science for preschoolers?

[fivi2]

I just realized that I do absolutely nothing science related with my 3 yos. We were at a friend's the other day and they were totally into her magnifying glass. So now I want to come up with some basic science activities... Nothing too involved, just ideas for beginning science fun. Someone mentioned a butterfly kit or a ladybug kit, we did plant some bulbs, but what else do you guys do? Any suggestions? books, kits, activities? what do you do with your preschoolers?
TIA!

[jillc]

DH bought the kids a wooden birdfeeder, birdhouse and paints at Michael's recently. DH & the kids had a great time painting the birdfeeder & birdhouse together, and then DH put the feeder & house up in a tree in our backyard. Birds have been coming to the birdfeeder like crazy! The kids have been really interested in watching the birds & I picked up a simple birdwatching guide at our library. The guide is really cool & easy, in that it is particular to our state, and you look up the birds according to their primary color. It has been a great activity for DD & me. I figure she's learning about looking for information and working with different types of books in addition to learning about the birds. She also has some "binoculars" made from empty t.p. rolls that she likes to watch the birds through. :)

We also started a small vegetable garden in the fall & DD loves to help with it. She helps plant seeds, water the plants, picks carrots, etc.

HTH.

[fivi2]

I was thinking about a birdfeeder, but we have serious squirrel problems. My elderly neighbor wages war on them and will have a fit if I encourage them ;) (It is very funny to watch him)

I may have to do it anyway! I like the idea of a book to look them up and the binoculars sound adorable!

[Momof3Labs]

Maybe it's a boy thing, but by that age, we had a good collection of plastic bugs and talked about the different types, counted legs and such. Put all the butterflies in one pile, put all the spiders in one pile, etc. Plant seeds in the kitchen in a clear plastic cup so that they can see the roots growing.

[KrisM]

I was thinking about a birdfeeder, but we have serious squirrel problems. My elderly neighbor wages war on them and will have a fit if I encourage them ;) (It is very funny to watch him)

I may have to do it anyway! I like the idea of a book to look them up and the binoculars sound adorable!

My parents have a free-standing birdfeeder and they have a cone on it to prevent squirrels from climbing up it. Works well.

[brittone2]

I honestly don't think you need to really teach much science to a 3 year old. I'd just make sure to get lots and lots of outdoor time. Take a nature walk a few times a week through all the seasons of the year. Talk about what you see, hear, smell, etc. Talk about how things change each week (leaf buds coming on trees soon, flowers pushing up through the dirt, etc.). We sometimes do nature bracelets...just take masking tape, and put it on their wrist like a bracelet (not too tight, not too loose, and sticky side facing out). Let them "decorate" their little bracelet with stuff they find on their nature walk...small leaves, flowers, etc.

DS always liked having a bird feeder that he could see from his seat at the kitchen table. We keep a bird book nearby and before he was 4, he would look up birds on his own (great for building observation skills). He got really into leaves when he was about 3-4 too...we had a leaf identification book and he'd bring leaves in and look

We raised butterflies this past fall and both kids (DS was 4, DD was not yet 2) loved it. It was a great experience. Insect Lore has some great stuff. We have an Uncle Milton ant farm but I haven't sent in for the ants yet. There are lots of great kits.

Tedco toys has some great stuff. One year for Easter or Christmas I gave DS a prism. It was fun for him to see the rainbows and it got him interested in how that worked. Tedco used to carry prisms...not sure if they still do. We also have purchased sun print paper through them, which would be fun for a 3 year old I think.

[egoldber]

I don't really do "science activities" but we do lots of reading and talking about science. Things like the Usborne first encyclopedias and the lift the flap science books are really cool.

One thing that Sarah really likes are shows like "How It's Made" and "Unwrapped" which talk about how the manufacturing processes of food and all kinds of things. It spurs lots of interesting discussions.

[fivi2]

Thanks for the great ideas!

I don't really plan to sit down and have Science Time, I just feel like I don't do any pre-learning or readiness activities in that area (whereas I think we do a ton of pre-math and pre-reading things).

I love the prism and the sun print paper ideas! That is the sort of thing I mean - not like a sit down lesson, but just fun things that are science-y. The ant farm and growing plants in plastic cups also sound neat.

I need to check out some non-fiction books too! The encyclopedias sound great.

Thanks!

eta: any suggestions for a magnet kit?

[hellokitty]

Do you have a science center and/of nature center in your area? The nature centers will usually have free programs for preschoolers. Ours has one once a wk, and they usually have a topic, and then go on a nature walk too, even during the winter. The science centers now as really well geared towards prescholers too, so worth getting a membership at if you have one nearby.

I also let my kids watch stuff on on PBS, like NOVA and other documentaries on the discovery channel. We also check out DVDs from the library, they just eat it up. A good series that is cartoon based is, "The Magic Schoolbus." My kids LOVE it and learn so much from it. We check out the DVDs, I have some of the books AND we DVR it too (I think it's on the TLC channel).

I also get my kids a lot of non-fiction books about whatever topics, bugs, jellyfish, dinosaurs, dolphins, whatever they like from the library and they enjoy reading those books a lot. I think that at this age, they are such sponges, it's so easy to just bounce off of their current interests and enrich it with experiences books/video. My kids probably sound nerdy, but they will go around telling ppl facts about volcanos and about crazy things like the praying mantis. Most ppl will look surprised and say, "how do you know stuff like that?" I think that ppl just assume that kids this age only like Sesame Street and Power Rangers, but if you expose them to a variety of things, they will eat it up. Today my kids asked me if we could go see the Pryamids, lol. Not a common question from preschoolers.

[Ceepa]

We love science here. We grow plants, have bug boxes, use magnifying glasses, use prisms, made a solar system mobile, mix colors, create volcanos, take walks, talk about nature and weather, make our own experiments.

Start by finding things that interest DC and look for a way to explore them in a scientific way.

So much fun!

[K-Bear]

My 3 yo DD takes a science class at one of our local gyms. In previous classes she made ice cream (learned about salt melting ice), learned about spiders and their webs (for their project they made their own spider web and spider), planets (helped to paint a different planet in the solar system), dinosaurs (dug for fossils. the fossils were pasta hidden underneath dirt), airplanes (made different types of airplanes).

[Melaine]

IMO: focusing on letters, numbers, and learning to read is the most important part of pre-k. I would just use tons of books on plants and animals and go to the zoo or aquarium, or plant nursery, botantical gardens, whatever you can locally. That was my mother's focus for us at that age....

[Twoboos]

Peep and the Big Wide World
www.peepandthebigwideworld.com
http://www.peepandthebigwideworld.com/activities/activities-location.html


Just wanted to say, my girls LOVE Peep!! Love Love Love. The little "fillers" between each show have encouraged DD1 to try many things she sees the kids doing. (And now she has a bizarre affection for cardboard... it makes me NUTS!)

And Quack usually cracks me up. I love a sarcastic blue Duck with a sailor's hat. :ROTFLMAO:

[fivi2]

thanks for all the suggestions! We do some tv - I will check out the Magic Schoolbus. They don't really like Sid the Science Kid - not sure why, but they absolutely refuse to watch! Those websites look great. We are just starting computer time, so it is good to have websites to check out. We used to watch Peep, but haven't in a while. They HATE Paz (which is odd, because they love penguins and are obsessed with Pingu, an old pbs penguin claymation show). And since Paz seems to come on between every show, we stopped Peep... I'll have to record it again. We also watch some Planet Earth dvds and there was some show called Sunrise Earth which filmed the sunrise in various locations.

I did call our nature center, the botanical gardens, and a local preserve. They do have some programs, but not right now. They seem to happen sporadically. Thanks for reminding me to check there!

I just realized when I saw how excited they were about the magnifying glasses that maybe I should do more in this area. Thanks for the ideas!

eta: just to clarify, I am not going to sit and drill them on science concepts ;) I just mean things that are fun, but in a pre-science sort of way. like the magnifying glasses, prisms, ant farms, etc... I don't want everyone thinking that I am trying to pressure them into formal learning at this point :)

[motherofone]

The best way for your child to learn science is from observation and incessant question asking. So, all you have to do is expose you child to lots of places where he can watch,play and learn. When he asks questions that you don't know the answer to, look them up together. It is very empowering for little kids to know that they and their parents can learn together.
If your child is particularly interested in something there is a nice line of books called "Let's read and find out." You can find them about many topics.
If you are looking for little experiments to do at home I like the books "science play" by Jill Hauser and "bubbles, rainbows & worms" by Sam Brown. Both these books are geared towards preschoolers.

[belovedgandp]

We love our color mixing set. It's a real basic set from Elmer's.

We've also have fun with craft kits - foam, make your own bouncy balls.

[hbridge]

Okay, we're all about science in this house. I don't do anything formal, but we have the basics and use them daily. Our "must haves" are a globe and maps to talk about geography and gravity (and of course where Santa and the penguins live), a maginifying glass (to look at whatever seems interesting), magnets (DC will spend about 20 min. wandering the house and report back about what is magnetic and what isn't, just make sure they keep the magnet away from the computer), a balance scale (to compare weights of various objects), measuring tapes, rulers, compass, prism (for creating rainbows).

However, that being said, there are a lot of things that can be done without any special tools. Some easy ideas are testing sinking/floating for various objects, freezing water in various containers and watching them melt (or just use ice cubes), bird feeders are great along with animal observations (bugs, tracks in snow), discussing eggs and where they come from, growing things from seedlings or even chia pets, cooking anything is great, popping corn and discussing why it pops...

DC was under three and wanted gummy bears one day. Since the sugar intake had already been high we made it an experiment. Taking five bears we measured them, weighed them, talked about the color, put them in water to see if they sank and then DC ate them and talked about how it tasted (slimy, since each had just come out of the sinking/floating test).

Anyway, the key is to have fun and to help each child learn to observe!

Enjoy

[hellokitty]

Fivi2,

*I* don't even like Sid the Science kid. I think it's an annoying show. I was really disappointed too, b/c it's supposed to be geared toward preschoolers. My kids are kind of indifferent to it. It might be over your child's head, but "Beakman's World," is a GREAt science show, something the entire family would like. It is just re-runs now, but even my DH and I liked watching it when we were in college b/c it was entertaining and my kids adore that show. It's very witty and kind of whacky. I believe they play it on one of the big three channels on Saturday mornings.

[randomkid]

Haven't read the other replies, but this is what we have done. We didn't really do these things to intentionally teach science, but since you asked, I realize that's what we've done!

She has a plastic bucket with various plastic bugs, spiders, etc. which came with a magnifying glass. She has learned different bugs and also loves her magnifying glass. She took it to my parents' today and told my Mom that a magnifying glass "shows you what you look at".

My parents planted milkweed and I can't tell you how many caterpillars we have had that turned into a chrysalis, hatched to become a monarch butterfly and then we set free. We taught her all the correct terms. I used this book to supplement - I actually had purchased the book long before my parents ever planted that milkweed, but it worked out well. http://www.amazon.com/Disneys-Little-Einsteins-Butterfly-Suits/dp/1423108337/ref=sr_1_20?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233609484&sr=1-20

She has binoculars that belonged to my Dad and he had put them in a garage sale a long time ago. DH kept them and I'm so glad. She uses them all the time - we have looked at trees, birds, the clouds, etc.

When we went to the beach, we dug up hermit crabs; around the yard, she finds slugs, snails, worms, etc and we just teach her the names and a little bit about them - slugs are slimy, worms eat dead leaves, and so on.

Those are just a few things I can think of. We just make it fun. I don't really think of teaching her, but anything they don't know yet is teaching them, right?

[Twoboos]

They HATE Paz (which is odd, because they love penguins and are obsessed with Pingu, an old pbs penguin claymation show). And since Paz seems to come on between every show, we stopped Peep...

Just wanted to say, if you record Peep on PBS (on Sat & Sun mornings) it's Paz-free. Paz is the Discovery Channel only. (And my girls MISS Paz since we dumped the 2nd tier cable channels!)

[fivi2]

Just wanted to say, if you record Peep on PBS (on Sat & Sun mornings) it's Paz-free. Paz is the Discovery Channel only. (And my girls MISS Paz since we dumped the 2nd tier cable channels!)

good to know... I'll have to see if Peep is on our PBS. It is a very cute show! Thanks.

and thanks to everyone for all of the excellent ideas!