outside in the playground, 'Sensory treasure hunt; using senses to match objects with similar properties'.

Watch the Video

This activity has endless potential and can be used in many ways. It is best carried out outside where there is plenty of space but can equally well be enjoyed in the classroom. Pupils can work at their own pace with the faster and more able investigating uses and other properties such as the object’s ability or not to change shape. The words fulfil many literacy requirements and pupils can try to apply them to other objects.

Our ELI Early years category has many ideas for young children.