Learning Centers Blog Hop Series: Science Center

Welcome back to the Pre-K Partner's Learning Centers Blog Hop Series! So far we have taken a look at the math, writing, art, and blocks centers. This week we will focus on the science center!  

In my classroom we have always called the the science center the "discovery area." Either way it is a center full of questioning, observing, and experimenting! This center is one of my most favorite learning areas for students to explore!

My discovery or science center has taken on many forms, sizes, and spaces! The first photo is a most recent example from last year. I like to have a table (for writing/sorting/examining) and a shelf to hold manipulatives and supplies. The center holds trays and baskets for storage and students learn and practice putting materials away. 

The science center in early childhood can help students to develop a wide variety of questioning, research, and investigative skills!  In addition, students can practice skills such as matching, sorting, counting, etc. Also, students are learning to communicate (their observations) with others and learning to share materials. Writing, alphabet, and vocab. skills can be enhanced by providing clipboards, pencils, related fiction/non fiction books, and a vocabulary chart in the center. Fine motor skills can be enhanced by providing tweezers and tongs for sorting/examining in the center. 

The following is an example of supplies and materials that can be put in your science center: 

- trays and ice cube trays for sorting games

- baskets for storage

- tweezers and tongs

- microscope, slides, & magnifying glasses

- binoculars

- goggles and even pretend lab coats

- nature items (drift wood, sticks, leaves, pine cones, sea shells, etc.)

- basket of different textures (sandpaper, fur, etc.)

- fiction and non fiction science related books

- books related to seasons and weather

- seasonal puzzles

- sound spa or sound machine

- a rain stick

- sensory bottles

- pencils, colored pencils, and clipboards w/ paper

- science notebooks or student journals

- Lakeshore sorting games

- vocabulary posters or vocab. cards

- anchor charts or class graphs

- ongoing science experiments for observation like color changing experiments, a rotting apple, or decaying pumpkin

The teacher's role is to provide materials that provoke curiosity! The teacher's role during science center time (and during other center play) is to monitor, engage, observe, and document behavior/learning.  Also, teachers can encourage students to develop higher level thinking by asking them questions such as: What happens if or when? How do you think it does that? What other ways can you think of to make it do that? 

I hope you enjoyed this little peek into my discovery/science areas and I encourage you to create one in your own classroom!  

Stay tuned for more learning center fun during the Pre-K Partner's Learning Centers Blog Hop Series!

Hop on over to Fun in ECSE for more blocks learning center ideas! 

Melted Crayon Pumpkins!

 Today we discussed heat and change (properties of matter!).  Students were asked why and how does a popsicle, snow, ice cream, butter, cheese, ect. melt. We then experimented with crayon color combos and a crafting heat gun. I read somewhere that a heat gun would prove faster results than a hair dryer.  It only took a few seconds for the crayons to start dripping.  Students even unwrapped the old crayons that we used in our experiment (fine motor practice). Of course after we unwrapped the crayons, little bits of paper were everywhere. We wrapped a little tape around the students hands and called it a clean up game..and in no time the carpet was spotless!  This is a fun activity that I would definitely do again! I would have used our big pumpkin but it decayyyyed! "Decay" is a popular word in our classroom lately. We watched a Sid the Science kid video and after that we've had decayed cheetos, celery, and even a decayed banana peel was found at home and brought to show! YUCK! : )  Happy fun friday!

Fall Room Tour! (Part 2)

Our math center!  

We used real pumpkins in whole group math to practice ordinal numbers. Students took turns placing the pumpkins in order. Then, a student was selected to take a pumpkin away and hide it as the other students closed their eyes. They took turns guessing which number/pumpkin was missing! Now the pumpkins have moved into our math center! Students can have hands-on practice with ordinal numbers or they can act out the story below.

There are a couple versions of "Five Little Pumpkins." I wrote this version to incorporate the pumpkin life cycle/production sequence. 

These mini pumpkins and leaves were in the Target dollar aisle! I made the cards on photoshop.

This is an idea I found on pinterest. They are fall tactile number cards! Students had to carefully punch the dots/count 10 and punch out the dots on the numeral with a thumbtack. I know what you are thinking..20 four year olds with thumbtacks..SCARY!  ..but amazingly they were so careful and focused (and quiet!) while they were punching dots with the tacks! Then they glued seed pods (beans) to their cards.  This activity idea is from: http://thepreschooltoolboxblog.com/?p=1216

Here is a photo of our fall harvest pretend center..

I love having  books, vocabulary, and writing in most of the centers! Fellow teachers that I worked with last year showed me how to incorporate literacy into practically any center! 

Our discovery center! 

In this center we have: color sensory bottles, rainbow observing with cd's/flashlights, rainbow light up wands, rain stick,magnets, ABC/number wood chips, tree slice, fall leaves, and colored feather sorting. 

We also have white boards for writing vocabulary, life cycle sequencing cards (from: http://www.montessoriforeveryone.com/assets/PDF/Life_Cycle_of_a_Pumpkin.pdf), binoculars, seasonal books, and our ongoing experiments! 

The teacher across the hall introduced me to "Sid the Science Kid" videos!  She always does something fun in class to go along with the Sid experiment.  She had her class do an experiment with decaying bread, clean/dirty apples, and part of a pumpkin.  We tried the bread and the apples. For the bread, we had the students squirt the slices with water, place in ziploc baggie, and hang in the window. For the apple, we passed around a slice of apple and talked about germs on our hands. The clean untouched apple was placed straight into the mason jar. It took less than a week for us to notice the differences! And my oh my is it disgusting! I am amazed at this experiment! The kids love saying "decay." I had one little boy say at lunch, "I'm eating decayed cheeto today!"  Science is my favorite part of the day! : ) 

We've had a pumpkin seed taste test and also some pumpkin investigations/observations! Did I mention I love fall?!! 

 We had tested a pumpkin in  class to see if it would sink or float. Then we made boats out of tin foil, floated them, and then sank them with marbles. Students counted how many marbles sank their boat ..love it when science and math combine!  Each student took home a mini pumpkin over the weekend with instructions to report back on how they sank their pumpkin (without using their hands!) I love how their ideas were their own. Some students wrote word for word how they did their experiment, some drew a picture, some parents even took pictures! A few ideas were to scoop it out and let it soak overnight, tape a hammer to it, tape legos to it, and tape a toy plane to it... (see if it flies instead of sinks! HA!)


Check out another fall setup HERE!

Autumn!

Here is a simple apple pie matching game to make for your ABC center: print off pie clip art and apple slices, cut & laminate, and write upper/lower case letters. You could easily change out the letters with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser..OR you could switch it and make it a math game! Students can record their letter or number matches on paper, white board, or even a magnadoodle! 

Mmmmm...the smells of Autumn!  We passed around spices, used our "sense of smell," and guessed what the spices could be!  Here are some of the spices we smelled: cinnamon, cloves, apple pie spice, pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, and dried orange spice (Target!). After smelling the spices, students can create spice art! Mix a little watered down white glue with spices. Use paint brushes and thick paper. Students will take home some sweet smelling paintings! 

We set up a practical life station during centers. Students were able to grate their own cinnamon! I found these large cinnamon sticks at an Amish bakery but McCormick sells smaller cinnamon sticks (near the spices in the baking aisle of the grocery store).

I don't think I will ever get this song out of my head!  The kids love it and it is quite catchy! "Herman the Worm" by The Learning Station.  We gave each student a worm (half of a pipe cleaner). This song includes counting, sequencing, and measurement!  Students stuff their "worm" in their hand and as Herman eats, students pull out a little bit more of their pipe cleaner..showing small, bigger, longer!! ..and then he burps! ..and he goes back to small again.. It's a fun song!! doowop doowop! 

Here is another activity we did this week... I first saw the idea on kindergartenkindergarten.com.  It's called "Find the Worm."  I printed off apples..laminated them...and then used a sharpie to write the numerals, number words, and counting dots.  (Write over the laminate..so then later you can wipe it off and use the apples for something else!) We used a small piece of green pipe cleaner for the worm..yarn would work too..(or how about one of those rubber fishing worms!? ..maybe next year!)  We played this activity every day this week as an intro. game for our math group time.  The apples were arranged in a different pattern each day...ABAB..ABC..ABBA.. and after the worm was found I had extra apples on hand so the students could take turns finishing the pattern... Another way to play: Hand out the apples to the students..then they take turns arranging the apples in order...then one student could hide the worm.  Patterning, number identification, counting, colors, and ordering...LOVE IT!

Other things we did with apples this week:

-Finished simple patterns with real apples and created our own patterns with real apples!

-Graphed apples and taste tested apple butter!

-Measured ourselves with real apples, compared heights, and took turns measuring things around the classroom (with apples!)

-Played "Pin the Apple on the Tree" ..used the apples from the pocket chart, masking tape, scarf for blindfold, and butcher paper tree.

-Played "Meet Me at the Top of the Apple Tree" game.. the class was split into two teams. We laid out our butcher paper tree on the carpet and I had drawn a grid up the trunk. Teams rolled a jumbo dice and raced their beanie babies up the tree! (We used a worm and a snake..a chipmunk or bird would work too! OR print off clip art and laminate!) 

-We went apple picking! Red pom poms were hidden all over the classroom. Students worked with partners to collect 5 apples in their baskets. (We used berry baskets that I scored at a garage sale!)  Students had to determine with their partners if they had five apples, more than five, or less than five.

-Apple Eruptions!!! ..Students took turns stirring a bowl  filled with a cup of baking soda and some spices (Students used their sense of smell and they chose their spices..cinnamon, apple pie spice, etc.)...  Then, we dropped food coloring (experimented with a couple of colors!) into vinegar. I cut out holes on the tops of apples..Students took turns filling the apples with the baking soda mixture and (carefully) pouring the vinegar over top. We watched and listened to all the millions of  tiny popping bubbles.. At one point, we decided to try three apples at one time, each apple with a different color.. and then we watched the colors mix. This activity allowed students to use their senses, predict, experiment, and witness cause and effect! It was a super cool experiment that I highly recommend!  

Click here for more fall fun from Pre-K Tweets! 

Spring Math and Science Centers

Science Center - Hungry Caterpillar/Garden Vegetables vocab. cards and butterfly sequence cards

Science Center - bug and garden books, color sensory bottles, spring/bug puzzles, bean seed and flower exploration bowl, spring match game, flower petal sorting game, rain stick, ruler, stones and pebbles

I found these wood/styrofoam grass boxes at hobby lobby..they were part of a display and the manager gave three of them to me for free!  Students can poke flowers into the foam (fine motor) and make their own arrangements (creative expression).  I also have one of these grass foam boxes in my sensory garden tub.  I made some see identification mini posters with seed packets and actual seeds (clear tape over the seeds). They go with a seed sort game (not pictured).  

These yellow plastic bottles are awesome! The top is a magnifying glass and they unscrew..so students can take them out to the playground to collect items from nature to observe in the center later. They came in my Lakeshore science kit.. I think it came with about 10 of the bottles. 

Flower petal counting.. the petals are from the craft/bead area in Hobby Lobby..ice cube tray..magnifying glass..and I also put tweezers with it for fine motor.

Rain stick for April showers!

Math Center - "5 Little Honeybees" book/other books about counting bugs or vegetables,  measurement game with mini cubes, counting mats, Fly to the Nest board game, manipulatives for measuring (that is our math topic for this week). 

The counting mats, flowers, and ladybugs came from Lakeshore..the Hungry Caterpillar buckets came from the dollar aisle at Target : ) 

Hungry Caterpillar story sequencing and counting card..these little stick on hooks are removable  and do not leave a mark on the cabinet..plus the cards can slip out of the hooks so students can arrange them in order! 

In puzzles center we have a large Hungry Caterpillar floor puzzle, Hungry Caterpillar  that has a matching card game inside (bought on clearance at Books-a-Million!), and insect/vegetable/spring wooden puzzles.