In the United States (and many other countries around the world), it is common to see fireworks during times of great celebration. 4th of July and New Year's Eve are two major celebrations commonly associated with fireworks. No one quite knows who invented fireworks, and many people believe they were invented in China. Others think they may have ... Continue Reading
Rock painting art activity for preschoolers
Is it just my kids or do young kids in general seem to have a fascination with rocks? QBoy, in particular, is always picking up small rocks and putting them in his pocket to take home. And both kids have a bag sitting on our counter that we use to add any new rocks they have managed to pick up. QBoy had been asking for a while to paint his ... Continue Reading
Preschool insect unit activities
We've been doing a lot of insect-themed learning lately. I've shared several posts so far with ideas for learning about insects. You can find those posts on my insects unit study page. This is another post highlighting some of the many insect-themed activities we've done in recent weeks.Reading booksOf course, we read several books ... Continue Reading
Learning about insect body parts {free printable}
We've been studying insects lately. One thing we have learned is that insects have specific anatomy that is part of what make them insects. For example, all adult insects have six legs and three main parts to their body - a head, thorax, and abdomen. In order to help QBoy and XGirl learn about insect anatomy, I created a game to reinforce ... Continue Reading
Ladybug unit for preschoolers
A number of months ago the kids and I did a ladybug unit. In fact, we did these ladybug activities before I had started this blog. Since I have recently posted lots of insect-related activities and ideas, I thought it would be appropriate to share some of the activities we did to learn about ladybugs. Hopefully some of these ideas will be useful ... Continue Reading
Insect-themed learning activities
Insects are a wonderful topic of study for spring. For this reason, my kids and I have been doing a number of activities focused on insects in recent weeks. Among the insect learning activities I have prepared for my kids are activities focused on shapes, colors, fine motor skills, and more. Note: For more resources, printables and activities ... Continue Reading
Coffee filter art
This is a super simple activity that serves as both an art project and a science activity. In creating some beautiful coffee filter art, children get to see a scientific phenomenon called chromatography in action!Chromatography is the separation of a mixture (e.g., marker ink) by passing it in a solution (e.g., water) through a medium (e.g., ... Continue Reading
Up close with insects
Lately I have spent a lot of time with QBoy and XGirl focused on insects. This is the first of several posts to document some of the activities we've done as part of our insect unit, which has included visiting an insect fair, raising butterflies, and raising silkworms! Note: For more resources, printables and activities related to a variety ... Continue Reading
Grow a mushroom garden
I am always on the lookout for hands-on learning opportunities for my kids. And I especially love science. So when I recently came across this Back to the Roots Oyster Mushroom Kit for growing our own mushrooms. I was intrigued. I'm not a big mushroom fan myself, but I thought it would be a fun experience for the kids to see how ... Continue Reading
Dissecting a flower {preschool botany}
As much as possible I strive to be a hands-on teacher to my children. So when we wanted to learn the parts of a flower, there was no better way to do it than to get our hands on actual flowers that we could dissect. In this post I am sharing an activity in which we dissected a tulip in order to do some hands-on learning about the parts of a ... Continue Reading
