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Whole Child Development

A Trip to the Dinosaur Museum Puts Us All in the Author’s Chair

by Filed Under: Building Readers, Learning through Play and Experience 1 Comment

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.

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Seed Snack Time!

by Filed Under: Learning through Play and Experience, Snack Time Leave a Comment

kiwiWhile 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. 

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Serendipitous Seed Science

by Filed Under: Learning through Play and Experience Leave a Comment

DSCN1929It’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!DSCN1931

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”.DSCN1932

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Seed Mosaics – Two Ways!

by Filed Under: Create, Learning through Play and Experience Leave a Comment

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.DSCN1946

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.

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How Does Your Garden Grow?

by Filed Under: Learning through Play and Experience Leave a Comment

little gardener

When Froebel created that groundbreaking child-centered preschool in Germany, centuries ago, he chose the name “kindergarten”, which translates to mean, “children’s garden”.  It seems fitting, that a proper “children’s garden”, might include an actual garden as well!  Class gardens are really the best way to teach science topics like seeds, plants, and the origins of food, as well as pro-social skills such as the value of work, responsibility, and working together toward a shared goal.  Additionally, few preschool-aged children can comprehend environmental issues in distant places like rain forests and ozone layers, but they will easily learn about the importance of preserving a good environment when it comes to protecting their own prized pumpkins!  And we can’t overlook the development of motor skills that takes place as they care for their patch of plants.

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Baked Doughnuts-Fit for a Parade

by Filed Under: Building Readers, Learning through Play and Experience, Snack Time Leave a Comment

DSCN1467Ahh, doughnuts.  Few treats get children so excited!  I’m personally not a fan of deep fat frying.  My body doesn’t react well to the smell and when I eat it much my stomach feels unsettled.  That, and my hips and thighs swell in a strange sort of allergic reaction.  At any rate, when I’m the cook at the wheel, I prefer this healthier recipe for baked doughnuts.  If you want to, have your little chefs assist you through the entire recipe.  It’s not too difficult, and those little hands always get a kick out of kneading and rolling.  Observing first hand the effect of yeast is a science project in itself.  And since these are baked, not fried, they’re not only healthier, but you also have a little less to worry about in the burn department.  As another option, you can have the doughnuts ready, and just let the children help with the topping.  Either way, this cooking activity is sure to excite your little ones as they personalize each doughnut.  Turn it into a literacy activity by reading a good book like The Great Doughnut Parade beforehand, or while the dough rises!

Here’s the to-do and to-what list:

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