Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Animal Habitats

Learning goal: The world has many different environments, and distinct environments support the life of different types of organisms. Animals have adaptations (or traits) that help them survive in different environments.
  • Reading= If You’re Happy and You Know It: Jungle Edition by Andy Warhola, The Salamander Room by Anne Mazer, Zoo Looking by Mem Fox (or Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann), Our Earth by Anne Rockwell and What Do You Do with a Tail Like This? by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page (or What Do You Do? by Mandy Stanley). Letter of the day: Z is for zoo.
  • Art= Draw a picture of your favorite animal or an imaginary animal. Include elements of its habitat in your drawing. Invite your child to tell you about the animal. Where does it live? What does it eat? Does it swim, walk, slither or fly? What else can it do? Optional: provide feathers, yarn, bird seed or sand paper to add texture to the animal.
  • Science= Supply six bowls filled with grass, hay, tree leaves (or pine needles), sand, water and ice. The bowls represent different animal habitats, such as grasslands, farms, forests, deserts, lakes and snow. Provide many different types of plastic animals. Invite children to place each animal in their favorite home (or habitat). Then choose two animals and imagine they trade places. Do you think they could survive in their new home? Why or why not? Which traits (or adaptations) might be helpful in their new habitat? Which adaptations would not be helpful? (For a list of adaptations for a variety of organisms visit National Geographic Kids.) Extension: Place one animal on each continent in a world map. Discuss how animals seen at the zoo have come from all over the world.
  • Play= Play a game of animal charades, dramatize a circus act, or visit your local zoo. Notice the different habitats that have been re-created to help zoo animals feel at home.

Fun facts: Adaptations are heritable traits (e.g., a body part or a behavior) that help an organism survive and reproduce in a particular environment. The adaptations of any particular species have evolved over a long period of time by the process of natural selection.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Insects & Frogs

Learning goal: Tools help scientists see, measure, and do things that they could not otherwise see, measure and do. Introducing microscopes and magnifying glasses!
  • Reading= Hey, Little Ant by Phillip Hoose, In the Tall, Tall Grass by Denise Fleming, A Frog in the Bog by Karma Wilson and Miss Spider’s Tea Party by David Kirk. Letter of the day= I is for insect.
  • Art= If you're comfortable with a mess, paint with fly swatters (outdoors of course)! If not, make insects from egg cartons. Paint three egg sections for an ant (representing head, thorax and abdomen). Add eyes and use pipe cleaners for legs and antennae. Egg cartons are also great for making green caterpillars, red ladybugs and black spiders. Tip: Store egg carton insects in a shoe box with green Easter grass. Alternatively, draw spider webs with glue then cover with glitter. Or, roll a painted marble over paper in a box to make a spider web. Add fingerprint spiders.
  • Science= Hunt for bugs and examine them with a magnifying glass. Look in grass, soil, sun and shade (i.e., under a rock). What insects did you find in each place? Do some have wings? How many legs does each one have? Catch some bugs in a jar and observe them for a while. Who moves the quickest? the slowest? Experiment: Place different foods around your yard (e.g., peanut butter, bread crumbs, yogurt, apples). Which food attracts the most ants and other insects?
  • Play= Make a giant spider web in your house with yarn and have a tea party or picnic there. Use party blowers like frog tongues and play a game of leap frog. Or, play "Cootie" to reinforce insect parts and structures.
Fun fact: Frogs eat insects! Help scientists conserve frogs and toads by participating in Frogwatch USA. Learn about frogs in your area, view photos and listen to local frog calls here!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Mothers & Babies

Learning goal: Objects have many observable properties and the ability to react with other substances. Enjoy this introduction to diaper chemistry!
  • Reading= I Love You, Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt, Llama, Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney, Just What Mama Needs by Sharlee Glenn and David Smells by David Shannon. Letter of the day: M is for mother.
  • More favorite books: What Mommies Do Best by Laura Numeroff, My Monster Mama Loves Me So by Laura Leuck, Counting Kisses by Karen Katz, Love You Forever by Robert Munsch and Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother Too? by Eric Carle.
  • Science: Both Moms and kids will naturally be curious about the science behind a disposable diaper. Just how much water does one diaper hold? Put your diapers to the test! Experiment with a variety of absorbent materials (paper towels, sponges, wash cloths, cotton balls, etc.). Then measure how much water (colored yellow) a cloth diaper versus a disposable diaper can hold. Dissect (cut open) a dry disposable diaper to find out what’s inside. Shake its inner contents over black paper to find the hidden polymer that makes it happen. Collect the white powdery crystals in a cup and watch them expand when you add water. Finally, pour salt over the crystals to reverse the process and release the water. Wow!
  • Art: Use baby wipes to make tie dye art. Roll, fold or twist a single baby wipe then secure with a few elastics. Color the twisted baby wipe with watercolor markers. Press the markers down on the wipe long enough for the ink to go all the way through to the inside. Wear rubber gloves if you don’t want your hands to get messy. An adult can cut the elastics off and the child can unfold his creation. Let dry overnight then mount and display.
  • Play: Play bottle bowling! Set up 10 baby bottles in the shape of a triangle. Roll a large rubber ball to knock them down. Fill bottles with animal finger puppets or other decor to make the bottles look extra fun.

Fun facts: The polymer inside disposable diapers is called sodium polyacrylate. It can instantly absorb about 800 times its mass in water. However, diapers still leak when a baby’s urine contains enough salt.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Flowers & Bees

Learning goal: Plants have structures that serve different functions in growth, survival and reproduction.
  • Reading= The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle, What Does Bunny See? by Linda Sue Park, Drat that Fat Cat! by Pat Thomson, The Beeman by Laurie Krebs and The Reason for a Flower by Ruth Heller. Letter of the day: F is for flower.
  • Science= Experiment with flowers! Dissect several flowers sorting their parts into a muffin tin. Find roots, stems, leaves, petals, pollen-givers (anthers) and pollen-receivers (stigmas). Compare stems to a straw used for drinking. Then add food coloring to water and observe white flowers drink the water and slowly turn color. Let sit over night. Alternatively, make a beehive using a balloon and paper mache. Learn about bees and the making of honey.
  • Art= Glue a seed to paper. Invite the child to draw a flower that might grow from that seed. Encourage them to include all the flower parts you just discovered. Add fingerprint bees. Alternatively, make a gift of flowers for your mother for Mother’s Day. String foam flowers and straws (cut is small pieces) to make a lei. Or, make tissue paper flowers with pipe cleaner stems and decorate a tin can vase to put them in.
  • Play= Make biscuits and eat them with honey, go for a walk to pick some flowers for your mom, or play with straws. For example, blow air through a straw to move an object (e.g., a toilet paper tube) across a finish line.
Fun fact: Honeybees must visit between 100 and 1500 flowers in order to fill their stomachs with nectar (liquid made by flowers). In the process of going from flower to flower, pollen gets stuck on the bee and is rubbed off on the flowers. This pollinates many flowers, fertilizing them and producing seeds. In one year, a colony of bees eats between 120 and 200 pounds of this modified nectar we call honey.