Small children love to explore. Something to help them on the journey is to think about "problems" and how to solve them. We still enjoy these things in various degrees, though we don't do them near as often.
How does somethings smell?
Materials needed: Small jars (like baby food jars, or little plastic lidded containers), and various items like cloves, flower petals, onions, etc.
Directions: Place each item in the jar/container. Punch holes in the lid. Ask your little to close their eyes and have them tell you what each jar smells like. Some of the guesses will be wild!
Variations: You can try this with closed eyes and feeling objects too. "Guess what something is." The method is similar. Pick a hand full of items and have the children close their eyes and guess what the items is. Using their touch senses. Take this a step further by adding the sense of hearing into the mix.
This weekend get outside! explore what kinds of things you might find in a pond or your garden in the winter. Most of all, have some fun outside!
Next week two experiments we plan to do with our weather unit is Air Pressure and Evaporation/making our own rain.
So fun! I love love love science and when I was teaching full time it was so hard for me when things like science and history were pushed aside to do 'test prep' for math and reading...ok, I got off track, back to the smell game - what were some of the wild guesses? I love hearing what kids think up :)
ReplyDeleteOh.... well you need to know Bear gets funny and generally things really get yucky when she is having fun..... It can start out with nice things like bubble gum, flowers, bubbles, cookies, dirt, pizza, and grass and ended up *i am sighing here* dog poop...... and then everything one day was dog poop...... or stinky underware..... *sigh* But the lesson is that she is trying to think about what things are and how different things smell. :-)
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