Direction board/ making hibernating bears

I have decided to add a new center to my room. I won't use it all the time - just sometimes when an activity is fitting.  I call it my "direction board".  I will use it for a easy, clear, multy step activity that  I expect the children to be able to do on their own.

We had been reading about winter, winter animals, and bears - specifically hibernating bears.  So I decided to have the kids make bears, den, and then we would hibernate our bears for the winter.  I will share the den making process in another post.  

Since this was their first experience with the directions board I was actively involved - but I tried to keep my explanations more about how the direction board worked, rather than how to make the bears.

Some of the children could clearly understand what they needed to do.  Some of them (including my own) colored and stuffed and stapled the bears that I had put on the direction board thinking that was what they were supposed to do.  One of my students figured it out and then sat by the table most of  the day to direct the other kids how to do it.  I am excited to use it in other, child led, activities this year.

watercolors

Coming back from Christmas break marked half way through the school year.  Because of this I am slowly transitioning the kids into more "kindergarten" like activities.  One thing they will be assessed in is whether or not they stay in the lines with art.  So for our art activity I pulled out some water colors and a nice winter scene.   Some chose to stay in the lines and paint their scene with different colors - others still wanted to paints all one color. 

Arctic scene

I waited to do this sensory table until it was a cold night - sadly it wasn't quite cold enough.  I filled my sensory bin with water - then i put a heave bowl into the water - and then stuck it outside all night - hoping it would freeze.  Then I would take the bowl out and there would be a hole in the ice that I could fill with cold water.  I also froze some Tupperware with water so I could have "icebergs" floating in my lake.  

It almost worked - but the last 2 inches of water didn't freeze on the bottom.  so the ice was unstable and broke before I could get it downstairs.  The best thing about kids though is that they don't know what it "should have been"  - they just think it is great and find ways to explore and play anyways.

Ice

I wanted to explore with ice - but not in the sensory bin - I wanted it to be out on a table where they could pour and measure, and spill, and see melting.  But i knew to put it out on a table would just be a wet mess - and I didn't want to use towel because that would defeat the melting purpose.  I found an oil drip pan at Walmart for 10 dollars.  It fit perfectly over my table and had about an one inch lip on it.  It caught all the water perfect and was stable enough to pick up and carry it to pour it our.  I have big plans for this tray in the future.  Plus I kind of love that it is stainless steel!

And they got right to work scooping and pouring and exploring the ice.

Painting with ice

For art one day we explored painting with ice.  I saw this idea on a blog, usually I try something out with my own kids before I just "give it a whirl" in the preschool.  But this one I had forgotten to try.  I wondered if it would really "paint" on the paper - or just be a wet, slightly colored, mess.

Set-up:  I put water in ice cube trays, put in food coloring, put a sheet of aluminum foil over the top and then stuck in Popsicle sticks - the aluminum helped keep the sticks up.  Then stuck in the freezer.  The next day I ran the bottom of the trays under hot water for 3 seconds.  Then popped them out.  I stuck them on some lids with lips to help catch the melt off.  They needed to sit out for a few minutes to start the "melting process" before the color would transfer to the paper.

When they were ready they were beautiful - so bright and vibrant.  And such a fun and tactile way to paint.

Animal tracks

We read a great book about animal tracks in the winter.  During centers I had a small table with some white play dough, arctic animals, and a rolling pin out.

Do you wanna build a snowman?

For our "Frozen" day I had a station called "do you wanna build a snowman?".  

And of course they did!

Rolling balls is tricky at this age - especially big ones for building snowman.  By the end of the day most had the hang of it.

Ice castle

Since "Frozen" is so popular and is an obvious favorite of all the kids in my class and since it has been frozen outside.  We decided to to a frozen preschool day. 

I built a frozen ice castle in our sensory bin.  I froze several different shapes of water with glitter, sequence, and jewels in it.  Then I used water to stick the ice cubes together to "build" the castle.  Then I stuck Megan and Madison Frozen dolls (and a few other random theme toys) around. 

This was such a hit!  They couldn't believe it!  I loved walking by the table and listening to the kids.  Some copied lines out of the movie verbatim, while others made up their own stories.

Painting snow

It had snowed the night before.  So I put snow in my sensory bin, and this time instead of scooping and packing material... I added paint.  On one side I had "real" paint, and on the other I added water colors with some water droppers.  I also had (of course) some scooping tools down in the bucket.

The kids enjoyed finding the best ways to pint on the snow.  They found that the water colors made the snow kind of melt when they put it on.  They also found  that they couldn't really paint a picture or make letters with the "real" paint because is was too bumpy.

Some great discussions and experiments were going on at the sensory table today!

The doorbell rang

"The Doorbell Rang"  is a great book.  It is repetitive (which is great), it involves math, it involves sharing, and it is wonderful to retell by acting it out.  After reading it once we retold it with the kids acting it out with a plate of felt cookies.  They had to figure out how to divide up the cookies each time a friend came into our circle.

After at art we made cardboard cookies with puffy paint "frosting".  It was the same paint recipe I used for our gingerbread houses and men back in December.  This time the kids had experience with the paint and were better able to control their paint distribution. :)

And this time I let the kids work the microwave all my themselves.  I think that was their favorite part... putting their cookies in... and taking them back out.

We also had some great dramatic play going on through the day with our plate of cookies.

Building a snowman

It is kind of hard to see in the picture.  But these are snowman pieces at our math table.   The children could stop by and build - what ever they wanted.  I gave no instructions or hints.  But just by the pieces there it was obvious to the kids that they were pieces to build a snowman.

Writing

An activity at the writing center.