Ice Art

We made some seriously stellar art this week and used lots and LOTS of ice!!  I'm sure my hubby is glad to be able to open the freezer without a bag of brightly colored or fun shaped ice dropping on him. :)

Our first project we've done before, but it's too awesome not to repeat: Watercolor Ice Balls!  A preschool parent found this idea HERE and it was a huge hit with the class the first time around.  I must say, the second time around was equally amazing.

We had just read our Let's Find Out class magazine from Scholastic about a city made completely from ice.  The ice buildings are lit up with colorful lights, so we made our very own colorful ice!  Part science, part art, all FUN!

Sprinkle on some salt, watch the cracks and crevices form and fill them with liquid watercolor - easy!

I also discovered that this activity lasted much longer if I gave the ice balls an occasional rinse with water.  Once the children had a blank canvas again, they were eager to continue adding colors.  Monkey sat with this one for a good half hour!

For our next icy art project, we colored with markers and then 'painted' over our pictures with ice.  The ice causes the markers to bleed, softening the drawing and making it look like watercolors.

How about some ice cube painting??!!  I used my star-shaped ice cube trays with water and some liquid watercolor and added tiny craft sticks to make it easier (and warmer) for little hands.  Here's a tip: let the cubes sit for a few minutes before starting to paint.  Once they've begun to melt, the color glides onto the paper smoothly.

Our final icy art project, Ice Sculpture, isn't actually ice at all.

These are corn starch packing peanuts that just happened to show up in a box last week.  I decided "ice" sculpting sounded like a wonderful way to start our next class.  Just a tiny dab of water and these peanuts stick together to create anything a child can imagine!

Even toddlers can get in on the sculpting action!

My students went home with extremely impressive sculptures!  I wish I had pictures of all of them!

Preschool Science: Water!

We had a blast last week exploring all things water and ice!  I think next year, I will have to expand this topic for at least another week, we did so much and there is still so much left to discover!

We started the week off with an Absorb/Repel Exploration Station, inspired by Little Bins for Little Hands.  I set up a variety of items including foil, foam, a sponge, a tissue, a cloth napkin, a plastic bag, a wooden block, a plastic block, parchment paper, construction paper and bubble wrap.  I secured everything to the table and gave the children a bowl of water and a pipette and the testing began.

As they tested, we used the words ABSORB and REPEL.  Bear was surprised that the parchment paper repelled at first, but after a while, absorbed the water he had put on it earlier.  He kept testing and testing, just to be sure it would happen every time.

After all of our testing was complete, we documented our findings in our science journals.

To further demonstrate absorption, we built sugar cube towers and added some water and food coloring.  Then we watched.

I think I got a bit excited about the rapid absorption and we ended up with a puddle.

But then we added a new word to our science adventures: DISSOLVE!!

The second time around, I was a bit more conservative and our towers stayed upright.

It took a loooooooong time, but that color did finally make its way up to the second cube.

Later in the week, we had a Float/Sink Exploration Station.  

I used a few fun holiday items we had around the classroom as well as a penny, rock, marble, plastic lid, wooden bead, plastic shape cutter, etc.  Anything would work as long as there is a balance of items that will sink and float.

I nearly had to drag the kiddos away from this one to document!!

More water and ice fun coming soon!

Magnetic Names Sensory Play

Part of our December curriculum is focusing a bit more on the kiddos' names.  I created a magnetic letter sensory bin - also known as 'fishing for letters'.

The bin contains leftover rainbow rice, magnetic letters, magnetic wands and laminated name cards for each child which match the letters.

Basically, each child finds the correct name card and uses the magnet wand to 'catch' a letter.  They either match the letter to the card or 'throw it back' until they have filled their whole name.

At first the children were a bit thrown off by the contents of the table.  Usually, there are ways to scoop, pour and measure our sensory items, but after a quick explanation and the addition of a 'table' to hold the name cards, they were off and 'fishing'!

Whatever the Weather...

We recently revisited Seasons and Weather in our lessons and activities.  Check out some of our previous adventures here:

Wind

Clouds

Rain

We did some of the same activities and added some new ones for good measure!

Last year's favorite was definitely rainbow rain, so we had to repeat that one for sure!

We made our own 'snow' using Insta-Snow Powder.  While it doesn't feel exactly like real snow, it's pretty close and certainly fun for Arizona kiddos, many of whom have never seen real snow.  As an added bonus, it's a science experiment!  Just look at that concentration trying to figure out how that itty bitty bit of powder is turning into snow!

When everyone was finished playing, I put all of the snow into our big sensory table for everyone to share!

This totally rad kid-made Sun Bread was our snack one day during weather week - so yummy!!!

Another activity we usually can't do in our area is leaf rubbing.  While there are some trees around with larger leaves, I don't personally have any nearby.  However, I do have an awesome preschool parent who was kind enough to bring me leaves when she went on vacation and I laminated them and have been using them for a couple of years now.  I was surprised to find they make absolutely perfect leaf rubbings despite being laminated!  My block crayons also make shading easy-peasy for even the youngest kiddos. :)

Whether the weather be fine,
Or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold,
Or whether the weather be hot,
We'll weather the weather
Whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not! 

- Anonymous

Now I Know My A, B, C's

I very often hear remarks such as, "Your school is play-based, so how are they going to learn anything?" or "Do you teach the children letters and numbers?" or "I do think children need to play, but what do you do for academics?"

In writing my own curriculum this year, I set out to prove that play and academics are the SAME THING!  I wanted to show that it was absolutely possible for children to learn (mostly on their own) a wide variety of things with a little help from a planned environment and opportunities for expansion when their interests were piqued.

In November, we got into some serious alphabet work.  There are always opportunities for letter work around the classroom, but this was our month to really focus.  Since Monkey is in Kindergarten this year, I've had a chance to see what the expectations will be for my students entering school and trust me when I say, things have changed since I was in school!  I had to start by learning the phonograms for the letters of the alphabet, each of them also has a corresponding hand motion.

At circle time, we quickly go over the basic phonograms using these beautiful cards.

The children enjoy the hand motions and it makes learning the sounds fun.  Of course, we also have to stop and talk about the flowers and the various insects on each card, so I suppose we're getting a botany and entomology lesson as well!

Children entering Kindergarten do NOT need to know all of the letter sounds, they don't even need to know all of the letters, but some children are ready for this information, so I offer it.

Here are some other letter activities:

Alphabet Sorting Box

I printed out some word cards and pictures for those children ready for the challenge.  My youngest students love to empty the tiny boxes and then try to put the letters back in their homes.

Magnetic Letters

Another perfect activity for a mixed age classroom.  Younger kiddos love to match, sort and line up, my older ones spell their names and end up teaching their younger classmates simply by interacting and talking.

Magnetic Alphabet Maze

An amazing fine motor/pre-writing activity.  The letters are all uppercase, making it a perfect first matching work for my little ones.

Alphabet Object Matching

I adapted this activity from something Monkey does at his Montessori school.  In the Montessori classroom, each grouping of letters is assigned a color and all of the materials are organized beautifully so the children can choose the correct work depending upon the color grouping on which they are currently working.  Visit Trillium Montessori for more examples of these activities.

Not all of my students will move into a Montessori program, but those who do will have a point of reference as my trays and letters correspond to the Montessori color groupings. 

Here, the children match upper case to lower case and then match word cards with the appropriate beginning letter.  They finish up by matching the objects to the correct word card - L for Lion, J for Jaguar, etc.

 Three-Letter Word Puzzles

I adore activities like these puzzles because a child can feel successful with very little help.  Bear is just over 2 and he is able to complete all of these puzzles based on the pictures, but he has also already learned that letters make words and words give objects their names.  Though he can't recognize most of the letters, he will often complete these puzzles, point to the letters and say, "E, L, Y....car!!"  It absolutely doesn't matter that he's totally wrong about the letters, he understands the concept of print.

Alphabet Floor Puzzle

Since we're on the subject of puzzles - let's talk about floor puzzles.  I am currently still trying to reach my goal of owning a floor puzzle for every single concept in my curriculum - and there are a LOT of concepts.  Floor puzzles are amazing in so many ways, but I especially love this one because it's a train, meaning it is looooong and the children get their whole bodies moving while trying to complete it.  They are up and down and over and crawling and side-stepping and all the while, they sing the Alphabet Song over and over so they can figure out what letter comes next. :)

Writing Sand/Salt

I have laminated cards with letters, numbers and shapes for writing practice, but the children can really write or draw whatever they want.  This sand will get changed out for sand or salt with different colors, scents, accessories, etc. just to keep things interesting.  And look at that sweet face and perfect chopstick grip! ;)

Play Dough Mats

I don't know about your kiddos, but mine would seriously work with play dough all day every day if I let them (and usually, I do).  I make fresh play dough every couple of weeks adding color, scent, texture, even taste sometimes!  We have play dough mats that I printed for free HERE.  Just search for 'printable play dough mats' and you will hit the jackpot!

And there are just a few of our awesome, playful alphabet activities!!

Autumn at Seedlings Nursery School

I am pretty sure my New Year's Resolution should be 'Blog More Frequently', but I've never been all that great at sticking to my resolutions.  I will, however, endeavor to try my best. :)

Since I'm a couple of months behind, here's just a quick glance at what we've been doing here at Seedlings.

The Phoenix Zoo brought a wonderful Zoo to You program to Seedlings and we got a chance to see a few colorful creatures up close!  It was an amazing experience for the kiddos and I plan to have the Zoo back again next year!

 

In October, we worked quite a bit on measurement with the help of our handy measuring tools.

We even had a HUGE ruler on the floor so we could measure ourselves!!

Our outdoor area got a bit of a revamp....it's not much....but the kids love it!!

We took a closer look at plant life with our Root-Vue Farm.  Despite my best efforts, our garden never really bloomed, but we did get a chance to see some roots forming.  I think I should just stick to growing beans in a baggie. :)  We documented our observations in our Science Journals, though, which always makes the children feel very official and scientific.

In November, plenty of our old favorites returned.  You can see them HERE and HERE.

We also did some popcorn transferring - check out my beautiful multicolored popcorn!  It tastes delicious too!!

And we had some Native American and English Settler small world play.

If you'd like to know where this idea came from and see it executed in a much more artistic and beautifully photographed way, check HERE.  The original idea used water beads and lots of wonderfully detailed elements, but I needed my table to last a few weeks, so water beads were replaced with blue sand for 'water' and I kept it quite simple.

More Seedlings fun coming soon!