Lessons in Science: Creating Hands-On Learning Experiences From Books

So we've done lots (and lots) of lessons in reading, some in math - now we've attempted some lessons in science.  I sorta consider myself a scientist on some level (my friend who is a hard core, real scientist - the kind who works with mini organisms, wears protective goggles, and uses pipettes - is probably laughing at this statement, but I did say "sorta").  I'm a soft scientist maybe.  But, I did work many years before having baby bookworm in educational and psychometric research.  I would love, love, love if baby bookworm became interested in science.  I mean, she DOES love Sid the Science Kid (which on a side note is a wonderfully educational TV show that I allow her to watch when we're not too busy reading) so maybe there is hope after all.

Of course our lessons in science began with several books, a few of which I have mentioned before.  Keep in mind, of course, that baby bookworm is only 17 months so we're not exactly following the scientific method here but I thought all of these books and activities were a good place to start learning about the process of observation, transformation, and exploration. 

1) Jamberry by Bruce Degen

This fun nonsense rhyme story was the inspiration for our first science lesson (for a more detailed description of the book see my post on 5/5/11).  The story talks about blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries but baby bookworm's favorite berry is the blueberry (she can eat a pint in one sitting) and thus we used blueberries as the focus of our lesson. Of course, before doing this lesson we read Jamberry, oh, at least a zillion times so baby bookworm was quite familiar with "blueberry jam" which is exactly what we attempted to make on our own.  I got a handful of blueberries and put them into a plastic bag and let her smash them up with her hands.  She had a blast doing this and I think really noticed that the berries changed and felt and looked different once she smashed them.  I tried to point out to her that the berries had undergone a "transformation" from something solid to something almost liquid.  I'm sure you could actually make some real jam if your child is older than mine by adding a little sugar and a few other ingredients!

Ready to make some "jam"!

Smashing up her blueberries

2) Heads by Matthew Van Fleet

This is a touch and feel animal book.  A very nice one.   So nice that I hope you don't make the mistake I did and leave your baby bookworm play with it unattended.  This book deserves a proper spot on your bookshelf that is out of reach from those little bookworm paws.  On each page is a pull out flap that makes one of the animals do something fun (like sneeze).  Baby bookworm really enjoys this book and now that some of the pages are already destroyed I let her play with it freely.  And when she comes to a page where an animal is missing it's whole head she'll  actually say "hippo rip it" as if she's confirming the fact that she has ripped the head off the hippo.  This book introduces a lot of fun words and vocabulary through the touch and feel aspect (words such as scratchy, sticky, smooth).

Playing off of this favorite book I decided we could make our own feely collage.  So I found some things around the house that differed in texture such as cotton pads, stickers, band-aids, and sand and we glued them to a sheet of white paper.  I asked baby bookworm to observe what was different about these things (of course, a lot of this is having a conversation with myself, but that's OK).  We talked about "rough", "soft", "smooth", and "sticky".  She kept asking for the "rough one," which was the sand, and then I realized she thought it was food, licked her finger and said "rough, good"!  But, at least she learned a new word.  The possibilities with this activity are of course endless - I would love to hear about some other creative ideas.

Our Feely Collage

3)  The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle

This is a long, long book so I paraphrase it (for details about this book see my post on 5/5/11).  In a nutshell its about a seed who flies through the wind, in and out of seasons, and eventually plants itself into the ground and grows. 

For this science lesson, baby bookworm and I grew our own flower.  I actually came across a flower kit that went with this book at the store Five Below.  It came with 3 seeds, a tablet of dirt that you had to wet and mix to make the soil, a flowerpot and a terrarium.  So we planted our little seeds, watered them, and sure enough they grew (well, two of them did anyway).  This activity was a great opportunity to talk about how flowers need sunlight and water to grow.  Each morning I would show baby bookworm the flower at breakfast and we'd measure it with a ruler (a little math lesson thrown in).  Well, sure enough, she learned the word "grow" quite easily.  If your child is a little older this lesson would be a great way to introduce the concept of a graph or chart too - as you could easily graph the growth of the flower.  You could even make predictions about how much the flower might grow in one night (this particular kit was great because the flower grew really quickly).  Don't forget about introducing the concepts of inches and feet too!

I can't wait until baby bookworm actually is old enough to understand and use the scientific method to investigate her questions.  I will TOTALLY be one of those parents who is psyched about that first science fair project!   

Library "Daze" - Toddlerized: Keeping Up With a Developing Child

Another week at the library.  And boy did bookworm get lots of books.  I've actually found that lately she has really been able to sit for longer and more involved stories and has moved away from the "baby" books.  I have even debated on whether I can trade out her board books on her "help yourself" bookshelf for "real" books, but I'm still a little hesitant because I did catch her ripping a page in The Gingerbread Man the other day....

We really lucked out this week and got some GREAT books.  The toddler story time theme was bubbles, and baby bookworm thoroughly enjoyed both books (and ACTUALLY sat and listened to them).  But, we did not check out any books on bubbles.  Here's what we did get.





The Tiny Seed

by Eric Carle

This is actually a book for "young readers" that tells the tale of a tiny seed that makes a journey through the seasons and ultimately lands on fertile ground and grows.  It's a longer book with many words, but I found a tiny seed kit (even came with stickers of illustrations from the book to decorate the flower pot) at the store Five Below and thought it would be a great opportunity to have a science lesson with baby bookworm (more on this to come).  Baby bookworm enjoys my shortened version of this story and loves to watch the seed she planted grow.

Our own tiny seed - how quickly this grew!

Jamberry
by Bruce Degen

This is a great book for toddlers (and babies) because of the fun sounds and rhyming.  It took baby bookworm a few read throughs on this book to get warmed up to it, but now we must read it "again" and "again".  I plan on doing a little science lesson with this book too, which is why I picked it (again, more on this to come).

My "m" Sound Box
by Jane Belk Moncure

As I have mentioned before I've been trying to work on sounds with baby bookworm.  Especially the sounds that are easiest and most natural for young children to make (such as d, p, t, b, m).  So here we are at m.  I think she's actually started to recognize this "type" of book, and she really enjoys it and is learning so much! 

Crafts: Letter Shapes
by Kathy Ross and illustrated by Jan Barger

Ok, so this book was for me.  I just thought it was cool because as I'm teaching baby bookworm letters and sounds, hmm....I could be doing fun letter crafts to reinforce these concepts in a fun way.  This is a really cute book that shows you how to make a craft out of each shape.  We, of course, made the mouse out of the letter M this week.  What I wasn't expecting from this book though was the fact that baby bookworm actually likes to read it too!  It's a wonderful alphabet book that both you and bookworm can enjoy.

The craft for letter M

Apple Countdown

by Joan Holub and illustrated by Jan Smith

This is a book about a group of students who take a trip to the apple farm, and as you experience their adventure, the reader counts down from 20 to 1.  This book would make a wonderful book for an elementary school class, and it's filled with fun apple facts as well as hidden math lessons.  It's a longer book, but baby bookworm really loves it (the text does rhyme).  She has lots of fun pointing to the numbers on each page.

Barn Dance!

by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault
illustrated by Ted Rand

This is a Reading Rainbow book from back in the day.  It tells a story of farm animals and the "skinny" kid who have a ho-down in the barn.  Again, this is a longer story - probably great for elementary school kids - but bookworm loves it.  She'll hand it to me and say "Barn Dancing".  Oh, and I should mention that she also probably loves it because I made her watch the Reading Rainbow episode as well, which the library so conveniently had.  Baby bookworm and I did some of our own dancing after reading the book.

Alistair in Outer Space
by Marilyn Sadler and illustrated by Roger Bollen

So, I got on this reading rainbow kick for some reason and we also checked out Alistair in Outer Space.  I remember this book from when I was a kid and it's one of my favorites, so this isn't the first time that baby bookworm has read it (we checked it out last summer too).  It's a story about Alistair (p.s., there are a few Alistair books) who gets taken (abducted?) to Outer Space by two aliens known as Goots.  It tells of his adventure trying to get back to Earth in time to return his library books to the library.  I also rented the Reading Rainbow episode to go along with this book as well.  I actually think it's great that she can see the book as a mini-cartoon, it only makes her like reading it more.

"Baby" bookworm reading Alistair in Outer Space


So, that's it, no baby books or board books - just big kid books from the library this week.  ugh, I should probably just own up to the fact that my "baby" bookworm is not a baby anymore (but I'm keeping the name since it sounds cuter than "toddler" bookworm).  And to top it all off, I "toddlerized" her room this week!  Yep, packed up all the old baby toys and replaced them with toddler toys.  She even got her own kid-sized table added to the "learning center" portion of her room.  I know already that she will spend many hours and hours at that table reading her library books.

The library and learning center, now with kid-sized reading table

Dramatic Play Area for my toddler