Search Results for: body science for preschoolers

I’ve never met preschoolers who weren’t excited to show me their bandaged fingers or skinned knees. Have you noticed that? Talking about their injuries makes up the crux of preschoolers’ vocabulary for talking about the human body. Unless children have a particular interest in how the body works, though, the details on how the rest of the body functions may still be a mystery to them. What better way to help young children learn more about the human body than through stories and activities? I present to you: Body Science!   First, we read our story. I decided to use Tedd Arnold’s fantastic Parts to introduce the concepts of how our bodies work. In case you don’t know the story, the book shows a somewhat-neurotic little boy as he worries that he’s completely falling apart because some of his fair fell out, his tooth is loose, and a bit of something…

Our latest adventures in preschool science have proved rather attractive. (Get it? That’s magnet humor!) I’ve seen a number of my colleagues (Katie and Abby, for example) offer some great preschool science programs on the topic of magnets, and I figured it was high time I offered something on the topic, too. Here’s what I did: First, we shared a story that provided an introduction to the concept of magnets. I opted for Stuck by Oliver Jeffers, a whimsical story about a young boy whose kite becomes stuck in a tree. He tries throwing increasingly more ridiculous items up in the tree to try to dislodge the kite, but everything seems to get stuck. Quite an amusing story. Next, we retold the story of Stuck using magnet props, and we talked about how magnets stick together. Kids helped me stick the various objects onto our tree on the magnet board, and they experimented with things that…

Shadows. We see them every day, inside and outside, but unless we’ve been reading Peter Pan, we probably don’t give them much thought. That makes shadows a perfect subject for a preschool science STEM storytime. We take something that children encounter every day, learn about it, and then experiment with it to create deeper understanding. Here’s what we did with shadows. First, we shared some books that include shadows. I opened the program with M. Christina Butler’s The Dark, Dark Night. The story follows frog and his friends as they try to get across the water at nighttime with only a lantern for light–but a monster keeps blocking their way. The monster turns out to be the shadows of frog and his friends. I followed up with a non-fiction title, What Makes a Shadow? by Clyde Robert Bulla. The narrative explores what has a shadow, how shadows are made, and other aspects of…

In most of my previous Preschool Science programs, we’ve primarily explored a particular area of science (e.g., chemistry) or the science behind some everyday concept (e.g., weather, color, water, the body). As I got to thinking about additional Preschool Science topics, however, I began to consider: what if we spend an entire program focused on one of the key science skills? Kids already use so many of these skills in their everyday lives, but if we talk about them and exercise them in meaningful ways, we can really reinforce the idea of being scientists every day. Thus, this Observation Science program came to be. First, we read some stories. I started things off with Pond Walk by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace, a story in which Buddy and his mother go to the pond to observe everything there and, hopefully, see a turtle. This is a slightly longer title, so I paper-clipped some pages together…

What happens when we mix two things together? That’s a fundamental question that every preschooler encounters with astounding frequency. What happens when I put water in the sandbox? What happens when I mix the foods on my plate? What happens when I drop non-bathtub things in the bathtub? Mixing things together–chemistry–is a common occurrence in everyday life, and giving children a vocabulary for talking about these fun experiments better equips them for understanding what happens in the world around them. Thus Chemistry Science for preschoolers. Steal this program! Welcome everyone with a name game. I decided to open up this program with a name game that has been successful and shared by at least two great librarians: Carissa in Wisconsin and Kendra in Washington. To set up for this name game, put a piece of masking tap on individual building blocks. As children enter the program, give each a block with…

One of my main reasons for deciding to offer STEM programs for preschoolers has to do with concept knowledge and vocabulary. Young children experience so many things every single day; yet although they are observers and participants of these varied experiences, they do not inherently have the vocabulary or background knowledge to truly understand them. That’s why we, as early literacy experts, aim to read broadly with preschoolers, mixing new words and talk of how things work into our programming. I wanted to ensure that basic STEM concepts weren’t left out of this knowledge foundation, and so I developed my preschool science program. Today I want to share my recent Gravity Science program–after all, gravity affects so many aspects of children’s lives, and why not provide some words and activities to help figure it out? Here’s what we did: First, we shared a story. We read Arthur Howard’s Cosmo Zooms, which…

Summer is a wonderful time for playing with water. Kids can swim at the pool, run in a sprinkler, or just enjoy some outside time with a bucket of water and some cups. Having fun with water is refreshing–and, by offering a Water Science preschool STEM program, it can be sneakily educational, too! Go ahead, take advantage of the warm summer season and play with water at your library. Steal this program. Here’s what we did: First, we shared a story. I opted to read Frank Asch’s brightly-illustrated Water, which takes readers on an exploration of all the places and things that water can be. Rivers, oceans, pools, dew, plant food… There are lots of ways that water exists on our planet. Next, we retold our story. Since Water is pretty loose in terms of narrative, we didn’t have a story to retell, per se. We did, however, have a topic to discuss,…