Science Center Monday: Yeast Inflates a Balloon
In this experiment you need:2 tablespoons water1 teaspoon sugar1 package of yeast Pour it into a small bottle and place a balloonover the top. Wait, watch and observe!
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Theme Time: Numbers, numbers
My, I feel like a broken record this week, but the themetime table has worked so well! I saw so much spontaneous use of our materials. I use workboxes, but again for ED and DD havingthings out really draws the girls in. So, this set up was all about numbers. I pulledout some math manipulatives for them to playwith. I pulled out all kinds of number relatedbooks. I also pulled...
Theme Time: Alphabet
There’s not too much to say about this themetime except, goodness, we sure have things tucked awayeverywhere! We have wonderful friends whohave passed us lots of games, puzzles and books. Ido find myself playing more games this way than whenI had the games in workboxes. I wish I had somelovely shelves set up like some of you, but this little crafttable seems to be working wonderfully for the 2 and...
Redback Spider
The Redback spider is fairly common where we live. We used to have them quite badly at the flat that hubby and I lived in for the first eight years here; they haven’t been so bad here at this house. LD and I saw this spider today. We talked about them a bit and I warned them not ever to go near them or touch them. I took a lot...
Stink Beetles
Since I’m talking about bugs and such, I’ll post this picture I took of stink beetles. They are sometimes called the green carab beetle (though to be honest I’ve never heard anyone refer to them as such). According to an article put out in the local paper, one of their adaption strategies is ‘explosive breeding.’ Sometimes during the summer they swarm really badly around the sports field lights. If they...
Theme Time: Fire Safety
Today our theme time table included all thingsfire related: little fire trucks, a fire hat, fire typebooks and a non-working telephone. At lunch I ready a couple of books (The Fire Catand The Polka Dot Puppy about a cat/dog who getsadopted by a fire station). After lunch we allgathered together and had a serious talk aboutfire safety. It’s been quite a long time (gulp!) sincewe talked about this, but LD...
Fire Safety Activity
Before starting, we tested our smoke alarms.Be sure you do this soon too! Now on to the activity!! I set up a few obstacles and the kids had togo through the blinding smoke safely andquickly. I talked to them about how confusingand scary it might be if they couldn’t see. Andhow they should cover their mouth with acloth and try to stay as low to the ground aspossible (things like...
Theme Time: Ocean Creatures
The theme time table is working really well and only takes 10-15 minutes to cleanup and change over. It’s been great to bring in such a variety of books into our day again. And as I said in an earlier post, having things out on display work really well to ‘lure’ the girls (ages 2 and 4) in when they are interested. Obviously the theme of this table is ocean...
Layers of the Rainforest Activity
After talking about the various layers of the rainforest and why animals would live in particular levels of the forest, the kids sorted the animal cards into the various layers. You can find lots of information online about the layers of the rainforest; I made my own cards and explanations. It’s available over in right sidebar downloads area if anyone’s interested.
Rainforest Animal Habitat (3-part card work)
I don’t think I ever talked about the kids’ sorting of the rainforest animals. We have two packs of 3-part cards — the Amazon and the African rainforest animals. Both sets of cards are from the Montessori Print Shop for less than $2US each. As always, we started with our continent song and the general pin map of the 7 continents (not shown in the photos here). Then we looked...
Country Box Exchange: Singapore
We did a country box exchange with a family who livesin Singapore. The kids were SO excited by all of thegoodies. We rushed to the map to locate Singapore,then tried playing the kids games, looked through thebrochures and postcards. We’ve done this with several families, but wewere “burned” by a family in Ireland who exchangedaddresses, but never sent anyone in our exchangegroup a reciprical package. Seems a shame and youwonder...
Science Center Monday: Germs
This week, we didn’t do a science experiment. Instead weread all about germs, what kind of germs there are(bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa), what is good and badabout germs, where they live and so forth. Then we all createdour own books (with lots of silly germ pictures!):LD, top leftme, top right (I enjoyed it as much as the kids!)ED bottom leftDD bottom right
LD’s Germs Book
LD was REALLY into this activity. He worked on it frombefore 10am til after 2pm and only stopped for lunch whenit was plopped in front of him. You can see he came up withsome great ideas. And the best thing? He actually said,“I like writing.” His book was 17 pages long. (Lots of pagesare included here for Grandma and Grandpa, Grams andGramps to admire!!)
Theme Time: Farms
I needed to do something a bit different for my two and four-year olds, so I’ve decided to set up a theme collection each morning. It’ll help me rotate in some of the preschool games and toys we have and to bring a new selection of books out. And, while the workboxes work well, by having a display out on the craft table, ED (age 2) is much more drawn...
