Gather some slices of individually wrapped American cheese. This project will demonstrate to younger students, such as those through fifth grade, how fractures in the earth grow during earthquakes. First, take one slice of cheese and pull on the edges to observe how it pulls apart. With another slice, make a small vertical slit with a butter knife. Pull on the sides of the cheese parallel to the slit. Note how the cheese ripping is concentrated in the area of the slit and how the tearing occurs faster as the tears grow bigger. Now make two vertical slits in cheese, one in the upper left of the slice and the other in the bottom right. Pull from the sides as before, and note how the cheese rips. The fractures coming from each split should start to curve toward each other and eventually become one fracture. Explain how the earth is like the cheese and how the crust of the earth sometimes gets pulled on by tectonic forces. This leads to tension fractures which then combine to form bigger faults.
Grab a pint of heavy cream. Put half in a bowl and the other half in a jar with a lid. Whip the portion in the bowl with an electric mixer until it becomes fluffy whipped cream. Mix the other half by shaking the jar vigorously. It may take up to 15 minutes for the shaking to result in butter, so take turns with the shaking duties. Observe the differences when you've finished with each batch. Even though you started with the same amount, the whipped cream becomes a larger portion. Try to get children to come to the conclusion that the difference in mixing methods involved introducing air into the whipped mixture, while the butter was in a closed container. Enjoy your experiment with some bread and strawberries.
Explain to children that neurons are special messengers that transmit messages between the brain and the nerves in the body through the spinal cord and the central nervous system. Show them a diagrams of neurons, and provide them with candies such as pull-and-peel licorice, regular licorice, jelly beans, frosting and either waxed paper or for a tastier option, brownies. Allow your students to arrange the candies on the waxed paper or brownies to illustrate what neurons look like using the frosting as your glue. Let everyone show their versions to the class before digging in.
Discuss the parts of plants, such as the roots, stem, flower, fruit and seeds. Show pictures of various plant parts from a selection of plants. Then, have a nutritious snack using each of the parts in a salad. For roots, put in slices of carrot and chopped onion. The seeds can be sunflower seeds or peas. Lettuce, spinach or cabbage will represent the leaves. Fruit can include tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers or orange slices. Celery or asparagus will be the stems, while flowers can be broccoli or cauliflower. Mix together, drizzle with some dressing and enjoy your plant-parts salad.