Summer is fast approaching, and if you have kiddos in your house, you’re likely scrambling to find fun things to do with them while they are out of school. I love this idea from Marie of Make and Takes for starting a science observation journal.
My son is starting to ask all kinds of questions about the world around us. He recently brought home this spikey looking nut from the school playground, asking what it was and wondering what might be inside. So we started a Science Observation Journal, a place where we could collect and record all kinds of information about our findings. Time to investigate!
Such a fun idea! My kids love to explore and find new and interesting things in nature. What a great way to take their curiosity to the next level with a science observation journal! Fantastic!
2 thoughts on “How-To: Starting a Science Observation Journal”
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If you read this and are wondering how to get young kids involved – help them/start them out with “the 5 senses.” My daughter learned about the 5 senses at day care in a toddler class ~age 2. Ever since, we say, “let’s use our senses” and the kids take it from there.
Another fun activity is to do family taste tests, possibly even graphing the results. For example, buy 2 of every kind of apple in the store (depending on the size of your family. We have 4 kids and 3 adults at home!). Slice all of the apples (keep labels or some identifier so you know which is which) and have everyone compare. Again, we use our senses and log in our “taste test log” which smells the most “apple-y” which makes the best crunch, etc. Then we each pick a favorite. My husband prefers Granny Smith, but the kids like Pink Lady or Harelsons best. No one really likes red delicious other than for the color!
To graph – list the types of apples across the bottom of the page, write the person’s name above their favorite. The “tallest list” is the most popular.
Side note – this is also useful for comparing different brands of foods, such as canned/jarred peaches, peanut butter, hot dogs, etc. We recently discovered that ketchup is ketchup. Very little nutritional or taste difference between brands! And yes, the kids even look at nutrition labels now!