Learning at Home OSC KidZone Week 10

3 min
May 21, 2020

STEAM Activity:

Make it Move

The goal of this activity is to race matchbox cars across a table without touching them!  Provide your children with a basket of random tinker items such as paperclips, magnets, elastics, string, straw, tape, and even balloons, and challenge them to come up with a way to move the cars using only these items.  They cannot touch the cars themselves, nor can they alter the racetrack!

https://www.steampoweredfamily.com/activities/make-it-move-stem-challenge/

Science Activity:

Dancing Liquids

For this activity, you only need a plate, equal parts flour and water, and a few drops of food colouring.  Mix the ingredient together, pour onto a thin plate, and place on the top of a speaker.  Turn the music on and dance with the liquid!  This is a lesson showing us that sound is made up of waves that cause some pretty big vibrations.  These vibrations shake the speaker which then makes our plate of liquid dance.  Try changing out the music and see what happens.  Can you note a difference when the music is higher or lower in frequency?

http://www.sciencefun.org/kidszone/experiments/dancing-liquid/

Physical Activity

Trash Can Squats

This is an activity for you and your children to do together!  Gather a trash can and a ball of socks for each player.  Stand back from the trash can about 5 feet to start.  The goal will be for players to toss the ball of socks into the trash can.  However, before any toss, they must first do 10 squats.  If a toss is made, and the socks do not go in, those squats must be done again!  After each successful toss, you must take one giant step back before trying the next toss. The first person to complete three tosses wins!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGWKdT60IHc

Creative Activity:

Transient Art

This activity requires an assortment of loose parts from around your house.  Loose parts can be defined as any item that can be moved and used in open-ended and creative ways.  Provide your child with a basket of items that may include nuts, bolts, screws, buttons, string, pebbles, shells, lids or any other random small items.  Use a cork trivet, a placemat, or even the matting from a picture and invite your child to create a self-portrait using these “loose parts”.  Take a photo of it before dismantling!

http://www.housingaforest.com/self-portraits-using-loose-parts/

Additional Resources:

www.toddlerinaction.com  Visit this website for loads of ideas for your 2-3-year-old. Click on Toddler Activities on the bar at the top of the page.

https://pbskids.org/   Go to this website for educational games and videos based on popular PBS KIDS shows.