WonderWorks on the Road: Ramps

A very portable, take-along project, perfect for preschoolers!

Today's Topic: Ramps
Supplies:
cove molding (See details here)
balls
blocks (from the classroom's own collection)

Book: 

Two little chicks / Gorbachev, Valeri
(older version of this book are titled "Chicken Chickens")

WonderWorks: Let's add blocks to the mix

All of the fun from the past two weeks, plus now we add in blocks.

Today's Topic:  PLAY!
Supplies:
all of the supplies from the last two weeks
blocks

Book:
Blocks / Dickson, Irene
*note: this book, on first glance, is a lovely book about play and sharing (which is fine on its own) but the brilliance of the illustrations really becomes apparent when you pay attention to the gutter (or the crease where the right page and left page meet as you're reading through the book) and how the illustrator has chosen to lay out the illustrations across the gutter.  Also, the endpapers are perfect.  And the characters are diverse.  Love this book for so many reasons!

WonderWorks: Tunnels & Tubes

What can you do with a tube?

Today's Topic: Tunnels & Tubes
Supplies:
pop-up tunnels
cardboard tubes (I got mine from a carpet store and had some cut down to a shorter size)
balls
toy cars
the water play equipment from last week

Book:
  Sam & Dave dig a hole / Barnett, Mac

WonderWorks: Water Works!

Tubes, funnels, tubs, cups, and water, oh my!

Today's Topic: Water Works!
Supplies:
funnels (I have the collapsible kind!)
measuring cups
Boon Pipes
Slinky Pop Toobs
plastic tubs
pitchers
water


Book:  
It's only Stanley / Agee, Jon

WonderWorks: Playing with grids (or "Battleship" gets a more peaceful make-over)

Love the classic game of Battleship, but not the war-like content? Try this home-grown version!

Today's Topic: Grid Game "Muncha Muncha Muncha!"
Supplies:
for each pair of players, 2 blank file folders and a printed copy of this PDF (note: if you want to get fancy, you can laminate all the parts and stick velcro dots on them.  Or you can just enjoy the ephemeral nature of a paper-based game and use sticky tape.)

Book:
  Muncha! muncha! muncha! / Fleming, Candace

WonderWorks: Wet vs. Dry

Let's talk about what things change when they get wet -- how do they change? Is the change permanent?  So many topics to explore!

Today's Topic: Wet vs. Dry
Supplies:
Things that DO change drastically (sometimes permanently) in water -- feathers, cornstarch-based packing pellets, tissue paper
Things that do NOT change in water -- coins, paper clips, bouncy balls, painted wooden blocks
Things that change a little bit in water -- popsicle sticks, pompoms, pipe cleaners
buckets or bowls
water
paper to chart your results on (optional)

Book:  
The wet dry book / Spohn, Kate
This is a GREAT book for the topic as the pages are alternately matte or shiny to mimic things that are wet or dry.

WonderWorks: Calculators and "charting" numbers

A kid-friendly technology that's actually electronic!

Today's Topic: Calculators
Supplies:
enough calculators for each participant to have their own (I got mine at the dollar store)
paper with a large grid printed on it
pencils
optional: ask parents to bring in a variety of types of calculators

Book:   

Push button / Aliki

WonderWorks: Chains and Links

Loop-de-loop is surprisingly tricky engineering....

Today's Topic: Links and Chains
Supplies:
twist-ties
strips of paper
stapler
tape
paper clips

Book:
  Small smaller smallest / Fletcher, Corina

to talk about the relative lengths of the chains we made.  Not the greatest tie-in, but I had problems finding a picture book about chains for 3 & 4 year olds....

WonderWorks: Snow & Ice

When it's cold outside, do some winter science!

Today's Topic: Snow & Ice
Supplies:
large bowls
black construction paper (to catch and view snowflakes if they're falling)
measuring cups
cookie sheets filled with water and frozen into sheets of ice
Things that might slide across ice (metal drink lids, balls, marbles, toy cars, etc.)
Things that might not slide across ice (cotton balls, felt scraps, feathers, etc.)

Book:
  The snowy day / Keats, Ezra Jack

WonderWorks: Comparative Size

Which is bigger? Smaller? Medium-er?

Today's Topic: Comparative Size*
Supplies (these are just for inspiration--look through your own supplies to see what else might work):
Nesting toys (or a set of nesting bowls)
blocks
stacking toys
buttons
pom-poms
measuring cups
printable nesting dolls (great examples here and here)
bouncy balls in a variety of sizes

Book: 
  Small smaller smallest / Fletcher, Corina

Timers: a technology exploration from WonderWorks

Is a minute a long time?

Today's Topic: the technology of timers
Supplies:
--timers of all kinds (sand/hourglass time from board games at my house, electronic timers and analog timers from the dollar store, loaned others from parents, the clock app on our iPad...)
--blocks

Book:  A minute is a minute / Neasi, Barbara J.

Sadly, I can't find any cover images of this 1988 title online.  Granted, the illustrations are quite dated, BUT they're diverse (racially and there's even a child in a wheelchair playing catch with his dog and a frisbee!) and the book is absolutely PERFECT for this class.  The basic formula for the book is a list of activities that can make a minute seem really long (waiting for your friend) or really short (flying a kite).  After we read the book, in the second class of the day, I set one of the electronic timers for one minute.  Then I asked the kids to predict whether they thought a minute was a long time or a short time.  Once they'd all voted, I pressed start.  That was a verrrrrry long minute, but a perfect demonstration about how long a minute can feel if you're not distracted by something else.


If you can't get your hands on a copy of this gem of a vintage book, try Just a Minute by Yuyi Morales, but you might need to paraphrase it as it's a bit wordy.

WonderWorks Outreach: playdough + blocks

Wait.... didn't we just do this project?

Today's Topic: Blocks + Playdough, outreach edition!
Supplies:
wooden blocks
playdough

Book:
  The three little wolves and the big bad pig / Trivizas, Eugenios
Flannel board:
Los Tres Cerditos by Ana Lomba (scroll down to find a recording) using this piggie pattern

WonderWorks: Blocks + Playdough

Sometimes you need to use a little sticky stuff.

Today's Topic: Exploring Mortar
Supplies:
building blocks of any kind
playdough (I used this recipe because I had the ingredients on hand, but I'd recommend a salt-based dough instead because this recipe doesn't keep for very long and dries out quickly)

Book:
  The three little wolves and the big bad pig / Trivizas, Eugenios  

WonderWorks: Magnets (outreach edition)

What do magnets stick to?

Supplies:
variety of large, non-choking hazard magnets
iron filing cases
a tub full of a mix of things that would stick to a magnet and things that won't stick

small objects in plastic jars with lids (some metallic)

What we read:

Stuck / Jeffers, Oliver
(while not strictly about magnetism, this book is way more fun to read than any book about magnets and hey, magnets get stuck on things so....)
What we sang:
Icky Sticky Sticky Sticky Bubblegum Song

WonderWorks: Tweezer & Tongs (outreach edition)

Fine motor skills, sorting, and technology (tools) -- this STEM lesson has it all!

Today's Project: Tweezers & Tongs (outreach edition)
Supplies:
tweezers
salad tongs (medium and large size)
pom-poms (teeny and average size)
feathers
cotton balls
wiffle balls
buckets
egg cartons

Books:   

How to catch an elephant / Schwartz, Amy
This is such a strange little storyline, but it's got some great interactive elements if you play them up.  The kids loved this one!

Chopsticks / Rosenthal, Amy Krouse

WonderWorks: A LEGO building game with sneaky math

Got a big stash of LEGO at your house? Got some dice? Try this fun game!

Today's Project: 
Supplies:
LEGO bricks
dice
small bowls/buckets or a divided container with 6 segments

Prep work: 
sort the LEGO into 6 different piles and label them with the numbers 1-6.  I chose to sort mine like this:
1) bricks with one or three bumps (there's not a lot of three's)
2) bricks with two bumps
3) bricks with eight bumps (I know, it's confusing....)
4) bricks with 4 bumps
5) mini-figs
6) bricks with 6 bumps

Book: 
  Raise the roof! / Suen, Anastasia

WonderWorks on the Road: Geoboards

Can WonderWorks be used for outreach visits?

Today's Topic: Shapes
Supplies:
Geoboards
Rubber bands

Book:
  Shape up, pup! / Heck, Edward 
  Perfect square / Hall, Michael

WonderWorks: Pulleys

Do pulleys really help us to lift heavier loads?

Today's Project:  Pulleys
Supplies:
empty spools
wooden dowels (or chopsticks or hefty skewers...)
buckets
heavy things (blocks, books, bag of flour, etc.)
rope or cord or string
pulleys (a variety, from the hardware store)

Today's book:
  The Monkey goes bananas / Bloom, C. P.
(I'm actually fairly proud of this book as an option for pulleys.  Here's a photo of the pulley action:

subtle, but still totally there!
 

WonderWorks: The technology of thermometers

How do we measure how hot or cold something is?

Today's Topic: thermometers!
Supplies:
a variety of thermometers.  I found some at the dollar store and at Big Lots and I e-mailed participants to ask if they could bring any thermometers they had at home that were appropriate for sharing (i.e. not germy medical thermometers).
Ice cubes
water
pitchers
hot water (I asked the coffee shop next door to make a carafe of hot water
straws
red chenille stems
this printable thermometer


Book:
Temperature : heating up and cooling down / Stille, Darlene R.

WonderWorks: Does it absorb?

Let's learn about things that absorb and things that repel liquid!

Today's Topic:Absorption
Supplies:
fabric scraps (various kinds)
water
containers to hold water 
water droppers (we also used baby-ibuprofen-type syringes)
paper towels
coffee filters
foil
waxed paper
regular paper
plastic wrap
styrofoam plates
paper plates
sponges
measuring cups and/or spoons


Book:
  Maisy takes a bath / Cousins, Lucy

This book was a bit of a stretch, but I've always loved the page where Maisy is standing at her front door in her towel, dripping water and it's not easy to search for picture books that specifically include towels!

For one of the classes, I also showed this duck video and talked a little bit about how duck feathers don't get wet but the water just slides right off and why (the ducks have a special oil gland that they use to spread oil over their feathers to waterproof them).