We had the most wonderful, accidental learning experience at preschool recently. What started as a few flashlights in the block center quickly turned into a complex, exciting and robust study of light and shadows. The best part? There were no special supplies and just a minute of set-up. Come look at this beautiful Shadow Play center…
Science
Egg Sound Matching Game
Learning about the 5 Senses is one of our favorite units at Play to Learn. It’s the perfect unit for preschoolers because exploring the world with the senses is their natural inclination! We like to set up easy centers for each sense at our science center. This Sound Matching Game is one of our favorites….
10 STEM Challenges
Young children are naturally curious, creative risk-takers. We can nurture their natural instincts to question, build, and solve problems by offering them playful STEM challenges. At preschool, students have lots of time in the block center and at the light table to tinker and build. By the time they get to elementary school time for play is…
15 Five Senses Activities
Learning about the 5 senses is a great thematic unit for preschoolers, especially at the beginning of the year. Young children are naturally curious about the world around them and often use their senses to explore and learn. When we set up 5 senses learning centers in our classroom, we give children the opportunity to play,…
Oil & Water Science Experiment
Experimenting with oil and water is a very basic but fun activity for young children. Our lunch bunch group loved this experiment that uses just oil, water and cotton balls. To begin, we made predictions about whether or not a plain cotton ball would float or sink in water. (We have experimented with floating and…
Magnets in the Science Center
Our science center is stocked with lots of cool magnets and magnetic objects. We started with a basic magnetic/non magnetic sort, and have slowly added more interesting items for the students to explore. This is a pencil with round magnets on it, stacked so that they will repel each other. The preschoolers love to take…
Fizzy Rainbows
When I saw this post from Dirt & Boogers, I knew that it was something that would be perfect for our preschoolers! Each student had a tray of baking soda. This turned into a great sensory experience as they experienced the texture of the soda. Then we mixed bowls of vinegar and food coloring. The…
Sink or Float Experiment
Here’s another fun and easy science experiment– Sink or Float? It’s perfect for the beginning of the preschool year because it teaches important, familiar vocabulary (many students know the word float from swimming) and requires very minimal preparation. That’s my kind of science experiment! We began by talking about the vocabulary (sink and float). The students…
Dirty Pennies
Our Lunch Bunch group was fascinated by this simple science experiment. It was a fun way to introduce the scientific method. First I presented them with a problem. “I have all these dirty old pennies. I really want them to be shiny like my new penny.” The children brainstormed some ideas to clean the penny–…