Static electricity is the result of an imbalance between negative and positive charges in an object.

These charges can build up on the surface of an object until they find a way to be released or discharged.

For this activity, we experimented with static electricity to create moving bats!

We first rubbed the balloon on a piece of felt to create an electric charge.

We then moved the balloon over our bats, which were made out of tissue paper.

The static electricity enabled the bats to fly!

We have been learning all about pumpkins, so we made our very own!

Using play dough as a medium and colored pasta, we created our favorite Halloween plant!

This activity also revisited and reinforced such vocabulary as “stem”, “pumpkin patch”, “top” and, and “bottom”.

Using play dough helps a child practice using certain physical skills with the hands when they manipulate the dough with their fingers.

Children can practice skills such as pinching, squeezing or poking while they play with the dough.

Lastly, using play dough helps a child practice using imagination and other cognitive abilities such imitation, symbolism and problem solving.

This helps our little ones learn more about their environment as they make and mimics everyday objects with the play dough.

Your little one participated in yet another fun sensory activity!

Using styrofoam as our base, white web material, sticks, and plastic bugs, your little one created their very own spider habitat!

We began this activity with a discussion and review of the spiders and other bugs that we have been learning about. We then talked about where these creatures lived.

Our discussion concluded with a review of the new vocabulary that we have been learning, such as insect, web, arachnid, antenna, web, and silk.  

Your little arachnid enthusiast then happily constructed the perfect living space for his spider friends.

Young children love to pour and dump, and derive much joy from engaging their senses to investigate their surroundings.

As they manipulate various substances, they are observing the physical properties of the world around them.

By transferring materials and exploring how they interact, they are learning about density, weight, and volume, which form the foundation for critical thought.

For this particular activity, we combined baking soda and vinegar to create witch’s potions.

Each child enjoyed watching their potions foam and come to life!

Preschoolers are constantly doing math, even when they are not aware of it. It enables them to problem solve, and make sense of the world around them. Because young children learn best by doing, opportunities that enable them to participate at a hands-on level yield the most promising results.

When they participate in their own learning experiences, they construct meaning as they communicate and represent their understanding of complicated concepts. To help improve our counting skills, we created “Frankensteins” out of flower foam.

Using golf tees as the mouth, nose, and eyes, we counted how many golf tees were needed to construct the “faces”, and then recorded our results.

As they assembled their creations, they were encouraged, not only to count, but to write down what they were counting. This enabled them to observe the relationship between the object in their hands and the symbol that represented what they were seeing.

When children work on puzzles, they are actually “putting the pieces together” in more ways than one. Puzzles help children build the skills they need to read, write, solve problems, and coordinate their thoughts and actions—all of which they will use in school and beyond.

A puzzle with a picture that has particular interest for a child may help her begin to recognize colors and letters, and come to realize that the sum of parts make up a whole—a concept that will help her with math later on.

By inserting pieces into the puzzle, children also develop the muscle group used for writing, or the “pincer” grasp.

Children can work on puzzles by themselves, without the help of adults or other children.

They can also work together on large puzzles and practice compromising and getting along.

Because each child must concentrate on the puzzle individually, he experiences a sense of satisfaction as he picks up a piece, rotates it, and discovers the spot in which it fits.

Piece by piece, he begins to recognize the picture that the puzzle represents.

For this activity, your little ones took pieces of a spider web, and combined them to create their own spooky webs!