Teachers can print a calendar to track the weather for one month, and buy sun, raindrop and cloud sticker shapes to chart spring, summer and fall weather. You can add snowflake stickers to mark winter patterns if you live in an area where it snows. These items can be found at teacher supply or novelty stores.
Teachers can keep the calendar and stickers together near a classroom window. Each day, the teacher designates one child as the class weather reporter. You should ask the reporter to observe the weather and describe the conditions to the class. Encourage the reporter to remember the way it felt outside as she was coming to school that day and to include this information in the report. The reporter is in charge of choosing a sticker to place on the calendar to represent the weather.
When the month is over and the chart is full of stickers, teachers ask the class to point out patterns in the weather. Classes can continue charting the weather with sticker calendars throughout the school year to promote awareness of seasonal changes and frequency of similar weather conditions in certain months.
With this project teachers can combine primary to secondary color blending and solid to liquid water changes in one preschool science activity. To begin, teachers should prepare colored ice cubes before the activity by mixing two or three drops of red food coloring with two cups of water and pouring the water into ice cube trays, letting them freeze until solid. You can repeat the process with yellow and blue water.
To start the activity, teachers place the frozen colored cubes in separate bowls and ask the children to name the three colors of the ice cubes. Explain that red, yellow and blue are called the primary colors because when mixed together, they become other colors. You can let each child choose two different cubes to place in a paper or plastic cup and write his name and the colors of the cubes on the cup. Teachers set all of the cups on a table where the children can easily observe them, then ask the children to predict what will happen to the colored ice cubes. You can write these predictions on paper and post them near the experiment.
The class can observe changes throughout the day. When the ice has melted and the colors have blended, teachers can discuss with the class how this occurred and name the resulting secondary colors. The class can revisit the posted predictions and write results on another paper.
For this activity, teachers should place five to 10 magnetic items and an equal number of non-magnetic items on a tray and mix the items up so there is no obvious grouping. Teachers then show the children different kinds of magnets. Horseshoe, rod and disc-shaped magnets can be found at teacher supply stores. Teachers can use the magnets to demonstrate attraction while explaining that some things are magnetic and others are not.
For the next step, teachers let the children take turns selecting a magnet and touching it to an object on the tray to test for magnetism. After the test, students should place the object on one of two papers labeled "magnetic" or "not magnetic."
You can expand the lesson by challenging the children to find more objects in the classroom to test and categorize. You can even make each child a take-home science activity baggie containing a magnet, paper clip and a square of construction paper. Children can demonstrate the lesson to their families and continue learning about magnetic attraction at home.
Because magnets can present a safety hazard if ingested, you should always monitor preschoolers carefully during this activity to make sure they don't put magnets in their mouths.