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En Garde! DIY Peep Jousting!
- Patria Lincoln Posted On Mar 29, 2018 | Easter
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Tagged with 'Science'
Our Top 5 Easter Basket Bright Ideas!
- Patria Lincoln Posted On Mar 23, 2018 | Easter
Think “outside the basket” with a new kind of Easter treat! Our spring-themed educational toys help your children learn while they play (and go great with chocolate eggs and jelly beans!)
This year they will discover their inner engineers with STEM-inspired building sets with endless creation possibilities, while also learning early color, number, and matching skills! Your kids will have fun learning something new while making lasting holiday memories that you can share for years to come.
These “out-of-the-basket” toys are sure to make your little bunny’s imagination soar!
NEW for 2018! A trip to the barnyard is just a few spins away with this adorable gear set. This portable playset’s sturdy base comes with spaces for eight chunky gears complete with friendly, farm-themed toppers. Make friends with a jumping sheep, prancing horse, newborn chick, and more! Each kid-sized piece snaps securely into place, therefore encouraging hands-on play that builds fine motor skills. Ages 2+
These aren’t your average Easter eggs! This set of 10 crack-apart dinosaur eggs contain tiny dino counters, so get ready for some counting fun! Each numbered and colored egg holds a corresponding number of dinos inside, so children learn about matching, sorting, and number correspondence every time they play! Ages 3+
Build & Spin: Farm Friends
Counting Dino-Sorters Math Activity Set
These aren’t your average Easter eggs! This set of 10 crack-apart dinosaur eggs contain tiny dino counters, so get ready for some counting fun! Each numbered and colored egg holds a corresponding number of dinos inside, so children learn about matching, sorting, and number correspondence every time they play! Ages 3+
Gears! Gears! Gears! ® Build and Bloom
Spring is in the air! Mix, match and create your own beautiful, spinning flower garden while sharpening your STEM skills! Set of 117 includes: colorful gears, flowers, butterflies, bees, ladybugs, wiggly stems, and more! Since parts are all interchangeable, there are endless combinations and designs. Let your imagination blossom! Ages 4+
Build memory skills with this fun interactive game! Two to four players compete to win by earning coins at their lemonade stand. Just draw a card, look at the order of the yellow and pink cups, and then re-create it from memory. The stand with the most coins wins! In addition to sharpening memory skills, this game is also great for counting and recognition skills! Your kids will love this warm weather game almost as much as real lemonade! Ages 5+
Moo! Oink! Baa! Your little one will have fun learning animal names while they play with this barnyard crew! Realistically detailed farm animals provide hours of imaginative play and are also perfect for vocabulary development. These durable animals are sized just right for small hands and can be wiped clean. Set includes a horse, pig, cow, goat, sheep, rooster, and goose. The gang’s all here! Ages 3+
Lil’ Lemonade Stand Off™
Build memory skills with this fun interactive game! Two to four players compete to win by earning coins at their lemonade stand. Just draw a card, look at the order of the yellow and pink cups, and then re-create it from memory. The stand with the most coins wins! In addition to sharpening memory skills, this game is also great for counting and recognition skills! Your kids will love this warm weather game almost as much as real lemonade! Ages 5+
Jumbo Farm Animals
Moo! Oink! Baa! Your little one will have fun learning animal names while they play with this barnyard crew! Realistically detailed farm animals provide hours of imaginative play and are also perfect for vocabulary development. These durable animals are sized just right for small hands and can be wiped clean. Set includes a horse, pig, cow, goat, sheep, rooster, and goose. The gang’s all here! Ages 3+ Happy Easter from all of us at Learning Resources!
We hope you enjoy these choices, because learning is where we play!
Our Top 5 Easter Basket Bright Ideas!
READ MORE
Think “outside the basket” with a new kind of Easter treat! Our spring-themed educational toys help your children learn while they play (and go great with chocolate eggs and jelly beans!)
This year they will discover their inner engineers with STEM-inspired building sets with endless creation possibilities, while also learning early color, number, and matching skills! Your kids will have fun learning something new while making lasting holiday memories that you can share for years to come.
These “out-of-the-basket” toys are sure to make your little bunny’s imagination soar!
NEW for 2018! A trip to the barnyard is just a few spins away with this adorable gear set. This portable playset’s sturdy base comes with spaces for eight chunky gears complete with friendly, farm-themed toppers. Make friends with a jumping sheep, prancing horse, newborn chick, and more! Each kid-sized piece snaps securely into place, therefore encouraging hands-on play that builds fine motor skills. Ages 2+
These aren’t your average Easter eggs! This set of 10 crack-apart dinosaur eggs contain tiny dino counters, so get ready for some counting fun! Each numbered and colored egg holds a corresponding number of dinos inside, so children learn about matching, sorting, and number correspondence every time they play! Ages 3+
Build & Spin: Farm Friends
Counting Dino-Sorters Math Activity Set
These aren’t your average Easter eggs! This set of 10 crack-apart dinosaur eggs contain tiny dino counters, so get ready for some counting fun! Each numbered and colored egg holds a corresponding number of dinos inside, so children learn about matching, sorting, and number correspondence every time they play! Ages 3+
Gears! Gears! Gears! ® Build and Bloom
Spring is in the air! Mix, match and create your own beautiful, spinning flower garden while sharpening your STEM skills! Set of 117 includes: colorful gears, flowers, butterflies, bees, ladybugs, wiggly stems, and more! Since parts are all interchangeable, there are endless combinations and designs. Let your imagination blossom! Ages 4+
Build memory skills with this fun interactive game! Two to four players compete to win by earning coins at their lemonade stand. Just draw a card, look at the order of the yellow and pink cups, and then re-create it from memory. The stand with the most coins wins! In addition to sharpening memory skills, this game is also great for counting and recognition skills! Your kids will love this warm weather game almost as much as real lemonade! Ages 5+
Moo! Oink! Baa! Your little one will have fun learning animal names while they play with this barnyard crew! Realistically detailed farm animals provide hours of imaginative play and are also perfect for vocabulary development. These durable animals are sized just right for small hands and can be wiped clean. Set includes a horse, pig, cow, goat, sheep, rooster, and goose. The gang’s all here! Ages 3+
Lil’ Lemonade Stand Off™
Build memory skills with this fun interactive game! Two to four players compete to win by earning coins at their lemonade stand. Just draw a card, look at the order of the yellow and pink cups, and then re-create it from memory. The stand with the most coins wins! In addition to sharpening memory skills, this game is also great for counting and recognition skills! Your kids will love this warm weather game almost as much as real lemonade! Ages 5+
Jumbo Farm Animals
Moo! Oink! Baa! Your little one will have fun learning animal names while they play with this barnyard crew! Realistically detailed farm animals provide hours of imaginative play and are also perfect for vocabulary development. These durable animals are sized just right for small hands and can be wiped clean. Set includes a horse, pig, cow, goat, sheep, rooster, and goose. The gang’s all here! Ages 3+ Happy Easter from all of us at Learning Resources!
We hope you enjoy these choices, because learning is where we play!
Botley Lesson Plan
- Patria Lincoln Posted On Mar 19, 2018 | STEM
Discover the possibilities Botley brings to your early coding curriculum. Aligned to CSTA standards, these printable classroom activities will help your little learners discover coding without any screens or apps. Just power on Botley, and you’re ready to go!
Click here to download your botley classroom coding lesson plan
This Botley lesson plan will help students compare weights, distances and forces of an object. The lesson plan also teaches students how to record and graph the data from their coding experiments.
Botley Lesson Plan
Discover the possibilities Botley brings to your early coding curriculum. Aligned to CSTA standards, these printable classroom activities will help your little learners discover coding without any screens or apps. Just power on Botley, and you’re ready to go!
READ MORE
Click here to download your botley classroom coding lesson plan
This Botley lesson plan will help students compare weights, distances and forces of an object. The lesson plan also teaches students how to record and graph the data from their coding experiments.
St. Patrick's Day STEM Classroom Activities
- Patria Lincoln Posted On Mar 13, 2018 | STEM
Seasonal STEM is a great way to introduce your students to the engineering process in a fun way. St. Patrick’s day leprechaun mischief and rainbow science activities are some of the absolute best to capture the interest of your kiddos and engage them in hands-on STEM experiences. Whether you’re doing STEM at home or school, check out a few of my favorites below that work for nearly every grade level, and with minimal expense and effort to implement!
Rainbow Round-Up:
Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day means rainbow fun galore! Set the stage and build background knowledge by exploring colors, light, and color mixing. These color paddles and color mixing lenses by Learning Resources are perfect for rainbow play and exploration. Let your students experiment with shining light through individual colors and also play with color mixing by overlapping primary color paddles to make secondary colors.
After that warm-up, transition from color mixing to into rainbow fun with one of my favorite, simple activities for this time of year. The best milk color changing experiment I have found is from Spangler Science (here). Watch the video and follow the detailed, yet simple instructions to have your littles mixing colors like St. Patrick’s Day experts! My students loved this activity so much, as did their parents during our family STEM night. 
Leprechaun Tracks Green Goo:
In my classroom and at home with my own son, we always talk about how leprechauns leave tracks and a trail wherever they go. Sometimes I use a footprint stamp and washable green ink to stamp out his path and the kids LOVE it! Kick this up a notch by then having your children/students create Leprechaun GOO! We all know slime/goo is all the rage, and so if you can’t been them...join them. Watch this step-by-step instructional video from Steve Spangler Science (what I used in my classroom) to see how to create your own green goo that the kiddos will love.
TEACHER TESTED TIPS:
- Purchase dollar store plastic tablecloths to cover your experiment surfaces.
- Have students wear oversized shirts or smocks while making the goo.
- Provide plastic food service gloves to protect hands from goop and food coloring.
- Use foil baking/roasting pans to prevent messy splatters during mixing.
Lucky Charms Screen-Free Coding:
Check out this amazing, yet simple St. Patrick’s Day screen-free coding activity from early childhood STEM guru, Brooke Brown, of Teach Oustide the Box. For just $2.00, this simple St. Patrick’s Day themed introduction to block-style coding is perfect for Kindergarten through third graders as they learn the basics of “unplugged” programming without computers. After completing activities such as these on paper, they can apply similar block coding strategies to coding websites and apps for kids such as code.org and Kodable, and eventually to more advanced languages of coding. To allow students to be most successful, please MODEL and clearly discuss directions for this activity before they complete it with partners. Grab some Lucky Charms and get ready to go for the (leprechaun) gold!
LIFE-SIZED TIP:
Use the Reversable Graph It Mat by Learning Resources and sorting manipulatives, clipart, or paper cutouts to create your own super-sized version of this screen-free coding activity. You might want to use this as a warm-up and then transition to the activity above from Teach Outside the Box.
Leprechaun Trap STEM Challenge:
Perhaps the most common spring holiday STEM Challenge is to have your students/children create a leprechaun trap using the engineering design process. This is a great activity to leave open-ended to allow for maximum maker-creativity and end products. If you would like some amazing inspiration, check out the plethora of ideas on this post to get you started. From trap design to clever bait, you’ll have plenty to choose from to get you started. The best part? Almost everything you need can be found around the house.
If you want to supercharge your leprechaun trap construction, try weaving this gears set by Learning Resources into your engineering design plan and process. They will add a level of complexity and fun to your con-TRAP-tions! Luck-o-the-Irish to you as you enjoy exploring these awesome seasonal hands-on STEM activities with your own little leprechauns!
St. Patrick's Day STEM Classroom Activities
After that warm-up, transition from color mixing to into rainbow fun with one of my favorite, simple activities for this time of year. The best milk color changing experiment I have found is from Spangler Science (here). Watch the video and follow the detailed, yet simple instructions to have your littles mixing colors like St. Patrick’s Day experts! My students loved this activity so much, as did their parents during our family STEM night.
If you want to supercharge your leprechaun trap construction, try weaving this gears set by Learning Resources into your engineering design plan and process. They will add a level of complexity and fun to your con-TRAP-tions!
READ MORE
Seasonal STEM is a great way to introduce your students to the engineering process in a fun way. St. Patrick’s day leprechaun mischief and rainbow science activities are some of the absolute best to capture the interest of your kiddos and engage them in hands-on STEM experiences. Whether you’re doing STEM at home or school, check out a few of my favorites below that work for nearly every grade level, and with minimal expense and effort to implement!
Rainbow Round-Up:
Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day means rainbow fun galore! Set the stage and build background knowledge by exploring colors, light, and color mixing. These color paddles and color mixing lenses by Learning Resources are perfect for rainbow play and exploration. Let your students experiment with shining light through individual colors and also play with color mixing by overlapping primary color paddles to make secondary colors. After that warm-up, transition from color mixing to into rainbow fun with one of my favorite, simple activities for this time of year. The best milk color changing experiment I have found is from Spangler Science (here). Watch the video and follow the detailed, yet simple instructions to have your littles mixing colors like St. Patrick’s Day experts! My students loved this activity so much, as did their parents during our family STEM night.
Leprechaun Tracks Green Goo:
In my classroom and at home with my own son, we always talk about how leprechauns leave tracks and a trail wherever they go. Sometimes I use a footprint stamp and washable green ink to stamp out his path and the kids LOVE it! Kick this up a notch by then having your children/students create Leprechaun GOO! We all know slime/goo is all the rage, and so if you can’t been them...join them. Watch this step-by-step instructional video from Steve Spangler Science (what I used in my classroom) to see how to create your own green goo that the kiddos will love.
TEACHER TESTED TIPS:
- Purchase dollar store plastic tablecloths to cover your experiment surfaces.
- Have students wear oversized shirts or smocks while making the goo.
- Provide plastic food service gloves to protect hands from goop and food coloring.
- Use foil baking/roasting pans to prevent messy splatters during mixing.
Lucky Charms Screen-Free Coding:
Check out this amazing, yet simple St. Patrick’s Day screen-free coding activity from early childhood STEM guru, Brooke Brown, of Teach Oustide the Box. For just $2.00, this simple St. Patrick’s Day themed introduction to block-style coding is perfect for Kindergarten through third graders as they learn the basics of “unplugged” programming without computers. After completing activities such as these on paper, they can apply similar block coding strategies to coding websites and apps for kids such as code.org and Kodable, and eventually to more advanced languages of coding. To allow students to be most successful, please MODEL and clearly discuss directions for this activity before they complete it with partners. Grab some Lucky Charms and get ready to go for the (leprechaun) gold!
LIFE-SIZED TIP:
Use the Reversable Graph It Mat by Learning Resources and sorting manipulatives, clipart, or paper cutouts to create your own super-sized version of this screen-free coding activity. You might want to use this as a warm-up and then transition to the activity above from Teach Outside the Box.
Leprechaun Trap STEM Challenge:
Perhaps the most common spring holiday STEM Challenge is to have your students/children create a leprechaun trap using the engineering design process. This is a great activity to leave open-ended to allow for maximum maker-creativity and end products. If you would like some amazing inspiration, check out the plethora of ideas on this post to get you started. From trap design to clever bait, you’ll have plenty to choose from to get you started. The best part? Almost everything you need can be found around the house.If you want to supercharge your leprechaun trap construction, try weaving this gears set by Learning Resources into your engineering design plan and process. They will add a level of complexity and fun to your con-TRAP-tions! Luck-o-the-Irish to you as you enjoy exploring these awesome seasonal hands-on STEM activities with your own little leprechauns!
Girls Making A Difference!
- Patria Lincoln Posted On Mar 8, 2018 | STEM
DIY Science Snow Storm in a Jar
- Patria Lincoln Posted On Feb 27, 2018 | STEM
Learn how science plays a role in your winter wonderland!
Teach Botley to Code a Story!
- Patria Lincoln Posted On Jan 31, 2018 | STEM
Teach Botley to find Gold!
- Patria Lincoln Posted On Jan 31, 2018 | STEM
Learning Trees: Matching the Solar System
- Patria Lincoln Posted On Dec 13, 2017 | STEM
Learning about the solar system can feel disconnected from everyday life and very far away. This solar system matching activity uses a learning tree to bring lessons from outer space a little closer to home.
Getting Started
We began by putting the planets in order by their distance from the sun. This first step is physical, visual and practical, and helps kids see and understand the solar system.
Play A Solar System Matching Game
First, I wrote the names of the planets on index cards then attached paper clips and a loop of wire to each. This made it easier to hang each tag on a tree branch. Christmas decoration hooks or twist ties can also work. We simply used what we had on hand.
Index cards labelled with each planet's name
Add a loop of wire or an ornament hook for easy hanging
Then, we hung the sun from the ceiling of the living room. Because the inflatable sun is so large, it made sense to hang it up above the tree to provide more space for the planets.
Next, we hung the index cards around the tree. Mercury, the planet closest to the sun, sat at the very top and was only a few inches away from the inflatable sun hanging from the ceiling. We circled the rest of the index cards around the tree in the same order of the planets in the solar system.
Mercury at the top of the tree followed by Venus, then Earth.
The index cards circled the tree matching the order of the planets from the sun.
Each inflatable planet (and the sun) has convenient loops on the plug that make it easy to hang up.
Then, my four-year old daughter got to work. First, she identified Mercury in the row of planets we’d set out earlier and then looked for the matching index card.At four, she is pre-reading, so I asked her to find the index card that started with “M” near the top of the tree. She found the match and hung the planet up.
Then we moved on to Venus, Earth, the moon and the other planets. One by one, she matched each planet to its tag on the tree.With a larger tree, most of the planets will fit. With a smaller tree like ours, Uranus and Pluto sat on the floor.By the end of the activity, we had a Christmas tree loaded with planets, my daughter had a new visual understanding of the solar system and she recognized and matched the planets with their name tags.
How will you use the Giant Inflatable Solar System in learning with your kids?
That's one full tree!
Learning Trees: Matching the Solar System
READ MORE
Learning about the solar system can feel disconnected from everyday life and very far away. This solar system matching activity uses a learning tree to bring lessons from outer space a little closer to home.
Getting Started
We began by putting the planets in order by their distance from the sun. This first step is physical, visual and practical, and helps kids see and understand the solar system.
Play A Solar System Matching Game
First, I wrote the names of the planets on index cards then attached paper clips and a loop of wire to each. This made it easier to hang each tag on a tree branch. Christmas decoration hooks or twist ties can also work. We simply used what we had on hand.
Index cards labelled with each planet's name
Add a loop of wire or an ornament hook for easy hanging
Then, we hung the sun from the ceiling of the living room. Because the inflatable sun is so large, it made sense to hang it up above the tree to provide more space for the planets.
Next, we hung the index cards around the tree. Mercury, the planet closest to the sun, sat at the very top and was only a few inches away from the inflatable sun hanging from the ceiling. We circled the rest of the index cards around the tree in the same order of the planets in the solar system.
Mercury at the top of the tree followed by Venus, then Earth.
The index cards circled the tree matching the order of the planets from the sun.
Each inflatable planet (and the sun) has convenient loops on the plug that make it easy to hang up.
Then, my four-year old daughter got to work. First, she identified Mercury in the row of planets we’d set out earlier and then looked for the matching index card.At four, she is pre-reading, so I asked her to find the index card that started with “M” near the top of the tree. She found the match and hung the planet up.
Then we moved on to Venus, Earth, the moon and the other planets. One by one, she matched each planet to its tag on the tree.With a larger tree, most of the planets will fit. With a smaller tree like ours, Uranus and Pluto sat on the floor.By the end of the activity, we had a Christmas tree loaded with planets, my daughter had a new visual understanding of the solar system and she recognized and matched the planets with their name tags.
How will you use the Giant Inflatable Solar System in learning with your kids?
