Light and sound
How light travels and makes shadows and colours, and how sound is made and heard.
Lessons
Light and Shadows
Why does my shadow follow me, and why is it so long in the morning? Young scientists chase their shadows, track the Sun across the day and test which things let light through.
Sound: Can You See a Sound?
Can you see a sound? Young scientists make rice dance on a drum, talk through a string telephone and build a rubber-band guitar to find out that every sound starts with something shaking.
Simple Circuits: Make It Light Up
Light a bulb with one wire, hunt for materials that let electricity through, find out why string lights all go dark at once, and build a burglar alarm. Four hands-on lessons on closed loops, safe and cheap.
Bouncing Light: Mirrors, Water and Colour
Steer a beam around a wall with mirrors, find out why a pencil looks broken in water, and split white light into the colours hiding inside it. Three hands-on lessons on reflection, refraction and colour that build on shadows and work in any climate.
The Reason for the Seasons: Tilt, Daylight and the Solstice
Is summer when Earth is closest to the Sun? Students test the idea with real 2026 orbit distances and city temperatures from both hemispheres, walk a human orbit, graph real solstice day lengths from the Arctic to Tierra del Fuego and work out why a high Sun heats more than a low one. Nothing to buy: just the printed sheets and the room.
Online practice
- Sounds of consonant letters Senior Infants
- Sounds of short vowels Senior Infants
- Pick the letter for a sound Senior Infants
- Hear the first sound Senior Infants
- Hear the last sound Senior Infants
- Hear the middle vowel sound Senior Infants
- Blend sounds into a word Senior Infants
- Say a word without its first sound Senior Infants
- Add a sound to make a new word Senior Infants
- Spell a CVC word from its sounds Senior Infants
- Sun warms the ground Senior Infants
- Warm places and cool places Senior Infants
- Shade stays cool Senior Infants
- Hot and cold objects Senior Infants
- Protect from the sun Senior Infants
- Tools that block sun Senior Infants
- When to cover up Senior Infants
- Sound travels through things First Class
- High and low pitch First Class
- Loud and soft sounds First Class
- Sound comes from vibration First Class
- Sort sounds by source First Class
- Light is reflected First Class
- Can you hear it First Class
Free tools
Sound Wave Lab
Play a tone, change its pitch and loudness, and watch the wave change shape. Includes a live microphone wave view to see your own voice.
Sun and Shadow
Move through the day and the year to see where the Sun is in the sky, how long a stick's shadow is, and how many hours of daylight any latitude gets.