What are some good activities for teaching preschoolers (age 3-5) about plants?
460576
What about putting celery in a glass with a little bit of water and food coloring. The stalk will absorb the food coloring along with the water, and by the next day the color will be above water level.\n\nYou could also try "planting" beans in a plastic bag filled with soil and putting them in a dark closet. After a few days, turn them. Because of gravotropism (roots grow toward gravity) you'll see them change directions.
107116
I jsut did the same project with my 13 year old son.\nThis is what we used\n\nhttp://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/plants/cell/anatomy.GIF\n\nwe had to make a model
251230
Make the environment hand son and experiential. Make sure each kid has alot of choice in what they can do and always offer a variety of challenges. Group building and team activities work really well with this age group and they enjoy the bonding that things like a high wall or rope challenge bring.Putting the kids directly in a challenging situation will definately make them become creative and self-sufficient. Hiking and camping skills can be taught as well. \n\nteaching kids about local plants and animals can be done as well.\n\nHere are good outdoor therapy ideas:\n\nhttp://www.recreationtherapy.com/tx/txextrst.htm\n\nwww.outdoor-learning.org/horizons
526124
Here are a couple of favorites from my preschool classroom.\n\nFill a basket or any kind of container with something fun like marbles, miniature cars etc.  Have your son roll a die (use two dice as he gets older) Have him count the spots on the die and then remove that many marbles, etc. from the basket.......continue taking turns until the basket is empty\n\nCut out circles, squares and triangles from construction paper.  Cut out a different number of each shape and hide them around the room then go on a shape hunt with your son.  Once you find all of them create a large graph by laying the like shapes together vertically or horizontally.  Count how many of each you have, talk about concepts such as most and least.\n\nHave your son lay down on a large piece of paper.  Trace his body and cut out.  Talk about the different body parts and label them.  Allow him to decorate his likeness with collage materials, markers, crayons etc.\n\nRead books every day.  A way to get kids excited about reading is to create a book catterpillar or train.  Make a new segment of the caterpillar or car for the train for each new book you read.  Write the name of the book on the segment and any comments your child has about the book then add it to existing bug or train and watch it wrap around the room.  \n\nThe main thing is to be in  tune with what your child likes and gear the learning towards that.  If he likes cars count toy cars, sit on a corner and count blue cars and red cars and graph, paint with cars etc.  Don't try to push anything or teach him above his years because that's the surest way to turn him off about learning.  Good luck and have fun.
385518
Whichever toys make them think and create and don't let them just veg aroun, i.e. tv.  Depending in the age of the kid you can give them jigsaw puzzles, wooden blocks, legos, erector sets, reading books, clay, play-doh, coloring books, craft sets, chess (great!), tangram, origami books and paper, the leap frog games are very good, and I am even a little biased toward some  computer games because it gives them practice with their eye-hand skills.
943889
I home school my kids and have had wonderful results with a book called "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" by Siegfried Engelmann.  I know several 3 and 4 yr olds who have learned with this program.  You can take it at your own pace and you see results very early in the program.  There are also some wonderful curriculum out there for preschool, some have been mentioned already:\n\nhttp://www.mfwbooks.com/\nhttp://www.sonlight.com/\nhttp://www.bright-beginnings.net/\nhttp://www.caitscurriculum.com/\n\nHere are some great links to websites dedicated to early childhood learning.  I use them often for great ideas for learning and fun!:\n\nhttp://www.handsofachild.com/2/\nhttp://www.preschoolrainbow.org/index.htm\nhttp://www.muddlepuddle.co.uk/index.htm\nhttp://www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html\n\nI hope that helps, if you are planning on home schooling after preschool I would recommend finding a home school support group in your area and get plugged in with other families who homeschool.  \n\nBlessings.
889141
If u want something easy u can make a rpleca of the solar system. U can by those foam balls and spray paint them. Or u could do an experiment on two plants giving one sunlight and no light to the other. But still feed and water them.
259678
Are you 15+? Then, you can consider the following:\n\nThis is a project based on Astronomy! Try to simulate our solar and lunar systems around each planet. Bring in the real feel of how plants rotate around sun and how moons rotate around its planets.
930418
there are lots of activities for this age group...\n\nmovement...use music by raffi, greg and steve, and hap palmer...try freeze dance, popcorn dance, use bean bags or nerf balls to go with the music (you can even use basic musical instruments like tamborines, maracas, and drums)\n\nreading/and listening activity....choose an age appropriate book, flannel board story, or fingerplays and tell the story you can give the pieces to individual children after you have read the story a few times and let them help with the story. children of this age are beginning to understand how to listen too and story tapes with a book are sometimes fun if they are not too long...\ncooking or science can be done too....usually making things like pudding or jello, even making popsicles works, science projects like rolling items down a long or wide board is sometimes fun too. i even carved a pumpkin with a group of this age....i did have an assistant to be sure no one got a hold of the knife but the children enjoyed helping clean out the seeds and touching and smelling the parts of the pumpkin..\n\nthere are some great books for teachers of this age too...my favorite is teachable 2's sorry dont remember the author, but ck in the lakeshore catalog for it.
497590
Keep in mind that she is 5! I think it is a little early to take her to have an evaluation for learning difficulties or anything like that, as has been suggested by others. \nAlso, I think a short attention span is normal for a 5 year old- a rule of thumb I have heard is 1 minute for each year of age- so I would be expecting her to concentrate for 5 minutes at a time. \n\nHere are my ideas:\n\n1) Help her to be interested in books\n-let her see you reading, whenever you are reading- point out signs when you are driving, reading the instructions/ingredients when cooking, talk about looking in the tv guide to find out what's on...\n-take her to the library, let her choose the books.\nThere are lots of appropriate books on all sorts of topics (such as looking after pets, making things, etc).\n\n2) Teach the letters in the most creative ways you can think of!\n- draw them in sand with your fingers\n- let her type them on a keyboard\n- make them out of play-doh (I have alphabet cookie cutters, or you could just roll long snakes and make them into the letters)\n-teach her an alphabet song (I like "ants in the apple")\nWhile you're doing these kinds of things, talk about the letters, and the sounds they make- e.g. for B- this is 'bee', it says the 'b' sound.\n\n3) Read to her\nReading material which is appropriate for her to read might not be very interesting for her. If you read books to her which are a bit harder, but more interesting, this will help her to be interested in books.\n\n4) practice reading creatively\n- you could make 'labels' for things in your home (door, fridge, oven, bed), and ask her to help you read the label, and stick it where it needs to go.\n- write her little notes\n\n5) practice for a short amount of time- maybe 5-10 minutes. Come back to it later, rather than tiring her out- she will enjoy it more this way! \n\nI hope these ideas are helpful!
195026
I'm a primary school teacher- and I always recommend these...\nhttp://www.kidsites.com/sites-edu/science.htm\nhttp://yahooligans.yahoo.com/Science_and_Nature/
963959
www.starfall.com\nIf you're looking for something different try this site. My 2.5 yr old son really likes it.  It has preschool through elementary school activities that are totally free. This site provides printable activities to match the online activities.\n\nAs listed above, www.playhousedisney.com, and www.nickjr.com are also good sites. There is also quite a bit on www.pbskids.org.  Another one to keep in mind (for a later date)would be www.handwritingforkids.com\n\nAlso if you don't already have it, buy your child some Fridge Phonics by LeapFrog. You can usually find it under $20. Your child will really enjoy it.
871496
Here are some fun and A+ ideas.\n\n1. Can solar energy be used to cook food? (You will build or buy a solar oven and see if it is possible to cook hot dogs. Simple and really is A+ material. Trust me, that's what I got on it!)\n\n2. What are all the microscopic things found on one strand of human hair? (Test a strand of your hair, someone else's hair and more under a microscope. Easy, simple, and informing.)\n\n3. What ingredients help plants grow? (Test different soil and items to see what makes plants grow the most affectively. Easy and fun.)
482637
Try buying a few gardening magazines or some inexpensive (used??) field guides to trees and flowers. Your child can draw the pictures or cut them out after you read the interesting facts about a specific plant. You can also identify plants in the magazines/guides within your own yard, park, neighborhood. Planting a small child's garden together, in a small patch of yard or a few window boxes, helps them experience the growth cycle. Plant someting like a hardy flower, a type of bean or squash, and a hardy herb.  This provides a variety of end results, and the plants are fairly kid-friendly and easy to grow. The seed packs can be pasted in to your scrapbook. Have fun!!
269763
enchantedlearning.com!!! It has everything you can imagine.  I'm a preschool teacher and use it all the time.
831792
You can test growing different types of plants in different types of light or kinds/amounts of fertilizer.\n\nOne science project I saw that was visually interesting was done by a student who put white roses in different saturations of colored water (the white flower will turn colors.)\n\nOr could try growing mold on different kinds of food in different containers...putting eggs in different amounts of vinegar...\n\nGood luck.
257140
Child care\nMusic or Art (or any) Lessons\nWoodworking