This Past Week...

Our Spring Trees: art sand, glitter, and glue

Rock "Marble" Painting:

The kids collected rocks, and then...
..scooped them out of blue and green paint (for the colors of our Earth)
..and then they had to SHAKE it as hard as possible, their favorite part!

They loved seeing their messy end product!

We Planted Onions in the garden boxes on the small playground...

This is our class globe

The children colored the rice on their own and then as a whole group put on lots of glue and spread out all of the rice.

How to color rice:

Materials: rice, rubbing alcohol, food coloring, container

1. Place the rice into a container
2. Mix in some rubbing alcohol (you want it to be wet enough so that it will mix with the food coloring, but not too wet)
3. Add food coloring (a couple of drops--more or less depending on amount of rice)
4. Stir and place on a paper plate or towel to dry.

Once dry, your children would love to play with it. You can see it here in our sensory bin!

Earth Day: At Home Activities

There are so many things you could do with your children to help them understand how to keep our environment clean and safe! You can click on the picture below to take you to a great list of fantastic activities, crafts, and snacks for you and your children to do together! 

(You may have to pick and choose what is age appropriate, but you can always modify things so that you can all join in the fun!)

Here is another great source for Earth Day activities that includes more craft and activity ideas! 

(Again, you may have to pick and choose or modify for it to be age appropriate)

This past week...

This past week we had lots of fun as spring began to finally show up! We made kites, birds, experimented with colors, and even had a guest come and speak to us about fire safety!

This was one of our spring science experiments this week! 

Spread a thin layer of baking soda onto a flat surface (wide containers or flat plates work best) and put a drop of food coloring in a little vinegar. Supply the children with eyedroppers or small spoons and viola--instant sensory exploration! The children can mix colors, see the "fuzzy bubbles" and can hear the vinegar and baking soda fizz as it combines!

A definite hit for all of our twos! They loved it and we will be sure to revisit this experiment again.
Try it at home!

Just some cute tissue paper kites to display in the classroom. They love being able to get sticky and dirty with glue...

Firefighter Joe came to visit and while talking to us about fires and how to stay safe, shared some nifty stickers with the kids. The toddlers loved them, especially because they smelled like chocolate! Yes, they had nothing to do with fire safety, but the kids still loved Firefighter Joe and his stickers. 

Almost forgot about our little bug friends that the children found this week!
They had a chance to watch a caterpillar crawl across the picnic table. They were so excited and lived watching it wiggle!

The caterpillar then led to other great buggy explorations, like this roly poly. Not in the photos are the other worms and a beetle that the children also found over the week. They had a great time looking at them under magnifying glasses and gently placing them back in their habitats!