Absorption is the process in which one substance is permeated into another. Teach students how flowers absorb water by filling a clear vase with colored water and set a white flower in it. Over the span of a few days, the white flower will turn the color of the water. Discuss with students that this change in flower color occurs because the flower is absorbing the water. To illustrate the absorption of heat, set out a piece of white paper and a piece of black paper in front of a sunny window and after a period of time, have students feel both pieces of paper; the black paper will be hotter than the white paper. Explain that darker colors absorb heat better than light colors.
Allow students to explore buoyancy, or the process by which an object floats on liquid. Fill a container with water and provide children with a variety of items that will either sink or float in the water. Ask students to predict whether they think the objects will sink or float and allow them to test their hypotheses by placing the objects on the surface of the water and observing if they sink or float. Another way to teach about buoyancy is to fill a container with plain water and another with salt water. Offer students hard boiled eggs and have them set the eggs in both containers of water; the egg in the plain water will sink, while the egg in the salt water will float. Discuss how salt water is more buoyant than plain water.
Present students with an opportunity to explore the three stages of matter; solid, liquid and gas. Make ice cubes and offer them to children. Discuss how ice cubes are frozen water and that they represent the solid stage of matter. Provide students with a heat source, such as a hair dryer, and instruct them to melt the ice cubes into a cup. Upon melting the ice cubes, the water will move from the solid stage to the liquid stage of matter. Collect the water, place it into a tea kettle and set the kettle onto a burner. When the water boils, it will turn to vapor, or the gaseous stage of matter.
The senses work in conjunction with one another to make sense of the world. To test how smell and taste rely on one another, have students close their eyes and taste a piece of peeled apple and a piece of peeled pear with their noses unblocked and ask them to identify which fruit is which. Next, have them taste the two pieces of fruit while holding their noses and ask if they can identify which fruit is which. Discuss how the sense of smell and taste are linked and when the sense of smell is altered, it affects the sense of taste.