Explore Natural Materials in a Jar

Playing with, exploring and mixing up natural materials like said, soil and stone is a lot of fun for kids, and you can make it an easy science exploration without a lot of effort, as shown in this tutorial from Preschool Toolkit.

You probably have all the materials you need in or around your house, and you can take the time to explore the materials before putting them in the jar, predict what might happen when you add water and shake the jar, think about how long it might take for the water to become clear again and other topics (there’s a good list to get you started on the site).

Make this a fall activity by adding crushed dry leaves, or putting in small leaves to see if they float and what happens when you shake the jar with all the other things in it.

How do you explore nature with preschoolers? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

[Photo via Preschool Toolkit.]

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St. Patrick's Day STEM Project Ideas

I’m in deep denial about the fact that new year is almost upon us again! It’s been the fastest and the longest year at the same time, and I can look back and see some good things as well as some things I wish had gone differently.

Doing a year in review with your kids — whether in the classroom or at home — is a good way to capture some of their memories and the things they really liked about the year gone by.

There are a lot of different printable year in review worksheets you can use if you want to make this super easy. Here are links to a few (often part of larger posts about NYE celebrations with kids that are worth a read, too):

Teach Beside Me has lots of fun printables fro the end of the year, including a year in review that covers favorite memory, funniest memory and the best book they read, among other topics.
NurtureStore‘s version has space for a self-portrait and prompts like favorite toy, best day out this year and future dream job.
Remember favorites, their “best idea” of the year and have room for setting goals for next year with this one from The Keele Deal.
The year in review from Yes We Made This has room for drawing or writing and includes things like something they learned, a memory they made and a place they visited.

Of course you could pretty easily make your own year in review for the whole family to do that asks questions based on what you most want to remember. (Favorite video game? Best friend? Favorite family memory?)

And if after the year in review you’re ready to look ahead a bit, Mrs. Merry has new year’s resolution printables to inspired kids to look ahead and set goals for things they want to try. You can totally fill this one out as a grownup, too.

[Photo: Mrs. Merry]

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