Dog Bones Counting and Addition

I found bone-shaped paperclips at Walmart. The puppy pictures were from the back of an old calendar. Children count and place the same number of bones on the picture as there is puppies. Some children will then be able to count the total number of bones.

Grow an Animal

Dollar Tree has these neat little sponge-like critters that you can purchase that when you put them into water they grow and grow. The alligator works well for this activity.

To make this "educational" you check in on your animal daily for a week. With a simple measuring tape, measure the length and make a graph or chart to show its growth progress. You can also take pictures of the animal each day next to the measuring tape, print them, and challenge your child to sequence them.

There you have it, $1 math & science!

Roly-Poly Science

C is fascinated by these little guys and in just the time it takes to unload the car of groceries, he's gathered a handful. So playing from his curiousity, I came up with some questions to ask him about the bug that rolls into a ball and gave him a magnifyin glass to get a closer look.

Tell me what they look like?

What do you think roly-polys eat?

Tell me about your roly-poly.

How do they move?

Which end is the head and which is the tail? How can you tell?

Why do you think it curls up in a ball?

Can you tell me something else that is the same size as the roly-poly?

Want to know more? Read A Pill Bug's Life by John Himmelman, Children's Press, 2000.

This is a fun link too. New vocabulary= isopod! http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/invertebrates/isopod/Pillbugprintout.shtml