Idea Sheets

In this game children practice their ability to group cards by a common property. They also develop their memorization skills.
Subjects: Math

Match, match, match, match. The objective of this game is to match 4 face cards (instead of just 2) from a deck of all face cards.
Subjects: Math

All you need is a plastic bottle and a condiment packet for this simple, fun demonstration of density, buoyancy, and pressure!
Subjects: Physical Science

Playing this game students will learn about Cartesian coordinates, linear equations, slope, and intercepts in a fun way.
Subjects: Math

Many catapult designs have evolved over the centuries. The new connect-a-pult demonstrates common items being re-purposed with the aid of a little creative engineering. Even young learners can explore the effects of using different launch angles and forces as pompoms are sent flying into the air!
Subjects: Physical Science

Convection is a method of energy transfer that occurs in fluids. In this activity, students observe convection in a pearly-soap medium in order to observe the formation of convection cells. These types of cells can also be observed on the surface of the sun and in many contexts here on Earth.
Subjects: Physical Science, Earth/Space Science

Explore how fluffy, single fibers can be twisted together to form strong cording.
Subjects: Physical Science, Social Studies

This unique puzzle can provide students with a fun spatial problem solving activity.
Subjects: Physical Science, Math

In this game children develop their numerical thinking skills by practicing counting objects. They also practice number recognition as they use a spinner or die.
Subjects: Math

This math game gives children practice in counting and one-to-one correspondence.
Subjects: Math

Without concrete examples, the difference between 100,000 and 1,000,000 can look like just another zero.
Subjects: Math

In this game which is played with a die or spinner children practice number recognition and simple addition.
Subjects: Math

Challenge students to become medieval engineers by designing a device that will effectively launch a safe projectile. The number of possible designs is infinite!
Subjects: Physical Science, Social Studies

The art of storytelling is a tradition that has spanned cultures and time periods the world over. Being able to craft a story that has a beginning, middle and end is an important step for students to developing literacy and critical thinking skills.
Subjects: Social Studies, Language Arts

These materials will greatly aid students in designing basic electrical circuits. Open (off) and closed (on) circuits can be modeled with the lit and unlit symbols.
Subjects: Physical Science

Build student curiosity about motion, center of mass, and inertia with this fun activity! Use this activity as a tool to discuss the characteristics of living organisms. The reason for the capsule's tumbling motion is concealed by the foil which adds to its "mysterious" nature and provides an opportunity to practice observation and science process skills.
Subjects: Physical Science, Life Science

Impress your classmates, family, and friends with this elegant and personalized, 6-sided puzzle.
Subjects: Math, Art

A clear cylinder filled with water will create a convex surface for a variety of optical investigations.
Subjects: Physical Science

This easily made sighting device can measure the angles of lines of sight.
Subjects: Physical Science, Math

Every decade has its characters that contribute to society in a variety of ways. By doing this activity at the end of the school year, students have a chance to review the influential figures of the time and provide their own opinions on and justification for the relative importance of each person.
Subjects: Social Studies

Combine two unrelated ideas to inspire a creative new design! Engineers often use everyday objects to stimulate creative ideas. For example, an early ballpoint pen designer might have had a flash of inspiration while looking at a pencil!
Subjects: Physical Science, Math, Art

Design and build a house using different materials. Explore what is possible. Relate what exists to dreams of what can be.
Subjects: Math, Art

Working together, students design and build a town using different types of materials. In this process, students will explore the elements of town development.
Subjects: Physical Science, Math, Language Arts, Art

A design challenge involves teams of students working on a task with limited time and materials. In the process, students learn to brainstorm, to work toward a shared goal, to persist by learning and redesigning based on earlier attempts, and to take on the various team roles involved in accomplishing a task as a group.
Subjects: Physical Science

Students investigate the physical properties of various types of soda in this eye-opening activity.
Subjects: Physical Science

Combine measuring with learning about digestion in this activity as each student creates a paper model equal to the total length of his or her own digestive system.
Subjects: Physical Science, Life Science, Math

Coordinate mapping and a pivoting magnet are utilized in a search for buried "iron treasure chests," modeling a real world use of magnetism and coordinate math!
Subjects: Physical Science, Math

Animal names sometimes seem long and daunting; but if you know the roots, they are actually quite descriptive of the animal itself (i.e. tyranno=tyrant; saurus=lizard; rex=king: Tyrannosaurus Rex = "Tyrant Lizard King"). In this fun and creative activity, students build models of fictitious animals using classic root words.
Subjects: Life Science, Language Arts

Plastic dinosaur shapes in a variety of styles and colors make excellent math manipulatives! They can be used for endless activities that teach number sense, estimation, basic addition, and much more... excellent for centers or as a group activity.
Subjects: Math

"Build" increasingly larger square pools with a single tile border to look for patterns in the number of tiles needed. Develop a general tile formula for any size square pool.
Subjects: Math

Conquer the outer wall and be the first to reach a winning position!
Subjects: Math

This exciting game reinforces addition and multiplication of decimal numbers! It can be customized to include subtraction, division, conversion of decimals to fractions, and rounding answers to a fixed number of decimal places!
Subjects: Math

Students race to collect a dollar in change in this fast-paced game that teaches the value of coins.
Subjects: Math

Use cassette tape cases or videotapes to create a device whose parts can topple like dominos, yet can be easily reset. This device models how nerve cells transmit signals through the body.
Subjects: Life Science

Primary learners can sort animals into 2 categories in this activity: those found on a farm (domesticated) and those not found on a farm (wild).
Subjects: Life Science

Use drops and vials of water to create convex and concave surfaces. Make light rays move closer together (converge) or move apart (diverge).
Subjects: Physical Science, Life Science

Could you hear a piece of paper if it was dropped into a cup? How small would the paper need to be for you to not hear it anymore? This quick and simple activity produces some amazing results!
Subjects: Physical Science, Life Science

How many drops of water can you put on a penny before the water flows off? Make and test predictions to study the surprisingly strong surface tension of water.
Subjects: Physical Science

Students will quickly learn Roman numerals and modern equivalents by playing this fast-paced dice game.
Subjects: Math

Create a working earphone by combining cup lids, a magnet, and a coil of magnet wire. The activity can be done as a step-by-step assembly or as a design exploration. Attach to a sound source and hear music from a couple of cup lids!
Subjects: Physical Science

Picking a card, rolling a die, and tossing a coin are part of this fun activity for students to practice simple math operations, rounding, and estimating with decimals.
Subjects: Math

Students build a "vehicle" designed to prevent a dropped egg from breaking. In the process, they discover that combining simple materials with a little creative thinking and teamwork will reveal many ways to solve this intriguing challenge!
Subjects: Physical Science

This puzzle helps students learn visualization, geometry, problem solving and spatial thinking skills as they try to puzzle out the cubic patterns.
Subjects: Physical Science, Math

An electrophorus is simply a metal surface with an insulating handle. The metal can be charged positively (+) or negatively (-) repeatedly through charging by induction!
Subjects: Physical Science

Create your own electromagnet by briefly connecting a battery to a coil of magnet wire. Explore the interaction of magnetic fields by bring the coil near a ring magnet, flipping the magnet over, and bring the coil near a compass needle.
Subjects: Physical Science

An electrophorus is simply a metal surface with an insulating handle. The metal can be charged positively (+) or negatively (-) repeatedly through charging by induction!
Subjects: Physical Science

Play card games using unique pictures and impart a vivid and lasting impression on students through fun memory pegs (mnemonics) for the atomic number with corresponding chemical name and symbol for the elements in the periodic table.
Subjects: Physical Science

A fun game that helps students learn the chemical symbols.
Subjects: Physical Science

As they play the Energy Game, young students will start to think about their own energy choices. Older players will discover that the game is intriguing and involves quite a bit of strategy.
Subjects: Physical Science

These fun, creative, and easy-to-make books will hold students' writings & treasures.
Subjects: Physical Science, Language Arts