Alessandro Volta was the first person to design a battery. He proved that an electrical current flows when metal and chemicals make contact. When the force is measured whereby electricity is produced, we call it Volt. This term was named after Volta himself. In a small battery, it can be measured at 1,5V but where more flow is allowed, the Volts can go higher. Nobody ever thought that Volta would become a brilliant scientists seeing as he first started to talk at the age of four.

Let’s talk about candles!

A flame needs oxygen to burn and to prove it, we can show these little ones the classic experiment of a glass over a flame to see how it stops burning…but we can kick it up a notch to see that this same glass is very thirsty! It sucks up water whenever the flame dies too. Make it even more interesting and ask them to use different sizes of glasses and repeat the experiment by counting which glass extinguishes the candle faster.

A burning candle can balance like a see-saw! When the one side loses wax, it becomes lighter and moves upwards. The heavier side then moves downwards and gets the chance to burn some wax too. Up and down, up and down – a pretty cool experiment, especially for little ones. (Those who care to know, that is called Newton’s Third Law.)

Did you know that the white smoke from an extinguished flame, is flammable? It may take a few tries to get it right, but it’ll definitely get those kindy juices thinking.

Have the children experiment by themselves how to make a fire extinguisher…by filling a container with a hole at the bottom with water! When the lid is on, the water will not be able to escape the hole but when the lid is off, the pressure from the top along with the water pressure lets the water out!

Always provide support and never leave children unattended with water or fire!