Hooray for the Red, White and Blue!

This week in Preschool, we celebrated American Heroes! We had a visit from a local police officer, we made Flat Stanley letters to send to soldiers and had an American Heroes Parade with some real American Heroes, dads and grandpas who are or have been soldiers! We made Yankee Doodle hats complete with feathers and tambourines from paper plates. In honor of our country, we even did a red, white and blue science experiment. I found this experiment on the internet at www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/35948.aspx. 

 

 We created a density stack by pouring liquids of different densities together to see if they would mix. What we got was a red, blue and whitish (ok, it was yellow) stack. 

For this experiment, you will need:

 A clear jar or vase. I used a Dollar Tree vase. 

1 cup of light or clear corn syrup mixed with red food coloring.

1 cup of vegetable oil

1/2 cup of water mixed with blue food coloring

1/2 cup of bleach

 First I showed the children how thick the corn syrup was and then poured it in the vase. Next I added the vegetable oil. As you can see, it stayed on top of the corn syrup. Next, I poured in the blue water.

It went through the oil but still stayed on top of the corn syrup. There we had our density stack. To take our experiment a step further, we then poured in the bleach to see what would happen. We discussed that bleach is something that the children should never touch and that it would make you sick if you drank it and takes color out of things.

The children watched in awe as the bleach went through the oil and the color disappeared from the water but the red corn syrup didn't change.

 Next, one of the teachers asked what would happen if we put blue food coloring in the vegetable oil instead of the water. I hadn't thought of that and wasn't sure what would happen so we tried it. I put a small amount of vegetable oil in a cup and added a few drops of blue food coloring. The food coloring did not mix with the oil even when we stirred it. Then I poured it on top of the density stack we had already made.

 This time the oil stayed with oil but the food color went through to the water. Ah, but we had previously put bleach in that water, so guess what happened to the blue food coloring again! Yes, it disappeared, too.

We had a great time celebrating the Red, White and Blue and our American Heroes! And our first science experiment of the year was a huge success! Hooray for the Red, White and Blue!

From the "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" file ~ Back to School

We have been back in Preschool seven whole days and what a seven days it has been! Last year, I frequently commented that I had the class of a lifetime. It was not because the children were much different individually from any other 4 year olds. It was just the particular blend of personalities and skills that came together just right. This year I have a NORMAL 4 year old class! We have a wide range of ages. Trust me, when they are four, several months can make a major difference in abilities and maturity. We also have a few that have never been in school before. And then there's the girl who refuses to sit on the chairs because they are "dirty". She just props on the edge. Yep, we have our fair share of challenges this year. Luckily they are REALLY cute!

So... for incidents from THE FILE. On day one I realized that I had made a major error when typing up our daily schedule and we almost missed our assigned playground time. In circle time after playground, when I asked the children if they remembered the teachers' names, one young man spoke up and said "You're [boaf] Idiots." Fortunately, the other children immediately recognized that as one of the words we don't say in preschool and called him out on it. He responded, "Well, Captain Hook said it in Peter Pan and you almost made us miss playground." Can't argue with that!

At lunch the same day, one fellow said "School is way harder this year!" When I asked what we had done that was so much harder than his 3 year old class, he said "Well, it's much harder to poke your friends and not get caught." Hmmm. Maybe I am doing something right!

The rest of week one and most of week two went along fairly smoothly after that rocky beginning. Day seven, however, was another thing altogether! Thankfully, we end an hour earlier on Fridays and today, it was not a minute too soon!

When we first arrive each day, we say a prayer and  the Pledge of Allegiance. I love working in a religious environment! However, one little guy didn't want to stand up. When I asked him what was wrong he said, "My feet feel like flat tires so I can't stand up." Really? I feel that way sometimes at the END of the day but even I can make it through the prayer and pledge. In circle time, the same character piped up and said "I don't want to end the song with cha cha cha. That's for old people. I want to end with "boom boom sshhh". Did I mention that he is a character?

I had a dad stop by to drop something off for his son. He told me that his son answered every question he asked about school with "I don't know." Later, said son is repeating the story we listened to yesterday verbatim so I asked him why he always told his dad he didn't know when dad asked about school. His response, "I don't know!" However a helpful friend said, "I say I don't know to my mom 'cause I don't want to 'splain about it."

When I stepped out of the classroom for a minute to get something copied, my co-teacher heard giggling in the bathroom. When she looked in, there were 3 little boys sharing the toilet. Two got to go home in their extra clothes. One decorated the wall. When I explained the change of clothes to one grandmother, little guy said "It's not my fault. That is a baby toilet and I couldn't hit it. You need to get a bigger toilet by next week!" I think Grandma will be handling that one this afternoon!

On the playground, I walked to up to a sweet little guy who had his fingers in his mouth and said "Those look like really tasty fingers. I think maybe I should eat one, too." He looked at me with great big eyes and said "You will have to chew your own fingernails. I need these for when I woowwy!" (worry) Ewww! Never mind!

Seriously, you really can't make this stuff up! And yes, it's a good thing they're cute! I'm tired and my feet feel like flat tires!

Press Here ~ An All Pinterest Lesson Plan

The end of the school year is drawing near and my lesson plans are starting to feel a little bit stale. Pinterest to the rescue! I was able to put together a lesson plan that may have been one of the most fun days we have had all year!

 At some point a few months ago, I saw a pin on Pinterest from Amazon for the delightful interactive children's book, Press Here by Herve Tullett. The pin mentioned that it contained lesson plans, too. Aha ~ that was right up alley! When I clicked over to check out the book, I discovered that there was a wonderful downloadable lesson plan available including a printable mini version of the book that I printed for each child. I have since learned that there are lesson plan links with many of their children's books. So, I ordered the book. As soon as I opened it, I knew the kids would love it!

http://www.amazon.com/Press-Here-Herve-Tullet/dp/0811879542/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315664193&sr=1-1

The children loved participating while I read the story. In fact, we read it several times! The last couple of times each child had a large dot to help them participate. There was lots of pressing, shaking, leaning and blowing going on. They were thrilled to have the mini books to take home.

Ah, but Pinterest had many more wonderful ideas to go along with the book. I found some large polka dot tape at Target and with 3 toilet paper tubes,  a shoebox lid and some marbles, I had a little marble maze!

http://creativeconnectionsforkids.com/2011/11/press-here-an-action-story/
As simple as it was, one little boy said, "I could play with this all day!" I guess I should have made more than one! It is a great tool for eye-hand coordination.

And of course, we want to be cross-curricular so I found a really fun math activity using dot painters and dollar store spinners that turned into some pretty art projects too!

http://blog.playdrhutch.com/2012/04/24/dot-dabber-dice-game/comment-page-1/#comment-1744

I used the spinners instead of dice so they could work on number recognition.

 Last but not least, I found a use for that great cardboard box I have been saving forever! Check back at my previous blog http://teachingitswhatido.blogspot.com/2011/11/dont-throw-it-awayit-has-so-much.html. Several pinners had this great activity!

http://www.theseedsnetwork.com/seeding/mad-DOT-challenge

http://www.teachpreschool.org/2012/03/this-is-what-happens-when-you-give-a-set-of-stickers-to-a-set-of-kids/ 

This was just two packs of dot stickers from the Dollar Tree. They had so much fun with it, that I am going to have to go back and get more stickers! Thank you Pinterest for punching up the lesson plans! It was a great day!

Eric Carle Art

Last week, we had a blast reading many of the books written and/or illustrated by Eric Carle. He tells wonderful stories and many times explains his inspiration or gives a quick science lesson about the subject of his book. When we study Eric Carle, we can learn about everything from insects to endangered animals to telling time by the sun.  His art work is always interesting and unusual. Even the end papers in Eric Carle's books are beautiful!

  But the fun part is trying to create some art using his methods. His final product is a collage of the various paintings he has made, so using a variety of tools to give our paintings texture, we got started.

Some of the children took their ideas directly from some of Eric Carle's paintings while others just mixed and spread the paint  until they were content with their painting or until we told them they had to quit painting and let someone else have a turn. After the paintings had dried for a couple of days, we set to work cutting and gluing our very own collages.

We also made some tissue paper collages of Eric Carle's Very Hungry Caterpillar, as you can see at the top of the page. We got lots of good practice cutting and gluing during the week. But we also did other activities like hand print paintings of the lifecycle of a butterfly and planting some seeds like in The Tiny Seed.

 Another activity we did was based on on one of Eric Carle's lesser known stories, Hello Red Fox. This book is a fun interactive book that involves complementary colors and optical illusions. In the story, a frog invites his animal friends to his birthday party. Each animal is painted in its complementary color with a blank page next to it. If you stare at the picture for a few seconds you will see that object reflected on the blank page in the opposite color. 

 

We made our own optical illusions by folding a half of a white sheet of construction paper in half and gluing a green heart in the center of one side. When we stared long enough at the black dot we made in the center of the heart and shifted our gaze to the blank side we could see a faint red/pink heart. Some of the children had a hard time staring for 10 to 20 seconds but once they figured it out they were thrilled and amazed. Another fun week at preschool!

Little Scientist ~ Mighty Oak

We have a true little scientist in our preschool. He is not in my class but I have come to know him pretty well from when our classes do science experiments together,  when our visiting science teacher comes to our school several times each year and on the playground. He is always on the front row when we are conducting experiments. He asks amazingly intelligent questions and is amazingly insightful for a five year old. He is is the first to figure out a challenge, but if someone else were to figure it out first, he would cheer them on! He just loves science and discovery! On any given day on the play ground, he brings us some discovery he has found -a beautiful rock, a worm, an insect, an unusual shaped piece of mulch, and, yesterday, two tiny oak tree seedlings with the root and the acorn still attached that he had carefully dug up using a small stick.

He knew that oak trees come from acorns, therefore, these must be oak tree seedlings. He noticed that there were no oak trees right around our playground, so I asked him "How do you think the acorn got on our playground?" He thought for about a second and then said that squirrels eat acorns and also bury them to eat in the winter, so it must have been a squirrel that buried it. He was so thrilled with his discovery!

Since April is also Poetry Month, I will be sharing at least the first 3 or 4 verses of this beautiful poem by  Shane Hawk with my little scientist friend and  his classmates.

The Mighty Oak


The mighty oak started out as one lone seed.
It soaked up the water and began to feed.
Soon a seedling came sprouting high.
The sun's force helped it reach for the sky.

It weathered many storms and used all it's might
To grow into a tree that would cradle the birds at night.
The limbs were fragile and not big at all.
But with love and care they'd soon grow tall.

As each day passed the tree grew and grew
Adding new limbs with each day it went through.
Soon it was time for it's leaves to fall.
It was left bare and alone but ever so tall.

Spring brought new life back to the oak.
For each leaf that emerged became it's cloak.
It stood tall and proud for many a year
And shaded the ground below it so dear.

But as all things created by God above
Soon came the time it had thought little of.
To wither away and cease to exist
To stand weathered and worn in our midst.

The leaves we would see no more
As we had numerous times before.
The oak would still stand ever so tall
Just waiting for its time to fall.

When the day finally came to hit the ground
The loss for all was so profound.
Now there's a hole where the oak once stood
I'd happily bring it back if only I could.

© 2005 Shane Hawk 

http://poetrypoem.com/cgi-bin/index.pl?poemnumber=593803&sitename=carouselgirl&poemoffset=0&displaypoem=t&item=poetry

Thanks, Shane, for allowing me to share your beautiful poem and thanks to my little scientist friend for his passion for learning and his joy at discovery! I hope he keeps it forever! Maybe one day, our little scientist will become a mighty scientist who makes a grand discovery!