Everyday Learning with Buttons
If you’ve got a collection of buttons hiding in your sewing kit or collecting dust on a shelf, pull them out and try jumpstarting a lesson in history, science, arts, and more. It’s fun to incorporate ordinary items into your everyday learning, and it reinforces the idea that learning happens continuously. How much classroom mileage can you get out of a simple button?
History
You can check out this brief guide to the history of buttons and use it to take your studies further by picking a time period to research.
This infographic includes basic rules of button style and some fun facts about creative button uses.
One of the most fascinating and unique ways in which buttons are used is in historical and modern military uniforms. You can check out this image bank of over 100 Revolutionary war military buttons.
Science & Math
This mesmerizing video demonstrates a variety of ways plastic buttons are mass-produced.
Put a stray button to good use and explore the sciences of sound and potential and kinetic energy with this simple singing button experiment.
There are many ways buttons can be used in a math lesson, whether by practicing sorting and classification, practicing basic math, or visualizing concepts like fractions and percentages.
Did buttons cause Napoleon’s Russian campaign to fail? Explore the chemistry of different materials and how it relates to “the world’s biggest wardrobe malfunction” in this video from Science Xplained.
Language & Arts
These fun button doll and button caterpillar crafts are a fun way to engage little hands and practice fine motor skills, sorting, color identification, and more.
Share a sweet story featuring buttons in family reading time or as a bedtime story.
Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by James Dean and Eric Litwin
“A Lost Button” from Frog and Toad Are Friends by Arnold Lobel
The Button Box by Margarette S. Reid
