: Re: Making science for toddlers easy to remember I have been intending to create a book for toddlers with basic scientific notions in it. Most books for this target readership that I have seen

@Candy753

Vote Up Vote Down

More than words, toddlers remember actions.

What is science boiled down to its core? It's the idea that you can form hypotheses about how the world works, test them, then come to a conclusion.

So create an experiment. Preferably something an adult can recreate. Include instructions for the adults. Then take the toddler through the steps.

Adult: Out of sight of the child, get 2 cookies of different sizes and
two big metal or plastic bowls of different sizes. Instead of a
cookie, you can use a ball or other toy. Place the smaller cookie
under the overturned bowl that is larger. Then place the larger
cookie under the smaller bowl.

Text: Look. There is a big bowl and a little bowl. Each one has a
cookie. There is a big cookie and a little cookie. Where do you
think the big cookie is?

99% of toddlers are going for that big bowl. They can move the bowl, lift it high, toss it aside, grab the cookie, etc. But they're going to discover that their hypothesis—that the size of the container dictates the size of the contents—was wrong.

You can put the text in the form of a song or rhyming poem or anything else. The important part is that you make the toddler move while learning.

There are many more examples you can use.

Different sounds based on hitting different "drums" with different "drumsticks." Does a large bowl turned into a drum sound different from a small one? Plastic bowl vs metal? Wooden spoon drumstick vs metal spoons?
How fast different things fall.
How much force does it take to pop a water balloon?

And so on.

The idea is to focus on movement. This is one of the best ways small children learn.

(0)

Login to post a comment!