• Anatomy
• Motor Skill Development
• Spatial Awareness

• Anatomy
• Motor Skill Development
• Spatial Awareness

• Anatomy
• Motor Skill Development
• Spartial Awareness

• For early learners, use EDDIE to teach colors, shapes and textures and the concepts of under, over and through.
• Crawl/walk through major areas inside the body talk about the major parts of each – the heart, the brain, the stomach.
• While playing in the stomach, ask your child to identify the foods present. Talk about where food goes when we eat it or why eating good foods is important.
• Have your child identify eyes, ears, nose, etc. on their body and them point them out on EDDIE. Ask what’s different or similar.

• Enter each area of EDDIE and ask your child what they know about things like the nervous system, the circulatory system, etc.
• Trace the pathway of blood in the circulatory system and around the heart. Discuss why some of the blood is colored blue and some is colored red.
• While playing in the stomach, ask your child to imagine EDDIE eating ice cream or drinking milk while you are inside. What would that be like. What would happen in the stomach?
• Build motor skills and repetitive pattern awareness with a climb through Eddie’s spinal column and vertebrae.

• Enter each area of EDDIE and ask your child what they know about things like the nervous system, the circulatory system, etc.
• While exploring EDDIE, ask you to identify/discuss the eight systems of the human body: circulatory, immune, skeletal, muscular, endocrine, digestive, nervous and respiratory.
• Start a conversation with your child about how and why the body systems work together. What would happen if one of the systems stopped working properly?
• Have your child talk about ways to maintain a healthy, brain, heart, stomach, etc.

• Toes, Ears and Nose
  By Marion Bauer

• The Skeleton Inside You
  By Philip Balestrino
• Hear Your Heart
  By Paul Showers

• Human Body: A Visual Encyclopedia
  DK. Publishing
• The Circulatory Story
  By Mary Corcoran

• Encourage your childe to engage in tumbling, running and jumping games to build muscle, coordination, and increase circulation.
• Help your child learn about their teeth. Talk about how baby teeth get replaced by adult teeth as they get older.
• Talk about the trip through EDDIE. Have your child sit on the floor like EDDIE and pretend that tiny people are walking from their toes all the way up to the top of their head. Ask them to describe what the tiny people might be seeing.

• Encourage your childe to engage in tumbling, running and jumping games to build muscle, coordination, and increase circulation.
• Try to apply learned techniques of crawling through Eddie’s body to learning to use your local playground, park, or backyard playground equipment to further motor skills.
• Compare heart rate and respiration after a casual walk and after a run. Talk about how the respiratory and cardiovascular systems work together.

• Encourage your child to engage in tumbling, running and jumping games to build muscle, coordination, and increase circulation.
• Have your child sit in a chair and close their eyes. Test their recall of their journey through EDDIE and have them describe each body system the visited. Talk about major functions of each.
• Compare heart rate and respiration after a casual walk and after a run. Talk about how the respiratory and cardiovascular systems work together.

• Boeing 757 Classic Cockpit: Get a pilot’s eye view from a real flight deck and experience Columbia’s best view of the Gervais Street Bridge.
• Simulators: Test your piloting skills and feel the sensation of flight in three Boeing 777 flight simulators.
• Test Flight Zone: Build and test the flying ability of your own paper airplanes.
• Manufacturing Zone: Work with the latest robotic technology used to build airplanes right here in South Carolina.
• Wind Tunnel: Put on wings and feel the effects of the wind’s power.
• Video wall: See Greater Columbia area from a pilot’s view.

• Boeing 757 Classic Cockpit: Get a pilot’s eye view from a real flight deck and experience Columbia’s best view of the Gervais Street Bridge.
• Simulators: Test your piloting skills and feel the sensation of flight in three Boeing 777 flight simulators.
• Test Flight Zone: Build and test the flying ability of your own paper airplanes.
• Manufacturing Zone: Work with the latest robotic technology used to build airplanes right here in South Carolina.
• Wind Tunnel: Put on wings and feel the effects of the wind’s power.
• Video wall: See Greater Columbia area from a pilot’s view.

• Boeing 757 Classic Cockpit: Get a pilot’s eye view from a real flight deck and experience Columbia’s best view of the Gervais Street Bridge.
• Simulators: Test your piloting skills and feel the sensation of flight in three Boeing 777 flight simulators.
• Test Flight Zone: Build and test

• Become a pilot by having puppets, stuffed animals, or dolls as passengers.
• Make model planes using recyclable materials such as popsicle sticks.
• Create Straw Rockets.
• Create Paper Helicopters using paper from around the home and paperclips.
• Create Parachutes using paper towel and string.

• Design paper airlines using newspaper or paper from around the home. Search for designs online.
• Create Straw Rockets.
• Create Paper Helicopters using paper around the home and paperclips.
• Create Parachutes using paper towel and string.
• If technology is present in the home, download the coding software game, Kodu.

• Use the internet to search paper plane designs and have your child construct the models using recyclable materials.
• Create Paper Helicopters using paper around the home and paperclips.
• Create Parachutes using paper towel and string.

• The Little Airplane by Lois Lenski
• My First Airplane Ride by Patricia Hubbell
• A Day at the Airport by Richard Scarry

• Flight by Doug Sylvester
• My Plane Book by Smithsonian
• Airplanes by Patricia Hubbell

• All Aboard Airplanes by Frank Evans
• Amelia Earhart: The Legend of the Lost Aviator by Shelley Tanaka
• Flight #116 Is Down by Caroline Cooney

• Fine motor skills
• Classification skills
• Imaginative play
• Size relationships
• Nurturing skills

• Memory recall skills
• Abstract thinking.
• Analytical thinking
• Size Relationships
• Anatomy/Health & Wellness

• Memory recall skills
• Abstract thinking skills
• Analytical thinking
• Size relationships
• Anatomy/Health & Wellness

• Encourage creative role-play with your child. Help them choose a lab coat and a specific pet to care for.
• Ask your child to identify the body parts of the dog or cat they choose.
• Use the animals to compare size and discuss the concepts of little and big.
• Help your child use the instruments and pretend to to take temperatures, listen to the heartbeats, and groom the animals.

• Assist your child as they step into the role of veterinarian. Help them read the patient chart and form a diagnosis.
• Observe how dogs and cats are similar and different from each other.
• Group animals by likenesses and differences. Compare and contrast characteristics such as long hair and short hair, long tail and short tail. Look at the patient charts and compare diets of each.
• Talk about the different tools used to diagnose ailments at a vet clinic. How are x-rays helpful. Do dogs need the same kind of care as people do?

• In the role of veterinarian, ask your child some of the best ways to determine why an animal is sick or not feeling well.
• Use this experience to discuss the job of being a veterinarian. Ask your child what they think it would be like to be a doctor to animals.
• Talk about physical adaptations animals have to protect themselves. These adaptations include claws or fangs.
• Ask your child to describe some healthy and unhealthy animal characteristics (weight, behaviors, etc.). How do those things compare to health and wellness in people?

• Use illustrated books to teach your child about different kinds of dogs, cats and other animals.
• Make learning about animals a physical activity by showing your child how to walk like an elephant or hop like a kangaroo.
• Find pictures of animals from around the world. Practice mimicking the sounds of each animal with your young one.

• Begin to use/learn proper animal care with your pets at home based on what you learned in the “Wags and Whiskers” exhibit at EdVenture.
• Read age-appropriate books with your child on domestic and wild animals and compare where and how they live.
• Compare household dogs or cats to their wildlife equivalents by taking a trip to the zoo (i.e. look at wolves and lions/tigers).

• Talk with your child about the things they learned in the exhibit and best ways to care for pets at home.
• Just as people take care of animals, discuss the ways animals help take care of people, such as rescue dogs and guide dogs for the blind. Visit the library or go online to learn how these animals are trained.
• Call a local veterinarian or animal day care and ask for a tour for a great opportunity to see people who spend their day taking care of animals.

• Animals Upside Down
  By Steve Jenkins
• I Wanna Iguana
  By Karen Kaufman Orloff
• Biscuit Plays Ball
  By Alyssa Capucilli
• Biscuit and the Lost Teddy Bear
  By Alyssa Capucilli

• Mittens
  By Lola M. Schaefer
• Mittens at School
  By Lola M. Schaefer
• Happy Halloween Mittens
  By Lola M. Schaefer
• Biscuit and the Lost Teddy Bear
  By Alyssa Capucilli

• Scratch Kitten Goes to Sea
  By Jessica Green
• Hank the Cow Dog
  By Johnson Erickson
• Everything Dogs
  By Becky Baines
• Bunnicula
  By Deborah and James Howe

• Maker Works is designed for children 5 and up.

• Fine motor skills
• Problem Solving
• Cause and effect
• Core principles of physics
• Materials science
• Trial and error
• Self confidence

• Fine motor skills
• Problem Solving
• Cause and effect
• Core principles of physics
• Deductive reasoning
• Materials science
• Trial and error
• Self confidence

• Maker Works is designed for children 5 and up.
• View ideas and resources for making at home below.

• Sit with your child and make your own creation as they make theirs. Help them develop ideas by doing rather than instructing. Allow them to make their own choices.
• Encourage risk taking and testing, deconstruction, rebuilding and retesting.
• Engage in conversation about the experience of making something with no instructions. Ask how that makes them feel about what they are doing.
• In The Aha Factory, encourage experimentation with color, shape, line, texture, etc. work.

• Sit with your child and make your own creation as they make theirs. Encourage experimentation and trial and error through making, testing, deconstructing, rebuilding and retesting. Let your child determine when success has been achieved.
• Encourage your child to discuss what they are making and what they plan for the end result to be. Will it balance? Will it roll? What gave them the idea?
• Engage in conversation about the experience of making something with no instructions or experimenting with materials. Ask what professions work with experiments or build things for testing. Ask why it is important to experiment.
• In The Aha Factory, encourage experimentation with color, shape, line, texture, etc. work.

• Encourage your child to play in, crawl through and build with cardboard boxes.
• Work with open-ended construction materials like Duplo blocks or Play Dough to encourage creative thinking problem solving
• Begin to introduce simple tools like a hammer, a screwdriver, a ruler, and scissors. Demonstrate how they are used to make things.
• Have your child help measure, mix, stir, pour ingredients for cookies, cupcakes, etc. Make them aware of the tools they are using and how each has a special purpose.

• Encourage creativity and problem solving by providing just tape and cardboard and give your child the open-ended challenge to see what they can make.
• Have your child start their own maker workshop by saving and sorting bottle caps, wine corks, toilet paper/paper towel rolls, and plastic bottles to use in making.
• Use broken items, such as toys or old computers, and engage in a take-apart session. With supervision, let your child use a screwdriver to expose the inner workings of things. (Watch for any sharp or hazardous objects inside)
• Create monster dolls and other imaginative creatures by taping, gluing or wiring pieces and parts into new playthings.

• Encourage creativity and problem solving by providing just tape and cardboard and give your child the open-ended challenge to see what they can make.
• Have your child start their own maker workshop by saving and sorting bottle caps, wine corks, toilet paper/paper towel rolls, and plastic bottles to use in making.
• Use broken items, such as toys or old computers, and engage in a take-apart session. With supervision, let your child use a screwdriver to expose the inner workings of things. (Watch for any sharp or hazardous objects inside)
• Turn making into a group activity with the entire family or use it as a theme for a birthday party or sleepover.

• 10 Button Book
  by Accorsi, William
• Mouse Paint
  By Ellen Walsh

• Mistakes that Worked
  By Charlotte Foltz Jones
• The Dot
  By Peter H. Reynolds

• The Art of Tinkering
  By Karen Wilkinson & Mike Petrich
• Make:
  Magazine by Maker Media

• Social & Emotional Development
• Fine Motor Skills
• Gross Motor Skills
• Communication Skills
• Imaginative Play
• Creativity
• Self confidence

*My Backyard is designed for children 3 and younger.

*My Backyard is designed for children 3 and younger.

• Use the environments in this exhibit to help your young learner explore texture, shape and color.
• The soft-scaping of Pollywog Pond make it a perfect spot to practice crawling, sitting up and walking.
• If there isn’t a scheduled storytime happening, find a book and a cozy spot and read to your young one to increase letter and word recognition, vocabulary and concentration.
• Encourage early walkers to climb, slide, and play in areas designed to develop gross motor skills.
• The age-restricted environment creates a great place for “mingling” with others and exploring socialization and communication.
• Engage little learners by putting on a puppet show for them. Encourage older children to use their creativity to put on a puppet show for you.
• Explore spatial awareness by showing your child how to crawl under, step over, reach through the play structures throughout the space.

*My Backyard is designed for children 3 and younger.

*My Backyard is designed for children 3 and younger.

• Explore your own backyard, a park or wooded area. Collect rocks, leaves or other objects. Look and listen for birds and other wildlife.
• Use puppets or stuffed animals and dolls as characters in storytelling. After your performance, let them have a turn.
• Never miss an opportunity to read aloud to your child. Just 15 minutes a day teaches vocabulary, phonics, familiarity of the printed word, storytelling and comprehension.

*My Backyard is designed for children 3 and younger.

*My Backyard is designed for children 3 and younger.

• Boats
  By Catherine Foreman
• Little Toot
  By Hardie Gramatky
• The Tiny Seed
  By Eric Carle
• Plant a Kiss
  By Amy Krouse Rosenthal
• Growing a Rainbow
  By Lois Ehlert
• From Seed to Plant
  By Gail Gibbons
• In the Garden
  By Elizabeth Spurr
• The Great Kapok Tree
  By Lynne Cherry
• Animal Opposites
  By Petr Horacek
• Who Am I? series
  By Dorling Kindersley Publishing Inc.
• Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?
  By Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle
• The Listening Walk
  By Paul Showers
• Me and My Senses
  By Joan Sweeney
• My Five Senses
  By Aliki
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar
  By Eric Carle
• The Rainbow Fish
  By Marcus Pfiste

*My Backyard is designed for children 3 and younger.

*My Backyard is designed for children 3 and younger.

• Social & Emotional Development
• Developing Motor Skills
• Communication Skills
• Safety Awareness
• Experiential Learning through Role Play

• Concrete learning experiences
• Recall skills (memory)
• Predicting patterns and outcomes
• Technological understanding
• Fire Safety

• Analytical thinking
• Recall skills (memory)
• Predict patterns and outcomes
• Technological understanding
• Fire Safety

• Toddlers and preschoolers are not too young to begin learning about fire and life safety practices. Take advantage of the inviting atmosphere of Dalmatian Station to introduce things like the color and size of a real fire truck or what a firefighter wears. Fire can be scary, but learning about it doesn’t have to be.
• Engage the youngest of visitors by identifying colors, shapes, and other stimulating objects in the exhibit. Play a game of “I Spy” to find all the colors in the rainbow.
• Help them put on a fire jacket and explore the inside of the fire truck. Role playing broadens perceptions and encourages imagination.
• Climbing the stairs, pressing buttons, crawling through the tunnel or even being assisted for a slide down the fire pole build motor skills and encourage self-confidence.

• Explore the inside of the firetruck with your child. Inside you’ll find fire jackets for the kids to wear, and videos about real firefighters. Ride with your child in the front of the truck on an imaginary call to rescue.
• Join in on the Rookie Fire Fighter Training interactive that explains different types of fires and proper procedures for extinguishing them. Use this opportunity to emphasize that even extinguishing fires should be done in a safe way.
• Participate in the Escape Artist interactive with your child. At the conclusion, ask them what they learned. Ask them which part they enjoyed most. Dialing 911? Using the hand plates to crawl? Ask if they remember why those things are important.
• Take a seat with your child in the “Home Safe Home,” 4D theatre show. After the show, ask them what kind of things you could do at home to prevent fires from starting.
• Help your child email a fire escape plan home from the Make an Escape Plan interactive. At home, review all of the information and help them draw a floor plan of where you live to use in creating a safe escape plan.

• Encourage your child to role-play in the exhibit. Start with receiving the fire call from the dispatcher, putting on the fire equipment, driving to the fire, sliding down the fire pole, and crawling safely through the smoke tunnel. All in a day’s work for a firefighter.
• Join in on the Rookie Fire Fighter Training interactive that explains different types of fires and proper procedures for extinguishing them. Use this opportunity to emphasize that even extinguishing fires should be done in a safe way.
• Participate in the Escape Artist interactive with your child. At the conclusion, ask them what they learned. Ask them which part they enjoyed most. Dialing 911? Using the hand plates to crawl? Ask if they remember why those things were important.
• Help your child email a fire escape plan home from the Make an Escape Plan interactive. At home, review all of the information and help them draw a floor plan of where you live to use in creating a safe escape plan.

• Turn the life-saving actions of “Stop, Drop and Roll” into a game. Start with moving to music. Stop the music, just like in musical chairs. Shout “STOP. DROP. And ROLL” doing each action with your child. Applaud a successful and safe escape! Reverse roles and let your child stop the music and call out the drill.
• Show your child how different noises alert us to things. The beep of the microwave when the food is done. The ring of the doorbell or the buzz of the alarm clock. Include the sound of the smoke detector in this exercise to show it is very loud, but just another sound to get our attention.
• Teach your child about potential “hot spots” in your house that they should never play with or touch. Potential “hot spots” may include: a stove, an oven, outlets, candles, irons, matches, lighters, or a fireplace.

• Plan a visit to a local fire station. Ask the firefighters to show your child their gear, a fire truck, and other things they use in their work. Seeing an actual firefighter in a fun way will help your little one feel more confident and not afraid of firefighters in case of a true emergency.
• Show your child where smoke detectors are located in your home, and what to do when one goes off. Let them help when its time to test or replace the batteries.
• Go outside and, using what was learned at EdVenture, decide together where the best meeting place would be for everyone in the household in the event of a fire emergency. Go back inside and walk through a drill to decide the best exits to get out of the house or apartment quickly and safely.

• Plan a visit to a local fire station. Ask the firefighters to show your child their gear, a fire truck, and other things they use in their work. Seeing an actual firefighter in a fun way will help your little one feel more confident and not afraid of firefighters in case of a true emergency.
• Show your child where smoke detectors are located in your home, and what to do when one goes off. Let them help when its time to test or replace the batteries.
• Go outside and, using what was learned at EdVenture, decide together where the best meeting place would be for everyone in the household in the event of a fire emergency. Go back inside and walk through a drill to decide the best exits to get out of the house or apartment quickly and safely.

• Arthur’s Fire Drill
  By Marc Brown
• Curious George and the Firefighters
  By Margret & H.A. Rey
• Spark the Firefighter
  By Stephen Krensky
• STOP, DROP, and ROLL
  By Margery Cuyler
• The Fire Engine Book
  By Golden Books and Tibor Gergely
• Sparky the Fire Dog
  By Don Hoffman and Todd Dakins
• Clifford the Firehouse Dog
  By Norman Bridwell
• Firefighters A to Z
  By Chris L. Demarest
• Firefighter Frank
  By Monica Wellington

• Big Frank’s Fire Truck
  By Leslie McGuire
• Fireboy to the Rescue!: A Fire Safety Book
  By Edward Miller
• Sparky the Fire Dog
  By Don Hoffman and Todd Dakins
• No Dragons for Tea: Fire Safety for Kids (and Dragons)
  By Jean E Pendziwol

• The Stikmens Family Learning Fire Safety & Gets Something New
  By C Franklin Holmes Jr
• Fire! Fire!
  By Gail Gibbon

• Sharing and cooperation
• Sorting and counting
• Recognizing letters, colors, shapes and numbers
• Imaginative play/role playing

• Sharing and collaboration
• Analytical Thinking
• Imaginative play/role playing
• Classification of objects

• Reasoning and problem solving
• Social skills and collaboration
• Analytical skills
• Abstract thinking

• Role-play with your child to help build imaginative play skills.
• Engage basic math concepts by asking for two of an item, then three, then four, etc. Then, ask for combinations - one slice of bread with two tomatoes.

• Role-play with your child to build imaginative play skills. Play once then reverse roles to encourage creative thinking.
• Discuss the different roles there are in a restaurant and what they do, such as a cook, a server, customer, and hostess.

• Have your child create a balanced meal for you by preparing a plate that includes on item from each of the food groups - grains, dairy, vegetables, fruits, and protein.
• Discuss the different jobs there are in a restaurant and why each is important.

• When you and your child are sitting in a restaurant, practice using your 5 senses. What do you see? What can you hear? What do you taste? How does that feel? What do you smell?
• Practice counting and color recognition at mealtime with food items on plate.

• Have your child help you prepare meals at home. Talk about the foods being prepared and which main food group they belong to - grains, dairy, vegetables, fruits, and protein.
• When at a restaurant with your child, practice reading the menu together. See which words or food items your child knows or recognizes.

• Have your child help you prepare meals at home. Teach your child kitchen safety when it comes to slicing, chopping or grating. Model safe usage of appliances like the stove or the blender.
• When at a restaurant with your child, go over the menu together. Ask your child which meals are balanced meals. Which are high in protein? Which contain grains?

• Happy Belly Happy Smile
  By Rachel Isadora
• Blueberries for Sal
  By Robert McCloskey
• Dinosaur Diner
  By Annie Kubler

• Bee Bim Bop
  By Linda Sue
• Blueberries for Sal
  By Robert McCloskey
• Growing Vegetable Soup
  By Lois Ehlert

• Fine and gross motor skills
• Spatial awareness
• Classification of objects
• Sorting and counting

• Spatial awareness
• Vocabulary development
• Cognitive development
• Classification of objects

• Reasoning and problem solving
• Social awareness and collaboration
• Analytical skills
• Cause and effect

• Ask your child to find specific food items based on color – a red apple, a yellow banana, etc.
• Role-play with your child and become a stocker straightening the shelves, a store manager, a cashier, etc.
• Have young walkers use the shopping cart to balance and practice pushing the cart down the aisle.
• Have your child name each food as it goes into the cart. Ask them why they are choosing. Is the milk for the cereal? Is the apple pie for a picnic?

• Help your child learn the main good groups using the My Plate graphic on the wall. Make it a game to see if they can find foods from each group and put them in the cart.
• Role-play with your child and become a stocker straightening the shelves, a store manager, a cashier, etc.
• Practice math skill with your child with the items in the grocery cart. Ask them how many items are in the cart. How many are there if you add three more?
• Discuss the farm to table concept with your child. Ask them if they know where tomatoes come from? Where do eggs come from?

• Review the main good groups with your child using the My Plate graphic on the wall. Make it a game to see if they can find foods from each group and put them in the cart. Can they find items to create a balanced meal for under $10 at the checkout?
• Discuss the farm to table concept with your child. Ask them if they know where tomatoes come from? Where do eggs come from?
• Talk about the different jobs people have working at a grocery store. Ask which job they would pick for themselves. Get them to think about the jobs and people that make having a market in the community possible. Who grows the food. Who transports the food to the store? Who makes sure the market has electricity to operate?
• Discuss the farm to table concept with your child. Talk of fruits and vegetables grown in our state.

• Take your child with you to the grocery store. Point out different shapes and colors you see at the store. Practice counting with the items in your cart.
• Use mealtime to talk about things that are salty, sweet, sour, or bitter. It’s also the perfect time to learn where things grow – in trees, on a bush, in the ground, etc.

• Take your children grocery shopping and point out the different areas of the store. Discuss the types of foods found in each section. Will there be meat in the produce section? Why not?
• Help gather grocery store advertisement from the newspaper or magazines and have your child create their own My Plate poster. Draw a big circle and divide it by food group and then cut out and glue pictures of food to the correct section of the plate drawing.

• Before shopping, have your child help plan a meal that covers all of the main food groups. Help them make a list of all the foods and ingredients the meal will take and shop to find them at the store. This is a great time to learn about purchasing the right quantities needed, foods priced by weight, bulk packaged foods, expiration dates, etc.
• While shopping, your child can read package labels to find out things like salt or sugar content, how many servings are in a container and where the food is packaged or shipped from. Make it a challenge to spot items grown, packaged or produced in South Carolina.

• Fine and gross motor skills
• Sorting and counting
• Recognizing colors and shapes
• Communication skills
• Imaginative play
• Developing the five senses

• Gross motor skills
• Large muscle building
• Social awareness and collaboration
• Spatial awareness
• Farm to Table Concept

• Gross motor skills
• Large muscle building
• Social awareness and collaboration
• Analytical thinking
• Patterns and outcomes
• Farm to Table

• While picking peaches with your child, talk about their size, shape and color. Have them count the number of peaches they pick.
• Trying to milk the cow develops fine motor skills. Ask your child if they understand what is happening and make the connection that the milk we drink comes from cows.
• Point to the cow, and the chicken, the tractor and the busy bee. Have you child make the sounds of each.
• Develop your child’s senses. Have them touch different textures in the exhibit and have them describe how they feel - hard, soft, rough, smooth?.
  Ask your child what sounds they hear. What noise does the cow make? Ask them to look for things that are green or orange or yellow.

• Start a conversation about the top cash crops of fruits and vegetables grown in SC, including peaches, sweet potatoes, peanuts and soybeans.
• Have your child milk the cow and collect chicken eggs. Discuss other foods that animals (livestock) provide us. Discuss how food gets from the farm to our tables.
• Climbing up on the tractor engages both gross motor skills and imagination. Ask your child what they think would be the most exciting thing about being a farmer.
• Head over to the vegetable garden and plant vegetables with your child. Start a conversation with your child about what plants need to live and grow - light, water, soil nutrients, air, etc.

• Start a conversation about the top cash crops of fruits and vegetables grown in SC, including peaches, sweet potatoes, peanuts and soybeans.
• While your child is milking the cow, collecting chicken eggs, or picking peaches, start a discussion about the farm to table concept. Talk to your child about how the farm, grocery store, and diner are all related.
• Discuss how important tractors are to farming. Talk about the many ways a tractor can be used on a farm – plowing, harvesting, pulling other equipment.
• Start a conversation with your child about how important it is to buy local fruits and vegetables to support South Carolina farmers.

• Plant a vegetable garden in your yard or in a flowerpot with your child. Show them how to care for a plant and talk about all of the things a plant will need to grow and be healthy.
• Practice learning colors and counting with different fruits and vegetables. Ask your child to find the red fruit or the green vegetable. Then ask your child to pick up two fruits or vegetables, then three, and so on.
• Walk with your child at the park or down the street and point our all the different types of plants that grow everywhere. Point out that some have flowers and some just have leaves. Help collect a variey of leaves and then have your child sort them by size, color, etc.

• Make a trip to a local farmers market to see how vegetables are transported, unloaded, sorted and sold.
• Use an egg carton as a small planting container where your child can grow their own crop of their choice. Fill each hole with soil and help them plant seeds in each. Allow them to water and care for the seedlings.
• Plan an excursion to a real farm. SC has many farms for the public to pick their own fruits and vegetables. When you are there, ask what parts of the farm are like Busy Bee Farm at EdVenture.

• Visit a local farmer’s market at different times of the year. Talk with your child about how the fruits and vegetables available change with the seasons.
• Encourage healthy eating by letting your child choose vegetable from the market they would like to try. Involve them in the cooking and serving of the vegetable. Take this opportunity to talk about vitamins and other nutrients found in vegetable and fruits.
• Plan an excursion to a real farm. SC has many farms for the public to pick their own fruits and vegetables. When you are there, ask what parts of the farm are like Busy Bee Farm at EdVenture.

• John Deere Touch and Feel: Tractor
  By Parachute Press, DK Publishing
• Tremendous Tractors
  By Tony Mitton
• Farm 123
  By Parachute Press
• We’re Going to the Farmer’s Market
  By Stefan Page
• On the Farm
  By David Elliot
• Farmyard Beat
  By Lindsey Craig

• Apples
  By Gail Gibbons
• Milk: From Cow to Carton
  By Aliki
• A Weed is a Flower: The Life of George Washington Carver
  By Aliki
• Corn
  By Gail Gibbons
• To Market, to Market
  By Nikki McClure

• Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer
• By Kelly Jones
• Farmer Boy
  By Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Harris and Me
  By Gary Paulsen
• Seedfolks
  By Paul Fleischman

• Print awareness
• Picture/story association
• Word sound recognition
• Listening Skills
• Vocabulary

• Letters and letter sounds
• Building of words and sentences
• Sight words
• Comprehension skills
• Vocabulary

• Comprehension and Fluency
• Sentence structure/grammar
• Vocabulary
• Verbal skills
• Written skills
• Critical thinking skills

• Get comfortable and choose a book to read aloud. Point to words and pictures. Begin building the idea that reading is fun.
• Show your child how turning pages reveals new words and pictures.
• Sit with your child on your lap and open a book. Help them point to pictures and words, building an understanding of language.

• Explain to your child that the library has books about many, many things. Show them that books are grouped by subjects and ask them to pick a book they would like to read. Get comfortable in a chair or sit on the floor and read it together!
• Read a story of your child’s choosing. Then, use the puppets to tell the story again. Repetition is an important element in learning to love reading.
• Show your child how the card scanner works and explain the purpose of a public library and all the things you can do and see there.

• Explain to your child that the library has books about many, many things. Show them that books are grouped by subjects and ask them to pick a book they would like to read. Get comfortable in a chair or sit on the floor and read it together!
• Encourage older children to act out stories or plays they have read in the library’s theater.
• After visiting other exhibits in the museum, encourage your child to locate books relating to those exhibits to further their knowledge on those topics.

• Provide books, magazines or other print materials for your child to hold, turn pages - all part of learning to love reading.
  Read aloud to your child and talk about what your are reading. This helps young children develop language and thinking skills. Visit your neighborhood library with your child. Check out books regularly to help your child understand the importance and wonders of reading. Reading daily with young children builds a strong foundation for early literacy. Reading with your young children on a regular basis will help them develop a love of reading that will support their education throughout elementary school and beyond!
• Young learners love repetition. Repeated sounds, phrases and even entire stories add another layer to the love of reading.

• Help you child learn the alphabet and phonetics by making an alphabet poster for their room. Print or draw letters they can color and paste to a poster board.
• Make regular trips to your local library. Model the process of locating a book in the library and checking it out. During another trip to the library, assist your child in completing the process themselves.
• Build you own child’s library. A single shelf of books will allow You and your child can sort your books by theme and create their own library system.

• Visit your neighborhood library with your child. Check out books regularly to help your child understand the importance and wonders of reading.
• Model the process of locating a book in the library and checking it out. Then allow your child to complete the process independently. Helping your child practice the skill of locating and checking out books, will give them confidence to continue using libraries as a resource as they get older.
• Build you own child’s library. A single shelf of books will allow you and your child to sort books by theme and create a library system.
• Research a topic of interest alongside your child at the library. Make your research a project you will work on and learn from together.

• Corduroy
  By Don Freeman
• The Cat in the Hat
  By Dr. Seuss
• Goodnight Moon
  By Margaret Wise Brown
• The Little Engine That Could
  By Watty Piper
• Green Eggs and Ham
  By Dr. Seuss
• The Snowy Day
  By Ezra Jack Keats
• Where the Wild Things Are
  By Maurice Sendak
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar
  By Eric Carle
• Guess How Much I Love You
  By Sam McBratney
• Chicka Chicka, Boom Boom
  By Bill Martin Jr. & John Archambault
• If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
  By Laura Joffe Numeroff
• The Runaway Bunny
  By Margaret Wise Brown
• Dear Zoo
  By Rod Campbell
• Pete the Cat Picture Books
  By Eric Litwin

• The Giving Tree
  By Shel Silverstein
• The Cat in the Hat
  By Dr. Seuss
• The Rainbow Fish
  By Marcus Pfister
• The Little Engine That Could
  By Watty Piper
• Green Eggs and Ham
  By Dr. Seuss
• The Snowy Day
  By Ezra Jack Keats
• Where the Wild Things Are
  By Maurice Sendak
• Stone Soup
  By Marcia Brown
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar
  By Eric Carle
• Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
  By Judith Viorst
• If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
  By Laura Joffe Numeroff
• Caps for Sale
  By Esphyr Slobodkina
• Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
  By Judi Barrett

• Charlotte’s Web
  By E.B. White
• Shiloh
  By Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
• The Nancy Drew book Series
  By Carolyn Keene
• Holes
  By Louis Sachar
• Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
  By Judy Blume
• Ramona Quimby, Age 8
  By Beverly Cleary
• The Chronicles of Narnia Series
  By C.S. Lewis
• Frindle
  By Andrew Clements
• The Giver
  By Lois Lowry
• Black Beauty
  By Anna Sewell
• Jumanji
  By Chris Van Allsburg
• James and the Giant Peach
  By Ronald Dahl
• How Much is a Million?
  By David Schwartz

• Motor Skills
• Spatial awareness
• Muscle and bone development
• Cognitive development

• Recall skills (memory)
• Concrete learning experiences
• Muscle development
• Pattern recognition

• Analytical skills
• Recall skills (memory)
• Pattern Recognition
• Mechanical understanding

• Encourage your child to play with the ball ramp on the wall. Have a race with them and ask which ball will win.
• Sit in the car with your child and let them ask questions. Explain what different parts of the car do, and what keeps them safe while on the road like the seatbelt.

• Encourage your child to play with the ball ramp on the wall. Have a race with them and ask which ball will win. Encourage your child to ask questions.
• Sit in the car with your child and let them ask questions. Explain what different parts of the car do, and what keeps them safe while on the road like the seatbelt.
• Explore the gears on the wall with your child and try to build a section of linking gears together.
• Show your child the area where you can raise the car on the wall and take off the tires. Let them ask questions.

• Encourage your child to play with the ball ramp on the wall.
• Have a race with them and ask which ball will win.
• Ask why some balls are faster to finish than others.
• Encourage your child to ask questions.
• Sit in the car with your child and let them ask questions. Explain what different parts of the car do, and what makes the car run (such as gas, oil, coolant, etc.)
• Explore the gears on the wall with your child and try to build a section of linking gears together.
• Show your child the area where you can raise the car on the wall and take off the tires. Let them ask questions.

• Go over car safety with your child. Explain to them the importance of seat belts.
• Explore your method of transportation with your child. Show them the main parts of the car and explain what they do like the wheel, pedals, seatbelts, etc.

• Go over car safety with your child. Explain to them the importance of seat belts.
• Use a bicycle as an example to change a tire or clean the gears (maintenance).
• Show your child how gas is pumped into the car.

• Go over car safety with your child. Explain to them the importance of seat belts.
• Use a bicycle as an example to change a tire or clean the gears (maintenance).
• Show your child how gas is pumped into the car.

• Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks from A to Z
  By Richard Scarry
• Toot Too Beep Beep
  By Emma Garcia
• Maisy’s Race Car: A Go with Maisy
  By Lucy Cousins
• And the Cars Go…
  By William Bee

• Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things that Go
  By Richard Scarry
• Cars: Rushing! Honking! Zooming!
  By Patricia Hubbell
• Cool Cars (Amazing Machines)
  By Tony Mitton
• Peg + Cat: The Race Car Problem
  By Jennifer Oxley

• Car Science
  By Richard Hammond
• The Car
  By Gary Paulsen
• Giant Vehicles
  By Rod Green
• Construction Vehicles (How Machines Work)
  By Terry Jennings

• Imaginative play
• Fine motor skills
• Communication skills

• Imaginative play
• Self confidence
• Communication skills
• Cooperative play
• Creativity

• Imaginative play
• Communication skills
• Self confidence
• Cooperative play
• Creativity

• Encourage your child to type on the keyboards and press the buttons at the control station.

• Ask your child to make up news and weather reports
• Encourage your child to be creative in thinking of news reports
• Pretend to be a viewer of your child's news show and react to their news report

• Use this experience to discuss careers in the newsroom
• Ask your child questions about how the news gets to the viewer

• Become a reporter at home by making your own newspaper or news report

• Become a reporter at home by making your own newspaper or news report

• Become a reporter at home by making your own newspaper or news report

• Goodnight News
  By Andrea Cuadra
• The Furry News: How to Make a Newspaper
  By Lorene Leedy

• The Daring Nellie Bly: America's Star Reporterby Bonnie Christensen
• Judy Moody and Friends: Amy Namey in Ace Reporter by Megan McDonald
• Fancy Nancy: Nancy Clancy, Late-Breaking Newsby Jane O'Connor

• Muckrakers: How Ida Tardbell, Upton Sinclair, and Lincoln Steffens Helped Expose Scandal, Inspire Reform, and Invent Investigative Journalismby Ann Bausum
• 12 Great moments that changed newspaper historyby Lori Fromowitz
• Isabel Feeney, Star Reporterby Beth Fantask
• Darnell Rock Reportingby Walter Dean Myers