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ScienceEngineering

Little Lighthouse Keepers

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Grades K-230-40 minSource: Creative Dad Company

Kids build a mini lighthouse with a mirror-boosted beam and guide paper boats safely to harbor using only their light. A hands-on way to explore how light travels and reflects.

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Every level teaches the same core idea — pick the one that fits your time, budget, and energy today.

Prep: 10 minActivity: 30 min1 session~$2/groupOne table or a small area of floor spaceBeginner-friendly

Setup

Gather cardboard tubes, flashlights, foil or mirrors and clear a small work surface. Read the Little Lighthouse Keepers mission aloud, then place the supplies where children can choose and compare them safely.

Activity

  1. Talk about why lighthouses shine a light to guide boats safely, and predict how a mirror might help send light farther.
  2. Build a small lighthouse tower from a cardboard tube with a flashlight and a foil or mirror reflector taped inside.
  3. Aim the light at a paper boat across the room and find the beam scatters, then angle the mirror to focus a clearer path of light.
  4. Guide the paper boat safely to harbor using only the lighthouse beam and describe how the mirror helped.

Done when: Children complete the core mission and the paper boat safely to harbor using only the lighthouse beam and describe how the mirror helped.

Materials

flashlight, small mirrors, paper boats, cardboard tube, aluminum foil

Shown for the Quick Start version — switch tabs above to see what changes.

Disclosure: Materials links below go to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, Creative Dad Company earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.

Steps

  1. Talk about why lighthouses shine a light to guide boats safely, and predict how a mirror might help send light farther.
  2. Build a small lighthouse tower from a cardboard tube with a flashlight and a foil or mirror reflector taped inside.
  3. Aim the light at a paper boat across the room and find the beam scatters, then angle the mirror to focus a clearer path of light.
  4. Guide the paper boat safely to harbor using only the lighthouse beam and describe how the mirror helped.

Standards it satisfies

  • NGSS · 1-PS4-4

    Use tools and materials to design and build a device that uses light or sound to solve the problem of communicating over a distance.