Preschoolers and children in pre-k enjoy exploring and investigating the world around them. Spring brings new weather, new flowers, and new opportunities to spark children’s curiosity and creativity. The activities below combine STEM learning and artistic expression to help the children in your care play, explore, and learn.
This STEAM activity encourages children to wonder about the relationship between clouds and rain and gravity as they create a unique and interesting art project. For this project, you will need liquid watercolors, cotton balls, droppers, glue, thick cardstock paper, and water. You might also want a tray or something to cover the table, as this project can get messy! Children will use the droppers to fill their clouds with water, and then hold them at an angle to watch the clouds “rain.”
As they watch the water come down, ask children questions about what they think is happening. If you are working with older children, you might use this activity to introduce basic concepts about gravity. Talk about how it pulls the rain down, just like it pulls us back down when we jump!
This activity is a fun way for children to learn about flowers and how they drink water. It requires just a few items: water, clear cups (available at the Dollar Store), food coloring, white flowers, and scissors. The first step of this project is to trim the flower stems, to shorten the time it takes for colored water to reach the petals. Fill each clear cup with water, and add a few drops of food coloring. Finally, invite children to take turns placing flowers in each cup.
Observe the flowers later that day, or even over the next few days, to see how the colors of the flower petals change. If you work with older children, you might invite them to record their observations on paper, by drawing pictures of what they see. As children make their observations, talk with them about how the flowers are drinking the water.
This is a simple art activity that helps children explore the unique textures of leaves, flowers, and other natural objects.
Place a variety of natural items on a tray next to the paper and various colors of paint. Encourage children to choose a leaf, flower or other natural items to dip into the paint and use as a paintbrush to make marks on the paper. When the children are done, talk with them about the different marks left by each of the items. You can help them learn plants by sharing the names of the flowers and leaves.
This project also is a great opportunity to learn about colors! Ask children to all the different colors they see on the table, from the paints, markings, and natural items.
If the children in your care are curious about flowers, they might enjoy this simple flower dissection activity. This fun experiment enables children to see all of the different small parts that make up a flower.
This activity can be done using flowers from your yard, or you can invite families to bring flowers from their homes! It’s a fun way to include parents, and offers children a variety of different flowers to observe and compare. Using cardstock and tape, help children to slowly and carefully take their flowers apart. As they do this, talk about each of the different parts. Then, help children to place each part onto the tape, and use magnifying glasses to look closely at each piece.
