So it excites me-that our natural surroundings spark such curiosity in the kids! Our playground has a few trees in it. They shed beautiful maple leaves and oak leaves all over the ground. While on duty and during outdoor play I get to witness this provide them with perfect playing conditions! They build piles-and jump in them. There is no sight that screams childhood more than that.
They pretend it is salad and serve it in their restaurants. They throw leaves in the air and watch them fall. They bury themselves in them. It excites them.
They also, bring oodles and oodles of leaves inside. They all want to add to our discovery center. We allow them to. They examine the leaves and write about them in their science journals.
One day last week I set a couple leaves out on our science table and covered it in tinfoil. I taped the tinfoil down, and put paper and pencils at the table. I explained to the kids they could explore and make predictions about what it was.
We had many many good guesses.
The children really used their senses. Some of them walked up-felt and quickly recorded what they believed was hiding under the tinfoil.
Some of them explored deeper.
Letting her fingers discover. Getting a feel for the texture of the leaves.
I loved seeing this happen! This little girl leaned down for a good minute listening so carefully to hear what the mystery items sounded like!!
One of the correct guesses documented!
Some of our other guesses were: cookies, soft paper towel, a button, and rocks.
Their minds work sooooo hard to come to these conclusions! The big reveal was super exciting for them! Some of them cheering when they realized they were right!
We discussed doing this activity more often. They really liked it and it brought some of our kids who aren't typically found in discovery over to see ( and feel) what was going on ! :)
If you have done this type of activity before-what types of things did you have them explore?
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