Tagged with 'fall'

Young learners love to explore the wonders and surprises of science! Bring the spirit of October to life with this fun and engaging science experiment: Exploding Pumpkins! Kids of all ages will love to “dig deep” and watch the chemical reaction unfold before their eyes. But don’t blink, because you might miss it!

This experiment requires a few simple ingredients. You will probably already have a home. It’s easy to set up and clean up, which makes it mom and teacher approved!

• A small pumpkin
• A spoon and a carving tool
• Baking soda
• White vinegar
• Food coloring
• Learning Resources Primary Science Jumbo Eyedroppers
• Tray or plastic container

First, add food coloring to the vinegar. Here I added about 10 drops, but you can adjust it as you see fit to obtain the desired color. Give it a mix and place it off to the side for now. 

Next, carve the top portion of your pumpkin off. Before removing the seeds, this would be the perfect opportunity to pause and have your little learners use their senses to smell and touch the pumpkin pulp, strands and seeds. After, use a spoon to carve out the gooey middle. Be sure to scrape the strands off the edges. You can even bake the seeds as a tasty after science treat!

Have the littles make a prediction for what they think will happen once you add the two ingredients together. Use the eye droppers to transfer a few drops of the vinegar into the pumpkin. After, take some time to observe the chemical reaction. What do they hear, see, smell, etc is happening. Does it happen right away or after some time? They can record it in a “science notebook” and draw what they see and notice. 

After using the eye droppers, make a “splash” with a large chemical reaction! Pour the remaining vinegar into the pumpkin and watch the results unfold! It will be tremendous fun. Consider filming their reaction so you can rewatch it again and again! 

Don’t be afraid to pour the vinegar into the pumpkin quickly for best results. Also, consider choosing a food coloring color with enough of a contrast to the color of your pumpkin and tray. 
 
The foam from the chemical reaction won’t last long so soak up all of the excitement while you can! This is the perfect way to ignite a love of learning and passion for science in your little learners. The Exploding Pumpkins experiment can even be adapted to fit other thematic seasons and holidays. You can even opt to use a plastic pumpkin, cauldron, etc.  

I love the start of the new school year when apples, acorns, and Fall leaves fill our days of play and learning. Sensory bins are a great way to let preschoolers explore these themes while developing essential skills. In this blog series, I will share three fun and simple sensory bases for apple-themed bins, which are perfect for use in the classroom or at home. These blogs include one of our favorite Learning Resources® products this time of year, the Attribute Apples™! The set includes 27 apples sorted by five attributes, size, color, and physical features (stem, leaf, and worm). Perfect for adding a healthy splash of play and learning to a sensory bin! The second sensory bin in this series uses one of the best sensory bases of all… water! 

• Learning Resources® Apple Attributes 
  
• Container (here, you can see us using a small dish bin from Dollar Tree, but under-bed storage containers work great for bigger groups) 
  
• Water 
  
• Fine motor tools (we loved using the Twisty Dropper™ and Gator Grabber Tweezers™ with this bin, both come in the Helping Hands Fine Motor Tool Set™) 
  
• A few small bowls and dishcloths for drying 

The Set-up 
Just add some water to the bin, throw in the apples, put out the tools, bowls, and dishcloth, and you are good to go! 

Any sensory bin involving water always leads to some form of scrubbing for my four-year-old. She studied the different apples and decided that she needed to give the worms inside them an extra good scrub! 

I love how the apples have so many different attributes that can be sorted. This led to lots of hands-on analysis and discussions as the scrubbing was happening with her hands and fingers. The Twisty Dropper was used lots to make little ‘apple showers.’ 

I left this set-up very open-ended and instead of directing my preschooler towards using the materials in a certain way, I just let her choose how to use them. I was not surprised when she said she wanted to start making me some apple soup. She asked me what size bowl I’d like and what type of apples I’d like in my bowl of soup. My little one gave me recommendations and was sure to tell me to avoid the worm soup! 

Her little hands were constantly working hard, which was great for her fine motor development. We also added plenty of early numeracy language, such as numbers and sizes. It was very sweet watching her so carefully transferring the water into my soup bowl and being sure to find all the yellow apples to make it extra sweet and yummy. 

After she had served a few bowls of soup, we started to talk about how much each bowl should cost, which was another numeracy link. Then we gave all the apples a final scrub and dry, before closing the soup kitchen. I love how versatile and durable the Attribute Apples are! Next time, we will add a drop of green food coloring and some dish soap bubbles to the water. 

Lucy Baker is a Mom of two (4 & 8 years old) passionate about creative play and hands-on learning. She firmly believes in providing children with the opportunity to learn through play and being part of their play journey as a parent. See more of her creative play ideas and process art projects on Instagram @findthelittlemind, and over on her blog, Find the Little Mind. 

Fall officially started on September 22. Look outside and think about what changes have made? Its colder outside, the leaves have started changing color and are falling. It is also starting to get darker outside earlier in the evening. I have an activity that will help kick off Fall, with talking about all the wonderful fall objects and other fun, fall activities.   

• Discovery Acorns (or something similar to put your objects in)   
  
• Apple (I used an apple-shaped counter)   
  
• Pumpkin object (I used pumpkin erasers)   
  
• Cinnamon object (I used a cinnamon stick)   
  
• Hot Chocolate (I used chocolate chips)   
  
• Leaves (I used some fake leaves)   
  
• Bon Fire/Smores (I used marshmallows)   
  
• Halloween (I used a bunch of fake spiders)    
  
• Fall Walks (I used a pinecone)   
  
• Thanksgiving (I used a felt Turkey)   
  
• List - What are you thankful for?   

Once you have filled your acorns you can share with your children. Have them talk to you about why these items remind them of Fall and what they think of. You can extend this activity for little ones and have them draw the fall item and write the name of it, and, for older kids, you can have them write down a sentence or two about the contents of the Acorn.

The acorn is indeed a nut and is the fruit of the oak tree. Only oak trees produce acorns. One acorn contains a single seed enclosed in a tough, almost leathery shell. Depending on the species of the oak tree, it can take six to 24 months to mature and drop. There are 90 species of oaks in North America alone.  

Oak trees have “boom” and “bust” years in their acorn drop. In a bust year, oak trees produce just enough acorns for wildlife to eat, but it doesn’t allow for any new baby trees. Boom years are called masting, which can happen every three, five, or six years. This is when the oak trees drop a lot more nuts – more than the animals can eat – hoping to make more trees.   

Acorns: not just for squirrels. Acorns are some of the most important sustenance for wildlife out there. Deer, chipmunks, wild turkeys, crows, rabbits, opossums, blue jays, quail, raccoons, and wood ducks are all acorn eaters. Can you believe more than 100 vertebrate species feast on that nutty treat? 

But keep acorns away from horses – they have been proven toxic!  

Acorns are high in fats and carbohydrates. They are very bitter and taste woody and earthy. They contain lots of tannins, which can make your insides go haywire or even turn toxic. In a nutshell, it's probably not a great idea to eat acorns all around. But as an interesting side note, there is no scientific evidence that those with a tree nut allergy can react to an acorn by simply holding it!