Antioxidant Unit {Free Printable}

Has anyone else noticed how extremely difficult it is to find kid friendly information on antioxidants? 

Our Nature and Science Museum has this really great "Superfood Heroes" presentation where they learn all about evil free radicals and the superfood heroes that fight them. My kids love it. We've seen it like three times. 

But even there, when I asked if they had any more resources, I got a blank stare. Maybe I didn't ask the right person, who knows. 

Anyway, I figured I should just put together my own unit on them. A kid friendly one that didn't involve weight loss inspiration or essays on anti-aging. 

(click on the picture for the download)

I did have a bit of a hard time sorting through the information and still leaving it accurate. Some of the antioxidants we saw in the presentation were technically phytonutrients which are really a subsection of antioxidants.... I didn't want to group them together but I felt they needed to be identified correctly.

Anyway, I think I'm making it more complicated than it needs to be....

There are three sections of three part cards you can use as you like- one is the free radicals. The second are antioxidants. The third are phytonutrients and the foods they are found in. You can easily just print the page with the food and it's common name along with the page on the free radicals and be set!

There is also a control sheet in case the cards get mixed up. 

Next is a scavenger hunt. You can do this in your house or it would be a really fun field trip to the store. You wouldn't have to buy everything on it but it would make a great, super healthy, grocery list. 

Finally is a mini book of terms that should help with understanding what free radicals and antioxidants actually are. This is geared towards the 3-8 year old range. My kids seemed to simply accept that a free radical is bad without asking more questions. I was thankful- the reason why is a little more complicated and I don't plan on introducing atoms and molecules anytime soon.

I also put together a super simple chart for the kids to check off what colors of food they ate for the day. I'll use it with both my 5 year old and my 21 month old. Laminate and use a dry erase marker for everyday use. 

Here are some other resources to help your curious ones:

 Discovery Healthy Foods- adult oriented but really great pics.
Information for Kids on Antioxidants- for adults, but helpful

I really wish I could find a good kid friendly book on this topic. If you know of any, can you pass it along?  Maybe I'll stretch my creative side a bit and write one....

*I updated at least one error but there may be more, let me know if you find one. 

We are starting some work on the Circulatory System- look for that up next week!

Pre-K Science: Electricity

This has been a HUGE hit this week! I scored this box labeled "electricity" at a preschool closing sale. I wasn't entirely sure what was in it, but I figured it had to be fun.

Here's what we found:

-battery operated lights
-motors from old electronics
-a cut up string of lights
-some red and black wires


And what we added:
-new batteries


After giving Bear (4 1/2) a chance to explore the box, I showed him how to put new batteries in the case for the lights. We then talked about turning the lights on and off and what might make them do that.

Next we used a battery to create a circuit to light up one of the lights from the cut up string. We talked about circuits and their role in electricity.

We also talked about how the circuit has to be complete for something to be on and an incomplete circuit would leave something off.  I connected this back to the battery operated lights and what the on/off switch does.

Finally we attached the battery to one of the exposed motors. We used electrical tape...please be careful not to touch the exposed wires while the circuit is complete... We were able to get it to spin! It was a surprise for both of us...

There is no reason you can't start with younger kids... this is also a really great on/off activity. I put on/off labels next to the battery operated lights (with the cover on) for Indie and we talked about whether the lights were on or off. 

parental supervision is probably pretty important for this activity...since...you know...it has to do with electricity. 

Happy schooling!
-Lauren


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DIY 3-D Solar System

Watching the Curiosity land on Mars was so exciting!  The kids were jumping up and down and screaming- I'm still not sure they knew what was going on- but they were still very enthusiastic!

 I pulled out some solar system cards I had made up from a couple years ago to get them started. Bear was VERY excited I had some and kept asking for more to do. After looking online a bit, we were inspired to make up our own 3-D solar system and mat. 

We started with a kit from the store- it was cheaper than buying the Styrofoam balls separately. I like these ones because they do have the sun. Many we found don't! Go figure. 

Next we painted the balls according to the colors on our solar system cards. Saturn was the exception. Bear really wanted it to be blue. I gave him a little artistic freedom since we had good examples of what it should look like. 

After realizing that the Styrofoam likes to fall apart, we (I) painted the balls with modge podge to give it a finished layer. It actually looks quite nice. 

The coolest part of the system though I think is the mat. We were inspired by this post over at Montessori Print Shop. Instead of using puff paint I stitched white thread onto black felt. I used about 1/3 yard of black felt (I had to cut it and stitch it to make a square). I would probably recommend just buying more felt to avoid that issue- 1/2 to 1 yard would be ideal depending on how big you want it. The post above has VERY detailed instructions. Our circles didn't turn out quite right- but it's ok! 

Here are some activities I watched Bear work on:

Size Sorting the planets

Organizing by location in the Solar System

Counting Planets

Counting Number of times around the Sun (Revolution)

Rate of Mercury going around the sun vs. Jupiter

Spinning the Earth (Rotation)

We stored all the planets, the mat, and the cards in a shoe-box size plastic container and placed it with our Continent Boxes. 

Linking up this week:

Show and Share Saturday Link Up

Montessori Monday