Kategori: English

What does: more, less, equal mean?

MATERIALS

Two identical glasses for each child, a metal teaspoon and preferably several small jugs of water, which the children can pour themselves.

DESCRIPTION

Before starting, briefly explain: ’We are going to learn new words using water in glasses- We are going to learn words like more, less and equal. You are given two glasses each and a small jug of water. First, you will fill your glasses so that there is an equal amount of water in both…” When the children have finished this, we see if some children have the same amount, if some have less, etc. By using teaspoons, we can hear if there is the same amount of water in all the glasses – does it sound the same?

EDUCATIONAL OBSERVATIONS

Can all children understand the game? Does everyone want to join in?

LINGUISTIC OBSERVATIONS

Do the children understand your explanations and instructions?

SPEAKING NEWS

Be aware that not all children aged 5 understand the expressions the first time they are presented to them. Therefore, put a little extra pressure on the target words so that the children hear them, and explain them several times in different ways.

VARIATION

Do the same activity with other words, such as higher, lower and equal.

Flower Bouquet Craft Project

Making the Vase

  • Cardboard or Card Stock
  • Markers (we love Sharpies)
  • Markers or Crayons for colouring

Using a black Sharpie draw a vase design. Be sure to include patterns like dots, zig-zags, stars or even flowers. Colour your vase to make it beautiful. Punch holes above the vase where you are going to add your flowers. Using green add stalks and leaves from the flower holes to the top of the vase.

Optional: Using a green marker or crayon to add stalks and leaves under the holes where the flowers will go down to the vase top. We decided not to, because the kids were so excited to go pick their flowers.

TIP: If you don’t have a hole punch or can’t reach the middle of your craft to punch holes, use a pencil to push through and make the holes.

Head Out Into Nature

Now it’s time to take your vase and head out into nature. Ensure your kids know not to take flowers from anyone’s gardens without permission!

Public parks often have lots of dandelions, clover and more, plus public trails will have gorgeous wild grown flowers, a little exploring will reveal a gorgeous array of flowers in your area!

You can also talk to your neighbours who might be avid gardeners. They may be willing to part with a few buds in the name of education. Or maybe you have your own flower garden to explore.

Take a look around and see what you can find and where would be the best place to find your flowers in your area.

Once you have found your flowers, have your child select the specific flowers they want to add to their vase. Using scissors carefully cut the flower ensuring that you leave a few inches of the stalk.

Next, have your child carefully place the flowers through the holes. If you wish, you can secure the flowers with a bit of tape if they are falling out.

Research

I love encouraging my kids to dig a little deeper. So once we were home with our homemade vases we did some research to learn more about the types of flowers we had and to learn a bit about those flowers. We have Dandelions which are very popular with bees, plus some Wild Roses. Then we took some flowers from the garden. A favourite was the Gerber Daisies!

The idea comes from Steampoweredfamily.com

 

Popsicle Stick Catapult

SUPPLIES:

  • 10 Jumbo Popsicle Sticks
  • Rubber Bands
  • Firing Power (marshmallows, pompoms, pencil top erasers)
  • Plastic Spoon (optional
  • Bottle Cap
  • Sticky Dots

    HOW TO MAKE A CATAPULT WITH POPSICLE STICKS

    STEP 1:  Make predictions. Which object will fly the farthest?  Why do you think one will fly farther than the other?

    STEP 2:  Hand out supplies to each individual or in small groups, and build a Popsicle stick catapult following the instructions below.

    Read more about the science behind the catapult and simple ways to create a catapult science experiment below!

    STEP 3:  Test and measure how far each item goes when flung from the catapult.  Record results.

    You will want to use a pair of scissors to make two v notches on either side of two jumbo craft or Popsicle sticks (in the same place on both sticks). Use the photo below as a guide for where to make your notches.

Once you have made your notches in two of the sticks, set them aside!

Take the remaining 8 craft sticks and stack them one on top of the other. Wind a rubber band tightly around each end of the stack. Go ahead and push one of the notched sticks through the stack under the top stick of the stack.

At this point flip your partially made popsicle stick catapult over so that the stick you just pushed in is on the bottom of the stack.

Lay the second notched stick on top of the stack and secure the two popsicle sticks together with a rubber band as shown below. The V notches that you cut help to keep the rubber band in place.

Create more leverage with your catapult by pushing the stack of popsicle sticks towards the notched ends connected by the rubber band.

Use sticky dots or another strong adhesive to attach a bottle cap to the popsicle stick. Get ready to fire away!

TURN IT INTO A SCIENCE EXPERIMENT!

You can easily set up an experiment by testing different weighted items to see which ones fly farther. Adding a measuring tape encourages simple math concepts that my 2nd grader is just really starting to explore.

Or you can build 2-3 different catapults and see which one works better or if one works better with different objects.

Always start out asking a question to come up with a hypothesis. Which item will go farther? I think xyz will go farther. Why? Have fun setting up a catapult to test the theory! Can you design a different catapult using the same materials?

Additionally, you can encourage older kids to record the data from measuring all the launches. Have your kids fire each material {such as a candy pumpkin, plastic spider or eyeball} 10 times and record the distance each time. What kinds of conclusions can they draw from the information gathered? Which item worked the best? Which item didn’t work well at all?

You can also test out the number of popsicle sticks used in the stack to create the tension need to launch the catapult. How about 6 or 10! What are the differences when tested?

THE SCIENCE OF HOW TO MAKE A CATAPULT!

What is there to explore that has to do with physics? Let’s start with energy including elastic potential energy. You can also learn about projectile motion. Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion: An object at rest stays at rest until a force is applied, and an object will stay in motion until something creates an imbalance in the motion. Every action causes a reaction.

When you pull down the lever arm all that potential energy gets stored up! Release it and that potential energy gradually changes over to kinetic energy. Gravity also does its part as it pulls the object back down to the ground.

You can talk about stored energy or potential elastic energy as you pull back on the Popsicle stick, bending it. When you release the stick all that potential energy is released into energy in motion producing the projectile motion.

MORE CATAPULT DESIGNS

Idéa take from littlebinsforlittlehands

Grow in toilet rolls

Beans and peas are perfect to plant in toilet rolls – because they want to grow in peace and not in the soil together with others because the roots are disturbed. A small pot in the form of a regular toilet roll is thus a perfect solution.

3 steps when to sow in a toilet roll

  1. Take a roll and cut three notches, about two cm long, so that it forms three flaps.
  2. Press down on the tabs so that they form a bottom.
  3. Fill the roll with planting soil, but leave a couple of centimeters at the top. Water a little. Add one or more seeds, fill up with soil and water a little again.

Let the rolls stand and germinate, preferably in a trough.

What can I do in 1 minute?

Material

  • Hourglass, timepiece or timer
  • Clipboard

Goal

Hypothesising. Test and evaluate.

Preparation

Divide the children into groups of three. One performs, one takes time and one documents.

How do you do it?

Make hypotheses like; I have time to get to the tree, run a lap around and come back. Get the children to think and come up with their own hypotheses and then perform.

Take turns and switch roles.

 

Image by rawpixel.com

Ice sculptures

While winter still lasts – why not try making ice sculptures (this also works when it’s not snow – you make the ice in the freezer)

Do like this:

  1. Fill deep plastic plates and bowls of different sizes with water.
  1. Put the containers in the freezer. (For clearer ice, use boiled water that has cooled.)
  2. Remove the ice cubes with hot water and place them on a high-edged surface or baking sheet, preferably out in the sun.
  3. Sprinkle a little salt over the ice. Wait a minute and you’ll see how the salt makes cracks on the ice surface.
  4. Pour a little more salt in different places so that cavities and tunnels form on the ice. This will require some time and patience.
  5. Drip liquid watercolor mixed with water over the ice and into the formed cracks to create a nice color effect (if you do this outdoors in cold weather, use warm water).
  6. Let the kids photograph ice artwork one and arrange an exhibition!

Plant and water experiment

  1. Put some damp cotton wool in plastic bags (4 of them) and pour some Crassus seeds on top.
  2. Place on the window. When the plants have grown a little, start the experiment.
  3. Water the plastic bags with different types of water: one with salt water, one with sugar water, one with vinegar or lemon water and one with plain water. The one dipped in plain water is the control. You can put a frame around the plastic pocket.
  4. You can also compare how the cress reacts to boiled water, for example, or water with dishwashing liquid mixed in.
  5. Document, compare and discuss.

Picking flowers…but there aren’t any?

Idea from Hands-On Science

This is what you need:

  • Plastic bags
  • Household paper
  • Jars
  • Flower sprayer
  • Potting soil
  • Documentation
  • Pot
  • Drawing material
  • iPad
  • Stop-motion (app)

Time to collect leftovers from summer flowers. These are called winter standers and are old inflorescences that have dried and are still standing filled with flower seeds. Put the winter stands in bags.

When you get to school/preschool, put the seeds on damp paper towels in different jars and keep the jars warm. For example, in a window with lots of sunlight. After a few days, some seeds will germinate. Then you will see the very first green leaves called heart leaves. Water with a flower sprayer. See how they grow day by day. After a few more days, carefully sprinkle some soil on the seedlings and plant them in a pot.

Continued

Option 1:

Rig a recording with an iPad and a stop-motion app that takes a picture of the plant once an hour for a couple of days, and you’ll get an absolutely stunning movie as a result!

Option 2:

What kind of flower will it be? Let the children imagine and draw the flower they think will grow from the seed. These can be beautiful, crazy and imaginative paintings that are perfect for an opening or theme party.

Option 3:

When the spring sun has warmed the ground and it is possible to dig in it. Plant your plants out in the wild again and mark the spot and follow the plant for a year. Document with analogue and digital tools.