Preschool Science Activities - Jumping on Air

If you are looking for hands-on preschool science activities you
must try the activity below.

In the spirit of sharing one of my readers sent this in and I couldn't wait
to share it.

It involves the kids, lets them experience and discover so many concepts--their own weight, what will hold them up, counting, cause and effect and even recycling!


Jumping on Air
Materials: plastic bags from grocery
plastic ties,large garbage bag

What to do:
1.Blow up a plastic bag.Secure it with a tie.Let a child sit on it.What happen?It will pop
2.Discuss the fact that one bag is not strong enough to hold us up.How can we make stronger? By adding more bags and bunching them together we can create a cushion of air. These can support not only one child but many.
3.Let the child help to blowup numerous plastic bags. Use the tie top to secure tightly.
4.Place many inflated bags into a large garbage bag. Secure the bag with a tie when it is stuffed with the air filled produce bags.
5.Let the children sit on,fall onto or jump on it.
6.What happens? Did the bag burst? Why not? The air distributed and formed a natural cushion for the children as they jumped.

Your preschoolers will love doing preschool science activities. Get them involved and learning takes place and so much fun.

If you like these preschool science activities, check out the other ideas in the Preschool Planner a try.

http://www.preschoolplanner.com/thefullstory.html

Mary
marys.plans@gmail.com


PS: If you would like to receive my free newsletter for more ideas for your preschool class, enter your name and address at the site below:

http://preschoolplanner.com/preschool-activities.html

Circle Time - Quiet Bottles and Calendar activities

One of the special times each day in preschool is circle time.

It helps to set the tone for the day, to regroup after a boisterous activity and to review the events of the day. So much can be done at this special time.

Here are two wonderful ideas my readers sent it to share. We all can use ways to bring quiet time to the circle. Try the Quiet Bottles. Teaching calendars is so much fun and often challenging so try the Calendar Circle time idea with your kids.

Quiet Bottles
This is an idea that my 3-4 yr old class loves

I saved several of the smaller, plastic Coke bottles to make these.
(I make these in front of the children so their question of "How did you do that?"
is answered by observing.)

Fill each bottle about half and half of water and cooking oil.
Add a few drops of food coloring. Glue the lid back on
and twist tightly. I make several bottles and make them different
colors. The children can hold these during circle time and watch the
"waves" quietly while listening to our story, etc. I remind the
children to be as quiet as their bottle is. The bottle keeps busy hands
occupied instead of bothering a neighbor.

TIP: these bottles are also ideal for calming really hyper children.

Circle Calendar Time

One idea that I like to use during circle time when I do my calendar is:
When counting down the days of the month that have passed I like to incorporate movement, for example, in the month of October we pretended to pick pumpkins for every day of the month that passed.

Each month the theme changes and so do the type of movements. January we snow skied down the slopes, Feb. we did heart beats, March we were dinosaurs, etc... Use your imagination and let the children help decide, it is a fun way to get the wiggles out!

Thanks so much for sending in your ideas. Keep them coming and I will post them for all of us to use.

If you like this idea for circle time, check out the other ideas in the Preschool Planner a try.

http://www.preschoolplanner.com/thefullstory.html

Mary
marys.plans@gmail.com


PS: If you would like to receive my free newsletter for more ideas for your preschool class, enter your name and address at the site below:

http://preschoolplanner.com/preschool-activities.html

Preschool Travel Games - Train Travel

With summer vacations starting I like to use preschool travel games and transportation themes in June.

Preschoolers love to pretend and what better way to to stimulate their
imagination than to take a pretend train ride.

I use circle time to talk about trains and ask about their own experiences with trains. Some children may have been on a train and others only read about them in books or seen them in videos or on television.

Train Depot Game

I often bring in a model train display to the preschool to show the preschoolers.

I set up a train depot with tickets.
The children buy tickets with fake money. The children give their ticket to my assitant, or to another child who acts as the conductor, so he/she can punch the ticket as they go in to watch the train display.

I allow them to take turns and run the train around the track.

They like to make the sound effects of a train engineer or conductor. Lots of fun here!


Crafts: Train Car

Each child will need color construction paper, large rectangle shape for the train car, 3 small rectangles for windows and two circles for wheels.

Use this activity to teach shapes, counting, and color recognition.

You can have an engine already displayed on a wall or bulletin board.
The students add their cars when they finish.

Each student starts with a piece of colored construction paper. If you have students who are able to use scissors, help them cut out rectanges and circles. If not, pre-cut these shapes for the younger ones to glue to their cars.

**(Remember that cutting can be difficult so depending on the ages of your children, you may want to precut some of the shapes or you can use stickers and labels of varying sizes. Mailing labels will make great windows.)

They can cut out a rectangle for the car (or you can help them cut.) Then, they can use several small, white rectangles to serve as the windows of the car.

Once those are glued in place, students can use two small, black circles for the wheels. When everything is glued together, students may decorate their car however they wish.

Each student makes a train car that will join with everyone else’s to make a full-length train.

If you like these preschool travel games, check out the other ideas in the Preschool Planner.

http://www.preschoolplanner.com/thefullstory.html

There are Two Editions now for the Preschool Planner: Basic or Platinum.


Send me any ideas you would like to share and I will post them on my Blog.

Mary
marys.plans@gmail.com


P.S. If you would like to receive my free newsletters for ideas for your preschool class, enter your name and address at the site below:

http://preschoolplanner.com/preschool-activities.html