Children will have a blast with this hands-on, sensory science activity. Don't be surprised if your older kids want in on the fun, too! Sensory Blindfold Science Experiment This experiment is all about exploring the different textures of various materials. It's a fun way to explore the sense of touch with preschoolers and young
Learn all about your sense of smell with this diagram and coloring page.
If you (or your preschooler) has ever asked the question, "what is blood made of?", you must check out this fun activity to learn about the parts of blood.
You don’t have to go far for fun this summer! Entertain your kids and encourage curiosity with these cool, easy science experiments that you can do at home.
A Jar Full of Feelings is a visual sensory regulation activity to help children recognize and respond appropriately to their feelings.
Learn how to integrate art into your plant science activities by having students make chlorophyll paintings. Similar to leaf rubbings, this simple science based art project is a fun and creative extension for teaching kids about photosynthesis.
Teaching science in the special education classroom can be one of the most interesting but challenging topics for our students. Hop over to find some ways to present it and document progress for alternative assessment.
Find fun SENSORY SCIENCE ideas for the topic areas of: Life Systems, Structures and Mechanisms, Matter and Energy, and Earth and Space Systems - for kids!
At my school, we use Kath Murdoch’s Inquiry Cycle. Many of our staff are new the PYP and new to inquiry-based teaching and learning, so we find this inquiry cycle provides some structure to t…
What is Inquiry Based Leaning in Kindergarten? In simple form, inquiry-based learning is more of a student-directed way of learning rather than teacher-directed. In some cases, the teaching team may set the general framework for learning, but for the most part, the learning is based on the students questions, ideas and passions. This is similar to the emergent curriculum if that is a term you are more familiar with. Rather than working off set lesson plans that are theme-based and not necessarily developmentally appropriate for all children, your teaching is guided by the students interests thus making the learning more meaningful to them. We know from research that children achieve optimal learning when they are given plenty of opportunities to become fully engaged in their play. Most often while children are engaged, their natural curiosity of the world around them comes forth. They take notice of everything and have a beautiful sense of wonder about people, places, objects, and nature. Through noticing and wondering, the children come up with questions and observations about their thinking. It is important that children are given the opportunity to investigate their inquiry, gather information, make observations and share their findings with others. It is the role of the teaching team in kindergarten to act as facilitators. We use these opportunities of inquiry to help guide the children with more open-ended questions allowing them to extend and clarify their thinking and make connections, while modeling the inquiry process. We provide the children with the tools, materials and resources they need to investigate these inquiries. What is the Inquiry Process? The Full Day Early Learning Kindergarten Program clearly defines the inquiry process in the curriculum document and I have included the table for you below: There is also an article I enjoyed named "The Plan: Building on Children's Interests" by Hilary Jo Seitz through NAEYC, that you can read here, that offers a very interesting perspective on the inquiry process. It has many similarities to the one in the Full Day Kindergarten document, but I enjoyed the way Hilary explained her four step process. I also now love the term SPARKS which refers to anything that promotes deeper thinking. Open-Ended Questions to Promote Inquiry The key to open-ended questions is that they promote further thinking and explanation. Questions that begin with "what, why, how, if etc." are usually open-ended questions. Anything that can be answered with yes or no are typically closed-ended questions and a lot of the time may begin with "can, do etc." I created the sheet above to carry with me on my clipboard when I am doing observations during the day as a reminder or suggestion. Very quickly these just became natural for me and it is just part of my normal conversations throughout the day with the children. This certainly won't be my last post on inquiry, but I hope this answers some questions for those who were wondering just what inquiry-based learning is.
This science center display helps children explore sound with common objects. I collected "found" items to display on the tray with a sign, "What
Help for understanding Autism and Asperger's and Homeschooling - how they can work together, how you can help someone with Autism and Asperger
Check out this mind-blowing experiment in which a hard-boiled egg will fit through an impossibly small opening with the help of only a few matches!
Pinay Homeschooler is a blog that shares homeschool and afterschool activity of kids from babies to elementary level.
Yesterday I recommended the book STEM Lesson Essentials Grades 3-8 as a wonderful resource for any K-8 teacher looking to dig deeper into understanding STEM education. One of my favorite parts of t…
Ganzfeld: Hack Your Brain the Legal Way: This instructable will show you how to achieve altered states of mind surprisingly easily with the easy to make Ganzfeld mask that is better than the traditional half ping pong balls taped to the eyes.You can experience an altered state of mind and …
Want to find ways to use essential oils in your child's daily life? This post includes ideas for essential oils activities for kids. Enjoy!
AMPLIFYING your ESL instruction is all about increasing comprehensible input for your students. In other words, ELLs learn best when you use instructional strategies that make your teaching (input) as easy to understand as possible (comprehensible). Makes sense, right? Amplification strategies are easy to adapt to whatever content you are teaching, and they are naturally differentiating (meaning students of all language abilities will benefit from their use). AMPLIFICATION STRATEGY: Use realia and hands-on activities Realia is a fancy word for everyday objects. You are using realia whenever you show your students actual objects (rather than an image or explanation of the object). Even something as simple as using real coins during math lessons counts as realia. Research shows us that the more ways we allow students to interact with the material we teach, the better they learn it. Realia and hands-on activities encourage students to participate and interact to the fullest. By handling, manipulating, and observing objects, ELLs are able to use more than just language to help them construct meaning. They are receiving information through interacting with the objects you present, which helps them understand your lesson in a deeper way. We've created a sample Five Senses unit to give you an idea of how easy it is to incorporate realia and hands-on activities into your teaching. Remember, amplification strategies can be added to any lesson to make it more comprehensible for ELLs! Below are a few ideas to get your wheels turning. 1.) Assemble a collection of objects. Have each student pick an object (secretly, if you want to add some drama) to describe using their five senses. They can write their description as a paragraph if they're more advanced students, or in list form if their English skills are intermediate. A true beginner may decide to create a drawing with labels or select from a collection of words you’ve supplied in a word bank. Pre-literate students may give an oral description of their objects. Allowing students to choose how to participate in this activity gives you the opportunity to assess their mastery of the content, regardless of their language abilities. 2.) Read “touch and feel” books. These relatively simple books are wonderful for helping students understand the more subtle variations in texture that we try to describe. They may seem inappropriate for older ELLs, but a more advanced activity could include asking the students to feel the texture and then come up with an appropriate word to describe its feel. Providing a word bank or the first letter of the target word makes this exercise slightly easier. Usborne has a series of books that are great for teaching vocabulary words about the sense of touch. In each of these books, a mouse is searching for something, but each time he thinks he’s found it, he realizes “it’s too (insert vocabulary word here).” The accompanying pictures allow students to feel the texture while hearing the word that describes the feeling. You can find many of the books in this series on amazon.com. 3.) Brainstorm a list of words that describe touch and texture with your students. Then ask them to go out and find objects that illustrate those words. Your class can create a poster of the different vocabulary words and objects they find. If you allow students access to this poster throughout the year, even beginner ELLs will be able to incorporate more advanced vocabulary into their writing. These sensory words are very useful when teaching students to "stretch their writing" in Small Moments units! For added cuteness, young students could trace their hands or even make a handprint using paint. The bottom line: Integrating hands-on experiences whenever possible is an important way to reinforce new concepts and vocabulary for ELLs. It encourages students of all language levels to participate to their abilities and is naturally differentiating. Not to mention, it motivates students, helps them stay focused (especially those kinesthetic learners), and encourages interaction with peers. Did you find this post helpful? Check out some of our other posts for more ideas about amplifying for ELLs. Here you'll find a printable list of questions for parents to ask their children to encourage deeper reading comprehension. For more tips on involving families in their children's schooling, visit our ELL Family Resources page and print out some of the forms on our post about parent communication. Want more suggestions foranchor charts and graphic organizers? Or take our quiz to find out how you're doing in terms of amplifying instruction for the ELLs in your classroom.
So, I was just thinking about how blessed I am to teach writing to my 42 4th graders. Yes, it is a challenge but it is a challenge that ...
Botany, biology, physics, astrology, and chemistry, oh my! Check out this super fun collection of hands-on Montessori science experiments for kids!
Teaching science in the special education classroom can be one of the most interesting but challenging topics for our students. Hop over to find some ways to present it and document progress for alternative assessment.
Magnetic field sensory bottle is quick-and-EASY magnet science experiments for kids to explore magnets in a playful way with a WOW!
Is LEGO© Therapy effective for children on the autism spectrum? If you're interested in the benefits of LEGO Therapy, read this guide to learn how it works, how LEGO bricks can teach your child social skills and ideas you can use with your child at home.
Setting up a tray of "things that spin" is an inviting activity young children. Your prekinders will be drawn like magnets to the science center! To set
Middle School 6-8th Grades Science Fair Project Ideas
The preschool years are a time of exploration and discovery. They are also filled with learning a lot about what makes us unique individuals. Recently, I started working with my toddler on identifying and naming body parts and reading various All About Me Books. Today we’re sharing a fun all about me preschool science activity...Read More
Pinay Homeschooler is a blog that shares homeschool and afterschool activity of kids from babies to elementary level.
A few weeks ago our little daredevil had her first x-ray due to a little jumping on the bed incident. Yup 1 little monkey jumping on the bed, she fell off and bumped her head… broke her clavicle. Well ever since, she has been fascinated with the bones inside her body so there couldn’t be […]
Put a bar of Ivory soap into the microwave and observe what happens with this quick and fun STEM/STEAM activity for kids. Fun for all ages!
Open your ears for some interesting science! Your little biologist will learn the basic parts of the ear with this diagram.
What is the difference between Sensory and Motor Neurons? Sensory neurons carry signals from outer part of the body into the central nervous system; motor..
Hi friends! I am excited to share another DIY project: a sensory light bridge! This is another easy peasy project that you can make...
A 5-day series focused on multi-sensory activities for teaching reading to those who struggle {and those that don't}.
Read. Print. Hand out to family and friends over the holiday season. Tack to the fridge. Recite from memory. Toss by bucketfuls from th...
How the cone of learning fosters sensory integration and creates active learners.
Teach your children what sound waves are and how they work using items you have at home. 4 simple sound science activities for kids.
Make snot, see what poop is made of, explore blood...these disgustingly gross science experiments are definitely not for the squeamish or faint of heart!
Learning about the weather is so much fun! Exploring temperatures, precipitation, and wind is fascinating for young children who are learning how the world works. Why don't we have snow in the summer? Why does winter feel so cold? This collection of weather learning activities is perfect for getting you prepared for a weather unit. There
You don’t have to go far for fun this summer! Entertain your kids and encourage curiosity with these cool, easy science experiments that you can do at home.
