Pre Science
Benchmark 2.2: Knows and applies concepts that describe how living things interact with each other and with their environment.
“Science is the study of the world and how it works. Children are natural scientists and their curiosity leads them to seek answers to questions and make connections. By experimenting, making predictions, exploring, testing observations, and investigating, children learn about the world they live in.”
MARCH PRE-SCIENCE ACTIVITIES
Age 1: Your child will continue to explore things with his hands and mouth. He will recognize familiar people and objects. When exploring outside on nice days their large motor and emergence of walking will result in: reaching across and down, scooting, crawling, pulling to stand, cruising, stooping and bending, and balancing himself. With their fingers they will explore small details, use pincer grasp to pick up small objects. They will notice texture differences, and begin batting with their hand and aiming at things to bat.
Age 2 : They will constantly want to explore drawers and cabinets. Show them in and out, and open and close. They will imitate what they see like holding babies, using phones, housekeeping jobs, using cooking tools, and scribbling. They learn from trial and error by taking things apart, and putting them together, doing simple puzzles, using shape sorters, and filling and dumping boxes and baskets.
Age 3: Acquires and uses basic vocabulary for plants, animals and humans and can name some of the parts or characteristics. As you explore inside and outside of your house, continue to put names to new objects. Help them understand that living things need air, water and food to grow. The bulbs you planted last fall are drinking the water from spring rains.
Age 4: Begin to point out and describe the simple life-cycles of different living things such as the plants and the animals. Look for caterpillars, nesting birds and various bugs. Pick a tree in your yard and take a picture of the four stages of the tree- bare limbs, tiny buds, leaves, flowers that appear. Keep the four pictures and use to describe “tree-mendous” sequencing through seasons.
Age 5: Search with your child in the yard and see if you can find a “sign of spring.” Take a picture by it or bring part in the house and have them tell a story about it in a letter to grandma or someone familiar. Mail the letter along with the flower to brighten her day.
The Tools for Motherhood Graduates will share some of their Pre-Science Activities they did with their children. Notice how some of the activities are similar to start with, but each mother has learned how to adapt the activity to the needs, abilities and likes of her particular child.
19 months, Matching Household items By Heather, Topeka
So I collected 5 pairs of items in a baggie. I then called her into the living room and we dumped the bag on the floor. I held up one item and she picked the matching item. Iwas surprised how well she did though she got distracted with some of the new items. It was a fun game for her. I did have 2 scarecrow figurines and an earring and she got distracted trying to put the earrings on the scarecrows. : )
Recommendation: Yes, we had great fun!
2 1/2 years old Tree painting activity By Shannon, Topeka
As the leaves began to change during the Fall season I began to point this out to Seth. I asked him if he knew what color the leaves were before they fell and was able to remember that they were green. So he painted what I called the "summer time" tree. I found a template of a tree trunk on line and printed it out. Seth colored it brown and then with green finger paint he took his thumb and made "green leaves" he put on the tree. Next we talked about what color the leaves were outside right now (Fall). He was able to point out that some were yellow and orange. So we did the same thing only this time Seth made yellow and orange leaves on his tree and we called it the "Fall" tree.
Recommendations: Yes, this is a great way to get your kiddo to start noticing things around them and how they are changing. With winter time, I could have him also create a tree with no leaves. Perhaps we could make a book of trees and have each of the 4 seasons represented in the book by showing how the tree would look. When each season changes, we can get out the book he made and point out what will happen to the tree and what will happen next. Then we can watch for it to unfold...
2 1/2 Years Old I simply took Seth outside and walked down our street and we filled a paper sack full of what he thought looked interesting. I asked him to look for different colored leaves on the ground and other items. I also pointed out different shaped leaves and how some were big and some were little. We talked about the wind and how it helps the leaves fall of the tree. We also talked about the season of Fall and how the leaves change colors in the Fall. Seth picked up all different colored leaves and even found some tree bark and acorns to add to his collection. Whe we got back to our house we pulled the stuff out of his bag and put into piles ranging from size, shape and color. I then laid out a big piece of paper for Seth and let him have a glue bottle and glue as much of his collection to his paper he wanted to make on his collage. Any changes might be that next time, I might change it for the seasons. There will be different treasures to be looking for depending on the time of the year. This is a great activity because it gets the child's curiosity going. It was so fun to see what we could find in the grass! -- Shannon
3 Years Old We have been talking about pumpkins alot lately. We visited a couple pumpkin patches and brought one of our favorites home. After talking about the shape of a pumpkin, we made sugar cookies cut into the shape of pumpkins. On the lid of a cottage cheese container, I traced the pumpkin shape from the cookie cutter and cut it out. Kaihtlyn then used paint to paint in the pumpkin shape onto paper. I would hold it down in place while she painted. She was so proud of her painting. Looking back, I think I might try to tape the lid down next time for her. --Kahle
4 Years Old So during Lexi's nap, Zoe and I went for a short walk around the block. Well she's been learning to ride her big bike so we took it and got to practice breaking on her bike everytime she saw something to add to her goody bag--which was very often. So as we walked/rode we saw things to collect such as leaves, acorns, walnuts, feathers, pine cones etc... Then we got home and dumped them on the porch to sort. So leaves with leaves, acorns with acorns... then we corted by size the leaves and then by colors. The problem now is where to put this great collection. I loved getting that chance to spend time with Zoe and talk about God's creation. --Suggestions... Bring a smaller bag to fill. This was a great activity to just walk and tak about nature and how God made it all.--Heather.
Amy, one of our TFM Moms who has 3 boys, has a couple of web sites she would like to share with the group. The first one is about tree/leaf website: http://www.watersheds.org/nature/treeguide.htm
Age 1: Your child will continue to explore things with his hands and mouth. He will recognize familiar people and objects. When exploring outside on nice days their large motor and emergence of walking will result in: reaching across and down, scooting, crawling, pulling to stand, cruising, stooping and bending, and balancing himself. With their fingers they will explore small details, use pincer grasp to pick up small objects. They will notice texture differences, and begin batting with their hand and aiming at things to bat.
Age 2 : They will constantly want to explore drawers and cabinets. Show them in and out, and open and close. They will imitate what they see like holding babies, using phones, housekeeping jobs, using cooking tools, and scribbling. They learn from trial and error by taking things apart, and putting them together, doing simple puzzles, using shape sorters, and filling and dumping boxes and baskets.
Age 3: Acquires and uses basic vocabulary for plants, animals and humans and can name some of the parts or characteristics. As you explore inside and outside of your house, continue to put names to new objects. Help them understand that living things need air, water and food to grow. The bulbs you planted last fall are drinking the water from spring rains.
Age 4: Begin to point out and describe the simple life-cycles of different living things such as the plants and the animals. Look for caterpillars, nesting birds and various bugs. Pick a tree in your yard and take a picture of the four stages of the tree- bare limbs, tiny buds, leaves, flowers that appear. Keep the four pictures and use to describe “tree-mendous” sequencing through seasons.
Age 5: Search with your child in the yard and see if you can find a “sign of spring.” Take a picture by it or bring part in the house and have them tell a story about it in a letter to grandma or someone familiar. Mail the letter along with the flower to brighten her day.
The Tools for Motherhood Graduates will share some of their Pre-Science Activities they did with their children. Notice how some of the activities are similar to start with, but each mother has learned how to adapt the activity to the needs, abilities and likes of her particular child.
19 months, Matching Household items By Heather, Topeka
So I collected 5 pairs of items in a baggie. I then called her into the living room and we dumped the bag on the floor. I held up one item and she picked the matching item. Iwas surprised how well she did though she got distracted with some of the new items. It was a fun game for her. I did have 2 scarecrow figurines and an earring and she got distracted trying to put the earrings on the scarecrows. : )
Recommendation: Yes, we had great fun!
2 1/2 years old Tree painting activity By Shannon, Topeka
As the leaves began to change during the Fall season I began to point this out to Seth. I asked him if he knew what color the leaves were before they fell and was able to remember that they were green. So he painted what I called the "summer time" tree. I found a template of a tree trunk on line and printed it out. Seth colored it brown and then with green finger paint he took his thumb and made "green leaves" he put on the tree. Next we talked about what color the leaves were outside right now (Fall). He was able to point out that some were yellow and orange. So we did the same thing only this time Seth made yellow and orange leaves on his tree and we called it the "Fall" tree.
Recommendations: Yes, this is a great way to get your kiddo to start noticing things around them and how they are changing. With winter time, I could have him also create a tree with no leaves. Perhaps we could make a book of trees and have each of the 4 seasons represented in the book by showing how the tree would look. When each season changes, we can get out the book he made and point out what will happen to the tree and what will happen next. Then we can watch for it to unfold...
2 1/2 Years Old I simply took Seth outside and walked down our street and we filled a paper sack full of what he thought looked interesting. I asked him to look for different colored leaves on the ground and other items. I also pointed out different shaped leaves and how some were big and some were little. We talked about the wind and how it helps the leaves fall of the tree. We also talked about the season of Fall and how the leaves change colors in the Fall. Seth picked up all different colored leaves and even found some tree bark and acorns to add to his collection. Whe we got back to our house we pulled the stuff out of his bag and put into piles ranging from size, shape and color. I then laid out a big piece of paper for Seth and let him have a glue bottle and glue as much of his collection to his paper he wanted to make on his collage. Any changes might be that next time, I might change it for the seasons. There will be different treasures to be looking for depending on the time of the year. This is a great activity because it gets the child's curiosity going. It was so fun to see what we could find in the grass! -- Shannon
3 Years Old We have been talking about pumpkins alot lately. We visited a couple pumpkin patches and brought one of our favorites home. After talking about the shape of a pumpkin, we made sugar cookies cut into the shape of pumpkins. On the lid of a cottage cheese container, I traced the pumpkin shape from the cookie cutter and cut it out. Kaihtlyn then used paint to paint in the pumpkin shape onto paper. I would hold it down in place while she painted. She was so proud of her painting. Looking back, I think I might try to tape the lid down next time for her. --Kahle
4 Years Old So during Lexi's nap, Zoe and I went for a short walk around the block. Well she's been learning to ride her big bike so we took it and got to practice breaking on her bike everytime she saw something to add to her goody bag--which was very often. So as we walked/rode we saw things to collect such as leaves, acorns, walnuts, feathers, pine cones etc... Then we got home and dumped them on the porch to sort. So leaves with leaves, acorns with acorns... then we corted by size the leaves and then by colors. The problem now is where to put this great collection. I loved getting that chance to spend time with Zoe and talk about God's creation. --Suggestions... Bring a smaller bag to fill. This was a great activity to just walk and tak about nature and how God made it all.--Heather.
Amy, one of our TFM Moms who has 3 boys, has a couple of web sites she would like to share with the group. The first one is about tree/leaf website: http://www.watersheds.org/nature/treeguide.htm