I get so excited when I go to the dollar store and find something that I just know will help teachers. These DIY microscope boxes add a lot of learning to your preschool science center with very little cost. What more could teachers ask for? I mean other than a livable wage, but let’s not get into that today!
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Last year I bought this microscope, and my students adored it. It was such a perfect addition to our preschool science center, and I even have a great list of things to investigate under the microscope, but some things I couldn’t add to it because they just weren’t sturdy enough for students to handle. Until now!
I found little crystal clear containers at the dollar store, and they are perfect.
Now before we continue, these are NOT for toddlers who are still putting things in their mouths because they are choking hazards, but I hope you take this idea and find containers big enough because this worked so well! You can put all kinds of rad things in these little containers and make them classroom ready to investigate. The tops can easily be glued on to keep students from opening them up.
Gather your materials. You will need some small clear containers, bits of nature, a tray ( I love using cookie sheets to keep things in a designated spot), and of course the microscope.
Start by gathering bits of nature, you can do this solo or with your students.
Pop them in the little containers.
The plastic enlarges them a little all on its own.
Pop them next to the microscope as an invitation to investigate!
Photos simply do not do this justice, it’s SO cool in person, and it cost me $1. ONE DOLLAR!
For more preschool science center ideas check this post out and for even more things to investigate under this amazing microscope see my list here!
Need some STEM books to go with your science center too?
Click the image above or right here for the book list of great titles for your classroom.
Terry says
Which dollar store did you find these at?
Allison McDonald says
Dollar Tree 🙂
Trisha Cooper says
Awesome! I ordered the microscope right after reading this post. Thanks…I’m excited to add this to put science center!
Trisha Cooper says
To OUR science center! Sorry…auto check.
Faye says
I purchased this microscope last year and it is a huge hit with my daycare children. I sometimes have to remind them to turn off the light, but that’s okay. I love the idea of using these small containers as little fingers seem to destroy nature collections LOL. I’ll have to dig through my daycare stockpile to find the containers that I purchased; I didn’t have any idea what I was going to do with them…until now 😀
Allison McDonald says
That’s so great you already have them! I never put batteries in our microscope so my students never even knew there was a light!