While we don’t often think about the air around us, giving kids simple ways to playfully experiment with the air and wind is a super way to inspire discovery, curiosity and STEM skills. Here we share some of our favorite ways to help kids take inspiration from scientists and use homemade tools to discover and play with the air around them.
The Guide
Explore air resistance
Try some of these ways to help kids explore the concept of air resistance:
1. Air resistance paper experiment
Offer kids a piece of paper and wonder what would happen if dropped. Then, test it out and notice together how fast the paper falls and how it moves through the air. Welcome kids to try it again from a different height (on top of a stool, chair or couch). Wonder what would happen if you change the shape of the paper. How fast does the paper fall when it is folded? Crumpled into a ball? 2. Explore air resistance with nature treasures!
Invite kids to collect leaves, grass, sticks, tree seeds and other objects from nature and to make predictions as to which objects will float down slowly and which will drop quickly. Then, test it out!
3. Make a parachute
To make your own DIY parachute, use string to attach an egg carton (your basket) to a paper towel or light dish cloth (your chute). Invite kids to drop the parachute and notice what happens.
Continue testing out the parachute by dropping it from different heights. What happens if there is a “passenger” in the parachute basket? Add a nature treasure and observe together how the parachute drops with the extra weight. Experiment with adding passengers of different weights or test how many nature treasures can be added to the parachute.
Explore the wind
Step 1: Make a wind tool.
Try one or more of our favorite ways to make a simple tool kids can use to explore the wind:
1. Paper Bag Kite
On the open end of a brown bag, use a hole puncher to make two holes on either side of the bag.
Tie twine through the holes to make two handles.
Use tape to secure strips of ribbon to the bottom of the bag or punch holes and secure ribbon with knots.
2. Ribbon Kite
Cut ribbon into 1 yard lengths.
Fold pieces of ribbon in half and pass the folded center through the center of a mason jar ring, or a piece of cardboard with the center cut out.
Thread the tails through the center and pull them through to form a knot.
Then, tie a regular knot to keep it in place.
3. Wind Flag
Get an old or cheap bed sheet and a good pair of scissors. You can also use an old shirt, pants or any fabric that has some stiffness to it. We fold and cut sheets into triangles of various lengths. The different sizes appeal to different kids and allow kids to experiment with flag size.
Decorate the flags: Give kids space, time and materials to decorate their flags using paint, markers or any other art materials you have on hand. Our favorite way is to make paints from natural materials.
Find flag poles: Gather sticks that are more or less straight and about 1 yard in length. A stick with small bumps and notches may help keep the flag in place.
Attach flags to poles: Fold over about 1-2 inches of fabric along the edge of the flag where you’ll put the pole. Next, make cuts (about ½” wide) every few inches along that fold. Then, open the folded edge and weave the stick back and forth through the holes. Finally, tie a rubber band around the top of the flag and stick to keep the flag secure through spirited hunting and waving.
Step 2: Use your tool to explore the wind!
Here are some of our favorite ways to explore the wind:
Hunt for the wind: How does the wind move the ribbons/flag? Can your child tell if there is wind just by looking at their wind tool? How can your child tell if it is a strong wind? How can you tell what direction the wind is blowing in?
Create your own wind: Run down a hill with kites in hand to feel the wind (and the wonderful vestibular input). Spin and dance with your wind tool and notice how it moves.
Find the windiest spot: Go for a wind walk and bring your wind tool to find out where the wind is the very windiest today.
Wind parade: Wave your flags/ribbons as you sing or march to the beat of your favorite song.
Explore other wind tools: Catch wind in a pillowcase, lift a bed sheet up and down to create air movement and hold up leaves and grasses to see how they flap in the wind.
Why is this activity great for kids?
Using simple tools to play with the air and wind helps kids develop super problem solving skills like observation, making predictions and experimentation, all while providing an introduction to STEM concepts like gasses and air resistance. Twirling, spinning and running with wind flags and kites also supports active movement, gross motor skills and the vestibular system.
Imagination is defined in many ways, but one we like is, "the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality." This is no small task to little kids, and yet young childhood is a time in which imagination is developed more than any other. How does imagination develop in childhood? Through an increasingly sophisticated life of make believe.
We all likely have a sense of what we mean by make believe or good old "pretend play." How do experts define it, though? To some, there are different types of make believe that vary in sophistication and make pretend play different than other types of play. For example, kids may use objects to represent something else (e.g. a block becomes a cell phone). Or, they may start to give an object certain properties (e.g. a doll is asleep or a tree is on fire!). Still yet, they may themselves take on the properties of someone or something else.
From there, pretend play evolves into acting out scenarios or stories, those getting increasingly intricate as imagination develops. As kids' pretend play grows more sophisticated, these stories come to involve not only the creative use of objects, but multiple perspectives (e.g. good and bad guys in the same story), and/or the playful manipulation of ideas and emotions (e.g. I am sad, but then become happy after I save the village from certain doom).
Why does it matter?
An ever growing body of research substantiates the many benefits of pretend play including the enhanced development of: language and communication skills; self-control and empathy; flexible and abstract thinking; and creativity. These are the skills that will help kids balance emotions, form healthy relationships, work effectively on teams, stay focused in school, be successful at various jobs and solve the problems of an increasingly complicated world. An individual's creativity in particular, both requires and is limited by her imagination.
Problem Solving
Category:
Thinking Skills
What are Problem Solving Skills?
When we talk about problem solving, we mean the ability to solve a problem in which the solution is not obvious and in which the possible paths to solution are many. To solve such problems, kids will need two things. First, they’ll need the self confidence and comfort to both attempt to find and persist in finding a solution. The only way to develop this is to be given the chance to struggle with ambiguous situations or open-ended problems. We parents are all guilty, from time to time, of helping kids avoid struggle or swooping in to alleviate frustration when our kid encounters challenge. The goal is actually to do the opposite whenever possible. As long as the problem is not too difficult to understand or challenging to solve, even young kids can get comfortable with the feeling of not knowing the solution and fall in love with the joy of finding a solution to a problem.
Kids also need strategies to attack problems with which they are faced. If adults are able to work with kids to solve problems “as a team” but in such a way that the children feel and act “in charge” of the decisions, adults can actually teach foundation problem solving skills and strategies through modeling. For example, when you solve a problem together, kids get practice with key parts of the process like brainstorming, testing ideas, revision and solution. It’s also pretty easy to model how to use simple strategies like trial and error or breaking a problem down into smaller parts. Although children age 1 to 7 should not be expected to name, catalog or identify when to use a particular problem solving strategy, they are able to form habits and repeat approaches once those habits or approaches have become familiar. The more problems they solve, the better they know and can use these methods.
Why does it matter?
“The highest ranked skills for students entering the workforce were not facts and basic skills; they were applied skills that enable workers to use the knowledge and basic skills they have acquired” (Source: Are They Really Ready for Work? Conference Board 2006).
Although it seems a long way to go before our young children are hitting the job market, the ability to solve challenging, ambiguous problems has already been identified as a critical skill for success in the 21st Century. With advances in technology, finding information has never been easier. However, knowing how to interpret a problem and use available information to devise a solution still needs to be learned. And, we fear that the classrooms of today are neither designed nor incentivized to teach these skills effectively. In most schools, so much time is spent learning discrete skills, that applied skills like problem solving are wildly underemphasized. In a world that demands it, it is increasingly necessary that children learn and practice these skills outside of school.
Age: 0 to 8+
Time: 1 hour+
Materials: various household and natural materials
