What We're Up to in May

Here is what we have in the classroom this month:

Our writing salt is back! This time lavender colored and scented.  My son (aka the beta tester) was using it right after it went into the classroom and I could hear him scratching away....then a big sniff.....and "Ahhhhh, this smells soooooooo good!"

Butterfly and Flower Counting Game

I used laminated butterfly shapes that were name tags last year and wrote the numbers in permanent marker with little dots.  I put 1-5 on one side and 6-10 on the other so there weren't too many materials to work with.  I also added tongs in case the children feel inclined to use them.

Our geranium-scented play dough from last month has held up really well.  I think because we spent quite a bit of time outside, but now the weather is getting hot and we'll be back indoors, so we're giving it another try.  I've just replaced the egg cookie cutter with a butterfly.

Our bug sensory bin is always loads of fun!  Shredded paper, plastic bugs, trees and rocks and some tree blocks, made by my big brother, to bring in some nature.

Butterfly Pattern Match Game

I printed these butterflies from Preschool Printables.  They're meant to be a file folder game, but they work wonderfully on the light table.  Laminated and ready to match!

Our sewing basket has been refreshed again this month.  I've added smaller versions of the flower buttons used the Butterfly and Flower Counting Game to replace our regular buttons.  I also found a fancy flower pin cushion to keep our tapestry needle for button-sewing safe and sound.

I made this little felted bee last year along with the felted turtles pictured below.  The idea for these happy little fellows came from my curriculum purchased from Little Acorn Learning.  I love adding little Waldorf-Inspired elements into the classroom when I can find the time to make them.

A Week of Weather: Day 1 - Wind

According to the curriculum I purchase from Little Acorn Learning, one week this month is supposed to be dedicated to rain.  I live in the desert.  We don't have rain - unless it's monsoon season - so it's a bit difficult to fill a week with rain activities and keep the children interested.  I decided to expand upon the theme and cover weather in general.

Day 1 of this Week of Weather was all about WIND!  We have quite a bit of that here in the Phoenix, AZ area, and we've had some very windy days in the past few weeks, so I knew it would be in the recent memories of the kiddos.

I set up the light table with a heavy/light experimentation area.

I also provided a straw for each child.  A note about wind experiments: be prepared for spit.  Blowing through a straw without saliva interfering is very difficult for the little ones, so have your anti-bacterial wipes ready.

The children tried to move everything around on the table and we talked about what moved and what didn't - light things and heavy things.  My son decided that he didn't like the fact that he couldn't knock over that little tower of blocks, so he just leaned in and sneakily bumped it with the bottom of his straw!  We were surprised that we could move the small wooden cars with our ''wind", but not the train cars from our set of Prism Blocks.

Feathers were the favorite!  I plan to have this area open for the remainder of the week, and I think I'll provide a few more feathers and perhaps attempt a 'catch wall' around the perimeter of the light table - there was a lot of bending to pick up on my part, BUT, all in the name of science!



 
Since we were on a roll with those straws, we tried some "Wind Painting".  This is a super-easy project that works best with older kids; however, if you do it with a class of two-year-olds as I did, hilarity will definitely ensue and they will have a blast anyway!

We used finger paint paper (taped down) - to provide a slick surface so the paint wouldn't be immediately absorbed - and liquid watercolors.  If you have older children, you could have them drop the paint on the paper themselves, but since I had all little ones, I wanted them to focus on the "wind" portion, so I dished out the colors as they asked for them - bonus color lesson!  Teal, Fuchsia, Tangerine and Violet!

What an awesome technique!!  The kids loved it and they were so proud once they finally got the hang of it and were able to move that paint across the paper!

Check out that powerful wind action!!





Happy Earth Day!

Next up:  Clouds!

15 Preschool Light Table Ideas

Here are just a few of the ways we've used our light table in the classroom.

 Glass beads (Dollar Tree) and a clear divider tray.

 Sensory bottles/bags.

 Water beads - sorting and scooping.

Fireflies in a Jar

Laminated fall leaves for science exploration.

Money and glass beads with clear sorting tray.

Translucent letters and color paddles.

Translucent mosaic tiles.

Mosaic tiles with mirror.

Crystal Climbers

Translucent Tangrams

Translucent gak/goop/slime - replace white glue with clear glue.

Magnet wand with magnetic discs - play silk over table.

Prism Blocks

Gelatin Rainbows

Fireflies in a Jar: Black Lights and Water Beads

We did this activity last year, but I've had quite a few folks ask about it, so I thought I'd share, especially since our bug themes are fast approaching.

A lovely friend informed me that if I soaked clear water beads in tonic water, they would glow under black lights.  I happen to have black lights that fit perfectly inside my light table, so I thought I'd try it out last summer for our unit on fireflies.

I let the water beads soak overnight and had the children count 10 for their small baby food jar, then I filled the jar with water, glued the lid and set up the light table.  For my son, we used the light table at night, but for class during the day, I created a 'tent' over the light table with a dark blanket, so the kiddos could watch their 'fireflies' in action.

The water in the jars did eventually get a bit icky, so I had to dispose of our lovely fireflies, but they were amazing while they lasted!

Gelatin Rainbows

March has become one of my favorite months living in Arizona, I suppose that's because it's fairly reminiscent of early spring in Pennsylvania where I grew up.  I love the chilly mornings and sitting in the warm sunshine with my coffee watching my little ones play.  I also love rainbows, something we hear a lot about in March and something I've seen more of in my few years in Arizona than my entire life prior.

I really wanted a blog-worthy post to kick things off, so I decided to pull out a project I did three years ago when I first moved into my new home and had a huge, bright preschool space in which to work.  I had a grand total of two students at the time and my first son was only 5 months old.  Little did I know then that I probably should have taken some notes.....ahhh, hindsight.

And so, without further ado, my *almost* blog-worthy post: Gelatin Rainbows

You will need unflavored gelatin, pipettes, liquid watercolor and a light table (I covered mine with a white trash bag to keep it mess-free).  I followed the directions on the gelatin and made about 4c. which I placed into four separate containers - here's where hindsight would have been nice - don't follow the directions, reduce the amount of water, probably by about 1/2c. and you may want to try spraying the inside of your containers with cooking spray - the reason for that will be quite clear very soon.

Moving on... I assembled all of our supplies before class so we could get involved before the kids headed outside, which is where they've been spending most of their time lately.  I put the liquid watercolor in ice cube trays and set everything up on the covered light table.


Remember when I said spray your containers with cooking spray?  Yeah, here's why...

That's what my first attempt at removing the gelatin from the container looked like.......FAIL!  Ok, so let's try this again...

Ahh, better, so time to get the kids involved, I explained that we were going to 'inject' the gelatin with rainbows of color....a quick demo....and....go!!!

And here's where I noticed that maybe I should have reduced the amount of water in the gelatin recipe....

See all that liquid watercolor around the bottom of the gel block?  Ummmm, that's not supposed to happen....there are supposed to be these cool tunnels of color in there.....like one of those space-age ant hills they sell now.....

See? Rivulets of color!!!  Not whatever is happening here.....

Ok, so not exactly what I had in mind, but still way cool, yes??  The kids thought so.

The first thing that threw them for a loop was the ONE pipette I gave them.  I will admit that I'm just a tad obsessive when it comes to keeping paints separated when in bowls/trays/etc.  Once the paint is on your paper, have at it, but keep my pretty tray untainted, please!  Anyway, the point of this exercise IS mixing colors, so one pipette it was.  I even had one kiddo ask, "What if I want a different color?"  Oops, time to simmer down on the cleanliness, Miss Lindsey!

Once they got the hang of it, they really got into it. "Look at!  We're making rainbows!"  "What color is this?? Oh! Blue!"  "Are we making holes?"

There was also quite a bit of talk about color mixing, "I made darker red mixed with purple!" "I made green: I dipped into blue and then into yellow and it made into green!!"  "Miss Lindsey, orange and blue makes brown!"  Ok, so that last one might not be on the standard color mixing lesson plan, but it was one he'll probably remember because he discovered it himself.

After a bit, they were ready to move beyond the rainbow-making and wondered what it would feel like.  Someone ventured a guess, "I think it's gonna feel like to me....gooey stuff."  Probably not too far off, but then they decided to find out first-hand....

After a few minutes of squishing and smooshing, they were ready to head outside, but I promised that our next adventure into gelatin rainbows would be Rainbow Gelatin Sensory Tubs.  Perhaps another post on that to come!

Miss Lindsey


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