Education.com
Tip from the Teacher: Dish Out Discovery!
Life is probably getting pretty busy these days. But that doesn't have to mean less investment in your child's education. These learning activities take only moments, but the effects of support at home can last a lifetime. Check out these tips and activities for fun fall learning!
Preschool
Your Kid the Weatherman
by Sarah Richards, an early childhood teacher and child development specialist from Chicago, Illinois.
Sunny or stormy? As adults, we take the weather for granted. But for a preschooler, it can be a fascinating thing, especially when he’s the official family weather man! The calendar is a preschool classroom staple, and teachers often use it during Circle Time. Teaching kids about the days of the week, and the months of the year, helps prepare them for kindergarten. But many teachers take things a step further, by rolling weather into the mix.
Being able to make observations and talk about them is at the core of preschool science, and the weather is the perfect topic. Kids don’t need to get into the intricacies of exact temperature or barometric pressure in order to make an observation—they just need to take a look out the window in the morning and report on what they see.Turn your kid into a weather watcher with this simple activity.
Break it Up!
by Liana Mahoney, a first and second grade teacher from upstate New York.
In kindergarten, kids start to understand that words are made up of a sequence of sounds. The word “cat,” for example, is made up of the sounds /c/, /a/, /t/. Teachers have a fancy name for this: phonemic awareness.
While it may seem obvious to you, breaking up, or segmenting a word into individual sounds can be extremely difficult for young readers. Even more difficult is the ability to blend the sounds back together to make a word, something that good readers do instantaneously as they read. Without the ability to segment and blend sounds, children have a pretty big handicap when it comes to learning how to read. That’s why getting phonemic awareness down pat is a pre-reading skill, and one worth practicing.
1st Grade
Get Out the Vote!
by Vanessa Genova DeSantis, an elementary school teacher from New York City.
Voting is a sacred part of American life. In fact, with so many votes all around us, whether in local or national elections or just in our jobs or community events, it's easy to forget that for little kids voting can be a mind-blowing idea. After all, a young child's idea of decision-making frequently turns on who screams loudest, and plenty of decisions for kids that age really need to be made by adults anyway.
But by first grade, kids are ready to start learning basics about voting as part of the democratic process. It's a common topic on many state standards, and it also fits kids' keen sense of what's fair and what's not. So next time there's a group decision, whether it's the rules of an impromptu ball game or what to name a new pet, try voting on it, and give your kid an early taste of American democracy in action.
2nd Grade
Color it Fall
by Julie Williams, a credentialed elementary, middle, and high school teacher from Palo Alto, California.
The first months of the school year are usually a time of busy learning for second graders. But with the leaves turning color in autumn, you don't want to miss the old fashioned joys of outdoor science! Fortunately, there are lots of outdoor activities that won't force you to choose between fun and learning.
Take your child on a bracing hike, for example, and you can classify leaves on the way. Or rake those leaves up, measure the pile, and calculate how many feet of depth make the very best jumping opportunities. Then, for a classic artistic take on the season, invite your second grader to collect his favorite leaves in vibrant fall colors. Bring them indoors and create pressed leaf "stained glass" to adorn your windows for months to come!
3rd Grade
Pass the Torch!
by Julie Williams, a credentialed elementary, middle, and high school teacher from Palo Alto, California.
In third grade social studies, many kids start delving into local history. No matter what part of the country you’re in, you can be sure: in the not so distant past, nobody was clicking computers, texting with I-Phones, or even “going solar.”
For third graders, this “historical empathy” is a key part of social studies learning. While it’s always nice to support all this with family trips to local landmarks, you can also explore the ways of the past right at home. Try turning off all electricity, for example, for an entire day and evening, and see what happens.
And for a simple candle lantern idea, click here.
4th Grade
Harvest Some Science!
by Julie Williams, a credentialed elementary, middle, and high school teacher from Palo Alto, California.
As the harvest season moves into full swing, the natural sciences are anything but dormant. In fourth grade classrooms, you'll often find kids studying seeds, weather patterns, and soil; many schools even have a demonstration garden that students themselves tend. You can reinforce this learning with hands-on gardening projects. For example, try leaving a few plants, such as green beans, just to dry fully on the stalk. Then, harvest the seeds for spring planting, just as our ancestors did. Extend the learning with a modern twist, however: have your child plant a few storebought seeds in the spring alongside these "saved" seeds, and graph the germination rates. Which seeds thrive best?
5th Grade
A Reading Digestive
by Vanessa Genova DeSantis, an elementary school teacher from New York City.
Many fifth graders are reading more and more nonfiction—either for pleasure or for research purposes. But because they’re being hit with so much information, nonfiction readers must stop and think about what they read. This can be challenging and overwhelming for some students, so they quickly brush over important information without “digesting” what they’re reading.
Middle School
Geometry By Heart
by Brigid Del Carmen, a teacher from Chicago, Illinois.
In middle school geometry, students are required to memorize and apply several mathematical formulas. But it's often easy to confuse one formula for another, especially when students must also focus on problem-solving and identifying geometric figures. But although the task of memorizing so many formulas may seem overwhelming, there's a big payoff in the end: the ability to automatically recall a formula from memory, even weeks, months, and years after it is learned!
High School
Familiar Physics
by Lori Stewart, a middle and high school science teacher and developer of science education materials.
Many high school students fear physics, but the wonderful thing about physics is that it's very intuitive. We learn very early on in life that things fall, and we learn through experience about laws of motion. That means that kids actually have a natural understanding of a key physics concept: gravity. In fact, physics is all around us, from the bouncing of a basketball to the spilled milk in the kitchen.
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