science
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Preschool Nature Mobile
Here’s another really easy fall activity for your lesson plans! This nature mobile requires children to collect the natural materials, and then some artistic planning involved in putting it all together. Once the mobile is complete you can also introduce a scientific component with identifying the objects and watching how they change as they hang in your classroom. This is an excellent way to explore the plants in your specific area. You can take a walk to gather materials as a group, or ask families to donate items that they find around their homes. I grabbed a long twig and used that to hang all of the items from. Introducing…
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Bird Activities for Preschool
Studying birds is always a hit with preschoolers – these are animals that can FLY, who wouldn’t want to know more?! Birds are animals that children may not interact with directly, but they still play a role in their daily lives, no matter where your students live. This makes them perfect for exploration AND you can easily personalize the learning by choosing birds that are native to your area. Here are some of the preschool bird activities that I love to do in (or outside) the classroom. Bird watching is a must! Make some binoculars out of cardboard tubes and head outside. You can identify common birds, count the numbers…
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Bird Books for Preschool
There are so many books available about birds. This is definitely one of those topics where it can be hard to narrow down the most helpful and relevant titles. Some of the non-fiction books that are supposed to be for children can also be really difficult and dry. So how do you know which ones are worth reading? I’m happy to share the ones that we’ve loved! All links are affiliates. National Geographic Kids Bird Guide of North America, Second Edition – Jonathan Alderfer Backpack Explorer: Bird Watch: What Will You Find? – Storey Publishing Feathers for Lunch – Lois Ehlert Bird Builds a Nest: A First Science Storybook –…
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Volcano Books for the Classroom
On Wednesday I shared some activities to use when exploring volcanos – and how to decide if this is a relevant topic for your class. Today it’s all about the volcano books that will support this exploration. There are so many volcano books for children that are truly not written at a level young children can understand. The vocabulary, depth, and assumed prior knowledge is too much, especially for preschoolers. I was able to find some winners though! Here are the books that I recommend (all are affiliate links):
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Preschool Volcano Theme
I’m a huge proponent of exploring themes that are relevant to the children you teach, but I also strongly believe that doesn’t always mean that they HAVE to be themes that children interact with in their everyday life in order to be relevant. If children are especially fascinated with a topic, to the point that it has become a regular topic of conversation in their classroom, then it is relevant in my eyes. This is where topics like dinosaurs, space, make-believe, wild animals, far away landscapes, etc. begin to become appropriate classroom themes. This week we’re tackling one of those topics; volcanos! There are so many ways to explore volcanos…
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Airplane Activities for Preschool
Mondays have been tough around here – these summer weekends are busy and we’re feeling it by Monday! I hope that you’ll forgive me for not always getting a Monday post up throughout the summer, I’m really leaning into Mom life and sometimes that just doesn’t leave the time. That doesn’t mean that I’m totally leaving you hanging though! I’ve got so much to share. We’re prepping for a vacation, and it’s a big one because it’ll be my daughter’s first airplane experience. This felt like the perfect time to dig in and explore airplanes. It’s relevant for my family at the moment, but it can be an excellent theme…
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Frog Books for Preschool
Did you know that toads are actually a type of frog? We’re learning so much during frog week! The highlight so far has been folding origami jumping frogs – we used this video from Art for Kids Hub to guide us. We’ve also been reading a lot. Here are the books that have been in wide rotation (all are affiliate links. Frogs – National Geographic Kids How Does a Tadpole Grow – Eric Carle Fanatical About Frogs (About Animals) – Owen Davey The Toad (Disgusting Critters) – Elise Gravel Tell Me The Difference Between a Frog and a Toad – Leigh Rockwood Frog and Toad are Friends – Arnold Lobel…
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Frog Activities for Preschool
This is our first official week of summer! This year we’re exploring a different topic every week, inspired by our love of animals and science, and guided by our favorite National Geographic Kids books – You can read more about our summer plans in this post. Keeping with these weekly themes, I thought it would be fun to share some of the activities and learning experiences that we’re using to understand each topic better. Here are our plans for frog week: Exploring a local pond – whether you take your group to a pond or bring elements of the pond to the classroom, this is a hands-on opportunity to really…
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Understanding an Eclipse for Preschoolers
I’m on vacation – but I had to pop in and share this incredible resource before next week’s big eclipse! This social story is a simple way to explain to the very youngest students what an eclipse is, and what it might be light to experience one. Toddlers and preschoolers are so observant, they notice absolutely everything. This means that they know adults in their lives are talking about something pretty major, but they don’t necessarily understand the words that they’re using, because vocabulary words like “eclipse” and “path of totality” aren’t something that they have a frame of reference for. A social story like this one can open up…
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Eclipse Supplies for Teachers
March is going to fly by – with St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, and spring break – so the eclipse on April 8th will be here before we know it! I’m already getting excited, and planning for the big day is definitely building that anticipation. Our area is in the path of totality, so all of our local schools are closed the day of the eclipse because we’re anticipating travel and communication challenges due to the large influx of eclipse tourists. That means that the week before the eclipse is the prime time for talking about it in the classroom. I’m also gearing up to keep my daughter busy with eclipse…
