Can you guess how much a bag of sand weights on the moon? See how much children know about weight on the moon with this fun activity.

Estimation Jar Supplies

• A Jar
• Sand
• Rice
• Potatoes or other items
• Scale
• An answer box
• Weight on the moon printout

Setup for Estimation Jar Weight on the moon

Fill a jar with a selected item. I used potatoes, but you could use anything you have sitting around. ​Weight the jar on a scale. You may need to use a mail or kitchen scale if the weight of the item is to light to register on a regular scale. I used a mail scale because that is what I had on hand. Write down the weight of the jar.

Discussing weight on the moon

Depending on the age of the kids you are working with they will likely have some understanding of gravity. However, they may not make the connection between gravity and weight. Ask kids what they know about gravitational pull on the moon. Ask if they think things would weigh more or less on the moon.

I found this quick video from Aumsum Time that does a good job of why we weight less on the moon.

How To

Present the kids with the weight on he moon printout.  Set both the jar and the printout on a table for children to see.

Ask the kids to use there problem solving skills to determine how much they think the jar would weigh on the moon.  Have them write down their answers and give it to you or put it into an answer box.

When everyone has had a chance to submit an answer review the estimations and announce the winner!

More Activities like this

If you like estimation jar – weight on the moon you will like the more traditional estimation jar, check out our estimation jar ideas.

You may also like theme trays. In this activity kids guess what items on a tray have in common. Are they are sticky? Do they start with the letter P? What do these all of these things have in common?