This is a fun activity we did recently with the preschoolers. Prepare for a mess and lay down some cheap plastic tarp ahead of time-- it will save you a lot of trouble with clean up after!
Materials (for 1-2 children, expand as needed)
Large aluminum tray or other similar tray with at least 4 - 5 inch depth
1 lb of flour
1 lb of corn starch
2 cups of cinnamon sugar
Ruler, card stock, or large spatula (for flattening surface of flour and corn starch)
Balls and rocks of different sizes (e.g. ping pong ball, tennis ball, bouncy ball, large and small rocks with irregular edges)
Preparation
Mix flour and corn starch in advance of activity, then spread evenly in aluminum tray. Use a ruler, pancake spatula, or piece of card stock to flatten the surface of the mixture in the tray.
Spread a thin layer of cinnamon sugar over the flour/starch surface. (Hint: don't use all of it so that you can repeat the experiment a few times.)
Introduction
For preschoolers, keep this part simple. Ask your kids about what they think killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Let them make a few creative guesses. You can then tell the story of a large asteroid out in space, entering Earth’s atmosphere (becoming a meteor), crash landing on Earth (now a meteorite), and kicking up a lot of material into Earth's atmosphere.
This large meteorite landed off the coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.
How big was it? It was about 6 miles wide and left behind a 12-mile wide crater! (It helps to put this in perspective with where you live. For example, the distance from here to the library, zoo, etc.).
The dust from the crater spread all over the world, and that same dust layer is even visible in the Grand Canyon!
There is another large and well-known meteorite crater right here in Arizona
How big was it? This one was only about 160 feet wide. Put it in perspective with regard to where you are (measure it out with them by pacing or using a measuring tape). This meteor hit the Earth only 50,000 yrs ago.
Just a few years ago, an even smaller meteorite landed in Russia, this time approximately 65 feet wide. It exploded into smaller pieces before it hit the Earth, but was captured on video by several observers. Here's another really neat movie on Youtube:
Some meteorites are much smaller than these that we've talked about— the size of your fist and smaller. They land on Earth all the time!
All of them leave behind clues that they were there, even if you can’t find the meteorite itself.
Where did the all these big meteorites go when they hit the Earth? Let's do the activity and see if you can figure it out!
Activity
Use different sizes and weights of “meteorites” and drop them (not throwing them) in the flour/corn starch mixture to see what kind of craters they leave behind.
Do any of them create perfectly round craters?
Which ones make the biggest craters?
Which ones throw up the greatest amount of material over the layer of cinnamon sugar?
Where does all the material go that is displaced from the crater?
Which of these of these items more realistically replicates what an actual meteor crater would look like?
