This blog is a way to examine my many adventures as I try to make the most of this life, and teach my boys how truly magical every moment can be. We may have ups and downs, but either way we are learning through exploration. My job is to try to make learning enjoyable so they always have a thirst for it.
I was recently turned on to the Let's Try It Science books by Seymour Simon and Nicole Fauteux. I am hooked! These are great picture books for primary age children that ask science related questions and then have the child "try it out" to answer those questions. It is a great way to introduce the scientific method for little ones. They have three in the series so far, one for water, air and bridges. I decided to start with water since for once we have sunny enough day to put some water in the kiddie pool!
The first question is how much water it would take to fill the pool. The experiment is to pick a container ("A" chose 2 qt. juice container) and start filling the pool. First he had to guess how many containers it would take. "A" chose nine! Hmmm, it took about 3x that amount. Boy was he surprised!
Next, the book has children pick the tallest container and the widest. Which one holds more water? He thought a 2 liter soda bottle would hold more than a gallon milk jug. Wrong again buddy. I then picked two half gallon items of different shapes. This time he thought the wider one would hold more water. He found it interesting that they held the same amount. After that he had to make a line of containers in the order he thought would hold the most to least amount of water. He couldn't understand that two containers the same height would hold different amounts!
Yup they hold the same amount!
Wait but they are the same height!?! (not a flattering pic)
Finally it was the experiments "A" had been waiting for-floating! First, he found heavy and light things to see if they would float. What about if you take a sinker and put it on a make shift boat out of aluminum foil? I don't know if he understood that it spread the weight of the heavier object over more space and that is why it floated, but he sure had fun. What happens when the aluminum foil is made small? What happens if things that float fill with water? These are questions we answered and more...who knew science could be so fun!
Different sinkers and floater. Notice monster truck sunk.
I discovered lapbooks back in February. I can't get enough of them. The homeschooling community uses these as tools for their curriculum. I may not homeschool, but I find them perfect for supplemental learning with my preschooler. A lapbook is a folded up file folder that you put pocket books studying a theme in. One of my favorite things is how you can have a keepsake of your learning that touches all subjects in one folder. I get almost all of my lapbook ideas and printables at Homeschool Share, an amazing free resource. There are tons of websites and ideas out there if you Google lapbooks, I just think Homeschool Share is the best. The ideas are endless and it's fun trying to find ways to be creative and add more to the lesson.
I wanted to include some of the lapbooks I have done with "A". I have done more than the ones included but they were a study on holidays, so I will save them for other posts. I hope this gives you an idea of what lapbooks are and what you can do with them. To get started on how to make a lapbook watch this YouTube tutorial.
No supplemental text for this one, since it is just about your little one.
These are the ones we have done so far. Phew, that was a lot!!! I am trying to find ways to incorporate these into my classroom with older children. I think lapbooks may be a fun way organize and teach social studies units. I am thinking in particular The Colonies, Native Americans, Revolutionary War, etc. Let you know if I complete one. They also have them for older children literature studies. In fact, "A" and I are doing one now for our read-aloud of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.
A note on storing these bad boys: They are pretty compact but they can pile up. I have seen some people put duct tape on the edge and then three-ring hole punch the tape. I don't really like that. I think it takes away from the look of them. Let's face it, duct tape is ugly (except the cool new ones in craft stores). I saw one person who didn't keep them in a lapbook form but put each individual page in a plastic page protector, so all the books where in a binder. I like that idea and may switch to it later on down the road. I tried to put them in the page protectors as they are now and they don't fit, so I need to do some problem solving...another day!
