The Empowered Educator - 'Crossing the Midline' ...Activities for Toddlers!
Last week Kenny, Olivia and I completed our last anatomy and physiology lessons on the cardiovascular system.
This simple buoyancy kids' science activity requires just a few common household supplies. Kids will love learning why things sink and float!
Hand games are a great way to develop hand-eye coordination and are great bilateral coordination activities! Parents love them, too!
How to make theraputty for occupational therapy to improve fine motor skills and hand strength.
Vehicle lovers will be so excited to learn about the history of the car with this set of Montessori History of the car activities!
Since the middle of February while were creating our dragon project, I started to notice something. The kids were taking the logs out of our building area and creating "bands" with them as drum sets. Kids were making shaker's at the maker's space, two friends brought three sizes of clay to me and wanted to show the class how when they thumped them each size made a different sound. Another friend took a plastic bottle wrapper off the bottle and pulled on both ends sharply and showing us the snapping sound it made. I was hoping to avoid it this year, but somehow, every year, kids start exploring sound! So....guess what our next large scale inquiry is: Sound! I set out some areas for them to explore first. Then we will let them wonder. I set out glasses for them to compose their own music and perform for the class. I had planned on it being an exploration of pitch, but they noticed something else instead. At first the compositions were very random, then one friend colored an AB pattern and played it. It sparked a discussion on how there could be patterns in sound and also defined "rhythm" as their patterns became more complex. After they were done with this area, I set out these materials to see what they noticed about sound. We discovered that the more water that was in the bowls, the lower the pitch and the less water the higher the pitch! For our Engineers, I put out materials for them to create instruments and show what you have to do to get it it to produce sound. They created instruments that produced sound through shaking, striking, rubbing and strumming. For our artists, I set out pictures of instruments for them to look closer and then draw its outline with a sharpie and creatively paint it with watercolors. We also looked at Picasso's Blue Guitar painting, then hung it at our easel to inspire artists to create their own. As they explored, two main things came up in our wonders which became our driving questions. How is sound made? When does sound become music? We learned that sound is caused by vibrations and that the sound waves travel through the air to our ears. But something had to happen to make the vibrations start? The kids through exploring came to the conclusion that sound is made by striking, shaking, blowing, rubbing, strumming and plucking. We made instruments to model the different ways to make sound. To show that sound can be made by shaking, we made maracas. To explore the concept of pitch, we provided different fillings for maracas: Sand (not pictured), rice and two different sizes of beans, then we compared them. We also used these as guiros to show show that sound can be made by rubbing. They just ran a craft stick over the ridges of the bottle. To show that sound can be made by blowing, we made harmonicas! The first time we tried them they didn't work. I realized that we needed thicker rubber bands to create the sound. They could tell the rubber bands were vibrating as they produced sound. They were very loud! The kids loved them! To show that sound can be made by strumming or plucking, we made cup guitars! They have a great rich sound when you put them by your ear and pluck them as the sound is amplified by the cup! We used three different sized rubber bands to create different pitches. The kids could really see the vibrations with these. They could also feel the vibrations on their hands. To show that sound can be made by banging, we made drums! To organize our data, we created a web map showing the different ways to make sound and the instruments that are used for each one. To explore when sound becomes music, I showed them videos of a group called STOMP. They use random objects to create different rhythms with different pitches. Look them up on YouTube! They are amazing and the kids loved watching them. They were inspired and created their own STOMP inspired groups using random objects we could find in our room and our closet! You can see some videos of these on my Instagram account at darlamyersclass. Through STOMP we realized that when sound has a pattern it gives it rhythm, and when sound has different pitches added to the rhythm it creates music! After all of our exploring and investigating, we wrote informational books about sound to show what they learned. The kids really loved exploring the science of sound! Another thing going on in our room is a Mo Willems author study. These little friends have been in our reading area all year long. The kids didn't think they were really anything special until... we read one of his Elephant and Piggy books. The kids have really enjoyed listening to and reading his Elephant and Piggy books. They have been very inspired by him in Writer's Workshop and many Elephant and Piggy stories have been written by them. They decided that they wanted to turn our dramatic play area into an Elephant and Piggy Workshop where they could read and write stories about them! Now these stuffed animals are extra special to them! Here is our finished area! They made a sign: This area has been very popular! A lot of reading and writing skills are being practiced here! I am sure as we read his pigeon and Knuffle Bunny books, they will be inspired to write stories about them in this area also! We brought out our collaborative canvas again! It just didn't seem finished yet! I poured some paint on it and the kids used large craft sticks to scrape the paint across the canvas. They loved this process! I think next we will start adding some texture and three dimensional aspects to it! Here is a clue as to what we are going to discover next! It fits in this box!
The Crime Scene Investigation Activity is my best seller. It has crime scene printables, information pages, activity worksheets, review worksheets, and quizzes that focus on fingerprints, hai…
If you need STEM projects ideas, this is THE place to go! This is a collection of over 200 STEM projects and activities that kids love!
The folded paper airplane. Today we have easy paper airplane folding instructions and then we are going to take it…
This post explores the differences between living and non-living things in a Montessori zoology lesson.
We began learning about the continent Antarctica this week. Here are some of the new materials we’ve had out on the shelves. I will be posting more in the coming weeks so keep an eye out! Pictures from Antarctica Our Geography Continent folder has some great images depicting a variety of scenes from Antarctica. You […]
Science activity: build a simple brushbot robot
Categorization is a vital skill that supports vocabulary development, organization, and discrimination. These task cards focus on receptive categorization, requiring students to identify the correct item from a specified category among four visual choices. With diverse categories such as vehicles, tools, cleaning supplies, and furniture, these cards serve as an ideal starting point to teach and demonstrate non-verbal category knowledge. Ideal for therapy sessions, guided practice, stations, or partner work, this resource includes 108 task cards accompanied by storage labels. Check out our other Category Activities: Category Mega Pack Advanced Sorting File Folder Activities Fluency Mega Pack For more resources, tips, and materials to help you help children with autism please visit The Autism Helper
Two different methods to make a cloud in a jar, plus an explanation of the science behind each method.
An educational blog hosted by a collaborative group of teacher-authors hoping to share creative and colorful ideas and activities from our classrooms!
A first robotic project for kids with a full step-by-step picture tutorial.
Try these easy sound experiments -- Elementary & Middle School kids will LOVE testing the science of sound with this fun wave experiment to create a 'gong' and explore how sound waves travel!
Fidget spinners in the classroom is a hot topic. While many parents and teachers see the benefits of fidget spinners and their controlled use in the classroom, their popularity with students has led to some backlash - especially as many students have been using them as a toy and not a tool for focus. Put a Positive Spin on Fidget Spinners Regardless of your feelings about using fidget spinners in the classroom, I do think there is something there with the trend that educators should not ignore. I always try to know and incorporate student interest into the classroom as
Make a simple guitar and set up fun and easy sound science experiments for kids. How do sounds sound different in different rooms.
2D shape activities for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten. Shape mats (legos, geoboards, etc), play dough mats, posters, sorting mats, worksheets, & MORE.
Occupation based treatment ideas feel like they should come easy, but sometimes we find barriers to getting creative and finding the occupations that are
Learn about the 5 layers of an ocean (also called ocean zones) with your child using this hands-on activity with materials already in your pantry!
This hands-on bitmap coding activity explores algorithms and features a free bitmap art unplugged coding workbook for kids!
How high can you build? Your kids will love this STEM challenge and it requires little to no prep from parents/teachers. Start building today!
How to make a robotic coloring machine for kids using items from your toy box.
Build a marble run with an unlikely material… play dough! There are actually two STEM challenges with marbles and play dough in this post, and they are both a ton of fun for a wide range of ages. Best of all, the materials are cheap and can be used again on another day. Here’s a […]
Use your bricks to teach kids LEGO coding. Fun and easy ideas for LEGO coding activities include binary code and algorithms.
Looking for STEAM activities to challenge your children? I designed 30 STEAM activities presented as stimulus prompt cards. They engage and challenge my children as they explore concepts in S cience, T echnology, E ngineering, A rt and M ath. STEAM activities take STEM activities to the next
Pinay Homeschooler is a blog that shares homeschool and afterschool activity of kids from babies to elementary level.
These all about me, back to school art activities for kids are engaging icebreakers. Encourage creativity and build community during the first week back
Magic milk is a cool science experiment for kids of all ages! Learn how different molecules in milk interact with soap!
Hours of screen-free fun and creativity! The construction TINKER box is brimming with open-ended creativity ready for you to get making at home. Filled with beautiful, engaging wooden components, your little ones will enjoy 10+ hours of creative, screen-free fun. With no set projects or instructions, our tinker craft b
Learn how to make a flying paper helicopter that will spin in the air. This paper helicopter experiment is great for young kids to learn about air resistance.
In third grade we played Careers Taboo (you can download the cards here ) to introduce the topic of careers! I split the class into 2 teams ...
Make your own computer coding game without a computer. Learn basic computer coding skills like algorithms with a DIY computer coding game!
If you are fascinated about Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), particularly Quadrotors, this book covers an inevitable starting point for you as it takes you through the theory of conventional (under-actuated) Quadrotors up to the status quo, which holds answers to future questions. For robotics enthusiast, heres an even more exciting piece of over-actuated…
