When to Find North Using the Sun

Of course, if you are lost and need to find your way without a compass, you can use this method to find north. However, the smartest use for this is to find north before you head out on an adventure. That way you know which direction you are headed and can then find north and make sure you head back in the right direction. If you don’t know where you came from, knowing which way is north might not be of any use.

To find north on a sunny day, you’ll need a straight, medium sized stick and two rocks. Find a clear sunny area and push the stick into the ground or have a partner hold it. Mark the end of the stick’s shadow with a rock.

Take a break and wait 15-20 minutes making sure you keep the stick in the same spot. So if you are just holding it, you’ll need to mark where you placed it if you want to put it down.

Then do the same thing and mark the end of the stick’s shadow. Put your left foot on the first rock and your right foot on the second rock. The way you are facing is north. Now you can mark each direction, north; east; south; west, with your stick.

The Science Behind Finding North with the Sun

Make sure to remind your children that the sun always rises in the east and sets in the west. That means that the sun’s shadow points in the opposite direction. If the sun is in the eastern part of the sky (before noon) then it’s shadow is pointing west. Your first rock stands for west and your second rock stands for east. So, if you make a point directly in the middle of your east and west rocks you can find north.

This is a great review of directions and map reading. If you want to go further you can look up how your area of the world is affected by where the sun is in the sky. Some great questions to ask: How does the direction of the sun affect plants? How does the sun’s rising and setting pattern affect animal habitats? What does the pattern of the rising and setting of the sun look like throughout the year; how does it change?

You might also like Outdoor STEM with Balloons

Want more STEAM ideas for kids? Check out this 28 day series!

The post Nature STEAM for Kids: Find North Using the Sun first appeared on True Aim.

When my kids forget to do what I’ve told them repeatedly or disobey me about something small, I don’t get angry. They get bugs! I’m not joking. It really works. Our yard gets infested with pill bugs and so my daughter gets to collect them for a punishment. She can hunt anywhere for bugs in our yard to find a certain amount and she always tries to do it as fast as she can. This helps control the bug population and helps her remember to do what is right.

This bug search experiment helped show her where she can find the most bugs.

How to do the Bug Search Experiment

You’ll need a plastic bottle cut in half for this experiment. I cut 3 bottles so that each of my children could get their own soil. I gave them the top half and left the cap on so the dirt didn’t fall through.

After they collected their dirt, I took of the lid and put the top half of their bottles in the bottom half with the lid side down. Then I put them on a tray so if they tipped the dirt wouldn’t get all over the counter.

We marked them to remember who’s was who’s and wrote down our hypothesis on our science experiment worksheet. I asked my kids where they got their dirt from and Audrey said by the strawberries, while my other two children got their dirt from the chicken coop (I made them wash their hands really well).

I balanced a flashlight on top of their dirt to represent the sun. If you have a lamp that bends and can be moved to point down, that would be a lot better light source. We left our light on for two hours and then checked the bottom of the bottles.

There were two bugs in the bottom of Audrey’s bottle, but no bugs in the other two.

If you don’t find any bugs in your bottles you can have your children try another location. Give them a hint to where they might find dirt that has lots of bugs in it.

Lessons Learned from this Experiment

This experiment shows that most bugs that live in dirt don’t like light or heat so they dig down lower to get away from it and fall into the bottom of the bottle. It also shows what kind of soil bugs like. The soil that was from the chicken coop was dryer and lighter than the soil next to the strawberries. My children made the observation that maybe the chickens had eaten a lot of the bugs so there wasn’t any left in their soil. So they decided that bugs like wet, cool, and chicken-free dirt. Now they know where to search for bugs if we give them the task for forgetting to feed the dog in the morning!

Would your child like this experiment? What kind of observations did they make?

You might like to use our Free Insect Preschool Printables with this experiment!

Find even more Earth Day Activities here:

Easy Earth Day Sensory Play (Natural Beach Living)

Earth Day Coffee Filter Suncatcher Craft for Kids (A Little Pinch of Perfect)

Ways to Recyle Activities for Kids Play Ideas (Little Bins for Little Hands)

Water Filtration Experiment (Teach Beside Me)

The post Earth Day Science: Bug Search Experiment first appeared on True Aim.

We don’t for sure what the sky was like in the days of creation. Scientists speculate that the atmosphere was a lot thicker because of what it says in Genesis 1:6-8 about there being water above the expanse called sky.

Even so, I wanted to teach my children about what the sky is and why, today, the sky is blue.

Creation Craft

First, we made a rainbow because part of the reason the sky is blue is because of light. Light has a combination of all the colors of the rainbow. You can also explain a little bit about the different layers of our sky with this craft too. I really like how it combines aspects from our Day 1 of the creation story.

We used Q-tips to paint our rainbow. It really helps cut down on mess and is easy to clean up. I had the children put another piece of paper over their copy-work sheet and start painting with one color at a time. We moved the paper down to reveal a clean spot on our sheet and added another color until our paper was filled with the colors of the rainbow. Yes I forgot green, but stuff happens

Why is the Sky Blue Experiment

Then I explained what happens to all those colors when the light hits the sky with an experiment. We used my science experiment printable that you can find here to record our findings.

We used milk to represent the gas and particles that are kept in our sky because of the atmosphere. I explained that if we didn’t have an atmosphere, the sky wouldn’t be blue. It would be black. Just like you see pictures taken on the moon, even with the sun shining.

We dimmed the room so the light from outside wouldn’t shine on our water. First, we shined the light on the water without adding any milk to see what it looked like. Then, we added a very small amount of milk to the water and shined a light on it. We tried looking at it from all different angles. When you looked at it from the side with the light shining to the right or the left, you could really see the blue tint.

When you looked right at the light, you could see a little blue tint above the light, but also some yellow and orange. You can learn more about this experiment here.

Watch a Video about the Atmosphere

This is a great video that we watched about the different layers of the atmosphere. It is truly amazing how complex the atmosphere is.

To end our lessons, I gave praise to God for making the sky and providing everything that we need to breathe and stay safe. I prayed for God to help us understand and remember the science behind His amazing creation so we can glorify Him.

More ideas for day 2 of the Creation Story for Kids!

Creation: Sky – No Sew Quiet Book for Toddlers

Days of Creation Accordion

Days of Creation in Legos  – Sky

Paper Plate Craft & Free Memory Card Printables

More Ideas for Creation Activities for Kids

The post Creation Story for Kids: Day 2 first appeared on True Aim.

For day 1 in our Creation Story Book, we started with our memory verse, Genesis 1:1. We did 2 very basic art projects and our copy-work.

First, we drew the earth on our printable and then we did a simple crayon resist painting.

God Made Light Creation Craft

Crayon resist is perfect for the first day of creation. The effect illustrates exactly what it says in the Bible, Genesis 1:3-5. I especially like to emphasize to my kids HOW God made light; through His word. God’s word is THAT powerful!

We started with a blank white piece of paper and used white, yellow, and orange crayons to draw a burst of light in the middle of the pages. Then I reminded them about how God separated the light from the darkness and we used black watercolor to paint over the crayon.

The crayon (the light) shows up bright against the paint (darkness).

Making Light Experiment

Later on, we did some experiments with light to try and explain what it is. We watched this little video on light first.

In simple terms, light is energy. We tried to make a light a few different ways. First, we tried making it with sugar cubes. It was really hard and we ended up having to go in a closet. One of the dads in our homeschool co-op rolled the sugar cubes with a rolling pin really vigorously and saved the experiment. It worked! The friction created when the sugar cubes hit each other created little sparks of light.

Then we tried it with a balloon and a fleece blanket. That worked too! The science behind that is a little more complicated, but your older children will love learning about how electrons are attracted to the blanket and then jump from the blanket to the balloon and create a lightning effect!

Finally we used glow sticks to make some really bright light. Make sure you show the children how the sticks don’t glow until you break the glass inside. Then, the gas and chemicals combine and start releasing energy. Then they start to glow.

Use this science experiment printable to record your findings and talk about how amazing the light that God made is!

Just like the light is energy and helps guide us through the dark, God’s word does the same thing for us in life. So, after each of our activities we took time to pray and ask God to help us remember to listen to His word so that we won’t live in darkness and stumble through life, but live in peace and be energized by the hope His words bring to us.

Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”
John 8:12, “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.””

More ideas for Day 1 of the Creation Story for Kids!

Creation Scripture Journal

Days of Creation in Legos

Paper Plate Art & Memory Cards

Creation No Sew Toddle Quiet Book

The post The Creation Story for Kids: Day 1 first appeared on True Aim.