Smart Start to Science and Literacy
December 18 2009
OVERVIEW | This early education program utilizes storybooks to exercise creative and resourceful thinking. Each week a new story is read, and science, art, and math based projects are taught for a hands-on application of the book’s content. Over 500 Stillwater students participate, and OSU work study students assist in the teaching. Serves: Children preschool to 2nd grade in Stillwater Public Schools.
| Smart Start to Science and Literacy Descriptions | ||
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Each kit provides the necessary supplies and books for a science, math, and art activity. Some items, such as markers, crayons, and glue, will be borrowed from the classroom when needed. |
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| A Chair for My Mother After reading about a family’s quest to save money in order to buy a chair, students have the opportunity to estimate the cost of a variety of chairs, explore the concept of water displacement, and illustrate their helping hands. |
Caps for Sale This beloved tale of a peddler and his encounter with monkeys sets the perfect tone for learning about monkeys, creating patterns and stacking caps, and creating their own visor to take home. |
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| Colors Everywhere This colorful book gives children the chance to be the authors for the story. Students then explore the properties of solids and liquids, estimation, and create their own brightly colored sun catcher. |
Growing Vegetable Soup Growing Vegetable Soup begins a practical lesson in healthy eating. Students discuss the difference between fruits and vegetables, explore the Food Pyramid, and paint a collage using kitchen gadgets. |
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| Guess How Much I Love You How much can you love someone? Students explore distances and measurements before creating their own greeting card to give to a person they love. |
Harquin This heroic tale of a fox with an extraordinary sense of direction helps children understand the directions we use everyday. Students will explore cardinal directions, create a class compass, and be introduced to constellations. |
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| How Will We Get to the Beach? With this beach-themed book, students will use their senses to discover hidden objects, strengthen their math skills with a seashell game, and create their own starfish. |
“I Can’t” Said the Ant This cleverly rhyming book about an ant and a teapot sets the tone for an investigation of ants. Children also are encouraged to try tea while they decorate their own teapot. |
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| I Love You the Purplest What makes purple? Students investigate the wonders of mixing colors in a variety of new ways. |
I Wish I Was Sick Too One little girl sees the “fun” that her brother has as he is sick in bed, but she finds out that being sick isn’t as fun as it appears to be. Students will explore different medical equipment that they might see if they visit to the doctor when they are sick. |
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| Leo the Late Bloomer As Leo discovers that it’s good to be himself, students will discover their own traits and what makes them special. |
Make Way for Ducklings This classic tale of the Mallard family invites students to learn about the different characteristics that ducks have and they create a duck of their own. |
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| Night Tree This story about a family who decorates an edible tree for forest animals initiates great discussion about the scents of winter and coniferous trees. To close the activity, students create their own edible tree ornament like the family does in the story. |
Noisy Nora Nora tries all sorts of noisy ways to get her parents’ attention. Students will explore the properties of sound, including painting loudly and softly. |
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| On Mother’s Lap Michael brings many items to his mother’s lap, including a blanket, a doll, and a canoe. Students will estimate, stack, and weigh all of the different things they can fit on someone’s lap, and then decide their most treasured items they would take when they sit on their mother’s lap. |
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Using one of Eric Carle’s most famous books, students will retell the life of the hungry caterpillar, investigate colorful foods, and use the techniques of Eric Carle to create their own hungry caterpillar. |
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| Owl Moon This Caldecott book illustrates what it is like to go owling. Students will explore the different aspects of owling, from the weather conditions to the owls themselves. To wrap up their owling experience, students will create their own crystallized owl picture. |
Quick as a Cricket With this simile-filled book of animals, students explore various characteristics of a wide variety of animals, and decide how they might be like different animals. |
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| Raising Dragons This heartfelt story about a girl and her dragon provides the basis for children to explore the property of buoyancy and measurements while expressing the artistic creativity through their own rendering of a dragon. |
The Doorbell Rang Students use cookies as the focus of this activity. They will explore the ingredients used for baking cookies, how to equally divide cookies amongst a group of friends, and conclude the activity by decorating their own cookies to take home. |
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| The Ear Book Oh the fun you can have when you use your ears. Along with reading about the various things you can hear, students will create an ear guitar to learn about sound vibrations, play a game of sound bingo, and create their own ear painting. |
The Kissing Hand Chester the raccoon is nervous about his first night at school, but finds comfort when his mother shows him that she will be with him how she will always be with him. Students learn about raccoons and other nocturnal animals as well as create their own kissing hand to share with someone. |
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| The Mitten Students retell this classic Jan Brett story using animals found in the book and a giant mitten. Students use clues to match facts to their correct animal and then create their own mittens. |
The Rainbow Fish Students learn the value of friendship and sharing through The Rainbow Fish, while they create their own rainbow fish as a reminder. They also dive into the ocean to explore its wonders. |
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| The Snowy Day Every child loves snow days, and through this story, they will be able to relive their favorite snow day. Students will explore things that melt, animal tracks made in the snow, building a snowman, and create their own snowy day scene. |
The Tiny Seed The Tiny Seed travels the earth before growing into the largest flower ever seen. Through this book, students will discover what plants need to grow, experiment with planting seeds, and create their own flowery scene that demonstrates their knowledge of what plants need to grow. |
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| The Very Busy Spider Everyone’s favorite creepy crawly is the focus of this story. Students learn about spiders and spin their own class web as they retell this popular Eric Carle story. |
The Wind Blew This comical story demonstrates how this powerful force of nature upsets everyone’s day. Students learn how wind begins and then they create their own pinwheel to use on a windy day. |
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| Wash Your Hands Along with the little princess, students learn why it is important to wash their hands. Through an inquiry based experiment, students see up close how germs are spread and see exactly what it takes to get rid of them. |
Who Sank the Boat? When five animals pile into a small boat, the question is who actually caused it to sink? Students explore the concepts of sink and float and then create their own boat to test in waters. |
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| Whose Garden Is It? Everyone has a different idea as to who the garden belongs to. From the gardener to the bee to the rain, everyone contributes in some way to make the garden thrive. Students explore the web of life before creating their own seed mosaic that will make a great addition to any garden. |
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