Content Area: Curiosity and Wonder

lessons

Smells So Sweet

Activities that engage a child’s sense of smell can also help develop a child’s sense of taste and language skills. In this lesson, children will learn how to use their sense of smell as an important observational tool.

Be the Bird, Build a Nest!

In this lesson, children will read the book, Mama Built a Little Nest, by Jennifer Ward and use their own engineering skills with loose parts to create a nest to hold their egg.

Ephemeral Art Play

In this lesson, children will explore their immediate neighborhood and look for natural elements that they can collect to create ephemeral art, which is art that only lasts for a short period of time.

Salt Painting

Salt painting is a creative way to teach children about absorption. In this lesson, children will learn how the watercolor paint reacts with the salt as the paint “travels” along the glue/salt line.

Nature Scavenger Hunt

In this lesson, the children will explore their outdoor environment on a scavenger hunt to find and classify different natural materials.

The Science of Root Beer Floats

In this lesson, children will combine two simple ingredients—root beer and vanilla ice cream—to observe a reaction between a liquid and a solid that releases a gas.

Can Crayons Melt in the Sun?

In this lesson, children will explore the phases of matter as they melt crayons in the sun, turning a solid into a liquid and back to a solid again.

Dandelions in the Wind

In this lesson, you will introduce young learners to STEM concepts such as velocity, speed and wind as they blow on dandelion puffs to disperse the seeds.  

Where do Animals Live?

In this lesson, the children will classify different animals based on where animals live in the neighborhood.