Science Seekers

“Learning science is fundamental to understanding the world in which we live and work.” - Science in the New Zealand Curriculum

The Polkadots Science curriculum teaches children and parents how to develop skills such as investigating, information gathering, processing and interpreting, classifying and reporting.

The more we can expose young children to scientific concepts, language and opportunities, the more confident they will be to explore science in later years.

Science Seekers provides practical, achievable activity ideas that teach your child, in a fun yet challenging way, to use scientific concepts and techniques in everyday situations.

Key concepts of the Polkadots Science Curriculum

Earth Science – Solar System: Day & Night, Light & Shadow and What’s our earth made of?

Life Science – Plants and Gardens, Humans and Animals

Physical Science – Movement & Motion, Mixing Substances

Science Seekers products are due for release toward the middle of November 2010

Adults and children, alike, learn best when they experience something first hand. You can read theory, you can hear of other experiences, but it’s not until you really get hands-on experience that you internalize and make sense of the new information you are acquiring.

Polkadots has taken this into consideration on many levels. First of all, we realize that without physically trying a Polkadots Podule first, you won’t really know or believe how much value it can add to your child’s development and the time you spend with your child. So we have made ‘Seasons Sing’ Podule Sampler available to everyone to try, free of charge, so you can really experience what Podules can offer you and your child.

Podules have been designed to enable you and your child to experience the core elements of curriculum in a hands-on, holistic approach. Learn about chemical change as you engage in a guided science experiment. Learn how your body can become stronger as you test and strengthen different muscle groups in a Body Bop obstacle course.

Polkadots wants to give your child the opportunity to learn about and experience their world through fun, interactive activities, songs, dance, and stories that you can teach and facilitate yourselves, becoming your child’s number one teacher!

Follow this link to download or order your Free Seasons Sing Podule Sampler today! http://www.polkadots.co.nz/seasons-sing-podule-download.html

The Polkadots are often asked of they write their own songs.  The answer is “YES”. We have written the lyrics and composed the tunes for nearly fifty songs in the last year (plus three remixes of familiar Christmas songs to make them our ‘own’). We do have a little process we go through to create our songs and we find it works a treat for making sure we create tunes and lyrics that both children and parents are drawn to and enjoy listening to.

Whenever we start a new album we look at the curriculum or the content we want to cover throughout the whole album. In the case of our Christmas album we wanted songs that identified with the excitement and feelings of Christmas – gratitude, celebration, anticipation, love.

We then each take a different concept and decide what genre of music we want to use as a base as we like to introduce children to as many different types of music styles as we can, (Latin, Rock ‘n Roll, Jazz etc.)

Once the basic lyric concepts and melody ideas are in place we bring them together, as a group, and have a jam session with our children . . . if the children aren’t soon singing and grooving to the song, we take it back to the drawing board and rework it, till the children respond. Then we know we have a winner!

Polkadots Newsletter ~ Volume 1

What is a Podule?

The question is on everyone’s lips. Polkadots Podules are a new and innovative approach to teaching and learning for pre-schoolers and their parents. All of the music, books activities and activity materials, based around a specific curriculum area, are in one place, ready to use at your convenience. Podules can be bought in a downloadable or hard copy format.

You often want to have meaningful and educational interactions with your children but the ideas aren’t coming to you, or you don’t have the time to organize everything! Polkadots has done a lot of the preparation for you by assembling learning resources on a specific topic, in the one place (a Podule), so that precious time with your pre-schooler can be more interactive, more fun and more educational, giving them a real head start on their formal education.

At first glance, there is so much material available in a Podule that some might shy away from it with the thought of “too much to take in!” What parents using the materials have found, and is our intention, that you can use small amounts like songs or just the storybook when convenient or use the entire lesson plan for really comprehensive learning. It’s as relaxed or as intensive as you want it to be . . . or as your child demands. You might be surprised at how they respond to a complete lesson with your full attention and at what they talk to you about afterwards as you continue to play songs and build on activities. Repetition lends to retention and children actually will say and do extraordinary things . . . when they are given extraordinary things to do.

Watch our PODule Promo video at www.polkadots.co.nz then follow the link and instructions and you will be up and running in no time!

You can also click on the Tell a Friend button and let your friends know there is a great free Podule they can get!