Busy Little Hands: Science Play!

In this fourth book in the Busy Little Hands series, preschoolers get ready for a science adventure! Preschoolers wonder and explore with 20 hands-on experiments using everyday household objects and making daily activities such as snack time and play time into learning opportunities. Each play activity demonstrates a simple principle of physics, earth science, chemistry, or biology, including the Kitchen Sink or Float (demonstrating density), the Vinegar Volcano (pressure) and Blooming Colors (chromatography). Featuring bright, easy-to-follow photos specially designed for pre-readers, this book is packed with learning fun, plus it sets the groundwork for science success in kindergarten and beyond.

"With adult help, even preschoolers can explore science! These 20 projects serve as age-appropriate introductions to physics, earth science, chemistry, and biology. The directions are relatively simple, with few steps and clear results. A mix of photographs and illustrations showing diverse preschoolers allow the nonreading child to follow along step by step. Each project begins with "grown-up prep steps" necessary materials, where to do the activity, and sometimes extension suggestions. The materials are easily available. Some projects, such as "Cereal Static" (demonstrating static electricity) or "Pulley-Up" (using a simple machine to lift a load) can be done in a short period; others, such as growing seeds or exchanging weather information with someone who lives in another climate, might be long-term. A beginning bird-watching activity could introduce long-running citizen science projects. The last few pages, for older helpers, detail the concepts explored through each activity. What's most intriguing about this collection is the direct connection to the scientific method, explained to children at the beginning as asking questions, guessing answers, trying something out, seeing what happens, and pondering the results. With this introduction and some help with record-keeping (charts and graphs are among the illustrations), youngsters will develop good science habits while they are learning. A well-thought-out addition to the science activities shelf." --Kirkus

Susan Edwards Richmond is the author of Bird Count, winner of the Parent s Choice Silver Award and the International Literacy Association s Primary Fiction Award. A passionate birder and naturalist, Edwards Richmond teaches preschool on a farm and wildlife sanctuary. She earned her M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of California, Davis, and is an award-winning poet with five collections of nature-based poetry for adults. She lives in Massachusetts and is happiest exploring natural habitats with her husband and two daughters.

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