Please Touch Science Center

The frogs needed a home.  They could not live on my kitchen counters any longer.  So I went thrifting, and bought a solid oak bookshelf.  After clearing space for it in the living room, the Science Center was born.

I want the shelf to be an interactive learning area for my kids, so I know that the items on this shelf will change as they grow.  For now, our shelf is even a bit bare as we work on learning how to use the shelf respectfully.

To go along with our frog aquarium, I printed and laminated some posters.  I chose these posters for their realism and variety.  The Frog Life Cycle poster came from The Helpful Garden.  I like the design of it and the use of photos.  The Frog Skeleton was chosen because Skimmer is obsessed with bones.  All of the kids are familiar with the human body, so the poster is meaningful to them in its differences.  I was very excited to find the drawing featuring the Tree Frogs of North America.  It's been neat to spend time comparing them and talking about where they live.

Bullfrog (my husband) found the yellow jacket hive this spring and brought it in the house.  I has been on our bookshelf, but that wasn't a great home for it.  I painted a dollar store clipboard with white acrylic paint and hot glued the hive onto it.  I love the way it looks and how many layers of hives are connected together.  There's even a wasp nest on the top.

To go with the hive, I printed off the Bee Life Cycle chart from Encyclopedia Britannic.  I like how this one shows the different bees involved in the process, almost like a factory.

It will be great to have the shelf for all of our treasures.  I have nests, shells, bones, life cycle sets, and similar things stashed all over the house.  The main rule of our Science Center is that the thing on the shelf need to stay in that area (they're tools not toys).  While we practice that rule, I only have two things on our shelf- the cricket cage and a large seashell.  I make shadow mats and labels for those two items so we can practice putting the things back in the right place.  As we get used to having the Science Center, we'll add more things.

My hope is that we can put things on the shelf for our weekly/monthly Science units throughout the year.  I'd also like to have books specific to our themes too.  I'm very excited about the potential.







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