Provide students with small pots, potting soil, trowels and a variety of vegetable and flower seeds. Students will jump in and enthusiastically start planting. They will find out for themselves that plants that are watered will grow faster and they need sunshine, too. Children will see the project through from seed to flower and learn much about the properties of plants.
According to Kids Gardening, gardening teaches children not only the science of plants, but it also nurtures a love of nature and making positive food choices. When plants get to be a few inches tall, children can transplant them outdoor or donate them to a community garden.
Pattern blocks are flat, geometrically shaped pieces available in many preschool classrooms. If these are available and accessible to students, they will find many uses for them. According to Pattern Block Activities by Scholastic, beginning mathematicians will start sorting by color or shape, while other children may start to put them together to see how two shapes can make another shape. They can be used for tracing and drawing as well. Classrooms not equipped with pattern blocks can provide a variety of shapes and colors cut out from colored paper to use for the same purpose.
A lot of math and science can be learned at a water table, and an easy way to make one is with a large shallow plastic bin. Provide several different sized containers and bowls, which allow students to pour and experiment with volume measurement, an important math concept.
Buoyancy is a beginning science lesson that preschoolers can begin to grasp. Brain Pop Jr. suggests providing materials such as coins, toothpicks, plastic and metal spoons, dice, small balls and other objects for students to place in the water to see whether they float. This experimental activity will help them start to learn about density and water.
When the water table is not in use, teachers can refill it with sand, rice, dried corn kernels or beans for a different sensory experience.
Preschoolers love to help out in the kitchen, and an area where they can create snacks all by themselves will give them a sense of accomplishment while learning measuring and counting. Food such as trail mixes can be made with little assistance when a picture recipe is provided for the children.
Provide a blender, fresh fruit and yogurt, along with a little help, and students can make their own smoothies. Preschool Rock suggests providing materials for students to make zip-lock-bag ice cream. It's a recipe that requires active involvement from the students, and they will learn science principles such as forms of matter as well as how you can create a new substance when you combine several ingredients.
Watching a caterpillar transform into a butterfly is one of the miracles of nature. Find caterpillars outside or purchase them from a company such as Insect Lore for students to observe and watch how the caterpillar changes, enters its chrysalis and emerges a changed being.
From this topic, students will learn the science of the life cycle. Math activities such as counting or graphing the days in the chrysalis can be easily integrated as well.
When the butterfly has emerged and students have set it free, consider other forms of life that preschoolers can observe and enjoy, such as tadpoles.