We love projects where household materials are put together to make something fun. When my oldest son was a baby, I remember taking beans and putting them in a plastic bottle. This made a maraca that he loved to shake. You will learn how to make a different instrument in this post. Today we will teach you how to make an AIR flute at home.
This is a great project for preschoolers, kindergarteners, and up. First, it is easy to make. Also, it takes about 10 minutes to complete.
Kids will learn how to make this flute using straws. When kids blow in the various straws, they will create different pitches. Have your child make up a song and perform it for the family. The possibilities are endless.
Homemade instruments make the best STEM projects for kids.
Below is a video showing you step-by-step how to make an AIR flute at home. This video comes from my son’s YouTube channel, Corban’s Fun Learning Adventures. Please like and subscribe if you find the content helpful.
Winter time will be coming soon! Many children will not be going outside as much because of the cold weather. No worries! There are a lot of fun science experimentsandDIY STEM projects children can do indoors. However, we wanted show you, before it gets too cold, a fun activity your child can do outside. It is the FLYING CUPS, which is an easy STEM activity for elementary students.
Your child will be building a cup launcher that will spin in the air. Kids can observe how the flyer is moving away from them, but the cups are spinning towards them. We call this a bottom spin, which causes air behind the cups. This is why the flyer moves up and forward. Scientists call this the Magnus Effect. The technical term for this STEM toy is Magnum Flyer.
Below is a video that will you how to build this flyer step-by-step.
The video comes from my son’s YouTube channel, Corban’s Fun Learning Adventures. Please share, like, and subscribe if you find the activities on the channel helpful.
Have fun with this easy STEM activity for elementary students!
My son, Cory, loves to make paper airplanes and helicopters. He can make about nine different designs on his own. After making the airplanes, he likes to go outside and fly them. He challenges himself by trying to catch the planes after releasing them. If you have a child with similar interests, then this post may be a treat for you. We are going to show you how to do an easy straw activity for kids. This is a fun paper airplane alternative for kids.
This activity is called the Straw Glider. Below is what you need…
You most likely have all the items above in your home currently. It will take you about ten minutes to build from start to finish. It is the perfect straw activity for kids.
You can fly this Straw Glider like a paper airplane. It is best to fly outdoors. This STEAM/STEM activity is perfect for preschoolers, kindergarten, elementary students and up.
In the video below, we show you step by step how to make it. You will see Cory outside flying the Straw Glider. The video comes from my son’s YouTube channel, Corban’s Fun Learning Adventures. Please subscribe if you like what you see.
Learning the alphabet is one of the first academic concepts children are exposed to at home and/or school. It can be a daunting task to learn the alphabet in the beginning. Kids must know 26 upper and lower case letters. Fortunately, there are helpful tools to help children master the alphabet like games and books. Today we want to share a fun and entertaining alphabet book for preschoolers and up.
Many children get the letters confused, which is understandable. I remember getting the lowercase b and d mixed up during a writing assignment in the first grade. Our teacher hung those writing assignments on the wall. I still remember being embarrassed that the letter d was where b should have been. Every day, I wanted to take the paper down.
Corban has fond memories of learning the alphabet. When my baby boy was born, Corban wanted to write an alphabet book to help his younger brother and other kids learn the letters in a fun way. I was deeply touched by his desire and decided to help him achieve this goal.
Corban worked on the book,Alexander’s Hide and Seek Alphabet, for six months. He took the lead on the whole process from writing and critiquing the illustrations to approving the cover and marketing the book. While there are many alphabet books out there, this book has a different spin.
In the short video below, my son will tell you more about his book
Alphabet Book with a FUN MEMORY TRICK
Alexander’s Hide and Seek Alphabet uses a learning technique called the “Loci Method” to help kids learn and review the alphabet. The Loci Method is a memory tool which connects the information kids want to remember with places they know well. We used Alexander’s home in this book because children know their living spaces very well. Additionally, we used familiar household items to make it easier for children to find what they are seeking.
In order to make the Loci method fun for kids, we incorporated the game, Hide and Seek. We encourage you to take this book with you while walking through your home to find each item in this book. Have your child identify the beginning letter and sound of the item. For example, when you find an apple in your home, encourage your child to pick it up, say “apple” and its phonetic sound “ah”.
If you don’t have something named in this book, find an alternative in your home. Make up your own Alphabet Hide and Seek Game and play with your child.
Your child will be amazed that they could find so many things that start with each letter of the alphabet in their own home.
Have fun playing, learning, and reading this alphabet book for preschoolers and up!
Click the image below to access the book on Amazon
Letter Recognition and words are one of the first concepts children learn when starting school. Letter recognition can be perfected by singing the Alphabet song, reading books, watching educational shows, and by simply playing with letters. Children often become familiar with words by reading, spelling, playing word games, etc.
My son and I have used all the methods mentioned above to get him familiar with letters and words. This time we decided to do something different. We created a fun activity called the Blindfold Alphabet and Word Game.
This game starts out easy with letter recognition but then gets harder with spelling words. The unique part of this game is that you have to identify letters and words with a blindfold.
We had so much fun playing this game. There was a lot of laughter during this activity. This game is a great way to reinforce letter recognition, how letters are formed (which is beneficial for handwriting skills) phonics, and spelling.
My son and I made a video of us playing the Blindfold Alphabet and Word Game. We had a friendly competition. You will see us having fun while learning. Watch the video below to see who won the game. Have your children participate while watching by identifying the letters and words with us.
The video below comes from my son’s YouTube channel, Corban’s Fun Learning Adventures. Please like and subscribe for other fun learning activities.
Spring is such a wonderful time of the year. The weather is warm and kids are outside playing. My family and I love to go on nature walks to see the tadpoles evidently turn into frogs. My son loves to throw rocks in the water and fly his kite.
To prepare my son for spring, we start reading books about the season near the end of winter. There are countless books that will teach your child about the lifecycle of various animals, plants, and what happens to the earth during spring time.
It is wonderful to absorb the rich information in these books. However, I encourage you to couple your reading with actually experiencing spring.
Below is a video of the Walking Water Experiment. It is a great activity to teach kids how plants get water through capillary action starting in Spring. The video comes from my son’s YouTube channel called Corban’s Fun Learning Adventures. Please like and subscribe!
Below I will give you 30 spring books for preschoolers.
Let’s get started!
Little Mole is sad. Therefore, his mother teaches him about hope by leading the way out of their dark burrow into a bright world filled with the promise of spring.
Count the 10 little rubber ducks as they swim downstream on a spring day. This book has hatching chicks, a hopping bunny, blossoming flowers, and more spring-time scenes.
On a sunny springtime day, siblings Feather, Flap, and Spike set out to explore the many flowers, leaves, and seeds outside. Their day is met with difficultly by Spike’s dino-sized sneezes.
Easter is almost here and Turkey knows just how to celebrate. He’s going to win the eggstra-special Easter egg hunt! The only problem is that animals aren’t allowed to enter. What will he do?
After the cold of Winter, comes the warmth of Spring. I Am Spring takes young children on a journey through the many important events that occur uniquely in the beautiful growing season of Spring.
Celebrate the season of spring with raindrops, robins, bluebells, and butterflies! This book has colorful illustrations and are matched with rhyming, easy-to-read text that explores rain falling, flowers blooming, and other springtime wonders.
When spring comes, leaves unfurl and flowers blossom, the grass turns green, and the mounds of snow shrink. Spring brings baby birds, sprouting seeds, rain and mud, and puddles. You can read all about it in the book!
Join in the rainy-day fun, as kids splash through the puddles, affecting another weather enthusiast, a nearby worm. An imaginative and playful story, readers will love seeing the worm delight in the weather just as much as the kids.
Mole can smell that spring is in the air, but Bear is still asleep after his long winter nap!Excitedly he taps on the window and knocks on the door. He even tries playing a trumpet to wake his friend so they can celebrate together. However, bear keeps snoozing.
As days stretch longer, animals creep out from their warm dens, and green begins to grow again, everyone knows―spring is on its way! Join a boy and his dog as they explore nature and take a stroll through the countryside, greeting all the signs of the coming season.
Young children will enjoy learning about colors and flowers while reading this book.
This story is about the life cycle of a flower and is told through the adventures of a tiny seed. It includes a detachable seed embedded paper housed on the inside front cover.
Flitzy the butterfly welcomes back the plants and animals of spring! This book has rhymes and colorful illustrations that will delight young readers!
The adorable baby animals in this book are fun to view and they represent life that is spring. Every young creature finally ventures outside to play as the days of winter fade away and color surround us all.
In spring, seeds are planted and sprouts pop up through the soil. Colorful flowers bloom. Your child will see how plants come to life in spring.
Children will explore spring in the forest with this interactive Lift-a-Flap Surprise board book! Little ones will love learning all about springtime fun in the forest while following a mama deer and her sweet little fawn.
Your children will hear the forest is calling. They will also take a quiet walk through the woods, where shadows fall in the darkness, eyes peek out, and some animals sleep while others run and leap.
Up in the garden, the world is full of green. Down in the dirt there is a busy world of earthworms digging, snakes hunting, skunks burrowing, and all the other animals that make a garden their home. Children will discover all the wonders of spring.
This story helps children understand the change of seasons, the excitement of hiking, and the importance of what it means to “leave no trace.”
Ladybugs, butterflies, daddy longlegs, and roly polies are just some of the familiar creatures featured in this book. This book also has an actual size bug chart, which provides real-world comparisons so that readers know exactly how big each bug is, and the Bug-O-Meter, which lists fun facts about each bug, such as number of legs, where it lives, whether it flies, and if it stings.
Bob and Otto are best friends. They love to eat leaves, dig, and play together. When the two meet again, Otto is still the same dirt-loving earthworm, but Bob has done the unthinkable: grown wings.
Gossie and Gertie are friends waiting for Ollie to hatch. They try poking, listening, even sitting on top of his egg but, Ollie just won’t come out.
A girl observes and describes birds—their sizes, their colors, their shapes, the way they move and appear and disappear, and how they are most like her. She imagines what it would be like if clouds looked like birds, or if she could ask the birds questions.
This book includes lots of easy, smart ideas on how we can all work together to make the Earth feel good. It discusses planting a tree, using both sides of the paper, saving energy, and reusing old things in new ways.
This picture book shows the incredible metamorphosis that occurs as a tadpole loses its fishy tail and gills and becomes a frog.
Mayumie and her grandmother take a trip into Tokyo to see cherry blossoms flowering in the heart of the city.
This book teaches kids to speak up and stand up for those who can’t. With a recycling-friendly “Go Green” message, The Lorax allows young readers to experience the beauty of the Truffula Trees and the danger of taking our earth for granted.
Come explore the amazing world of bugs with this book. The bugs in this book include hungry caterpillars, busy ants, and graceful dragonflies.
Little chick may be the smallest chick on the farm, but she doesn’t know it. What she does know is that she can chirp the loudest, eat the most, and stand the tallest.
Springtime is here, and Zinnia can’t wait to plant her seeds and watch them grow. She takes care of her garden by watering her plants, weeding, and waiting patiently for something to sprout. Soon, the first seedlings appear!
