Light and Soft or Heavy and Hard

Senses: Touch, Sight, Hearing

Process Skills Activities: Communicate and Classify

Materials:

  1. Plastic table cloths (1 per group)
  2. 4 objects per child (rocks, shells, rubber toys, feathers, wood blocks),

Procedures:

  1. Spread the objects under the tablecloth, so that students can’t see them.
  2. Ask students to touch and slightly lift one object under the cloth (without looking at it) and describe to other students how the object feels upon lifting (touching), light or heavy.
  3. Ask students to knock the object against table to make a sound. Continue to askquestions to engage the student in thinking about what they are doing and what information they are collecting.
  4. Ask students to remove the object from under the cloth and draw it under the appropriate column in order to classify it according to their description of light or heavy.
  5. Throughout the activity ask students what senses they are using.
  6. Repeat this exercise 4 times with 4 different objects

Light and Soft / Heavy and Hard
drawing / drawing
drawing / drawing
drawing / drawing
drawing / drawing

Discuss what types of questions can be developed throughout the activity, to incorporate the Nature of Science

Extension 1:

This activity can be extended to adding interpreting data component.

Process Skills Activities: Collecting data, Interpreting data, and measurement

Procedures:

  1. Ask children to count how many smooth and how many rough objects they collected.
  2. Ask children to color one box per each item collected in either smooth or rough category.

4 / 4
3 / 3
2 / 2
1 / 1
Light and Soft / Heavy and Hard

Collecting data: color the boxes to represent the number of objects that are ligh and heavy.

Interpreting data: Discuss which objects are more numerous

Measurement:

  1. Count how many light objects, and how many heavy objects
  2. Ask children why they colored particular boxes.
  3. Students can then represent their graphical demonstration by grouping each item on the table under a rough group and a smooth group.

Extension 2:

This activity can be extended to adding the “predict” component. After students have described and categorized their objects as light or heavy, they can predict the type of noise each object will make.

Procedures:

  1. Ask students to line up each object in front of them.
  2. Ask them to describe which object will make a louder noise when knocking it against the table. Ask students what senses they are using?
  1. Ask students to record their predictions by drawing each object and coloring bars for louder noises

Loud (Prediction) / Loud(Test)
Drawing (rock)
Drawing (feather)
Drawing
Drawing

Or

Drawing / Drawing / Drawing / Drawing

Color more bars for a louder noise.

Extension 3:

Compare light (and heavy) objects to how they feel to the touch, soft or hard.

This can be done through questioning strategies during the activity.

A similar graphical analysis can be done as before to show how many softandhard objects students found.

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