Learning through Science: An Introduction

I’ve had this idea rolling around in my head — what if I could use science to teach my son all about his colors, shapes and letters?

My son is 3 years old and he’s begging to do school with his older sister, but I have learned from past experience that worksheets and drills don’t work. Instead I want to introduce the concepts through activities and books. Since I am a scientist at heart, I also want to increase his observation skills and introduce him to the wonderful and amazing world of science, but a part of me wonders if that is really feasible for his age.

So, enter my latest experiment for preschool science, Learning Colors, Shapes & ABC’s through Science.

The Plan

My plan is to to use a scientific demonstration or observation as the centerpiece of a weekly theme. In other words, the science will serve as the introduction for the color, shape or letter.

So each week, I will put together the following:

• A scientific demonstration or observation which will introduce a color, shape, or letter to the student while working to build their observation skills;
• A living book list that supports the theme;
• Ideas for art activities and games that reinforce what the students are learning.

Let me be clear in saying that I do expect most of the scientific concepts involved in the demonstrations will go over my three year old’s head. My goal here is to give him a taste of what science looks like and to increase his powers of observation. If he retains none of the scientific information, but enjoys the process and hones his observation skills, then I will consider the year a success.

You can check out the following article to learn more about my view of preschool science.

The Details

I want to take you all along for the journey, so over the next year I will be posting a scientific demonstration or observation for this series each week here on Elemental Blogging. Of course, we’ll take a break here and there for holiday’s and such, but my plan is to write 35 lessons in all. The first 9 will cover colors and shapes, then the remaining 26 will cover a letter each.

It should be a fun journey and I hope that you will join me for it! If you have any questions or thoughts, please let me know by leaving a comment!

Here’s a list of the posts in this series:

• Red Apple Observation (Concepts: red, circle)
• Yellow Banana Mush-up (Concepts: yellow, rectangle)
• Blue Water (Concepts: blue, square)
• Green Mix-up (Concepts: green, oval)
• Orangey Outdoors (Concepts: orange, diamond)
• Purple Swirls (Concepts: purple, shapes review)
• Mud Pies (Concepts: brown, black, white)
• ABC Activities Coming Soon…