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You are here: Home / PreK-K / Preschool Science: Evaporation

Preschool Science: Evaporation

May 18, 2012 by Maureen Spell 8 Comments




Chalk Science: Evaporation

My kids love to use chalk. I wanted to see if I could sneak some hidden learning in with their chalk art time– specifically science. By pairing chalk and water, I set up an easy evaporation observation experience for my toddlers and preschooler.

Science Supplies:

chalk

sidewalk chalk
cool duct tape
spray bottles

 

First create “art frames” with duct tape on the sidewalk or driveway. This serves two purposes. I wanted my girls to work on filling a space with a design (rather than a scribble here and then 3 ft. later another scribble.) It is also the boundary lines for where we spray the water in the next steps.

Spraying water

After the designs are complete, hand each child a spray bottle. Have them spray their art piece with water. Watch how some colors blend while others seem to disappear. Make sure the complete frame is sprayed with water.

wet chalk

My girls noticed how the water made the sidewalk darker. At this point we went in for lunch. Later we came back out to see our wet chalk art creations— but they weren’t wet anymore! Where did the water go? This lead into a nice discussion about evaporation. Evaporation is a pretty abstract idea to young children, but I believe in introducing concepts in little bits so when they are older they have background information in their minds to pull from and help them understand.

Down Comes the Rain

A nice follow-up book is Down Comes the Rain. It explains the water cycle and includes a couple of easy science experiments too. I’ll be showing a several more exploring water activities soon. 🙂

This simple, chalk activity is a wonderful way to introduce the topic of evaporation and the water cycle to young children. A Teaching Mommy has a water cycle printable plus other rain-related pages that go wonderfully with this topic. You could easily turn this into a week-long (or longer) unit!

You Might Also Be Interested In:

10 Days of Preschool Science
Sink or Float

Science Sunday

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Filed Under: PreK-K, science Tagged With: chalk, evaporation, exploring water, preschool science, rain

The Benefits of Being Out of Your Comfort Zone
10 Sites for Hands-On Preschool Activities

Comments

  1. Margaret says

    May 18, 2012 at 9:48 pm

    Have you read the book, Chalk? It would go GREAT with this idea!!
    My Kinders loved it so much!

    Margaret
    Kinder Journey

    Reply
    • Maureen says

      May 19, 2012 at 9:24 pm

      I have not heard of that book. It sounds perfect! I’ll have to see if my library has it. Thanks for pointing it out.

      Reply
  2. Deborah says

    May 18, 2012 at 11:54 pm

    What a fun and simple way to get kids outdoors!

    Reply
  3. Eddie - The Usual Mayhem says

    May 19, 2012 at 9:18 am

    What a great idea! We’re going to have to try this one out! Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  4. Suzanne Broadhurst says

    May 19, 2012 at 9:30 am

    Ooooh! I was going to start looking for an evaporation project to go with a Mystery of History lesson for our co-op in the fall. No more looking! There it is! 🙂 Thank you, Mo!

    Reply
  5. Ticia says

    May 22, 2012 at 4:26 pm

    Or during Texas summer you can literally stand there and watch it evaporate 🙂

    Thanks for linking up to Science Sunday!

    Sigh, I always miss the “Confirm you are NOT a spammer” box when attempting to comment.

    Reply
  6. amanda says

    July 2, 2012 at 5:00 pm

    Actually, concrete aborbs the water. Sometimes you can actually hear the concrete creak and pop as it absorbs wwater

    Reply
  7. Adam@Android App Tutorials says

    August 23, 2012 at 11:09 pm

    My niece LOVES chalk and has spent the last 2 or 3 months playing with it non-stop. It’s brilliant to know that there is more to teach her with it down the track than just drawing pretty pictures! 🙂

    Reply

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