Science Activities With Horse-Chestnuts

I gathered some horse-chestnuts from the park on my way to work yesterday morning and then tried to come up with some activities for my little ones.

Make sure that the kids understand that they shouldn’t eat any horse-chestnuts, for they are toxic. Although not dangerous to touch, people can get sick from eating them. Make sure to carefully supervise the kids during these activities!

Here are a couple of easy ideas that you can use during your morning circles or even for your autumn science centre:

• Let them observe the conkers/horse chestnuts and their shells (be careful – they are spiky!) with different utensils (tweezers, scales, balance scales, magnifying glass) smell them, touch them;
• You can make graphs and ask the kids if they are smooth or rough, hard or soft, if they think the chestnuts will sink or float, etc.;
• Arrange the chestnuts by size, then stick numbers on them (according to their size);
• Hide the chestnuts around the classroom, then let the children look for them. When they find one they should try to tell you the number on it;
• Roll 1 die, pick up the chestnut with that number using scoopers and place it on a tray/in a cup;
• Roll two dice, choose the chestnuts that have those two numbers, then compare the two numbers;