Primary Science Swap Shop
ASE’s Primary Science journal archives contain a wealth of helpful material and resources, often timeless and still relevant today, which you can implement in the classroom quickly and easily. We recognise that it is not always easy to find what you are looking for with such a large bank of teaching resources being accessible in this longstanding publication.
We felt that it would be helpful to collate some of the most useful resources from prevous issues of Primary Science in one, easy to navigate place. Here you will find downloadable PDFs of Science Swap Shop activities for ages 3-5, 5-7, 7-9 and 9-11, which use fairly minimal equipment to help keep them low-prep and easy to implement quickly - many of which can also be implemented during distanced learning if children have access to the equipment at home.
Ages 3-5
Chicken life cycle sensory bin
This hands-on sensory bin is brilliant for working on fine motor skills, while introducing the concept of a life cycle.
Egg drop investigation
This is a great activity for encouraging children to think about properties of materials and choosing the best materials for a task.
Florence Nightingale – Hand hygiene
Children can learn about the importance of hand hygiene in preventing the spread of germs with a simple hand-washing activity.
Leaf Printing
Leaf printing provides a valuable opportunity to explore the changing appearance of trees over the seasons and discuss where and when leaves grow.
Mini straw flutes
Children can learn how sounds are made and associate them with something vibrating, that different instruments create different sounds and pitches.
Painting on ice
Painting on ice is a super simple but great fun activity for little ones. It requires little preparation and can be used over and over again until the ice melts.
Why do things float in water?
This activity encourages children to think about what may cause some objects to float in water and some to sink.
Ages 5-7
Why is the sky blue?
Children can learn about light refraction with this simple and fun task.
Camouflaged Creatures
This activity helps children learn about how materials behave and how living things are adapted to their environments.
Dancing Bees
This activity encourages children to think about how bees communicate by creating their own waggle dance!
Make your own lava lamp
This lava lamp activity is almost mess free and especially good as it can be used over and over again.
Caroline Herschel – Model comets
Children can learn about comets and planet orbits with this dual activity resource
Rolling Eggs
This fun activity encourages children to consider which materials will protect an egg from breaking, and how inclines can affect the speed of the egg roll.
Flowering plant life cycle plate spinner
This creative activity of making a paper-plate spinner is an easy way to demonstrate the life cycle of a flowering plant.
Ages 7-9
Design a plant
Imagination and creativity are evident when children design their own plants for a purpose, while learning about the functions of the parts of a plant and how animals interact with them.
Edible butterfly life cycle
This creative activity helps children visualise the life cycle of a butterfly by encouraging them to think of edible items to represent each stage of the cycle
Experimenting with eggs
This easy activity is a great demonstration of how food affects teeth and why it is important to clean them properly.
Galileo Galilei – How fast does it fall?
This simple activity helps demonstrate Galileo's famous observation of gravity's affect on different weighted objects
How far away is the Sun?
This fun mathematical activity helps children to understand the size of our Solar System and the vastness of space
Making craters
Children can learn about how craters form, and to predict and test the effect of using bigger/heavier/lighter and smaller balls as asteroids.
Secret messages
Lemon and lime juice are very difficult to see when used to write on white paper, but when heated turn brown. This makes them a great invisible ink.
Ages 9-11
Remove the shell from an egg
This easy activity is a simple introduction to the movement of liquids through a semipermeable membrane.
Flower painting on silk
Painting flowers on silk helps to make detailed observations of flowering plants while learning about silk painting.
Isaac Newton – Theory of light
This activity helps children understand that white light is made up of a range of colours.
Muffling sounds
This investigation encourages children to discover which materials are best at reducing the loudness of a sound.
Why does play dough conduct electricity?
Creating play dough circuits is a really fun way to learn about electricity and circuits.
Racing lolly stick surfboards
How do you make a lolly stick race across water? All you need is a drop of washing-up liquid and some water to do a fun surface tension experiment.
Stackable life cycles
This activity uses polystyrene cups to represent each stage of a life cycle. The cups allow more in-depth stages to be represented for older children.
