The other day I was in a group, and we were talking about using things our preschoolers are excited about to teach them. I came up with this activity as an example of something you could do with a kid who gets excited about volcanoes to help him learn letters.
I am a strong advocate for learning by play and learning with hands-on activities. You will recognize this popular preschool science activity, but I added a small change: mystery letter cups! Three cups are labeled with "B," "S," and "F" (or whatever letters you want to work on). Inside the cups are a few tablespoons of baking soda (my "B"), salt (my "S), and flour (my "F"). I used the first letters of each word in this example, but it's really not necessary if you want to work on other letters.
Inside the vase, let your preschooler pour about a cup of vinegar. He can add red or orange food coloring, too! (My kids are a little obsessed with food coloring! I should do another post on our "alternative" food coloring, lol!)
Anyway, explain to your preschooler that you have three cups with different powders, and you've labeled them B, S, and F. Only one of the cups has a powder that will make the volcano erupt! Which does he want to try? B? S? F? All of them? ;) Just shift the conversation so that you're talking about B, S, and F (or whatever letters you're learning).
Let your kids experiment, talk, and play with this setup as usual--with the addition of the three labeled cups!
The fun thing about this little twist is that you're now combining science, STEM, language arts/english/reading, AND a favorite preschool activity! It's hands-on, multi-sensory, subject-integrated, and child-led, which means they are going to remember every aspect of it better than if you introduced any of those components by themselves!
AND, I couldn't end a volcano post without mentioning that my very awesome book, A Dinosaur Made Me Sneeze: A Rock Cycle Adventure includes a volcano page! And (since I can!) I'll go ahead and share that volcano spread with you:
Anyway, you can learn more about A Dinosaur Made Me Sneeze HERE, and you can purchase it HERE or on Amazon!
Do you have a favorite volcano activity? I'm brainstorming some more ideas, so be sure to let me know!
Happy Educating,
Carla
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