Picture Book-Inspired Scratch Board Art Project
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Princess School: The Rapunzel Engineering Challenge
One subject keeps my preschooler interested right now, and that is princesses. She loves Sofia the First. She loves the other Disney princesses. She loves ponies with long shimmering hair. She loves dressing like a princess and acting like a princess. If I can add princesses into school time, then I’ll get her attention. This week for Princess School, we did a Rapunzel engineering challenge as we built a block tower for Rapunzel to let down her hair from. Of course, then we needed to act out the story with our new scenery. Continue reading
Archimedes Water Displacement Science Lesson
We’ve learned how to find the volume of a cubical object (such as my son’s bedroom). But how does one find the volume of something as odd-shaped as a rock? Using Archimedes’ story as an example, we made our own kitchen Archimedes water displacement science experiment to understand the concepts and reach our own “Eureka” moment.
Continue readingZoo Flakes: Symmetrical STEAM Snowflake Craft
Learning about snowflakes is a perfect lesson for learning about symmetry. When we read Zoo Flakes ABC by Will C. Howell, we got a unique alphabet of zoo animals as well as instructions for making our own symmetrical STEAM snowflake craft. Continue reading
Writing in the Snow Picture Book Lesson
In the book In the Snow by Huy Voun Lee, Xiao Ming and his mother walk in newly fallen snow and his mother shows him Chinese characters by writing them in the snow. They discuss how the characters look like the items they are describing. Despite our lack of snow in Chicagoland this season,we made our own snow and practiced writing in the snow at our kitchen table, making English letters rather than Chinese characters as they did in the picture book.
The Snowy Day Melting Snow Science Experiment
During our only big snow (so far) this winter, we experimented with melting snow. In The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, Peter learned snow melted inside when his snowball melted in his coat pocket (get the book). Although our observations about melting snow were not scientific or controlled, our simple observations comparing melting snow in a glass on the counter versus in the fridge it gave us a simple preschool science lesson. Continue reading
An Alphabet of People in the Community
I loved the picture book LMNO Peas by Keith Baker from the first time I read it. Basing our activity on the book’s list of jobs to do, we made our own A to Z book of people in the community. The last page asks us, just as the Peas do, “Who Are You?” It’s an activity that got my daughter thinking. I asked her the question, “What activities do you do that are a part of who you are?” Continue reading
Vegetables Learning Activities
My daughter has fallen in love with VeggieTales, which is now on Netflix! She loves that each episode ends with a reminder of God’s love for each of us, and I must admit that I like that too. We also happened to read a number of fun books about vegetables (named below), so this week we have been focusing on some vegetables learning activities!
Apples Activities for STEAM Class
We had so much fun playing with apples in STEAM class yesterday. We learned about the scientific method and then we created towers (or modern art) with apple chunks. Our apple STEAM projects were a lot of fun.
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Hands-On and Interactive Community Helpers Activities
Last week my daughter and I read some great books about community helpers and did some activities to recognize the community workers all around us. Now we are noticing all the people that help us on a regular basis. The librarian, the eye doctor, the worker at the dry cleaners, and the construction workers along the side of the road all are community workers. We’re grateful to all in our community who help make our lives easier and more pleasant! Together we did hands-on and interactive activities to recognize community helpers.
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