Mix music and science to teach the colors of the rainbow. By filling six jars with different amounts of water, students can create different sound pitches when they tap the jars with a spoon. Place one cup of water in the first jar, two cups in the second jar and continue through all the jars with six cups of water in the last one. Place a few drops of red food color in the first jar, a few of yellow in the third jar and a few blue drops in the fifth jar. Stop and invite your students to help you decide which colors need to be mixed to create orange, green and purple. Jar number two needs red and yellow for orange, number four needs blue and yellow for green and jar number six needs a few drops each of blue and red to create purple. Invite each child to play a short tune on your rainbow.
Begin introducing weather to your pre-K students each day during circle time. Discuss if it's cloudy, sunny, raining or snowing. Invite children to talk about the temperature outside. Introduce a weather bear to your class and invite a different child to dress him each day in appropriate attire. Students can create their own weather mobiles to hang around the classroom. Go for a walk outdoors and have each child gather two sticks to make a hanging mobile. Give students cardboard to draw and cut out symbols representing the weather. Glue cotton balls to clouds and paint or color the other shapes. Suns, clouds, raindrops and white paper snowflakes are all options. Punch a whole in the top of each symbol and assist students in crossing the sticks to create a plus sign and securing them with yarn. Tie a symbol to each end and hang for display.
Observing how trees change can help students learn about the four seasons. Ask your students to describe the trees in winter, spring, summer and fall. There are little to no leaves in the winter, new buds form in the spring and by summer the leaves are full and dark green. In autumn, leaves change color and fall off the trees. Provide each child with four pieces of heavy cardstock or cardboard, preferably light blue, with a piece of string attached to the back of each. Have your students paint toilet paper rolls brown and glue them to the cardboard for tree trunks. Give students brown yarn to represent bare branches for winter, light green construction paper to make leaves, popcorn for buds in spring, dark green construction paper to make summer leaves and orange, yellow and red for fall leaves. Discuss the current season by telling your students to hold up this season's tree.
Satisfy your preschoolers' curiosity by teaching them how to grow their own grass plants. They'll learn how plants grow, how to take care of a living thing and enjoy the process. Place potting soil and grass seed in three plastic cups labeled "water and sun," "water (no sun)" and "sun (no water)." Put the two that call for sun in a place where it is plentiful and be certain the students water the two that need water. Have your students predict what will happen and write this on a classroom chart. Observe the plants several times during the week and record your findings. Discuss why grass has or hasn't grown. Have your students create their own pets by decorating the cups that the grass has grown in, with the grass resembling the hair.
Point out to your preschoolers the difference between an insect, which has six legs, and a spider, which has eight legs. Have pictures available and count the legs together. Have them tell you which are insects and which are spiders. Let your students know the day before that they will be making a special snack. Students will create spiders and insects out of food. For example, take two round crackers and put cream cheese between them. Use two hard shell candy pieces for eyes. Allot six pretzel sticks for legs for an insect and eight for a spider. Use licorice for antennae. Be creative and ask your students for ideas, taking note of preferences and allergies.