Look Closer
"We've got to look a little closer to find out what we want to know." This is a song from Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. Let's look closer to investigate a bit of science today. Here are some activities you can do - indoors or outdoors - to train young minds to observe carefully, and equip them with the tools to communicate what they see.
A Table for Science Observation
Materials provided: rulers, paper, pencil, colored pencils, eraser, magnifying glass, items to investigate.
Measure and draw each item.
Use a ruler to measure length, width, and height.
Draw and color.
We can understand our world better by looking at each item in detail.
Bring your ruler and magnifying 🔍 glass outside! What can you look at a little bit closer?
Storytime!
Look at plants with a microscope and magnifying glass. Draw what you see. Think up a story involving the materials. Write it down together.
Geology
Measure your crystals. Draw them. Label the drawing with your measurements.
Gather rocks. Look closely at them with a magnifying loupe. Describe what you see. Talk about:
- texture
- size
- sharpness of edges
- relative weight
- color
- opacity (can you see through it?)
Organize them by size. Divide them up evenly between two people, so each person has the same amount of rocks. Is that equitable? Who has more big rocks, who has more little rocks? Who has the most colorful rock and who has the shiniest? Find something you love about your rocks and tell everyone about it.
Entomology
Look around for interesting critters. Our 4 year old collected a bunch of terrestrial amphipods (lawn shrimp). She came running to me as I was busy with baby, "Ma! Look what I found to investigate!" She was so excited, I had to snap a photo.
Look Closer
Want to learn ASL for the fun little tune that I mentioned at the beginning of this blog post? I recorded a quick video to show you. Here is a link.
If you use these lessons, tell me how they go!
Comments
Post a Comment