Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Dirt & Germs

Learning Goal: Personal hygiene is important to maintain health and prevent illness. Many diseases are caused by germs (viruses and bacteria).
  • Reading= Mud Puddle by Robert Munsch, Good Thing You’re Not an Octopus by Julie Markes and Farm Flu by Teresa Bateman (or On Top of Spaghetti by Paul Brett Johnson). Letter of the day= G is for germ.
  • Art= Paint with "mud". Finger paint with chocolate pudding to make your own mud puddle. Don’t forget his eyes, hands and mouth! Children can help prepare the paint by shaking the milk and pudding mix in a sealed container.
  • Fine art= Show Leonardo DaVinci’s Mona Lisa. Point out that she is not smiling. Perhaps she did not take good care of her teeth! Encourage children to brush regularly.
  • Science= Try this soap & pepper experiment to demonstrate how soap washes away dirt and germs. Generously sprinkle pepper (representing dirt) on top of some water in a bowl. Put a dab of dish soap on the tip of your child’s finger. Touch the water and watch the pepper dash to the side of the bowl. Explain that soap even washes away germs that are too small to see. Show photos of germs at high magnification. (I recommend using Sneeze! by Alexandra Siy and Dennis Kunkel.) Next, put glitter or flour (representing germs) on your hands after pretending to sneeze or cough. Shake hands, use the bathroom, play with plastic blocks, etc. See how easy it is to spread and catch germs! Say good-bye to glitter germs as you demonstrate the proper way to wash your hands.
  • Play= Blow some homemade bubbles, take a bubble bath in your swimming suit, or wash the family car together!

Fun facts: Bacteria are single-celled organisms that do not have a nucleus or other organelles. Viruses are not alive because they cannot reproduce without help from other cells. Infectious bacteria can be treated with antibiotics but viruses cannot.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Construction Zone

Learning Goal: Buildings are constructed from many materials, such as wood, metal, glass, brick and stone. Magnets attract only certain kinds of materials.
  • Reading= Raise the Roof by Anastasia Suen, Tip Tip Dig Dig by Emma Garcia, The Three Little Pigs by James Marshall or The Monster at the End of this Book by Jon Stone. Letter of the day= N is for nail.
  • Science= Demonstrate how magnets attract and repel each other and certain materials. Walk around the house to find objects your magnet will stick to. Try the refrigerator, wooden cabinets, a glass window, nails, aluminum foil, coins, stone, paper, plastic, paper clips, keys, an eraser, steel or aluminum cans, etc. Emphasize the names of all the different materials you find in your house.
  • Art= Gather a collection of toy machines and trucks having tread on the tires. Dip the tires in paint and roll over fingerpaint paper to make a design. Or, draw a picture of your house and decorate with materials used by grover and the three little pigs: straw, popsicle sticks and bricks (rectangles cut from sandpaper).
  • Play= Visit a construction site. Play with tools in a toolbox (hammer a nail/golf tee, sand a block of wood, tighten a screw, etc.). Make and paint a house from a large refrigerator box. Or, take a ride in a wheel barrow!
Fun fact: Magnets are attracted to objects that contain iron or nickel.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Dinosaur Bones

Learning Goal: Bones provide evidence that dinosaurs lived long ago. I have bones like dinosaurs.
  • Reading= How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? by Jane Yolen, Bones, Bones, Dinosaur Bones by Byron Barton and The Skeleton Inside You by Philip Balestrino. Letter of the day: D is for dinosaur.
  • Science= How do we know that dinosaurs used to live here? Feel the bones under your skin. Show pictures of skeletons (both dinosaur and human). Look for bones (or puzzle pieces) buried in oatmeal using a paint brush as a tool. Once all the puzzle pieces have been uncovered, complete the puzzle. Emphasize that putting together a dinosaur skeleton is much like putting together a puzzle.
  • Art= Make “fossils” of your handprint using some modeling clay. Paint a dog biscuit white like a dinosaur bone; hang it from a necklace. Or, make a human skeleton by gluing Q-tips (representing bones) and cotton balls (a skull and hip bones) to dark paper. Fine art= Auguste Rodin's The Thinker. Sculpt dinosaurs from play dough (just like Rodin).
  • Play= Have a dinosaur egg hunt then play with the baby dinosaurs you find. Use string to measure the length (or height) of your favorite adult dinosaurs. Or, visit your local dinosaur museum.
Fun fact: The largest dinosaur (barosaurus) was approximately 80 feet in length. Interestingly, modern birds may have evolved from a lineage of small dinosaurs called theropods.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Snow & Ice

Learning Goal: Water can be changed from one state to another (solid, liquid, gas) by heating or cooling.
  • Reading= The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner and There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow by Lucille Colandro. Letter of the day= S is for snow.
  • Art= Make snowflakes by cutting shapes in folded white paper or doilies. Adhere snowflakes to blue paper and add glitter. Fine art: Show Pieter Bruegel's December Landscape (Hunters in the Snow). Point out the snow, frozen lake and ice skaters.
  • Science= Experiment with the freezing and melting of water and ice. For example, make homemade popsicles to observe the freezing of water. Put ice cubes in different places; time how long it takes the ice cubes to melt. Boil water and watch it make clouds (or steam); breathe onto a mirror or outside in the cold to see a gas turn into liquid. Finally, make a daily weather chart to record sun, snow, rain or wind.
  • Play= Go sledding, build a snowman, or have an indoor snowball fight with extra-large marshmallows!

Fun fact: Water is the only substance on Earth that is present in three different forms (liquid, solid, gas).

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Welcome Winter

Learning Goal: During winter the weather is cold, the days are short and food is scarce. Animals must prepare, adapt or hibernate to survive.
  • Reading= The Mitten by Alvin Tresselt (or Jan Brett), Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson, The After-Christmas Tree by Linda Tyler (or The Busy Little Squirrel by Nancy Tafuri) and Stranger in the Woods by Carl R. Sams II and Jean Stoick. Letter of the day= M is for mitten.
  • Science= Talk about why food is hard to find in the winter. Explain that some animals stop eating and hibernate to save energy. Make a den or cave out of couches, blankets and pillows. Pretend to be bears hibernating through the winter.
  • Art= Make birdfeeders out of pine cones, peanut butter and bird seed. Hang outside and observe the feeding birds. Replenish often throughout the winter. Each day for one week, keep track of how many birds you see come to your feeder. Graph your results.
  • Play= Pretend to be birds in the forest and use clothes pins (your bird beak) to pick up hidden gummy worms, plastic bugs and nuts. Prepare an assortment of lonely mittens on a clothes line; find the matching mittens and hang them too. Or, count how many people can fit inside a mitten-like sleeping bag!

Fun fact: A bear's heart rate may drop from a normal of 40-50 beats per minute down to 8-12. Bears do not eat, drink, or excrete at all while hibernating, which can be as long as six months.