Cornstarch and Water Fun!

In this exploration, the children experience the ways in which cornstarch is transformed from soft, silky powder to slipper, crunchy liquid. In the process, they also observe and reflect on the beautiful creation of color.

I introduced the children to the materials. Water, cornstarch, spoons and water colors. I coached the children about moving the water from the cups onto the mixing tray. Then I demonstrated how to move the cornstarch onto the tray of water with a plastic teaspoon. The children then had the opportunity to squeeze drops of water colors onto the their tray! It was like magic when the children discovered that the white watery powder turned pink, orange and or green when the colored water meets the cornstarch and water.

During their exploration, the children used their spoon to add cornstarch into the mixing tray, and added colored water to it; they poured water in their mixing tray and squeezed the watercolors out of the bottle onto their tray! As the children explored I asked them a few questions...

-What does dry cornstarch feel like on your skin? (Hannah,"soft")
-What happens when the water meets cornstarch?( Grace,"scratchy")
-What happens when the watercolors meets the mixture of water and cornstarch? (Everyone agreed it was a beautiful and magical!)

There's a Duck ...

 in the ICE!  The children enjoy hearing the story Duck at the Door by Jackie Urbanovic.  It tells the tale of a duck that doesn't fly south with the rest of the flock for the winter.  This morning, the children found some rubber ducks that were stuck in a large piece of ice.  Could this happen if a duck decides not to fly south?

Brrrr!  The ice is very cold.  It melts when we touch it!  Over the course of the morning, the children freed the ducks from the ice and enjoyed placing them in and out of the empty spots that they left behind in the ice chunk.  They also "skated" the ducks across the "pond".

After our visit to the sanctuary to celebrate Purim together, we found that the ice was almost all gone!  The children continued to enjoy the cold water and the last chunk of ice until it was time to go outside to play.

Let the Purim fun begin!

We introduced Purim today and enjoyed some Purim fun!  We took out Mr. Parachute, made groggers, played with shaving cream, enjoyed a Purim story and listened to Purim music!

Where's the Paintbrush?

The children had an opportunity to do some finger painting this morning.  After an explanation and a brief demonstration, they understood that no brushes were necessary.  This creative opportunity has a sensory element that can be strange at first.  Sometimes we forget that children need to be exposed to new things over and over before they become comfortable and allow themselves to explore more deeply.  We plan to offer this activity on several more occasions to allow the children to become more comfortable with the medium and the experience of having wet, gooey, paint covered fingers and hands.

How do you play with mud?

Adam took charge of the Mud Ship! Guess who he pretended to be? Captain Adam Mud, of course! He sailed the Mud Ship all morning long! Allison decided to take a bath in the mud. She announced, "I am a pig taking a bath in the mud so I don't get a sunburn!" Eliza and Hannah packed mud on big rocks and called them "slippery rocks." Eli made delicious "mud cupcakes."

Everyone had their own ideas as to how to play with the mud! I can honestly say that a good time was had by all!

Watermelon Spit?

There was very little spitting of the seeds at the Watermelon Spit Booth! But one thing is for sure,

Ellen picked out a delicious watermelon! YUMMY!

Sensory Fun!

The children were so excited to submerge their feet and hands into the colorful buckets of paint!

"How does it feel?" "Wet, slimy, mushy, funny and cold!" Some of the children dipped their feet and walked on the mural paper and others just ran or danced around showing off their colorful feet!

Summer Fun!

What is white and slippery and all over my hands?

The Rainbows had a lot of fun exploring with shaving gel. The children were amazed as they saw it being squirted out of the can as the color blue. As they moved their fingers around in it they noticed something really neat-the blue became white as it was being spread around. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves and became totally immersed in spreading it all over their hands, their arms, and for some kids, their face. Their imaginations ran wild with this fun substance. The shaving gel became everything from ordinary shaving gel to blueberry yogurt, to chocolate pudding. Some of the children even pretended to shave using a spoon as the shaver! What fun!

Wrap me up!

The Rainbows experimented with a whole body sensory experience. We took a long piece of fleece fabric, laid it out on the rug, and a teacher wrapped our bodies inside. The result was a kid-in-a-blanket! The sensation of a full body cuddle or squeeze seemed to please everyone who tried it. The deep touch pressure from the blanket, and the teacher's hands as she rolled the child up provides input to the tactile or somatosensory system. It can also have a calming effect. The rotary action of the rolling stimulates the child's vestibular system. We thought it was great fun...

Gak To Go!

The Tel Aviv, Haifa, Unicorn and Sunshine children made a a bit of gak to go! We mixed and measured the ingredients together and make some of the best gak in town!

Fun With Shaving Cream

Today, the Rainbows enjoyed exploring with shaving cream. Jack announced, "I used shaving cream in the bath last night." Rose, Josh, and Grayden got right into it. They rubbed their hands all over the table and completely immersed themselves in the fragrant substance. It was very interesting to see the different ways that the kids used the shaving cream. Rose put her hands in and made fingerprints, Josh spread his hands and arms out using a windshield wiper-like motion, while Grayden covered his hands letting the shaving cream drip down onto the table. When they were done, Josh and Grayden decided to rinse off in the sensory table which happened to be filled with water. They quickly noticed that the water turned cloudy and white. Josh exclaimed, "We're doing a science experiment" and Grayden said very excitedly, "it looks like snow." This excitement led them to do the experiment about six more times going back to the shaving cream, covering their hands, and then rinsing off continually noticing how the water was getting increasingly cloudier. They continued to play with the water for a while longer, moving their hands around while observing and enjoying their new experiment.

Making pizza is a sensory experience!

More work to get to Water...

The sensory exploration continued as the children worked together to get the last handfuls of sand out of the tub and into the bucket.

They continued to help as we installed the new tub and began adding the water. We tested the seal on the drain at the bottom before we put too much in! We had to be sure that the O-rings the kids helped attach to the drain faucet were doing their job.

The fun continued as the kids took the four great big cups in hand and slowly added some of the sand toys to the mix. The children had loved the sand so much, we wondered if any of them would express sadness at removing the sand. No one seemed concerned, and they had a terrific time enjoying water play.

A New Medium for the Rainbows

No, it's not colorful packing foam. It's not made from cereal and melted marshmallows. It's Floam! Floam is a substance made of tiny sticky spheres you can shape, squeeze, sculpt, slice, and squish. Although the bits of floam are held together by something sticky, it doesn't leave a sticky feeling on your hands after you touch it. The Rainbows had fun exploring this new artistic medium as they developed their fine motor skills.

Dinosaurs go exploring

This morning the sensory table in the Rainbow classroom contained the usual funnels, spoons, and cups until...the dinosaurs came exploring. They seemed to be quite intrigued by the sand, and provided opportunity for creative dramatic play in a new setting for the children.