WE'RE HAVING A BALL!

The best way to learn science is to do science. Using the classic story, The Three Little Pigs, the students continued their study of force and effect.  Blowing through a straw the children used their breath to move a pom pom ball like the wolf did to blow down a house. Young children are natural investigators.  They are curious about how things work and what will happen next. I enjoyed watching the boys and girls discover that the more force they used with their breath the further the pom pom ball would go.

We also danced with scarves.  Not only was this a fun way to teach children about force, but  spatial awareness, too. As they learn to navigate their environment, they learn about direction, perspective, distance, and location.  Using positional words and force, we moved our scarves around. The children loved listening to the music and waving their scarves to make different positions and shapes.   When we use positional words it helps describe spatial relationships and helps children deepen their understanding of those relationships.

Another fun learning activity was making snow for our sensory bin.  We buried magnetic letters in the snow for each child to find and then spell their name.  This activity teaches children to understand that these symbols can be grouped together to form words and that words have meanings.  The idea that written words are composed of letters that represent sounds is called the alphabetic principle.  Children’s understanding of the alphabetic principle is a predictor of future reading success. As you can see the boys and girls had a great time searching for letters in their name to place on the tray.