Color Mixing and Literacy

At the art table, children have been experimenting with color mixing and different mediums. They have tried mixing different colored paints and water colors. Most recently, the children tested out watercolor pencils. Noticing the book, "Mouse Paint" by Ellen Stoll Walsh sitting on the art table, children asked the teachers to read them the story as they tried out some mixing of colors. As the mice in the story climbed in and out of paint jars and danced in various puddles of paints the children experimented with the colors. When the mouse that was covered in red paint danced in a yellow puddle, the children quickly used their watercolor pencils and water to mix and blend the red and yellow together. Before the teacher could turn the page, the children shouted "It makes orange!" 

Color Mixing

The kindergarteners noticed some red, blue, and yellow paints on the art shelf and asked if they could use them. They took out paint palates and q-tips. They began by slowly pouring paint into the palates. Adam explained that red, blue, and yellow are primary colors. They then experimented by mixing the colors together. As the children experimented, we read the story, "White Rabbits Color Book." In this story, a white rabbit climbs in and out of red, blue, and yellow paint tubs. The children predicted what color the rabbit would make by climbing in the blue tub and then the yellow tub. They then tried it out on their papers. What a colorful science experiment! 

Sink or Float?

Last week, we filled the sensory table with water and put out many different materials on a nearby table. There were wooden blocks, straws, foam blocks, paintbrushes, and stones. All of these materials, the water, and one question provoked lots of experimentation: Will the material sink or float?

The children explained that when something floats "it stays at the top" and when something sinks "it goes under the water." With these definitions, the children began experimenting. They then recorded which items sank and which floated. When your child is playing in the tub or even in the sink, you might want to experiment and find out what you can get to sink or float!

Gak

Just before it started to rain we worked together to mix and measure all the ingredients, to make Gak! Adom and Kahol could not decide what color to make the Gak ; so everyone took turns and squirted about three drops of water colors into the bowl of water and glue. We asked the children, "What color do you think the Gak will be?" All the Adom children said, "Rainbow"!

Just as we finished making the Gak it started to rain! We took our Gak inside to play! The children added beads to the Gak , rolled it, made ice cream and just simply had fun touching, manipulating, and playing with the cool Gak!

Return of the ducks

The children had another opportunity to experiment with the ducks and ice - with some water thrown in.  Ethan and Harrison moved the sheet of blue ice into some clear water.  Not only did the clear water turn blue like the ice, but it broke into pieces.  Ben observed as the ducks happily floated about and the ice floe slowly disappeared.  The ice on the playground was doing the same in the warm air this morning!

Science Talk...

Last week the children had the opportunity to place lima beans and/or beans they found outside on the playground on a wet paper towel in a Ziploc bag.  We taped the bags to the window and have been watering/spraying/observing them everyday.

During choice time today, I sat with the children at the science center table and listened to them as they shared their observation and ideas.   Over the three day weekend the children discovered that the beans changed!   I asked each child..."Do you think your beans changed?"   Zach was so excited when he saw his beans!  Over and over again he kept saying,   "Mine growed, mine growed!"   Noah said, " Mine are magic beans that will grow a bean stalk."   Adam said, "Mine are yellow not white anymore."   Micah R ," Mine growed when I watered them!"   I continued to ask the children questions like "Do you remember what the beans looked like when we placed them in the bag?"   Then I repeated and asked again, "How have they changed?"   I  encouraged them to open our Science Log Journal and draw an observational drawing. 

One way to focus children's observations and thinking on growth and development is to help them compile a journal of drawings and notes they make over time.  We will continue to encourage the children to use our Science Log to record changes in the beans growth and development.  Eventually we will plant the sprouted beans in some potting soil, and continue to track the plants growth over time.

The Penguin Experiment

The Penguin Experiment 

The Kohavim children have been thinking about which animal might make a good classroom pet. One animal that was suggested was a penguin. The children had many ideas about what a penguin might need. They thought a penguin would need to be cold and eat fish. They realized that in our sensory table we had snow. They decided that we could keep a pet penguin in our sensory table full of snow. Some children were not sure this would work, so we designed an experiment. Jacob drew a penguin to be our pretend pet penguin for the experiment. The children put the pet penguin in the sensory table. They decided to cover the table because if we had a real penguin they thought it might jump out of the table. They immediately noticed there is not a lot of space in the sensory table and wondered if that would be enough space for a penguin. They decided to leave the pretend penguin in snow overnight because when we do get a classroom pet it would have to stay at school overnight. We can't wait to check the sensory table tomorrow morning and see how our pet penguin experiment has gone! 

Beautiful Ice

 A new ice cube tray inspired lots of creative thinking in the Etzim classroom.  First we froze blue stars and put them in our water table, only to find them melting faster than we could play with them.  We next thought about paintin with the stars.  Lots of thought went into what colors to choose, how long it would take, and how we could use them.  Sophie surprised us all by discovering the ice made beautiful star stamps.  We have lots of ideas on how to use our stars next (Jacob - playdough. Eliana - add more color and make rainbows!)

Want to Create a Project??

Ellen came into the Haifa classroom yesterday stocked with armloads of white felt and blue paint. She asked our students if they wanted to try a project that she had never done before. Of course they jumped at the chance!! Each child got a giant piece of white felt, and painted what they wanted on their own piece. We are adding different colors each day, and at the end of the project, we are going to blow dry the felt with hair dryers and see what happens! Our hypothesis is that the felt with start to melt, and the colors will pop! Yesterday we started with blue, today we added green, and tomorrow is pink and red. Stay tuned for the progress of our project!

-Alison and Sauci

Let's make some scented play dough!

My First Time Making Playdough!

I can make gak, cook, do puzzles, buy things at a restaurant, make magna-tile buildings, and be a master at Simon Says, but until today, I had never made playdough in class! The only other time I have made playdough was at home and I messed up the recipe by adding the wrong amount of water! So today we decided to make playdough, and it came out great! The kids helped put in all of the ingredients, and then they watched as it morphed into playdough. The kids chose to make it bright blue, and we were so excited that we added sparkles!

-Alison

Fun with play dough!

The Lunch Bunchers had so much fun making and playing with play dough last Thursday afternoon. We tried a new non cook recipe. We mixed and measured most of the ingredients in the classroom and then we walked on down to the Community Room kitchen to use the microwave to boil some water. We took turns mixing the play dough and then went back to the classroom to play with it. The children made snakes, worms, pizza, meatballs and some of us learned how to make round balls with the play dough by rolling a small piece of play dough between our hands.

Exploring Color!

Today in Lunch Bunch we invited the children to do the work of scientists and artists, and see what they can discover about color! First we introduced the children to the materials. Colored water (red, yellow and blue), trays, paper towel and eyedroppers which was a new tool for most of the children; so we demonstrated how to use them.

After this simple orientation to the materials, we invited the children to dive into their research, exploring the possibilities that the colored water holds!

We asked Alison "What happens when the blue water meets the yellow water?" Alison's response, "You get green of course!"

We asked Drew and Zach, "How did you make purple?" Zach said, "Blue and red." Drew's response, "Red and blue!"

Rylan was so excited when he discovered that blue and yellow make green!

Eli announced, "My colors are just soaking through!"

Jake was pleased and let everyone know that he made a rainbow!

Rachel shared, "When I mix my colors I make Tye-dye colors!"

Later in the week the children will be ready for a new challenge, a next step in their investigation of color. We will offer each child a bowl of cornstarch and a spoon. We will discover about what happens when corn starch meets colored water in the mixing tray.

Ooze?

Daniel asked, "Are we going to do an experiment today?" I said,"Yes we are going to make Ooze! How do you make Ooze? Great question!

Ooze

1. Pour 1 cup water into a plastic mixing bowl.

2. Measure 1 1/2 cups cornstarch. Place 1 tablespoon of cornstarch into the water and mix it in keep adding cornstarch and mixing it in.

3. When your solution gets very difficult to stir you have ooze

4. Scoop some up with your hand and watch how it oozes back into the bowl.

Big Body Playdough!

Have you ever thought of play dough as a large motor activity? While I was reading the Big Body Playdough section in Learning Together with Young Children all I could think of was how much the children enjoyed our exploration with clay(other wise known as our friend "Mr Clay"), in the Lunch Bunch program back in the fall. I felt sort of silly that I never thought of putting playdough on the floor to use it as a large motor activity. Children of course have a natural desire to move BIG!

Last week I created a playdough invitation for the children by setting out five large balls of dough on the floor. The children were using a lot of force as they worked with the dough. They used their whole bodies to press into it. The pushed and squeezed and pounded with all their might. They used their hands, fingers, fists, chests, and elbows to flattened and shape the dough. As I offered this invitation over the coming days, the children added more body movements in their play. After observing the children week working with the play dough in these ways, Melissa and I decided to make more room for this big body playdough work on a daily bases.

Speaking of BIG BODY WORK! On Friday Teddy Fox and I were sitting in the library and he said,"Lauri can we play with "Mr. Clay?" My first thought was what a great idea but, let's do it next week, as we have challah dough out at one table, graggers at the art center and lots of building going in the block center. Then Teddy said "We have not played with "Mr. Clay" in a long time." I then said, " Let's go see if we can find him!"

We found him and boy did the children have FUN! The children continued with their big body work and dove right in using their entire bodies and strength. Being on the floor allowed them to spread out and use their entire bodies. The clay was really hard to manipulate at first, but the more the children used their hands, knuckles, fingers, feet and toes the clay was easier to work with. They also had the opportunity to use design tools to press into the clay to help soften it, create lines and designs.

Next week the children will have more opportunities for Big Body Playdough and Clay play!

An investigation

"I'm trying to figure out if the snow will fit through these holes?" said Jeffrey, proposing a science experiment. "I think some pieces will and some pieces won't," came his hypothesis. He tested his theories, bringing scoopfuls of snow over to the play structure and trying to force it through the holes in the mesh floor. His conclusions? "It worked! I was right!" he exclaimed. Real life science in action.

Rolling, Rolling Rolling

Making wheeled creations, whether from Legos, Tinker Toys or other construction toys, is a great fascination for many of the Scientists. The other day, the children had a great time rolling their creations down the "ramp" in the hallway outside our classroom. They had a chance to experience several areas of physics, ranging from "gravity" to "Is it better to push my creation down the ramp, or just let it roll freely?" Some children found that their creations rolled longer, and straighter, if just allowed to roll freely. Others were so excited that they had to give their creations a push - sometimes gently, sometimes not!
The excitment of this experience also provided a chance to learn other lessons - not scientific ones, but rather about the importance of cooperation and negotiation.
At first, too many people were too excited, and too many wheeled creations were sent rolling down the ramp at once. When I pointed out the problems of this "traffic jam" to the children, Noah suggested that the children could "take turns" rolling their creations. When I asked how they could best take turns, Noah suggested creating a line. Everyone quickly agreed, and the traffic of our rolling creations was soon flowing smoothly.
A traffic engineer in the making!