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
Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle is a fantasy story about a papa and his little girl who loves the moon and dancing. One night, she thinks about dancing with the moon and asks her papa to get the moon for her. Naturally, he gets a ladder and climbs it to the moon. Then the moon explains that he will be smaller soon. So, Papa waits for the moon to get small, and then carries it down to his waiting daughter.
What a perfect way to introduce the concept of moon phases to a little one! As a bonus, the book suggests that we dance. A gross motor activity during reading time is a perfect combination for preschool!
Continue reading
Last week, my son was playing with a fortune teller that he found in an activity book. It predicted what amazing vacation he had in his future. It had destinations like Disney World and Paris, but his destination ended up being “A smelly sewage works.” This was hilarious to us because last week we actually had a homeschool group field trip to . . . our local sewage treatment plant!
At the water treatment facility, we had a full sewage treatment plant tour of the various water treatment cells, as well as introduction to the science lab where testing occurs. My son and I had read the Magic School bus book about the trip to the waterworks in the past, so some of it was delightfully familiar! We still learned so much from the tour! While it was, admittedly, rather smelly, it was eye opening in so many ways.
Really, everyone should experience a science field trip like this at some point! The good thing is that every community is sure to have a wastewater treatment facility. My only caveat is that younger kids must be restrained so they won’t run around, as there are huge 20-foot deep containers of gross waste water being treated around every corner. For this reason, I left my super-active 4-year-old daughter at a friend’s house this time around. She probably would not have appreciated the tour as much as a school-aged child.
Here are the things we learned from this super gross science field trip.
Continue reading
My son is currently taking Geology from Athena’s Academy, using the Focus on Geology textbook from Real-Science-4-Kids. It’s labeled a Middle School textbook, and his class is using it as a nice overview of the various concepts of geology. Their online class spent extra time learning about volcanoes, earthquakes and other ways the earth’s crust changes. They’ve spent time learning about rocks and the layers of the earth. Now he’s moving in to the other aspects of the earth, such as the atmosphere and now the biosphere. To review the various biomes on earth, I made biomes game cards for us to play with and to spark discussion.
Continue reading
My son is taking an online Geology class this winter/spring. Recently, his class talked about core sampling, and I was intrigued by the concept. This week we replicated core sampling with play dough, and it gave us a lot to talk about. What we can learn from what is under the surface of the earth, simply by taking a sample of one spot?
Continue reading