Art and science come together in any lesson dealing with color. The Crayola website suggests teaching students about primary and secondary colors with the help of dry erase markers. Using dry-erase markers in the primary colors (red, blue and yellow), students can create secondary colors (green, purple and orange). Once students have become familiar with primary and secondary colors, a teacher can encourage students to notice color as a physical property of common objects such as fruit, trees, walls, pets and articles of clothing.
A teacher can help students understand the concept of texture by discussing words such as "rough," "smooth," "bumpy" or "silky." A teacher might allow very young students to feel several objects while naming the texture. One rock, for example, might provide a good example of "rough," while another may be "smooth". A piece of velvet provides a good example of the physical property of softness. Once students understand the concept, the teacher might place several objects of varying texture into a bag or small box, then ask each student to reach in and find (by touch alone) an object with a specific texture.
The Pro Teacher website provides instructions for a "Mystery Smell" game that can help students learn about the physical property of odor. The activity requires small squares of tissue, a strip of computer labels still attached to their backing and a variety of substances with strong odors. The teacher soaks each piece of tissue in a different substance, such as perfume, disinfectant, vinegar or garlic, and then places the soaked tissue squares between the labels and backing paper. Students then sniff and try to determine what they smell. For very young students, a teacher might use a blindfold and a variety of scented objects such as an empty cinnamon container, an orange wedge and a slice of banana.
Early education providers can help students differentiate between hot, cold, warm, cool and room temperature water by filling small containers with water at varying temperatures. Older elementary students might enjoy experimenting to find out whether hot or cold water freezes more quickly. Using red food color in the hot water and blue in the cold makes it easy to remember which pan or bowl of water is which. In addition to teaching a lesson about the physical property of temperature, this experiment also introduces the physical property of freezing point.