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Preschool sciencce and nature
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2 Living and Learning at Home
Copyright © 2014 by Amy Maze
Published by Living and Learning at Home – http://www.livingandlearningathome.com
All Rights Reserved. These pages may not be:
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- Shared with others (please direct people to the website so they can download the pages
themselves)
3 Living and Learning at Home
Table of Contents
Activity Page #
Melting Snow…………………………………………4
What’s the Sound? …………………………………7
Corn Cob Bird Feeders……………………………..9
My Favorite Place Through the Seasons………12
Making Rain………………………………………...14
Springtime Seeds…………………………………..17
Whose Tracks are Those? ………………………..20
How Tall is it Really? ....……………………………22
The Sun in the Sky………………………………….24
Nature Walk Scavenger Hunt ...………………..27
Thank you!............................................................30
More {free} Preschool Resources..…...…...……31
About the Author………………………………….32
4 Living and Learning at Home
Melting Snow
Question: How much water is in snow?
Materials:
measuring cup spoon snow
Procedure:
Step 1 Using your spoon scoop clean snow into your
m measuring cup.
Step 2 Measure how much snow you have.
Step 3 Make a hypothesis. How much water do you think is
in the snow?
Step 4 Melt the snow (wait for it to melt or use the
microwave).
Step 5 Measure how much water is left in your measuring
cup.
Step 6 Record your results. Was your hypothesis correct?
5 Living and Learning at Home
Melting Snow
Question: How much water is in snow?
Hypothesis:
Before: ________ cups of snow After: ________ cups of water
Results:
Before: ________ cups of snow After: ________ cups of water
6 Living and Learning at Home
Melting Snow
For Mom:
Talking Points
- Scientific Method (What do we do when we want to find
something out? Ask a question, think about what we know
already, make a hypothesis, do an experiment, find the results.)
- Definitions (Procedure, Hypothesis, Results)
- Measuring (looking straight at the measuring cup, counting up
to the number where the snow stops, etc.)
- Freezing and Melting (What makes something melt? What
makes something freeze? How can we get the snow to turn
into water?)
Why does snow take up more room than water?
Snowflakes are made when water freezes into ice crystals. The points
of the snowflake cause it to take up a lot of room. When lots of
snowflakes pile on top of each other, they leave little bits of air
between them. (Imagine if a few people were standing with their
arms out, they would not be able to stand right next to each other,
leaving pockets of space.)
When the snow melts into water, the ice crystals turn into liquid and
the molecules can be right next to each other, eliminating the extra
air space. This is why water takes up less space than snow.
Have your children pretend to be snowflakes by walking around with
their arms out. See how close together they can get. Then have
them ‘melt’ into water by putting their arms down and see how
close they can get then!
8 Living and Learning at Home
What’s That Sound?
For Mom:
Instructions
Take your child on a listening exploration! Let them
discover their sense of hearing in the great outdoors.
The rules are simple:
o Walk…walk…walk
o STOP!
o Shhh…close your eyes and listen…what do you
hear?
o Try to look to see what is making the noise.
o Draw a picture of what you heard.
o Write the name of what you heard.
o Start all over again!
Talking Points
The 5 senses (Focus on hearing. What do you
use to hear? What kinds of things do you hear?
Loud sounds and soft sounds, etc.)
Appreciating nature (sometimes it is good to
be quiet so we can appreciate beautiful
things!)
Obedience (Stop when mom says stop.
Obedience results in good things. In this case,
discovering something wonderful!)
9 Living and Learning at Home
Corn Cob Bird Feeders
Help feed the birds this fall!
Materials:
empty corn cob peanut butter nuts and seeds
Procedure:
Step 1 Set out all of your materials.
Step 2 Spread peanut butter all over your corn
cob.
Step 3 Roll your corn cob in the nuts and seeds.
Make sure they are stuck on good!
Step 4 Hang your corn cob outside!
Step 5 Watch for birds to come and enjoy their food!
Draw a picture if you would like.
10 Living and Learning at Home
Corn Cob Bird Feeders
Help feed the birds this fall!
My Bird Feeder and the Birds that Came to Visit
11 Living and Learning at Home
Corn Cob Bird Feeders
Help feed the birds this fall!
For Mom:
Talking Points
What kind of birds live in your area?
What do birds eat in the summer?
Are there as many birds around in the fall and winter?
Migration (some birds fly away during the cold seasons to a
place that is better for them to live in)
We can help take care of the birds that stay in the fall and
winter!
Extra Ideas:
You can add things other than nuts and seeds to your
birdfeeder, just make sure they are safe items for the type of
birds in your area. Some ideas might be: puffed rice cereal,
soaked raisins, or broken up pieces of popped corn.
If you don’t have a corn cob handy, try making a bird feeder
out of something else! Coating an apple, doughnut, or pine
cone with peanut butter and adding nuts and seeds would
work great.
If you do this, consider replacing it throughout the winter. The
birds will get used to having food in your yard and may come
to depend on it until spring.
See how ours turned out at:
http://www.livingandlearningathome.com/2011/11/corn-cob-
birdfeeders.html
12 Living and Learning at Home
My Favorite Place Through The Seasons
Summer Fall
Winter Spring
13 Living and Learning at Home
My Favorite Place Through The Seasons
For Mom:
Instructions
o Have your child think of their favorite place to go outside in the
summer (or whatever season it is currently).
o Go outside to that place and have your child draw it.
o Talk about what you see, smell, feel, etc.
o Put this page away for a few months and go back to the same
spot.
o Have your child draw what it looks like now.
o Talk about what you see, smell, feel, etc. How is it different
than last time you drew it? What has changed? What is the
same?
o Repeat for the next two seasons.
Talking Points
o Seasons (What are the seasons where you live? What is
different in each season? What is good about each different
season?)
o The 5 Senses (How can we use our different senses to observe
our favorite spot?)
o Astronomy (The Earth rotates around the sun. When it is farther
from the sun, our air is colder. When it is closer to the sun, our
air is warmer. How does the sun change things here on Earth?
Think about things like plants growing and water freezing.)
See what we did at:
http://www.livingandlearningathome.com/2012/02/visiting-your-
favorite-summer-spot.html
14 Living and Learning at Home
Making Rain
Question: How is rain made?
Materials:
pan water ice cubes pie plate
Procedure:
Step 1 Fill your pan with water and bring it to a boil
on top of the stove.
Step 2 Fill your pie plate with ice cubes.
Step 3 Hold the pie plate over the boiling water
in the pan (not too close!)
Step 4 Look for condensation forming on the bottom of the
pie plate.
Step 5 Be patient and you will see drops of water form
on the bottom on the pie plate and fall down
back into the pan.
Step 6 Color the water cycle page.
16 Living and Learning at Home
Making Rain
For Mom:
Talking Points
- States of matter related to water (liquid-water, solid-ice, gas-
vapor)
- Definitions (Procedure, Hypothesis, Results)
- How do things change from one state to another? (change in
temperature)
- Water cycle (use the picture on the above page to help you
explain the basics)
How is Rain Made?
As water heats, it turns into vapor and rises. This is true both on the
earth and in our experiment. This is called evaporation. Once the
vapor rises so high, it cools down and turns back into a liquid. This is
called condensation. In our experiment, we expedited this process
by using ice cubes in a tin. The liquid is heavier than the gas, so it
drops back down to the earth (or the pan in our case!) in the form of
rain. This is called precipitation.
17 Living and Learning at Home
Springtime Seeds
Question: How do seeds grow?
Materials:
small flower pot soil seeds
Procedure:
Step 1 Fill the flower pot about half way up with soil.
Step 2 Place 2-3 seeds on top of the soil.
Step 3 Cover the seeds with a little more soil.
Step 4 Water your seeds just a little bit each day.
Step 5 Every few days, record what you see on the ‘How
My Seed Grows’ page. Draw the roots in the pot and
then the plant sprouting up higher as time goes on!
19 Living and Learning at Home
Springtime Seeds
For Mom:
Talking Points
- Living vs non-living things
- What do plants need to grow? (Water, light, warmth, and soil)
- Why do seeds grow in the spring and summer? (Longer days
mean more sunlight, and the air is warmer.)
- Fruits and vegetables come from plants that start as seeds (not
from the grocery store!)
Visit Living and Learning at Home for more
springtime ideas!
Seeds
Baby Animals
Trees
20 Living and Learning at Home
Whose Tracks
Are Those?
First Tracks
Fourth Tracks
Third Tracks
Second Tracks
What animal made them?
What animal made them?
What animal made them?
What animal made them?
21 Living and Learning at Home
Whose Tracks
Are Those?
For Mom:
Instructions
o Take your child on a walk, preferably to a park or
someplace where lots of animals live.
o Tell him to look closely at the ground as he walks to see if
he can find any animal tracks.
o Once he finds some, have him try to draw the tracks in the
first box on the previous page (or you can do the drawing
if your child is too little).
o Then have him guess what animal might have made the
tracks and draw it in the box next to the tracks.
o Keep looking to see how many different tracks you can
find!
Talking Points
o Explain what tracks are (maybe have your
child walk through a puddle or some dirt
and show him the tracks he made!)
o Habitats (Did you walk through a forest, a
beach, or a swamp? What kind of
animals did you discover live there?)
o Observation (If you take the time to look
closely, you can discover lots of things!)
See our adventure at:
http://www.livingandlearningathome.com/2011/06/science-activity-
looking-for-tracks.html
22 Living and Learning at Home
How TALL is it really? Far Away Close Up
Height:___________ Height:___________
Height:___________ Height:___________
Height:___________ Height:___________
23 Living and Learning at Home
How TALL is it really? For Mom:
Instructions
- Take your child on a walk. (Down the street will do just fine, or
anywhere you’d like!)
- Look and spot something in the distance. (Perhaps a tree or a
car.)
- Have your child hold up a ruler and see how tall the item is (it
will be very small).
- Draw what you see and record the height.
- Walk right up to the object and see how tall it actually is (it will
be much bigger).
- Draw what you see and record the height (if you can!)
- Repeat the same steps for another object or two.
Talking Points
- Perspective (objects look smaller when they are far away)
- Estimation (can you make a good guess for what the height of
the object is?)
- Measuring (Has your child used a ruler before? If not, take this
as an opportunity to teach her the basics!)
This activity is a little hard to explain, if you want to see instructions
with pictures, visit:
http://www.livingandlearningathome.com/2012/04/how-tall-is-it-
really.html
24 Living and Learning at Home
The Sun in the Sky For Mom:
Instructions
Print out the following pages (the page with the boy and the
page with the title “The Sun in the Sky”) Cut out the pieces (the boy and the arms) Glue the boy onto the blank page (bottom middle) Go outside first thing in the morning and have your child look
for the sun in the sky. Once he spots it, have him point his arm
toward it. Tell him to remember how his arm is positioned. Go to your piece of paper with the boy on it. Have your child
put an arm on the boy in the position that they pointed up
toward the sun at outside. Glue it down once they have it in
the right spot. Have them draw a sun on the page in the direction that the
arm is pointing. Write down the time underneath the sun. Repeat the same process a few times throughout the day.
Talking Points
Have your child notice how the sun moved across their paper
as the day went on. Explain how the sun moves across the sky
each day too. Depending on your child’s understanding, show them a globe
and explain it is actually the earth that moves, not the sun. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Show on their paper how you can tell what time it is by looking
at the sun. http://www.livingandlearningathome.com/2012/09/charting-
suns-movement-in-sky.html (To see an example.)
25 Living and Learning at Home
The Sun in the Sky
(choose either the boy or girl)
27 Living and Learning at Home
--Nature Walk Scavenger Hunt-- Can you find…
A Bird An Insect A Tree Leaf
A Nice Smell A Mammal Something Soft
Something Red Something Brown Something Yellow
28 Living and Learning at Home
--Nature Walk Scavenger Hunt-- Can you find…
An Animal or Insect A Plant
What is it? What is it?
____________________________ ___________________________
My favorite thing was…
______________________________________________________
29 Living and Learning at Home
--Nature Walk Scavenger Hunt--
For Mom:
Instructions
Take your child outside and tell him you are going to
explore!
Give your child one (or both) of the above pages. You
decide which your child would enjoy most.
Simply enjoy the outside together with your child. Let him
take his time exploring his surroundings.
Have him look for each of the types of things listed on the
scavenger hunt page. Cross the item out as you find it.
If appropriate, you can collect some of the items you find.
On the second page, have your child draw a picture of a
few things they found and write what they are
(depending on the age of your child).
Talking Points
This activity doesn’t require much talking. Let your child
just enjoy exploring and learn to appreciate nature. You may want to define some of the terms like mammal
and insect. Use your 5 senses. Ask your child what they see, smell,
hear, and feel.
30 Living and Learning at Home
Thank you! Thank you for downloading these Preschool Science (&
Nature) pages! I truly hope you enjoyed using them with
your children.
If you would like other ideas for teaching your preschooler
at home, I invite you to visit the All Things Preschool page
at Living and Learning at Home.
(Keep reading for more {free} preschool resources!)
31 Living and Learning at Home
More {free} Preschool
Resources You Might
Enjoy…
32 Living and Learning at Home
About the Author
This Preschool Science (& Nature) printable pack has been
created just for you by Amy Maze.
________________________
Hi, I’m Amy! I am a homemaker, mother of
two children (ages 5 and 3), child of God,
blogger, and owner of Classical Copywork.
I love to learn, plan, and create. When I am
not teaching my children or spending time
with my husband, you will find me blogging
at Living and Learning at Home.
________________________
