1. Have a sand castle competition with your friends. Who can make the most interesting one? Make a treasure island in the sand. Bury a treasure and draw a map so your friends can find it. Foundation Phase Sand Challenges (differentiate accordingly) Measure out one bucket of sand. What is the highest structure you can build with this amount of sand? What is the longest structure you can make? Can you make a scene in the sand that could be used for the cover of a book you know? Find a way of testing all the scoops so that you can find out which one holds most sand. How did you do it? Were there any surprises?

2. Mix some dry sand and some sequins. Now add water till the sand is completely under water. What happens to the sequins? Can you catch them? What could you use? Mix some small toys in the dry sand. What is the best way to get them out again without touching the sand? Collect some card, wood, twigs, string, stones, branches, foil, pebbles, shells and other objects to add to the sand.Make up a story and tell your group. Use the biggest scoop to fill the biggest container. How many scoops did it need? Try the smallest scoop and the biggest container. Mix some rice, sand, lentils, and dried peas. Now try to sort them out again using the sieves and colanders. Is this easy? How can you do it? Try making sand moulds with very wet sand. Freeze them overnight and see what happens.

3. Foundation Phase Water Challenges (differentiate accordingly) Put a small toy or teddy in a cardboard box, now make the box completely waterproof. Leave it submerged in water overnight to test how well it works! Collect some materials to test which are waterproof. Find a fair way of testing each material. Record your findings in a graph or chart so it is easy to see which materials are waterproof and which are not. Collect different carrier bags and use these to waterproof something. Are some bags better than others? Cut some circles from polystyrene or plastic containers. Can you make these float on top of the water? Try loading the circles with counters. How many can the circle carry before it sinks? Find some small world people. Can you make a submarine for them to travel in?

4. Float a sponge on the surface of the water. Can you make the sponge sink? How did you do it? Get an egg cup, a plastic cup and a bucket. Use these to find out how many egg cups fill the bucket. Work with a friend to think and plan before you start! How high can you build with ice-cubes? Are they easy to build with? Can you build an igloo using ice-cubes? Can you make your own perfume by adding flowers, citrus peel etc to water? Use flour and water to make your own glue. Experiment with different amounts of flour and water and test the strength of the glue.