Science !

As soon as the last munchkin left yesterday, Randy and I headed to Fort Smith to enjoy a workshop on science. It was SO good . It also was in line with what I had planned for today and another.. wonderful surprise to experience.

Our morning started with a visit to the hospital to see Emeri's new baby sister. Her name is Madelyn. I hope I spelled that right ! She was so small and so beautiful. What better way to discuss science than see a new born baby ? We talked about how small she was and how much she will grow. Emeri was so proud. And.. I totally forgot it was Rachel ( the mom's) birthday today. Happy Birthday ! What a perfect present.

After returning home we read the book " Little Blue and Little Yellow." It is the story of two friends ( little blue and little yellow ) that hugged and.. you guessed it - turned green. It is a fantabulous way to explain color mixing with my little guys. So, after reading we progressed to do an experiment that Randy and I tried last night. The recipe calls for 1 cup corn starch, 1/3 cup sugar and a cup of water. You cook it until it gets thick and then color it however you would like. Today we had one bowl of yellow and one bowl of blue. Each child took a " little blue and a little yellow" and put in a baggie and squeezed it until it turned.... GREEN! They loved it. The recipe calls for food coloring but coming in so late SOMEONE ( me ) forgot to make sure we had all that I needed. I substituted powdered tempera paint and it worked great!




Just in case they missed it the firs time , we mixed again with paint ! We took " a little blue and a little yellow" and swirled it! After the kids were done, I asked them if they would like to add more blue or yellow. We guessed whether each color would make our new green darker or lighter.

Another thing we did today was a teacher directed project . It is a handprint leprechaun. They learned nothing from this but enjoyed the sensory of having the paint brushed on . Tomorrow we will add a face.

I would say today was a good day.

There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million. ~Walt Streightiff

What is Easter?

After breakfast today I got the kids started on an orange collage. I heard many things:

Is this a pumpkin?

Is today orange day?

You will see the end result tomorrow!

Easter bunny board game - I wish I knew why playing board games it my LEAST favorite thing to do during the day. I see all the benefits :

Learning to take turns.

Counting

Learning to be a gracious loser

Following 2 and 3 step directions

But .. it drives me CRAZY waiting. The kids on the other hand enjoyed this game.

I know it seems like we do a lot of sorting which is a great math activity ,but we are working fine motor skill in this activity to be better writers. See the strawberry huller they pinch to pick up the pom pom?

Today Randy made Carrot Salad with the kids. They love cooking . For lunch we had cooked carrots, carrot salad and crunchy ( fresh ) carrots as side dishes. After eating we graphed which was our favorite.

One of the groups planted seeds today. They are in the window and we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of flowers !

It was a wonderful day. We couldn't ask for better weather.

If the kids tell you we had a visitor today, we did. A man from the state came by to check our water heater. Once a year he does this and sends us a bill for $25 . He was in the house about 3 minutes IF THAT. What a job....

In circle time I asked the kids " What is Easter?" I got LOTS of candy and eggs and easter bunny answers. And one - when Jesus died on the cross and came back to life for us. I am always leary with this age on what they can really REALLY understand. I think some can grasp the concept but others can't. My grand daughter who just went through losing her great grandfather ( my dad ) and has had many discussions with her parents about it said " but when you die you can't come back to normal." My reply was " Jesus did, isnt that amazing?" Christmas is so much easier to teach. I mean, we have a baby and angels and shepherds and camels.. not crosses and stones that rolled away. Don't get me wrong, I am thankful for Easter and what it means to me but just not sure how to approach it with the kids . But then, when I just accept the Easter Bunny answers without telling the " real reason" I feel like a fraud. Parents or teachers, what is your take on this? How do you approach it with your child or your class? I have 3 more days to get it right.

You thought I wasnt posting huh?

What a busy day! Today I had a training in Fayetteville and today was also my mom's 69th birthday. What that all makes for is a very busy day. It is 10:10 pm and I am just now settling down to blog our day. I havent missed a day yet this year ( may....be one? ) and don't want to start now .I know many of my parents read what we do each day and that makes me feel so great. I was kind of on the other side of the fence today. After being gone all day, I picked up Geneviette from her moms to take her to dinner with mom ( her great grandmother ) for her birthday. I knew what all had went on today since I write the lesson plans, so I started talking. What did you talk about today? Who did you play with? Did you eat cupcakes? What was snack?

One of the favorite places today was the Mr Potato head family.. the kids loved it !

I told Sharae I LOVED her shirt, it reminded me of the lesson we learned earlier on the week about " shades of green."

Notice Jaden using the timer like Randy did yesterday? Sometimes we need to model what we want kids to do to extend their learning experiences.

More Potato fun!

Everyone got a chance to play St Patricks Day BINGO!

Last night I took out the puzzle with all the locks on it.... Sharae is really experimenting to see what will open those doors.

The kids have learned to do an Irish Jig this week. SOOO cute! This is how we have started circle time every day for the past two weeks. In circle time today we also graphed what kind of potato we like most - french fries, mashed , or potato chips. They played hot potato again, which they LOVE , and they read " Twas the Night Before St Patricks Day."

Mrs. Beth and Whitlee made rainbow cupcakes for us last night. THANKS! YUM!

Last experience of the day... take some white icing.

Tint it blue and yellow

Put a little on each end of a graham cracker

Mix it. GREEN !

And eat.... yum - O!

What a way to end the day. Thanks Mrs Jody for helping out today and for taking great pictures ! I know the parents appreciate it.

Now, back to my conversation with G. I had to ask her, what color was the icing you put on the graham cracker? Did you mix it ? ( No, but I watched Rosanna ) What color did it change to ? ( (Green!) What did you do in circle time?( Read a book.) What was it about? ( St Patricks Day) Did you graph anything? ( Potatoes , I like french fries more ) Did you play a game?( Hot Potato but we didnt use one from the kitchen we used a toy one. ) Were the cupcakes special? ( Yes ) What did they look like? ( Rainblows Whit-a Lee made them !) Did you have a visitor today? ( She said Yes.. my answer is of course -licensing came on a day I was gone... but it went great! )

Reading about your child's day not only increases your knowledge of how they are learning but it increases your child's ability to communicate and expand their vocabulary. If you dont have a resource like this , chances are you wont know what questions to ask and will think we have spaghetti every day and just play..

Thanks for reading...

Shades of Green

Today we concentrated on GREEN. Since most of the children can recognize green, I took it a step further to shades of green. After doing an emergent reader book , we set out to discover what would happen if we took green and mixed in a little white. We found out the result was LIGHT GREEN. Then, we took a little black and mixed with the green - DARK GREEN. Then I just let them sit and experiment with the colors to see what they would get. We used the terms lighter and darker a lot. When we came to circle time in our GREEN room, we looked for things that were green and talked about whether they were light or dark. It was interesting to me when I asked what would happen if we mixed the black in almost all the children said it would make gray. I guess they remember the color mixing experiment with black and white. After the activity we discussed that if we are in the art center and the color we want is not there, how easy it would be to get a bowl and mix what we want. When I toured River Field Country Day School in Tulsa, a reggio school, I loved the little paint jars all around the room with varying shades of colors. It's all about ... thinking outside the box.

Katie was so proud !" Look Mrs. Debbie, I made a pattern! "

Jaxson made this STOP sign all by himself and walked around using it on people. :)

It was a good day!

On Wednesday we will have our annual Leprechaun Hunt. We may even end it with a picnic at the park. If you would like to come with us, please let me know. There is a lot of walking involved ( that is a smart little leprechaun) and the more hands we have the better. Have a great weekend and thanks for letting your little elves hang out with me all day.