Sometimes if you can’t go into nature, you bring nature inside! With record cold temperatures for much of this month, we rang in the New Year with some tactile crafts and lots of laughs. For January, it’s important to have people close by, to enjoy others company, and take care of your brain! With tons of crafts, some scientific exploration, and a few messes, January was a success!
School Age Fun over the Holidays
We didn’t let the icy weather damper our fun together after the holidays! We had three full days of exploring together! As usual with this group, lots of creations were made! Collaging, and painting with interesting colours and textures of powdered paint, our drying rack was full of classroom masterpieces!
We decided to bring the outside, inside! Using coloured water, and a variety of loose parts from the classroom, we filled different sized containers, and put them outside and waited and watched for them to freeze! Everyone made predictions on how long they thought it would take for the water to become solid!! While we waited, we had water and bubbles and tubes and funnels to explore with in the water table.
As always, the School Agers were engaging in some awesome group play, and even using their bodies to create as a group, dramatic “insects” that they saw on the microscope slides. We are looking forward to the next PA day, at the end of this month
The Kinders Make Kinetic Sand
It was a blustery, winter cold morning and we decided to make kinetic sand with the Kinders for us to play with inside. Chelsa collected all of the ingredients we needed, and our friends gathered around to help.
We started by placing six cups of sand into a big bucket. We then added 1 and a half cups of corn starch and mixed the two together. In a separate measuring cup, the water and lavender dish soap was combined and then mixed with the cornstarch and sand. We mixed all together until it started to form together.
The Kinders thought it was neat that the sand could stick together and mold into things. We made two batches and our friends could not wait to get their hands in there to play with it.
We put it in the water table and added some sand toys-molds, rakes, shovels, cups and cars. A.H. took some of the sand in her hands and formed a ball with it. She then let it go and watched it slowly fall through her fingers. L.R. packed a measuring cup with the sand, quickly turning it over making a tiny sand castle. Some of our friends liked making roads for the cars to travel on and watching the tracks they made. Some of our friends even made a cake! The Kinders took turns, shared ideas and most of all had fun in this cool sand we made.
“I Lava You” Exploring Volcanoes!
A curiosity emerged last week around volcanoes. While outside one of our toddlers wanted to build a volcano in the snow. This seemed to spark an interest in every toddler as we investigated about volcanoes together.
We started by watching a YouTube video showing a volcano in action. From there we wanted to create our own volcano. Kory helped the toddlers construct their very own volcano model. We learned how to make the volcano erupt, and all about why volcanoes erupt. This exploration has continued everyday as the toddlers search for the volcano and talk to him like he is part of our room.
On this day we explored making a rainbow volcano. The children are really great at using the squirt bottles independently, each child had a turn to put some vinegar in the volcano and were able to watch the magic happen as the volcano erupted in a rainbow of colors. L.S really enjoyed watching the vinegar rise in the volcano going higher and higher until it exploded. “WOAH” he said and he would sign more each time he wanted to do more.
H.C wanted to mix the colors and he noticed that we made purple by mixing the blue and red. A.S seemed to replicate a volcano as he started to shake and would yell “Boom” as the volcano erupted. “Volcano Erupt” “Volcano Boom!”
Making Sun-Catchers in the Kinder Room
What do you do on the coldest day of the year when stuck inside? Make ice sun catchers of course! We gathered a variety of different sized containers-muffin tins, paint trays, and cups. Chelsa placed food colouring-red, yellow, and blue on the table, along with some twine, pine cones and grasses, black sunflower seeds and a watering can with water.
We explained with it being so cold outside, we could make our very own ice sun-catchers to hang on our trees. Our friends got started by pouring a little water into the tray. They each picked the colour they wanted it to be and added a few drops of food colouring in. J.H. wanted a red one and a blue one. He added a nice big pine-cone to one of his as well as some seeds for the birds. R.C. said she wanted purple.
Chelsa asked “How do you make purple?” R.C. said “With blue and red”. She then took some blue food colouring and dropped it into the water. She added a few drops of red to make a beautiful purple colour. She placed some of the tiny pine-cones in as well as the black sunflower seeds. Once all the children had made their suncatcher, we placed a piece of twine in each one so we could hang them.
We set all of the trays outside the Kinder room door so they could freeze. It didn’t take very long on that cold, brisk day. Our friends kept a very close eye on then and noticed that they were starting to freeze pretty quickly.
The next day while we were eating lunch, we noticed a little friend enjoying our ice sun-catchers too. A tiny red squirrel was eating the sunflower seeds out of them. He scurried around stealing the seeds, keeping a close eye on us as we were watching him. He was a funny little guy. We can’t wait to see how they sparkle in the sun. Stay tuned for pictures!!
What can you do with Shredded Paper?
The Toddlers had a blast this week as they explored the shredded paper in our sensory bin. They did try to fill containers with it. But let’s face it, there other more fun things to do with it. For example, throwing it up in the air and shouting, “Happy New Year!” A.C got this down pat! Yes, I know what you are thinking, but rest assured we can handle a little mess! Well come to think of it, I don’t think there was an inch of space in our classroom that wasn’t covered with shredded paper. Oh Well!!
L.B scooped the shredded paper saying, “I making snowballs.” E.F rolled on the floor and tried to make a snow angel. H.M, W.S and G.C had so much fun simply tossing handfuls of the paper up in the air. They laughed so much as it landed on their heads. C.Er said, “It’s snowing in our classroom.” C.D liked the feel of the paper and said, “I squishing the paper!”
Over the course of the week, we added some paper bags to the shredded paper. Some of the children talked about making popcorn as they filled their bags. They walked around handing the filled bags to their classmates. Yummy! Popcorn anyone? When all was said and done, J.F and C.Er worked as a team one was ready with the broom while the other held the dustpan. Thank you boys for cleaning up the mess!Want to see more of our shredded paper fun?! Head over to our Facebook to follow us for the latest updates!