In college, I majored in Art Education. I always wanted to be an art teacher, but the Lord had other plans. Six out of the eight years I spent as a public school teacher, I was a science teacher. It was a subject I learned so much about and quickly grew to love. (I blogged about it often in 2012 and 2013 right here!)
As an Experience Early Learning (EEL) Blogger, I receive the EEL Preschool Curriculum in exchange for my honest opinions and authentic stories about our experiences using the curriculum. All opinions and thoughts are completely my own.
I love being able to experiment, teach, and learn so many different things with my kids. I love Experience Preschool for so many different reasons, but one of them is their integration of science. Whether it is a STEAM station or a Make & Play activity, every single day, my kiddos have an opportunity to do some hands on science through our little school bus box.
This month the Experience Preschool theme has been all about the Rainforest with each week focusing on one particular layer of the rainforest. The Forest Floor week had us studying roots, and our Make and Play activity was a science investigation that would need to be observed over time.
Our Make and Play craft came with a documentation page encouraging the kids to record their observations each week! Love that! It did mean that I had to find a sunny location and pray that water didn’t spill from our bowl, but it was worth the learning experience.
Experience Preschool sent us cups, toothpicks, and a documentation sheet on cardstock so kids could record their observations weekly. I rummaged through my potato bag in the pantry and found a potato that had sprouted a little bit already and decided I would use that for our experiment. I cut the potato in half and the kids did the rest.
They poked the toothpicks into the potato to hold it, then placed water in the bowl making sure it touched the potato. Then my 6 year old drew and labeled the experiment on her chart.
I decided to have her write a hypothesis on the back of what she thought would happen to her potato over time. She dictated to me, “The potato might grow, but I do not know. It could get moldy.”
Love her thinking.
Love this experiment.
Love the fact that Experience Preschool gives us these time of learning opportunities in the comforts of my own home.
This potato is currently on my kitchen counter, still growing. The kids are still observing it although they are not drawing it any more. It’s about to sprout leaves yall! I might have them keep documenting it in their nature journals… I hadn’t thought about it until just now, lol.
By the way, when is potato planting season? We might need to see what this little guy can do!
