We are already applying sunscreen here, and as of mid May, we have gone through three bottles! Have your kids ever asked why they need sunscreen? This is the perfect way to explain it to them with this sun protection activity. Most kids learn from seeing and doing, so grab sunscreen and a piece of construction paper and get outside.
Once you are outside and have this going, enjoy being outside as a family with some other fun experiments like making a lava lamp, or maybe something a little more messy like a mento and pop eruption.
Sun Protection Activity
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What you need:
BEFORE:
How long you leave it out is up to you. Try to keep it for the length of time that you spend outside. We left ours out for two hours, the recommended time to go before reapplying.
AFTER:
You can see the difference, the purple without sunscreen is much more faded. When you look at the very first picture in this post, you can see where the rocks with holding our paper down in the wind.
When your skin gets damaged by the sun’s rays, it makes even more melanin to try to protect your skin from being damaged even more. That causes the skin to change color:
- Dark-skinned people usually turn darker brown, or tan, when they go in the sun.
- Light-skinned people usually turn more red, or burn, when they go in the sun.
Make sure that you talk about the importance of sunscreen and protecting yourself from the suns harmful rays.
What are the top five reasons you believe everyone should wear sunscreen?
1. The ozone layer is depleting and your body needs shielding from harmful rays.
2. Skin cancer rates are on the rise and sunscreen has been proven to decrease the development of skin cancer.
3. It helps to prevent facial brown spots and skin discolorations.
4. It also helps to reduce the appearance of facial red veins and blotchiness.
5. It slows down the development of wrinkled, premature aging skin.
I’m the mom that loves spray on sunscreen, I can’t help it! The ease of applying it to three active kids every two hours makes it my favorite.
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Do I spray the hand? The paper? There’s no instructions… just a before and after photo.
Hello,
It would be helpful to have step-by-step instructions because I was confused at first, but it’s actually just that easy to do!
All you need to do is get a dark piece of construction paper, mark one half “sunscreen” and the other half “no sunscreen”
Put sunscreen on your hand and press down on the “sunscreen” side. Don’t do anything on the “no sunscreen” side.
Leave it out in the sun for however long the SPF is on the bottle, and then you can see how the sun bleaches the construction paper, except where you applied sunscreen to it.
I’d like to try this for my STEAM class
Thanks!