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*Safety Check-In: The activities in this curriculum are intended for family-style use under direct adult supervision. Because every family’s home environment and children are unique, please use your best judgment to ensure a safe experience. Always verify materials—such as plants, food items, or chemicals—for safety and allergies before use, and keep heat sources, tools, and small parts under close adult watch. You know your children best; please adapt these activities as needed to ensure they are age-appropriate and safe for your specific family.
Bring science to life right in your backyard with a winter-themed, family-style unit study that perfectly blends outdoor magic with foundational chemistry. This multi-age homeschool lesson plan uses a hands-on icicle castle project to teach core physical science concepts to all your children at once, scaling effortlessly from sensory exploration for younger kids to deeper academic analysis for older students. Whether you want to explore the fundamentals of matter and its physical, chemical, intrinsic, and extrinsic properties, or dive into temperature and the shifting states of matter, these flexible resources are designed to make science collaborative and memorable.
Lesson Plans
Use the following elementary aged lesson plans together or separately.
12 Months of Sourdough Science Lesson Plan
- An activity-based learning extension exploring:
- the fundamentals of matter
- physical & chemical properties of matter
- intrinsic & extrinsic properties
Baking Measurements Lesson Plan
- An activity-based learning extension exploring:
- states/phases of matter: solids, liquids, & gases
- temperature
- freezing/melting & boiling points
- reversibility
- evaporation & condensation
- melting & freezing
Click here to see what’s included and how family-style learning works with our lessons.
What’s Included
Our curriculum is designed to foster genuine critical thinking through intentional lesson layout: a foundational introduction to core concepts, hands-on activities and play-based learning that puts ideas into practice, and a reflective discussion to synthesize the learning. Depending on the subject, features may include:
- direct connections to the featured activities
- new information & concepts
- visual charts
- practice pages with answer keys
- observation and design pages
- naturally integrated vocabulary
- warm and memorable images
- scaffolded learning
- connections to living books & stories
- higher-order discussion questions
- immersive and play-based learning experiences
- social studies units often include positive affirmations combined with play-based bilateral stimulation
Family Style Learning
Our activities are intentionally designed to grow with your family. Lessons are designed for elementary and middle school students, but toddlers and preschoolers thrive using the exact same setups, learning through play. Because learning goals develop in complexity over time, you get more bang for your buck—utilizing the exact same supplies across all ages and through many years.
How activities are used by age:
- Infancy & Toddlerhood: Focuses on hands-on sensory and play-based exploration (touching, feeling, experiencing).
- Preschool & Pre-K: Develops language, basic concepts, and descriptive vocabulary using the same activities.
- Elementary & Beyond: Expands play and sensory based activities into formal lessons with deep conceptual understanding.
Through direct sensory experience, younger children will naturally absorb basic vocabulary and be exposed to advanced language and learning alongside their older siblings.
Materials & How To
Click here for materials and setup directions.
Materials:
- Large gallon size Ziplock bag
- Food coloring of various colors
- Yarn
- Heavy rocks
- Skewer
How To:
Take a large Ziplock bag and use skewers to poke a hole for each string you want to run down. If you have enough strings (5+), you can make an icicle castle or teepee. The holes should just be large enough to allow a string to pass through.
Next, tie large knots in the end of long strings; large enough to not slip through the holes in the bag. Pull the string through the holes until they reach the ground and the knot is against the bottom of the bag. Secure to the ends of the strings to the ground with heavy rocks spread out in all directions.
Punch holes in the top of the bag and tie separate strings through to secure it to where you want to hang it. We hung ours from the swingset.
Add colored water to the bag. Use a significant amount of coloring to for vivid colored icicles. Each time the water runs low, add a new color. Watch the colors form on the strings.
*You may need to experiment on hole size to allow just the right amount of water to drip down. We ended up poking the skewer through some of the holes a second time and wiggling them in a circular motion to create a bigger hole and more water flow.
*You may need to experiment with the temperature of the water. If it is very cold out, the water may need to start warmer to not freeze in the bag.
Find our full lesson plans above for more guidance and depth of learning.
Additional Learning Resources – January
More Lessons & Activities
If you are looking for more activities and lessons to add to your home classroom, you can find them here:
- Winter: Explore our full collection of related lessons here.
- January Themes: Browse our January page for more seasonal & themed activities.
- Plan Ahead: Visit our Monthly Collections to get ready for upcoming learning.
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