Casares, 4-year-olds need lots of opportunities to learn healthy social skills, how to take turns, accommodating other friends’ needs, and using kind words. Developmental Milestones: According to Dr.Look at the toy's packaging to ensure your child is within the recommended age range and avoid sharp edges on the actual toy. Thankfully, by four years old, kids are much more stable than they were as toddlers (and are much better about putting small toys in their mouths), but they should still only be playing with toys appropriate for their age and development. Safety: Safety is always the most important thing to consider when shopping for toys for kids.What to Look for in Educational Toys for 4-Year-Olds Safety and Convenience Assessment: We considered age recommendations, ease of use, toy safety, interests, and value when reviewing products. Design and Features Research: After reviewing guidance and insights from our expert, the CDC, and parents, we studied the design and features of more than 40 educational toys for preschoolers and kids in Pre-K.We also wanted to know which brands families consistently buy from and what brings them back year after year. Parent Survey: We surveyed 875 parents to learn more about what toys their children play with, how they play with the toys, and why they love them.We also reviewed guidance from the CDC on developmental milestones for 4-year-olds. Expert Input: We spoke with Whitney Casares, MD, MPH, pediatrician, author of “Doing It All: Stop Over-Functioning, and Become the Mom and Person You’re Meant to Be" (releasing January 23, 2024) and founder of Modern Mommy Doc.How We Selected and Tested Educational Toys for 4-Year-Olds When reviewing products, we carefully considered age recommendations, toy safety, ease of use, interests, milestones, and value. Moreover, we reviewed guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on 4-year-old developmental milestones and researched the design and features of more than 40 toys on the market. In order to select the best educational toys for 4-year-olds, we surveyed 875 parents to learn more about what brands their families buy from year after year and the toys their children love and why they play with them. Choosing the right educational toy can be the missing piece in helping your child meet their 4-year-old developmental milestones, like pretending to be something or someone else during play or naming a few colors of items. The best educational toys engage kids in their hobbies and interests and develop their gross motor, fine motor, and social skills. With the Paper Roller Coasters: Kinetic and Potential Energy lesson (or activity), students build their own model paper roller coasters and explore how conservation of energy applies in terms of gravitational potential energy, kinetic energy, and friction.From building blocks to board games to activity kits, there are many educational toys for 4-year-olds on the market. 13 Lesson Plans and STEM Activities to Teach About Potential and Kinetic Energy Lesson Plans offer NGSS alignment, contain background materials to inspire confidence in teachers even in areas that may be new to them, and include supplemental resources like worksheets, videos, discussion questions, and assessment materials. Note: Science Buddies Lesson Plans contain materials to support educators leading hands-on STEM learning with students. These activities and NGSS-aligned lesson plans help educators create hands-on learning opportunities to teach about potential and kinetic energy in the classroom, as part of remote learning, or for independent or family exploration at home. When students stretch something, and it flies into the distance, or roll a marble down a paper roller coaster and watch to see if it can travel up the incline of a loop, they see the science in action and can investigate, hands-on, how changing different variables affects the speed, distance traveled, or momentum of an object. This is an area of science where getting hands-on with the storage, transfer, and release of energy really helps students connect with what is happening. What happens when you stretch a rubber band and let it go? Why? Explaining how energy is stored and transferred and how that relates to the movement and momentum of objects in motion involves understanding potential and kinetic energy.
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