Preschool Science

Last year for Pre-K I wanted some sort of science, but nothing too structured.  I ended up using the First Nature Encyclopedia by DK.  The book is divided up by habitats, which was perfect for what I wanted to do.  The polar regions are first, so we learned about polar bears, penguins, and the Arctic fox.  The rest of the habitats are the rainforest, deciduous forests, deserts, grasslands, wetlands, and the ocean. 

We did science 2 days a week, and each day we would read two pages (the book is divided up so that each two page spread is one section).  I would pick one animal (sometimes a plant), and K would color the animal, cut it out, and paste it on a piece of cardstock or construction paper.  Then I would ask her what her favorite thing was about the animal, or just anything she remembered.  I would then write it down at the bottom of the page.  I didn’t know how this would go since she was only 4 years old, but she liked it and some of the things she said were hilarious.  I printed out all of the coloring sheets ahead of time so that it would be easy and always ready.  I found most of them at www.first-school.ws.  A few of the more obscure animals I had to search around for.  It ended up being a really fun activity for K, and she now knows a lot more about animals and their habitats.

Below are a couple of her notebook pages from last year…

K didn't do a narration on the monkey page, because she wanted to draw a pygmy marmoset.   She was very intrigued that such a small monkey exists (they are about the size of your hand).