August Review/Giveaway... in September!

Each month, the Guidecraft Educators will share our honest feelings about a Guidecraft product(s) and how these products would fare in an early childhood classroom. This month's selection was our choice.. .something we were really interested in!  I selected the Modular Science Center.

Well... better late than never, I suppose!  Things have been crazy so it took me a while to get this post/review done up - I was so excited about incorporating the Modular Science Center into the classroom that I wanted to show it all set up in my post... and that took a while getting done!

The product I selected for my August review was Guidecraft's Modular Science Center, as I've been trying to get better at incorporating science into my Head Start classroom... it seems to be a real attention-getting area in the room, so I'm hoping that it's more meaningful this year!

The Modular Science Center is a four piece unit that easily comes apart, yet holds together tight enough that the children are not constantly taking it apart!  That's a plus in my room!

I had a helper in putting it together - a five-year old I was watching for the day that had FAR more energy that myself... I decided to put him to work being constructive and he was ALL about using the tools and putting the science center together.  With the exception of my tightening a few places and getting each individual component set up, he put the whole thing together!  That goes to show just how easily this piece of equipment sets up - although there was a lack excitement over the size of the Allen Wrench... according to my helper, we needed a bigger screw driver!

Once the Modular Science Center was placed in my room, it was a matter of deciding what to place on it... when scavenging our storage closet, there really didn't seem to be a lot of appropriate exploratory materials, so I decided to turn the task of filling the science center into the hands of the children.  I sent them all home after the first week of classes with an assignment... the family was to take a Nature Scavenger Hunt and return with a bag of their findings... by far one of my most successfully returned assignments EVER!!!  Many of the families spent more than an HOUR on this... needless to say, our science center is now full of findings and treasures... rocks, flowers, sticks, seeds, etc, and of course, something the children found beautiful and something the children found to be a treasure (one of which is a photo of one of our children with two cousins, as they used the activity as a family get-together)!  The empty shelf in the picture is no longer empty... the scavenger hunt findings are STILL trickling in!

We plan on sending the children and families on many more Nature Scavenger Hunts throughout the year to replenish/refresh our supplies... hopefully they will find them just as enjoyable!

So... what do other 'Guidecraft Educators' have to say about their selected August products??? (we each reviewed a product of our choosing)?

Maureen at Simply Stacie
Andrea at MommyPR
Deborah at Teach Preschool
Carrie from Huppie Mama
Jody from Mommy Moment
Candace at Mamanista!
Lisa from Planet Weidknecht
Vanessa from Pre-K Pages

The Giveaway

Guidecraft is generously offering ONE lucky reader of the Guidecraft Educators a chance to win one of these fabulous Modular Science Centers!!! To enter, comment on this post, sharing one of your favorite science-related items to explore with preschool aged children!

You have until Saturday, September 29 @ 11:59PM eastern time to enter.  Be sure to leave an email address so I can contact you if you are the winner!

Or... if you just can't wait to win one and NEED them now, they can be purchased online at: 

Guidecraft.com or Amazon.com

Tweet If you're interested in finding out more information about any of the books reviewed or if you'd like to purchase the books, click the cover image for a link to Amazon.com. I am an Amazon Affiliate, so any purchases you make after clicking these images will result in my receiving a small percentage of the sale price!