As teachers of young children, we’ve all been there. Dodging sneezy spit particles, heading straight for us at 100 miles per hour. Or stealthily intercepting a cracker before it goes from being coughed on to being shared with a best friend. We will stay healthier, and the children we teach will stay healthier if we start out the year teaching the children to properly wash their hands with soap, and to “catch” their sneezes and coughs in their elbows. (This is better than covering with hands, as that simply puts germs on their paws. That’s not very helpful in a “HANDS-ON” classroom!)
A Few Takes on the Classic Volcano Activity
Preschoolers love volcanoes! Though few have had any direct experience with them (or perhaps because of that) they seem to have some kind of mystical draw. I usually explore volcanoes as we talk about dinosaurs. When we discuss theories of extinction, one idea is that the earth changed so much that the dinosaurs couldn’t survive anymore. One symbol of the earth changing, particularly in that time period, is the volcano. So here are a few ways to experience the volcano, without ever being in peril.
How Big is a Dino? Getting Dinosaurs Down to Size
The enormity of dinosaurs is bewitching for preschoolers. They have a hard time wrapping their minds around just how big these beasts were, and yet it is that fact that drives their fascination! When I talk to children about the sizes of dinosaurs, here are a couple of ways I demonstrate it.
Lumpy Bumpy Dinosaur Scales
As you’re talking to your preschoolers about dinosaurs, it’s great to talk about what they might have looked like. No one was around to see them, so no one knows for sure, but paleontologists have used some clues to help them make some really good guesses. Some “mummified” dinosaur remains show dinosaurs with scales. That would make sense since they are considered reptiles! (The name brontosaurus actually means “thunder lizard”, just a tid-bit kids love to hear.) Here’s a great activity to explore the scaly nature of dinosaur skin while also building creativity and motor skills.
Start this one out with a discussion about dinosaur’s skin. I have used the book Dino Pets, by Lynn Plourde to introduce this idea, since it does a great job of illustrating and comparing the many characteristics of dinosaurs. I’ve also used samples of leather (or imitation leather, it may be easier to come by) for the children to feel the bumpy, scaly texture. Then, using a dinosaur outline as your base, (I found these dinosaur outlines online), have the children rip colored paper into small pieces and glue them on the dinosaur to represent the dinosaur scales. (It may be easiest just to cover the dinosaur with your glue stick before tearing.) Don’t be tempted to cut the paper for them! The tearing action utilizes the pincer grasp and builds fine motor strength and control. These are all skills children need to develop in order to have the physical ability to write. Of course, since we have no way to be sure what colors the dinosaurs were, the children can use their imaginations and implement any colors they like. Challenge their creativity and talk to them about their ideas as they make their own colorful dinosaurs. Where would such a colorful dinosaur live? What is it called? What does it eat?
A Trip to the Dinosaur Museum Puts Us All in the Author's Chair
When you’re studying dinosaurs with preschoolers, nothing really takes the place of a trip to a dinosaur museum or another hands-on dinosaur experience. Check in your local area and see what options you may have. Don’t forget to check into nearby universities as some have free exhibits or perhaps a professor (or maybe a grad student) who would meet with your group of little ones and show a few prehistoric specimen.
A Trip to the Dinosaur Museum Puts Us All in the Author’s Chair
When you’re studying dinosaurs with preschoolers, nothing really takes the place of a trip to a dinosaur museum or another hands-on dinosaur experience. Check in your local area and see what options you may have. Don’t forget to check into nearby universities as some have free exhibits or perhaps a professor (or maybe a grad student) who would meet with your group of little ones and show a few prehistoric specimen.
When I took a group of preschoolers to a dinosaur museum lately, I was sure to pack along my camera. I took pictures of the children as they explored, but I also took a lot of pictures of the dinosaurs themselves. After printing the pictures, I put each one on a single page and then combined the pages for a book. I shared the book during large group as we talked about the trip. We had been learning through lots of great dinosaur books. I told the children that they were now the dinosaur experts, that this was their book, and they needed to add the words to go with the pictures.
Seed Snack Time!
While you’re exploring the topic of seeds, you might as well have yourself some fruit snacks. No, not the gummy imitation of fruit my children try to count as one of the four food groups, but actual fruit, for snacks. Instead of quickly doling out fruit slices on each child’s plate, turn snack time into science time. Take some time to examine and talk about a few fruits and their seeds.
Select a few fruits with different sized seeds: small (strawberries, kiwis), medium (apples, oranges, watermelon), large (peaches, nectarines, mangoes). Hold up each fruit, one at a time, and talk about the characteristics of the fruit, how the fruit grows and where the seeds might be. As you cut up the fruit, isolate the seeds and pass them around for the children to look at (include magnifiers if you like). Compare the sizes of the different seeds, even sort them into groups of small, medium, and large if you’ve used several samples.
Serendipitous Seed Science
It’s only June, and my preschool age son is already antsy for school. He asked me to “play preschool” with him yesterday. A convenient request, since I’m pretty good at playing preschool. He’s watched the show Sid the Science Kid on PBS (a great show for kids and teachers alike), and wanted to do a “Super Fab Lab” science activity like they do. He was in luck! I just happened to have such an activity on hand! It might be one you’d like to recreate as well!
I had been sprouting pumpkin seeds in Ziplocs with wet paper towels. It gives them a jump-start when you plant them, and also helps me determine whether or not the seeds we’ve dried from last year’s jack-o-lanterns are viable seeds. Well, the seeds were great, and I’d planted all I could use, but still had quite a few left over in a bag. Being a procrastinator, I left the last bag on the window sill, until I decided what to do with it. And then I forgot about it. I noticed it the other day, and it had full-on seedlings in it. Luckily I didn’t throw it out, because it was perfect for our “Super Fab Lab”.
Seed Mosaics – Two Ways!
Because seeds come in such a wide array of colors, sizes and textures, they are great for creating mosaics and collages. You may want to use a collection of seeds that are already mixed, maybe seeds leftover from another activity, like rain sticks. You could also take the time to open several containers of seeds and look at each type. Compare the seeds to the plants they grow into, as well as to each other. Either way, the variety of seeds gives a great opportunity to introduce a multitude of descriptive words, as well as the concept of comparing and contrasting.
To make the mosaics, you can take your pick of these two ways. The first is the standard Elmer’s glue method. I like to put the paper on an art tray to control the strays, and provide a jar lid of glue and a paintbrush to make it easier for the children to control how much glue they use and where it ends up. The children can apply the glue and then select their seeds from a nearby container and sprinkle them where they’d like.
It's Raining!
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