Children aged 3 - 6 thrive in environments that promote repetition, routine and the mastery of purposeful movement. Allow your child to choose activities and give the opportunity for periods of time without distractions. The key to a successful learning environment is order, access to tactile resources, space to explore and meaningful activity. For the early childhood child, 'work' and 'play' should be interchangeable - a natural, fun and exciting part of life.
What you will need: -A piece of paper-An object of your choice -A writing utensil -A shadow
What to do:Place the object at the edge of the paper making sure the shadow is on the paper. Let your child trace the shadow of the object. Try it at different hours and see how the shadow changes.
Tuesday
Centrifugal Force and Inertia Experiment With Eggs and Making Deviled Eggs
This is a science and cooking lesson combined. After hard boiling some eggs, and not others, students will notice the difference in their spinning motions due to the different forces acting upon them. Afterword, your child will learn how to make an enjoy deviled eggs!
Materials:
Eggs
Cooking pot
A flat surface
A bowl
A knife
A fork
A spoon
Mayonnaise or Vegenaise
Mustard
Vinegar ((optional)
Pickle relish or pickles
Salt and pepper
Garlic powder, dill, (optional)
Paprika (optional)
Parsley (optional)
A towel to wipe up any spills
Activity:
Start by helping your child fill a pot with water and place several eggs in the water with one inch of water over the top (leave some eggs unboiled). Boil eggs for about 7-10 minutes and let them cool. You can run some cold water over them to speed up this process.
Next, spin a hard boiled egg, and compare it to spinning a non-boiled egg. You will notice a few differences:
1) As a single mass unit, the boiled egg has more inertia,so it spins faster. (Inertia is the name for the tendency of an object in motion to remain in motion, or an object at rest to remain at rest unless acted upon by a force. This concept was quantified in Newton's First Law of Motion).
2)The raw egg spins more slowly and wobbly because centrifugal force (the force that pushes things outward when spinning) continuously changes the raw yolk's position, and center of gravity.
3)When you stop the spinning eggs, the hard boiled egg will stop instantly.The raw egg keeps spinning after you touch it briefly because the liquid egg inside remains in motion even though the shell has stopped.
If your eggs are cool enough, it is now time to begin cooking deviled eggs!
Starting by helping your child peel the egg shell off of the egg. (It helps if you start at the bottom, the widest part of the egg and move upward.)
Once eggs are all peeled, and rinsed, slice them carefully in half.
Scoop out the hard-boiled yolk into a bowl.Mash the yolks into a fine crumble using a fork.
Add mayonnaise, vinegar, mustard, relish or finely chopped pickles, spices, salt, and pepper, and mix well.
Put a spoonful this mixture into each of your empty, boiled egg white cups.Display beautifully on a plate, sprinkle with paprika and garnish with parsley. Enjoy!
Extension: Show more examples of centrifugal force by placing items in an empty bag, basket or purse, and swinging them around in a circle. Notice that none of the items fall out even if it is upside down! The centrifugal force pushes everything away from the center of the circle.
Wednesday
Homemade Puffy Paint
Materials:
- 3 cups of foam shaving cream
- 1 cup of flour
- 1 cup of white glue
- Food coloring or paint
- Ziplock style plastic bag
- Paper
Instructions:
Measure out all the ingredients except the coloring into a large bowl. Mix the shaving cream, flour and glue together. Keep the air bubbles in the shaving cream.
Divide the mixture into 3-4 small bowls and add some coloring. Stir again but be careful not to over mix.
Spoon the puffy paint into the sandwich bags. Seal the bags and cut a small corner off.
It’s time to use it! Make your beautiful art on paper or cardboard!
Be sure to let the paint dry over night.
Thursday
Rock Art
What you will need: -Paper-Glue-Writing utensil - One of the following (beads, pebbles, scrap paper, dry pasta, dry beans, rice, or other)
What to do: Draw lines or a shape on the paper. One by one glue your materials to the line. When finished let your art dry over night. Tip: A little bit of glue goes a long way.
Friday
Sock Sorting
Materials:
Unmatched socks from the clean laundry pile
A container to pull unmatched socks from
Put your child in charge of matching socks when it's laundry time—a great lesson in visual discrimination, as well as responsibility while building practical life skills. Depending on the age of your child, consider laying out one of each sock as a prompt to encourage the matching process.