Category Archives: Science

More pumpkin activities in preschool

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PicMonkey Collage

 

As we continue to enjoy the Fall season, we have explored pumpkins in our classrooms in many ways!

We’ve opened them up, scooped them out, counted the seeds and made delicious pumpkin treats!

I talked about some ideas in the “Learning about apples and pumpkins” post … but here are a few other ideas for ways to play and learn with pumpkins in preschool!

Pumpkin Playdough – We took a simple, no-cook playdough recipe, added red and yellow food coloring … and then added some cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice to the mixture! The children loved the smell! I asked them what they thought it smelled like … I got some really cute answers like “donuts” and “apple sauce”! Then we added some pumpkin seeds to the dough, for an extra sensory experience.

pumpkinplaydough

Pumpkin butter – Using heavy whipping cream, salt, canned pumpkin, powdered sugar and cinnamon (or pumpkin pie spice), the children can measure, mix and then SHAKE the ingredients to make a delicious pumpkin butter to spread on crackers or bread. Great science experiment to see how the liquid transforms to the creamy butter as they shake!

Pumpkin Pudding pies – Another yummy recipe featuring vanilla pudding and pumpkin pie filling!

Using Our Senses Pumpkin Exploration – Allow children the opportunity for some individual exploration with a small pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice (in a container) and pumpkin seeds (in a container).  Children can explore what they see, feel, smell and hear!

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Pumpkin Playdough faces – We had fun with this great idea by Deborah at Teach Preschool where we made faces on real pumpkins simply using playdough!

pumpkinface

Count a seed pumpkin game – This is a fun, cooperative game that will help children practice counting (one-to-one correspondence).

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Do you have any other fun pumpkin ideas to share?

Leave a comment or link below!

Playing with nature on a sticky table

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nature on a sticky tableI was very inspired to try making a “sticky table” after seeing the Pumpkin vines on the sticky table activity created by Deborah Stewart on the Teach Preschool site. I thought this would work very well with various items in nature that we have outside during this time of year.

To set this up, I cut a large sheet of clear contact paper and used clear packing tape to adhere the contact paper (sticky side up) to the table so it wouldn’t move around. To have some variety of items, I brought in a collection of leaves, pine branches and small pinecones from home. The children also gathered other leaves and sticks from the playground outside. Depending on the season, you can select other items like flowers, clovers and blossoms.

Then we had the children explore their treasures on the sticky table. They played around and noticed that some things didn’t “stick” so well (like larger sticks). But it’s great for them to explore that. They loved the small pinecones I had found from home — and they had to learn to press down on those to make them stick. Most of the children just liked “sticking” the items to the contact paper. Others tried to fill up all the open space. And some children tried to make shapes of other things out the materials – one girl arranged some small red leaves like flower petals. I heard another say “Look, mine looks like a dragonfly!”. And still others liked walking their fingers across the paper and feeling how they stick!DSC08900.JPG.th

The contact paper allowed for children to explore the items and be able to move them around (it’s sticky – but items are repositionable). After they were done playing, we folded over the contact paper and sealed it. This makes for a good display to be hung in the classroom or put into the science center, where children can touch it and feel the impression of the items underneath.

I think in the Spring I’ll bring the contact paper OUTSIDE and attach it to a picnic table and make a nature collage there!

What other kinds of things can you do with a sticky table?

Milky science color explosion

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This is a great scientific experiment to do with young children to talk about how different liquids react, and to learn about color names and color blending.

First, we poured milk into a shallow bowl.  Using three different food colors – we placed a drop or two of each on opposite ends of the bowl.   Be sure to add the drops carefully, so they don’t splash.
Milky science

Then, we dipped Q-tips into some dish soap, and placed the soapy end onto one of the dots of color. As soon as the soap hit the milk it reacted and caused the colors to seemingly “explode” in the bowl of milk.  (Steve Spangler Science gives a good scientific explanation as to WHY this happens).

We dipped the Q-tip a few times in the milk onto the other dots to see the reaction.  But after that, once the soap is introduced, the explosive effect is lessened.  But the milk still slowly moved around for awhile, and this was a good opportunity to talk about the colors mixing together.  In our experiment, we used the primary colors (red-yellow-blue) to see the effects of blending to form secondary colors (orange-green-purple).
Milky science

In true scientific fashion, we asked our preschoolers to record and document the results of the experiment by having them draw what they saw happening in the bowl.  This will gave them more time to look at the colors continue to blend, and we talked about what was happening and the colors we saw forming. (You can use our “Milky Science” worksheet, make one of your own, or simply provide paper and crayons to have children document their experiment).
Milky science

We paired this activity with the book “Mouse Paint” by Ellen Stoll Walsh, which introduces color concepts when three white mice jump into three jars of paint!

Milky science

Extending the activity:  Our preschoolers asked questions of what would happen if we put in something OTHER than soap into the bowl of colorful milk (some of their ideas were salt, water and apple juice).  So we took their lead and tried some other things – which is a good time to ask them “what-if” questions, and learn about how other solids and liquids reacted with the milk. So, you can prepare this activity with that in mind and bring in other ingredients to add to the milk and see what happens!

Mystery play dough in preschool

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play doughWe’ve enjoyed making and experimenting homemade made play dough all year long … and by far the most favorite was the “mystery play dough” we made last week! In the “great minds think alike” category … Deborah Stewart at Teach Preschool did the same activity recently (stop by and see what her class did with their play dough).

I made up a batch of homemade play dough beforehand, (but you can have children can assist with this process, measuring and mixing the ingredients). I did mine beforehand because I wanted this to be a mystery. Next, I formed balls of play dough and used a straw to make a small hole into the play dough and then added a few drops of food coloring into it and covered it up. (Deborah used liquid watercolor, which I think I’ll try next time).

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When I got to class, I showed the kids the play dough balls and asked them what they thought I had in my hands (“play dough”) and what color it was (“white”). I asked them if they were SURE that the play dough was white (and they were). I then told them that there was something mysterious about this play dough, and when they played with it – “something would happen”!

So, each child got a ball of play dough and they were excited when it changed color!

Lots of screams of “I’ve got red!” and “Mine’s turning green!”

The kids LOVED it – and it was great for their fine motor development as they had to kneed and squeeze and really work the play dough to get the color all through.

The color spreads very well throughout the homemade play dough.

We had one child with a gluten allergy, and since I didn’t have all the ingredients to make a batch of gluten-free play dough, I also make up some balls of regular store-bought white play dough and added drops of food coloring in those as well. While the homemade stuff is softer and the color spread more evenly; the regular white play dough mixed with the food color created a pretty marble effect.

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At the end, one little girl said “Miss Laura, that was the BEST activity ever!” That says it all … doesn’t it?!

Check out more fun play dough ideas on our SEEDS Idea Search and on our Pinterest board.

What is your favorite play dough activity?

Watching seeds sprout in preschool

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Watching seeds sproutA few months back, Tressa and I each filmed a video series for ehow.com on various preschool-related topics. The topics we were asked to do were based on what people were searching for on their site. We’ll be sharing some of the video clips from time to time here on our blog.

The first one we wanted to share is appropriate for this time of year … here in the Northeastern US, we are starting our season of planting! Weather is getting warmer … hopefully no more frosty evenings! At our school we are doing a lot of planting now as we recently had some planter boxes built on our playground (this was a part of my son’s Eagle Scout project … yes, I’m a proud Mom!).

Above is a picture of my son with the finished planter boxes – one square for each of our preschool classes to use. We only just started the planting process … so nothing is growing just yet!

So, outdoor planting is a great long-term project for children. It is one that takes a bit of time (and patience … and dedication) to see the results. But often times, young children benefit from seeing a “faster” result in a short-term project. To that end, Tressa explains some preschool projects you can do with “fast-growing” seeds (that can be done INDOORS) in the video clip below. Enjoy!