Fine Motor Snow Fun

Is snow falling in your area? Are you snowed in? Even if you are in the sunny South, take advantage of all the snow talk in the media to involve your children in integrated fine motor and science activities.

For those of you in snowy areas, bundle up and observe the snow. Use a giant magnifying glass to look at the banks of snow or collect individual snowflakes on a mitten. Ask children, “What do you see?” Invite them to explain why snow falls.

Guiding questions can include:

·      What is the air temperature like when it snows?

·      What does the sky look like when it snows?

·      Do you think the snow could turn to rain?

·      When could it do this?

These and other questions involve children in scientific inquiry.

There are many fun activities to encourage learning that can be done even in snowy weather. Build a snowman and use words like rolling, lifting, above, etc. These help children to use verbs in correct ways. You can even add math to the fun by talking about the 3 snowballs for the snowman’s body, the 2 eyes, 1 nose, etc.

When it’s time to go into the warmth, build those fine motor skills with this engaging art project.

The adult cuts out a mug.

Draw an outline of hot chocolate. Have the child cut this out. (This allows important cutting practice.) I like to draw the outline and give the child an appropriate-sized piece of paper, as shown. This helps children cut with a greater degree of accuracy. 

Have the child glue the hot chocolate onto the top of the mug. This uses another direction word, top. In addition, squeezing a bottle of glue helps build hand muscle strength, needed for fine motor control.

Give the child a scrap of white paper. Encourage him or her to use the thumb and forefinger (pincer grasp) to tear small pieces of paper. Glue these on the hot chocolate to become marshmallows!

Enjoy the weather and the range of possible learning activities it brings! Why not visit your library and check out 2 of our favorite snow books? We love The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats and Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin.

Standards Alignment:

NAEYC: 2.C.; 2.D.; 2.G.; 2.H.

Head Start: I.D.; III.C.; IV.A.; IX. A. B.; XI. A. B.

Art and Alligators + Science!

We know that animals fascinate children. Many of these animals are humanized in children’s books, but it is always helpful to invite children to explore the realities of the animal world.  This week, our activity (which is FREE to you if you sign up in the white box) educates children about the always amazing alligator. 

We like to begin a lesson about animals by asking children what they already know. You can make a list of these facts by writing them on a chart. This helps children understand that reading and writing are simply “talk written down.” It doesn’t matter if any or all of your students can read your chart, you are modeling the importance of writing.

If children offer facts that are not true, put them in a column labeled, “To Check.” This is an important school-readiness skill that models for children the importance of using resources to make sure their thinking is correct.

You can read aloud the text from our activity or from books you find in the library. Then invite children to make changes or additions to the set of alligator facts. You may want them to view this video the Maggie’s Big Home team took while on a recent visit to Mississippi. Can they spot the swimming alligator? Ask them to look for clues about where alligators live.

In our activity, we offer children the chance to make a puzzle out of the alligator. But here, we share an outline of an alligator for children to color, cut, and paste on another piece of paper. They can then draw objects like water, the sun, or a grassy bank to show an alligator’s habitat. 

Standards Alignment:

NAEYC – 2G.05; 2G.06; 2G.08

Head Start – XI.A

Sequence Stories

We know it is necessary to read to and with preschool children. But did you know that oral storytelling can be just as important? Watch the video below for more information!

You can suggest this to families by placing these few sentences in your newsletter or posting them on your door:

Ask your children to tell you about their day. Give them the beginning sentence, “When I woke up.” Encourage them to tell about all their activities. End with, “And then you went to bed.” This helps children talk about their day in order (sequencing). 

Standards Alignment:

NAEYC: 2.D.03; 2.A.04

Head Start: VIII.B; IX.C5

Play = Science Understanding

The wonderful world of play can help preschoolers learn important science concepts. As your children roll toy cars around the room, ask questions designed to get them thinking.

Questions that begin with the words, “what if,” encourage children to develop an understanding of scientific concepts. For example, ask questions such as:

·      What if your car didn’t have wheels? What might happen? This could lead to children using objects without wheels to try and make an object move. Children can then see the power of the wheel.

·      What if you used blocks to make a ramp? Would your car change speed? Have children change the slope of the ramp. This develops key ideas about slope and speed.

·      What if your car rolled on snow, rain, or rocks? What could happen?

These and other questions encourage children to predict and describe their play experiences.  They investigate and share outcomes. These are skills of scientists and necessary school readiness thinking skills.

For more on how vehicles work, share this video with your class. Ask children to share their observations about this machine at work. 

Note: Sharing observations are an important part of the scientific process and, of course, help to develop verbal skills and vocabulary.

Please sign-up for our FREE printable activities. You can use them in your classroom or send them home for family engagement. This week, we highlight the wheel!

Standards Alignment:

NAEYC: 2.D.03.; 2.D.06.; 2.G

Head Start: IV.A.; VIII.B.; XI.A&B.

Preschool Pinecone Science and Math

The holidays are a wonderful time for families to support learning in fun and natural ways. 

Go for a walk. Collect pinecones. This is a perfect opportunity to talk about the different kinds of trees: those that stay green all year long and those that shed their leaves. Ask children to tell about the trees. Have them explain their observations. 

Children may even collect pinecones that are on the ground. 

When you get home, children can line-up the pinecones from largest to smallest. Have them tell about this sequence. This is a good vocabulary builder!

Standards Alignment:

NAEYC: 2.C.03; 2.D.06; 2.G.02; 2.J.05

Head Start: I.D; III.C.; VIII.B.; XI.B.

Evergreen Trees: Art and Science

In the autumn most of us talk about the changing trees, the colors, and the falling leaves. Now that it is winter, this is a wonderful time to point out the differences in tree types. Invite children to look at those trees with bare branches; the ones that just a few months ago sported vibrant colors. Then have them look for trees that are still green – the evergreens.

Develop vocabulary skills by having children talk about the differences between the evergreen trees and deciduous (those that lose their leaves) trees.  How motivating as those that celebrate Christmas will be decorating an evergreen tree!

We suggest having children collect pinecones that have fallen from nearby evergreen trees. Below is an integrated art and science project that will help children understand that evergreen trees keep their needles all year long.  It is a project that preschool children can complete without adult hands needing to intervene. We love this type of project as it is truly child-created. The bonus? Fine motor skills are practiced and refined!

Collect a few pinecones.

Color a paper plate green.

Paint the pinecones green.

Gently tear apart cotton balls. Glue the cotton to the paper plate. 

Glue the pinecones to the winter scene.

Now have children describe their winter scene and what it tells us about evergreen trees!

Standards Alignment:

NAEYC: 2.C.03; 2.D.06; 2.G.02; 2.J.05

Head Start: I.D; III.C.; VIII.B.; XI.B.

Living Things

Children are natural scientists. They love to observe and should be encouraged to talk about their observations. We can help guide them to “discover” many key concepts. Asking questions and having children sort objects into categories helps in science learning. This has the added benefit of helping develop oral vocabulary and even pre-reading skills.

Go for a walk around the school neighborhood or playground. Ask children to find the living things. When you go back into the room, ask children to draw one of the living things they saw. Have children show their work and verbalize why this is a living thing. Responses such as these are age-appropriate observations:

• It moves.
• It grows.
• It needs food.
• It breathes (actually exchanges gases like in the case of plants)

Have children look around the room for representations of living things. Examples include stuffed or plastic animals, plants, the children, pictures in books of fish, etc. Children can bring their items to circle time and verbalize their reasoning for why the item represents a living thing.  This helps develop new vocabulary.

We also like to incorporate movement and have children show how a plant moves or talk about the needs of animals for food and air. Some concepts are likely to be beyond what a preschooler can easily understand but we think it is helpful to introduce vocabulary such as a plant gives off oxygen, the air we need. It takes in carbon dioxide.

Children can then circle items on a worksheet such as the one below to identify living things:

For more on a unique living things, see our Weekly Activity, "Sand Dollars." It is a good way to integrate literacy skills with an unusual living thing. Sign up in the white box with your email.

Standards Alignment:

Head Start: IV. C; VI. B.; VIII. B.; XI. A & B.

NAEYC: 2.B.04; 2.D.04; 2.D.07; 2.G.02; 2.G.08.