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 Year 1
- Sounds of short vowels Year 1
- Pick the letter for a sound Year 1
- Hear the first sound Year 1
- Hear the last sound Year 1
- Hear the middle vowel sound Year 1
- Blend sounds into a word Year 1
- Say a word without its first sound Year 1
- Add a sound to make a new word Year 1
- Spell a CVC word from its sounds Year 1
- Sun warms the ground Year 1
- Warm places and cool places Year 1
- Shade stays cool Year 1
- Hot and cold objects Year 1
- Protect from the sun Year 1
- Tools that block sun Year 1
- When to cover up Year 1
- Sound travels through things Year 2
- High and low pitch Year 2
- Loud and soft sounds Year 2
- Sound comes from vibration Year 2
- Sort sounds by source Year 2
- Light is reflected Year 2
- Can you hear it Year 2
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.