Simple Machines Unit: Wedge Hands-On Activities

The wedge is a pretty easy concept to remember, but we still took the opportunity to have some fun with wedges!

We spent some time outside at the wood pile using real wedges to split wood (plus, we got some wood ready for the woodstove!!)

This is a tool call a “Smart Splitter.” Even the kids can split wood with it. They simply lifted the weight and dropped it down to drive the wedge into the log.  Four or five drops and the log is split into two! [I highly recommend this if you need a relatively cheap log splitter! I’ve been using it almost daily because we have a wood-stove in our homeschool room.]

SimpleMachines-Wedge

They also tried a traditional wedge and sledge hammer. That was much harder for the kids!

SimpleMachine-Wedge2

Finally, we spent some time doing soap carvings (knives are also wedges)! We hadn’t done this before, so we all have a lot of fun! This was a bit more of an “art” project than actual science, right?!

SimpleMachines-Wedge-SoapCarving

Related Posts:

Don’t miss the 30-page Simple Machines Packet I made or the other hands-on activities we did in connection with this unit: Simple Machines Packet Quick Preview You can purchase it in our store.Simple Machines Unit - Worksheets Lapbook ActivitiesNew pages recently added!

simple machines at a construction site worksheets Simple Machines Interactive Notebook Activity - levers wedge pulley screw wheel and axle inclined planeSimple Machines Packet

Simple Machines Booklet: This is a booklet all about the six types of simple machines: lever, wheel and axle, inclined plane, wedge, pulley and screw. It also covers the three classes of levers.

Kids can trace the key words and color in the pictures. The booklet is 14 half-pages. (Directions on how to put the booklet together are provided.)

Simple Machines Booklet - Simple Machines Unit

Other Hands-On Activities from Our Simple Machines Unit:

 Other Science Packets and Materials That Might be of Interest:

Animal-Unit-Vertebrate-Invertebrate-Groups-Worksheet-Packet

Biomes-Worksheets Biology-Unit-Biosphere-Biomes-Habitats-Packet

See you again soon here or over at our Homeschool Den Facebook Page! Don’t forget to Subscribe to our Homeschool Den Newsletter. You might also want to check out some of our resources pages above (such as our Science, Language Arts, or History Units Resource Pages) which have links to dozens of posts.  You might want to join our free Homeschool Den Chat Facebook group.  Don’t forget to check out Our Store as well. :)

Homeschool Den Store

Again, if you are interested in joining our Homeschool Den Newsletter, feel free to subscribe here:

SubscribeHappy Homeschooling!

~Liesl

9 Responses

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *