One thing I’ve learned on my kindergarten home school journey is that it’s so easy to overthink things! I experienced this especially when planning kindergarten science activities my daughter Sydney. I almost purchased an overpriced science kit, until a common cold taught me a lesson.
A couple of weeks ago, my daughter caught a summer cold. After day three of blowing her nose, coughing, and being stuffy she asked me, “Mommy, where do colds come from?” As I started discussing germs with her, I could see the confusion all over her face. So, I jumped on YouTube and found a quick kid-friendly video and before I knew it we had embarked on an awesome journey learning about germs, and best practices for not passing on your cold to others. We watched some fun videos that really broke down definitions and told fun stories. Here are a few links to videos we enjoyed:
Sick Simon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEUKsdBE3-Q
Virus and Bacteria Introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D0eIsuZC3wHow to Wash Your Hands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ24EfM7sEw
This experience taught me an important lesson: you don’t need beakers and scientific formulas to create impacting kindergarten science activities. Everyday life and even the common cold can provide the perfect science learning opportunity.
I hope my experience encourages you to just enjoy teaching your child and to look for learning opportunities everywhere!
What an excellent suggestion! I am not a mother myself. However, my older sister is, and I’ve forwarded your web address to her as she is always looking for unique and inexpensive ways to teach her children the lessons of life!
On a side note, I am a teacher, and you are doing what we do every day which is wonderful because I was trained to do this, where you are using your intuition. In all honesty, I think you were born to be a teacher!
Wow! Thank you so much for your encouragement and for sharing my website. As a current teacher, your perspective is invaluable! I really appreciate you taking the time to comment on my post. Also, thanks for confirming that using my intuition is a good choice!
Fascinating site. I’m a high school teacher so it’s interesting to see how science education is being done at the early end of the spectrum. I have used teachervision for resourcing in the past; it may be worth checking out – they have a substantial database of primary school resources (including science, numeracy and literacy pages).
Thank you so much for your comment and resource suggestion. I will definitely check out teachervision. I am always looking for new resources. Thanks again! Feel free to check some of my other posts and offer any suggestions you may have.