Questions, questions and more questions.

It is a time where kids might be asking lots of them… 

Why aren’t we in school? What are we going to do? How am I going to learn? When will I see my teachers again?  And so on. Nothing like current events to help drive home lessons. I mean, how else would we get to practice hand washing, covering our mouths, not touching our faces, cleaning spaces and of course, social distancing? 

The good thing about questions is that it shows how curious we can be and that curiosity is partly what drives the desire to learn. Most people like to know the WHY of what they are doing.Science is a great place to get some of those questions answered.  I’ve seen countless gifs and graphics explaining how to take care of ourselves all over social media including a visual lesson on which cleaners do not mix well together. All super valuable. 

I’m not saying that you need to hyperfocus on COVID-19 as a source for a lesson but you can use it as a starting place to teach about more life skills that have a huge amount of relevance right now. 

Tip #11  Science Through Curiosity Building 

I co-taught with a teacher once that would answer questions like “What would happen if I left my cookie at the bottom of my desk all year?” with “I’m not sure….wanna find out?”  First, the kids would be surprised by her response and then it created a sense of curiosity. Like, wow, can we do that? Of course, leaving a cookie out to see what happens can be tricky but she put it in a plastic baggie and pinned it to a bulletin board where students could check on it each day.  Like an ongoing experiment. I did once grow earthworms in a classroom. They were sort of like a class pet that needed to be cared for but also served as a lab where students could pose a question, predict an outcome, observe activity and come up with summaries at the end. Perhaps this can be combined with a story book. There's that interdisciplinary education again!  

The Hungry Caterpillar is a common story to build a science lesson on.  Perhaps you can have your child demonstrate the stages of development by creating a collage or maybe you might be able to create your own butterfly farm.  There are kits available online and it is great fun for this time of year. This can then lead to planting seeds and watching them grow into a seedling which can then be used in a garden.  More life skills!! 

There are so many ideas online.  Discovery Kids, National Geographic Kids and IXL Science are some great options. The possibilities are as endless as the questions that a child can ask. But perhaps stoking that curiosity is just what is needed to get through some of these long days ahead.