Thunks

Odd Questions to Make the Kids Think

Developing speech and language skills are an essential part of the Early Years. Language development leads to developing story ideas, critical thinking, social skills and many more!

Thunk work towards raising children’s confidence to speak in front of groups, in full sentences and to think about topics they haven’t previously considered.

I’ve often asked the kids what colour is Tuesday, which they sometimes take literally and say the colour of the word on the board.. Other Thunks could be:

• Can you touch the wind?
• If you took the stripes off a zebra, what colour would it be? (Also tiger and spots from a leopard)
• Where do words go after you’ve heard them?

Understanding the World: Science

Sink or Float

The easiest science lesson to do with little children is the sink or float lesson. It’s a very visual lesson and once completed, you can leave the water play out for the children to experiment for themselves.

It opens a discussion about suitable materials for boats, children can make predictions and easily see the results of their predictions.

I have done this lesson with children as young as 2 years old. They enjoy the instant nature of the experiments and are able to see which objects sink or float instantly.

picture from myteacherpages.com

I wouldn’t expect children to be writing anything down about this experiment. When I do this experiment, I write a lot of notes about what they children have said, or video their predictions, and take photos of their independent play.