On Sunday, November 5, you should wake feeling slightly better rested than usual, as you’ll have gained an hour of sleep due to daylight savings time. Messing with our bedside clocks (not to mention our internal clocks) may seem strange, but there is a good reason. 

Why do we change our clocks an hour back? 

To understand why we move our clocks forward and back in the spring and fall, we need to understand why we have seasons in the first place. You see, the Earth does not stand perfectly straight as it rotates around the Sun. Rather, it rotates at a tilt. This means that the part of our planet that’s tilted toward the Sun has warmer, lighter days for half of the year and colder, then darker days for the other half, as the Earth makes its full, year-long rotation. Most of us live for those warm summer days when our part of the world is tilted toward the Sun. Those days – and Benjamin Franklin – are the reason for daylight savings time. Franklin was the first to publicly observe that most of the world was sleeping through those glorious, bright, warm, early morning summer hours, essentially wasting them. A British builder named William Willet was the next to push for a shift in time, to push the bright sunny summer hours from morning to evening, when people could enjoy them rather than sleep through them. Willet proposed shifting the time gradually, say 20 minutes a Sunday for four consecutive weeks. His plan was adopted first by Germany, then by Britain, who called the program Sun Time. Other countries followed suit, including the U.S., in 1918. 

Tips & Tricks for getting and keeping your kids in bed 

And yes, daylight savings time gives us nice, long summer hours. And yes, research indicates that it also saves energy (more time playing at the park in the evening means fewer lights on and dishwashers running) and decreases evening traffic accidents. But daylight savings time can be brutal for those of us with kids. Have you ever tried to put your kids down for the night while the Sun was still shining bright? Or to wake them up an hour early in the morning? Good luck! But there is hope. Willet had the right idea in terms of gradually introducing this change. Beginning about a week before the time changes this fall, start pushing bedtime by about 15 minutes each day (your kids are going to love this!). Then, try to keep them in bed an hour later on Saturday and until the equivalent of their regular wake-up time on Sunday. The goal is that they’ll be just tired enough by Sunday night to go to bed at their regular but now adjusted time. As always, avoid electronics, sugar, and crazy, active play in the hour before they climb into bed. Ah, daylight savings time. We relish that extra hour of sleep in the fall and loathe the loss of an hour in the spring, but, to quote Danny Zuko, “Oh, those summer nights! 

Water play is always a huge hit, and this fun sensory bin has an added surprise element that will keep your little one entertained!

To make cloudy water:

1. Add water to a bin

2. Mix in the food coloring of choice

3. Add just enough corn starch to make the water opaque and mix

Next, add in loose parts and have your child search the water to find the pieces and sort them by color! Add in tweezers or scoops to help develop fine motor skills. We used Sorting Surprise Picnic Baskets for this bin!

You may think your preschooler—or even your toddler—is too young for physics but think again! Little kids love explore and are constantly testing their own theories to help them understand the world around them. What will happen if they push the bowl over the edge of the highchair, for example? In addition to helping them make sense of their surroundings and gain a better understanding of how things work, exploring simple scientific principles early on lays the foundation for a future interest in STEAM learning, including science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics. Read on for four fun ways to start talking physics with your kids, today!

1. Drop a Block! Introduce the concept of gravity by dropping a variety of differently sized objects to show your kids that everything falls. What goes up must come down! Why? There’s a force that draws all things to the ground and this force is called gravity. Gravity is what keeps your kiddo’s feet on the floor and what brings them back to the floor, no matter how light they are or how high they jump.
2. Roll a Ball! Introduce the concepts of motion, inertia, and friction with a little ball game. Sit down facing your child and place a ball between you. Does it move? No. Why? Because it’s impacted by inertia, a rule that says things will keep on doing what they’re already doing unless something happens to them that puts them in motion. So, give the ball a gentle push. Now it moves! How far does it go? What happens if you push it harder? Does it travel farther? What makes it stop? Friction does! Friction is what happens when two things rub against each other. In this case, the friction caused by the surface you are rolling your ball on causes resistance to the ball’s motion. So, the less friction, the farther your ball will roll. What would happen if you rolled your ball on ice instead of carpet?
3. Float a Fork! Now that your kids understand the concept of force, you can introduce buoyancy and density! Fill a tub with water and add a variety of objects. Why does a rock sink when a plastic spoon floats? Because water is a force that pushes against an object in it. If the object is less dense than the water, it floats. If it’s denser than the water, it sinks! Okay, so what’s density? Simply put, density refers to how compact an object is, or how close the insides of an object are to each other. If they’re very close, they’re very dense. If they’re more spread out, with room for air in between, they’re not very dense. Aluminum foil is a great way to demonstrate this concept. Ball one sheet of foil loosely and another tightly, drop them in the water, and see what happens.
4. Make a Simple Machine! And we mean simple! Use a book to make a ramp and roll a marble down. Stack a few books and use a butter knife to make a lever and lift one of the books. Use a shoelace to lift a small bucket of sand over the park railing – voila, a pulley!

Play first, then explain the concept in the simplest terms, using the proper vocabulary and soon your sweetie will be a full-fledged scientist!

Can you believe it is already the 100th day of school? This is an exciting time in the elementary classroom! Whether your student is in-person, virtual, or hybrid, this is still a celebration of academic achievement. Take a look at these activities that will help celebrate your student's 100th day!

Math

In the elementary years, developing basic numeracy skills is a critical component of math instruction. With that in mind, it’s easy to see how the 100th day of class is a great opportunity to test those skills in a fun and exciting ways. Here are just a few examples:

• Count 100 with Snap Cubes! Easy for little hands to connect and twist apart. Great for counting to 100 by ones and tens, grouping, and one-to-one correspondence.
• The Hundred Activity Mat is a great hands-on math tool that will get all your students movin’ and groovin’ with math!
• Count to 100 with Money Activity Set 2. Realistic bills and coins will help your child learn how to add, subtract, and make changes.
• Estimation Station. Challenge your kid's estimation skills with this fun estimation station math invitation. 
• Sing, move, dance, and count your way to 100 with these 6 YouTube videos.

Gym

Get kiddos up and moving with 100 themed activities! Let's get moving:

• Get the whole body moving with 100 jumping jacks or 100 giant steps around the house or even outside.
• 100 Days of School workout. Enjoy a fun workout for you and your kiddos on the 100th day of school!

Language Arts

Incorporate reading and language arts activities that center on this all-important number with these ideas:

• Read, write, and sort 100 words! Students can play independently to test their skills or pair up to compete against a partner, drawing words and using them in a sentence.
• Incorporate a “100 days”–themed book into your daily read-aloud time to practice comprehension skills while counting to 100. Check out these recommended book lists from Apples4theteacher.com and This Reading Mama for a few ideas.

Writing

The opportunities that this day presents to test your students’ writing skills! Try one of these activities with your students:

• Have kids draw pictures and/or write answers to questions like, “What would you do with $100?” “How could you take care of 100 puppies?” “What if you were 100 feet tall? or “What will the world be like when you’re 100 years old?” Let each student choose which question to answer.
• Write out 100 sight words with Sight Words Swat!

STEM

There are tons of fun STEM challenges that inspire critical thinking for your kiddos. Check out these great examples:

• Code with Botley 2.0! Challenge your little coder to build a coding sequence with 100 steps.
• Use 100 pieces of Gears! Gears! Gears!^® Movin' Monkeys^™ Building Set to build a moving jungle playground.
• Weigh-in on 100. Use a classroom scale to determine the weight of 100 dried beans, 100 counters, 100 pennies, or anything else.
• Build a cup tower. Keep things interesting by tasking your students with building the tallest tower, or make it a speed challenge by timing your learners. See if anyone successfully uses 100 cups.

Looking for more ways to celebrate the 100th day of school? You can find all of these ideas (and more) on our 100 Days of School - Virtual Celebration Pinterest Board and It’s the 100th Day of School Blog!

Do you have a child who loves small world play? Small worlds are fantastic for nurturing children's imagination from a young age. This kind of play provides them with an opportunity to explore new materials, act out scenarios from real life, build language, practice social skills, and gain an understanding of the world. Small world play is also great to do independently or in a group. After the small world play is over, build up early sorting and critical thinking skills as kiddos sort and match! The opportunities for building new skills with these Mini Must-Haves!