Little Scientists is a STEAM-based program I run for 2-5 year olds and their caregivers. This month, we investigated the human body, some of the special things it can do, and what doctors can do to keep those bodies healthy. Here's what we were up to:
We started with reading The Human Body by Carron Brown & Rachael Saunders. These shine a light books are a little tricky to hold the right way when you're reading to a crowd, but it was still a huge hit and the content was just right for this group. After our story, we broke up into stations:
Our book talked about fingerprints and how everybody's are different, so we used ink pads to fingerprint ourselves and a magnifying glass to examine the prints. I also had some extra large examples printed out to compare.
Next, we used our math cubes to measure our feet, arms, hands, and anything else we wanted to measure! Caregivers were encouraged to talk about how kids get measured at the doctor's office to make sure they are healthy and growing.
This prize wheel left over from a Summer Reading Club years ago has been amazing for these programs! For tonight, we tried all different things we thought our bodies could do. Challenges included: do a push up, stand on one foot for 5 seconds, jump as far as you can, and try to lick your elbow.
We bought a super cool x-ray set online and put it back together like a puzzle! This was a little tough for the 2 and 3 year olds, but the 4 and 5 year olds had a blast.
Possibly the biggest hit was the Be a Doctor station. Thanks to my generous coworkers, we had a couple stethoscopes and a forehead thermometer for kids to play around with. Most kids listened to each other's chests, but a couple kids were able to hear dinners digesting and this family was kind enough to let a couple different kids listen to mom's baby bump!
Little Scientists will return in June, when we will study frogs and toads to become herpetologists!
SO many great ideas! Thanks!!
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