Tag Archives: life science

Are You My Mother? Mother-Baby Matching Activities

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Part of the hilarity of P.D. Eastman’s Are You My Mother? lives in the fact that the baby bird wonders if his mother is an airplane or a “Snort.” Even toddlers will be quick to giggle at the ridiculousness of that! Strawberry and I also enjoy reading this classic together because she loves to pretend to be my baby bird. Yes, she’s a big girl, ready to do everything herself! But sometimes, just sometimes, she comes to me for a cuddle. Mother-Baby Matching activities are just what my baby-loving big girl loves.
After reading Are You My Mother? we talked about farm mothers and babies and matched them.
Are You My Mother? lends itself well, then for two different types of activities. First, we used the book as a starting point for a discussion on what things have mothers and which things do not. The book also suggest the activity of matching babies and mothers together. My daughter loves mother-baby matching activities! Mothers and babies just belong together.
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Easy Skeleton Hiccups Activity with a Q-Tip Skeleton Craft

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My little preschooler loved hands-on activities, and it if included glue, it was even better. After reading the very silly Skeleton Hiccups by Margery Cuyler, we learned a little about the skeletal system and then did a q-tip swab skeleton craft. What a perfect learning activity for the Halloween season!The silly skeleton in Skeleton Hiccups was our model for our cotton-tip swab skeleton. Continue reading →

Our Favorite Hermit Crab Preschool Imagination Game

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Every week, on laundry day, my daughter loves to climb under a laundry basket and pretend she is Hermit Crab from the Eric Carle picture book, A House for Hermit Crab. She asks for a coral or a starfish to put on her “house.”
Last week, she got to meet her cousin’s new pet hermit crabs! She loved how one hermit crab wouldn’t come out of her shell, and one did. She’s talked about it all week. So, the next time laundry day came around, I decided it was about time I provide some hermit crab preschool accessories for her imagination play time! I added in some cut-and-past ordering fun, and she had a great time this last laundry day.
My daughter loves pretending to be a hermit crab when she climbs under an empty laundry basket.
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Refreshing Coral Reef Games for the Pool

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When my son was 4 years old, he loved watching Finding Nemo, which led to a deep love for the coral reef and all the creatures the main characters in the movie encountered there.  Sea turtles, sting rays, barracuda, jellyfish,  and, of course, clown fish.  All of these coral reef creatures were friends. Whenever we visited the pool for free swim, we had to play coral reef games.  Then, together we made our own facts board game to play once we are out of the water too!

After learning about the coral reef, we love to take our play to the pool for swimming coral reef games!

Both of these coral reef games are now in their second incarnation since my second child is now four years old!

As we learned concepts about coral reefs, we put them into our water play. Coral reef games and coral reef learning are the most fun in a swimming pool.

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4 Surprising Lessons from Our Gross Sewage Treatment Plant Tour

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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!
201605 science field trip
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.
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Sorting Living Things into the Five Kingdoms

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I mentioned a few weeks ago that our co-op science teacher has family heath issues; she dropped out of teaching for the remainder of this year and we have decided to not seek out a sub as there are so few weeks left. I was panicked, as I’ve never believed I was very strong in scientific concepts. What could I do for my son’s science learning?
Well, it turns out it is not too hard to find things to do! I decided to finish off the Human Body, which is what the co-op teacher had been teaching, because my son has been immersed in body books this winter and spring. Then I have moved on to animals! Continue reading →