Janelle Durham

Fifteen Minute Focus for 4’s

This series is a collection of science / STEM activities, suitable for 4 year old pre-K or 5 year old kindergarten students. I introduce a simple science concept, then reinforce it through some combination of demos, hands-on science activities, crafts, stories and songs.

The goal is to have STEM activities you can prep in about 15 minutes using materials you already have. Then the activities are done in 15 – 20 minutes of focused time with all the children sitting at a table or desk. I do these with a group of 6 – 11 children with at least one adult assistant. If you have a larger class, this might be a good opportunity for a parent to volunteer in the classroom as a science docent.

They are all independent topics. I grouped them by theme just for convenience, but they can be taught in any order.

General Science / STEM topics:

Fall STEM activities:

  • Apples and Peaches. Compare and contrast two different fruits. Or Apple Taste Test.
  • Farm Animal Science. Learn about farm animals, sounds, relative sizes.
  • Footprints on the Farm. Learn about animal footprints. What is one difference between mammals and birds?
  • Spiders! Learn about spiders, and do a spider craft that is a great scissor practice activity.
  • Bats! Learn about bats, and do a craft project with lots of glue practice, plus a silly book.
  • Northwest Native Plants. Learn a song with gestures that makes it easy to remember 8 types of plants, then learn more about them and do a craft.
  • Wind. What will blow in the wind? What won’t blow? Test your predictions.
  • Flight. Learn how shape affects aerodynamics. Make a paper helicopter. (Follow-up to Wind)

Winter STEM Activities

  • Going on a Bear Hunt. Make binoculars and scenery for a pretend hunt.
  • Bear Snores On – a sequencing activity. Read the story, then put events in order.
  • Snowflakes – learn about snowflakes and create drawings with radial symmetry.
  • Shape Snowmen – talk about shapes, learn how to trace three circles to make a snowman.
  • Shadow Puppets – learn how light plus an object makes a shadow. (I do this around Groundhog’s Day)
  • Opaque and Translucent shadows – make “stained glass” windows. Follow-up to Shadows.
  • Heart Shapes. Learn how to draw a heart. (For Valentine’s week.)

Spring STEM Activities

  • Rainbow Color Mixing – learn how to use watercolor palettes
  • Seed to Flower – learn what plants need to grow and how to draw that
  • Joints Experiment – what would it be like if your finger and thumb didn’t bend?
  • Insects – learn about insect body parts and how to draw a beetle
  • Eggs – learn about all the creatures that hatch from eggs, and make an egg craft
  • Ocean Watercolor Resist – learn to draw sea creatures with oil pastels, then paint on watercolor and sprinkle on salt

Context for these lessons

For over ten years, I have taught play-based STEM classes for 3 – 8 year olds, where we set up stations (including crafts, experiments, sensory bins, pretend play, building toys, and more) and most of class is child-led “free choice” time with just brief group times to teach the big idea of the day.

These sessions were designed for “Science Friday” at a play-based preschool, where they have a 30 minute period each day called Dino Time, that is designed to prepare children for kindergarten. We want them to have that time practicing what it is like to all sit around a table, all listening to the teacher, doing the same activity at the same time, as directed. Thus, these are more “product” focused than the process focus of most of our activities.

photo credit: Old South Preschool, marked as Creative Commons

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