Seashell Science Lab

Lately, Maddie has been all about science experiments.  She's super curious about how things work, what happens if we combine certain things, and how things are made.

Today, she wanted to play with all her seashells (and we have a LOT!).

We dumped them all out and then (once Grayson was napping) set up a seashell science lab.  :)

We needed tweezers, ice cube trays, magnifying glasses, jars of water (for the shell baths, to wash off the poison, of course), and her white board to record the happenings.

 Let me tell you, this girl loved her science laboratory!

She tweezed and transferred, examined and recorded, and sorted and cleaned.

 A shy scientist at work.  :)

 We talked about which ones would be good homes to sea creatures, which ones were missing their other half, and which ones had been changed by people (because turquoise shells are beautiful but had probably been dyed).

So if you have some tools, some shells, and a napping baby, set up a seashell science lab in your family room!  :)

St. Patrick's Day Crafting

Maddie and I have had fun with some St. Patrick's Day crafts and activities so I thought I'd share!

She loved this one!

We got out the finger paints and I would paint her hand in each color.

Then, she'd make prints in the shape of a rainbow.

I cut out some pots and we cut out gold circles together.

She glued all of them on at the end.

It's such a colorful (and big!) decoration for our house. :)

Since we had the finger paints out, I showed her how to make shamrock thumb prints.

She added stems.

Use your imagination. :)

The following activities are all from HERE.

This was a cute book that has a fun little twist at the end.

It uses a lot of sight words that she knows so it was fun for her to read to me!

She colored this in and then added a yellow dot stamp marker to count 12 coins.

And finally, we did a phonics activity with the sounds /sh/ and /s/.

We had to finely tune our ears so that they were sensitive enough to hear the sound differences. :)

It's hard to see, but this paper is folded in half and she sorted/glued the pictures on the correct side.

She did so well with this and really didn't need me too much!

We have some more ideas but have yet to get to them. St. Patrick's Day falls on a preschool day and she is so excited! Nana even bought her a special green shirt! :)

Valentine Tot Trays

I hesitate to call these "Tot Trays," since I don't really consider Maddie a tot anymore. But, these are our Valentine-themed trays that I thought I'd share. I've gotten so bad about taking pictures so today, I made a point of documenting this week's work.

Phonics and Letters

I wrote some phrases on paper and put out sparkly sticker letters (I think they're from Oriental Trading). She matches the sticker to the letter and then decorates.

Math

I got this super cool printable (just this morning!) from RockerMom. I can't wait for Maddie to try it out!

Fine Motor Skills

I taped a ribbon's end to create a "needle" and put out a strawberry basket. She can "sew" through the basket and then we'll put a Valentine present inside!

The pitcher holds tiny heart beads that she can pour between the three cups. She loves to play restaurant so I thought she'd like this one. :)

This is a simple tweezing of foam heart beads into the ice cube mold. I got those chopsticks at the Goodwill for a nickel, brand new!

She can also sort the beads by color or size (there are three sizes).

Crafts

These are little foam crafts that I picked up for $0.50 at Michaels.

I put the picture on the tray so that she has a guide.

Our Setup

And finally, just a picture of how we keep it all organized and accessible (in our kitchen). If it were up to her, we'd do all the trays in one day. Ha! But usually, I have her pick one or two, and some of them can be repeated multiple times throughout the week.

Early Math Skills

I'll be honest:

Math is not my strong point. It never has been.

It was always ironic that hanging next to my high-scoring English essay on the fridge would be my C+ math test. I worked just as hard for the English A as I did for the math grade and my sweet parents always acknowledged that hard work!

Anyway, I'd love for Maddie to not struggle in math (and, she does have Mike's genes going for her, since he finds equations and logic to be somehow fun). :)

I've always been mindful, in my working with Maddie, to place equal emphasis on math as on reading or writing or science. Today we had a fun mini-lesson using some fruit counters and I thought I'd share. We used THESE but really, you could use anything (a snack mix or different colored buttons would work just as well!).

The first thing we did was build simple AB patterns. I'd start the pattern off (initially putting down the first 5 or 6 pieces and then slowly getting down to only doing the first three pieces) and she'd reach into the bucket, select the correct fruit and complete the pattern.

Then, we moved onto more difficult patterns, such as ABC and ABB ones.

We took turns creating the patterns and having other person complete them.

She was telling me that it was my turn to finish the pattern she'd started. Haha!

We tried some tricky ones, but she was able to figure every single one out. It really helps to "read" the pattern out loud, almost in a sing-song voice, so that the next piece is almost obvious.

Then, we moved on to other types of thinking.

In this one, she had to figure out which piece was missing from the pattern.

She'd find it and correct it.

We also tried making patterns with an error and having the other person correct it. She really liked doing these. :)

Finally, we worked with the words "more," "less," and "equal."

I'd put out piles and she'd identify which pile had more or less.

Or, talking about when the piles were completely equal!

We worked for about 30 minutes and had a great time learning together. When it was time to clean up, she decided to sort them and then put them away. I should take a picture of the bucket, since it now looks like a layered fruit salad. Ha!

Winter Mini Unit

January's theme at preschool this month is all about Winter. They're learning about penguins, snow and snowmen, igloos and the weather.

Quick side note: I feel (and I know Mike feels the same way!) so blessed to have Maddie in such a nurturing, loving preschool. I got to work in her classroom on Tuesday and almost didn't want to leave after my hour because it was just a fun environment. Her teacher is gentle, there is such a sweet little group of girls that Maddie plays with and I know that this time is so invaluable for her.

Anyway. :) It's a big thing for me! I went for quite a while thinking that we'd skip sending her to preschool all together and now my heart is just so happy with where she is. Now I can't imagine her not going!

So to build off what they're learning in school, we've been doing some extension activities at home.

Crafts

I drew some snowflakes on paper and put out Q-tips, a paint dabber, white paint and some glitter.

She dabbed the paint along the lines and then sprinkled glitter over all the snowflakes.

They turned out great!

We did this one last year, but since it was fun, we repeated it this year!

I covered some paper with painter's tape and then gave her big paint dabbers and white paint.

She stamped paint all over and the sprinkled more glitter.

Then, we worked together to peel the tape off (it comes off really easily) and marveled at the "magic" snowflake left on the paper! :)

Sensory

*One that I don't have pictures of (even though I really thought I did) was when we made snow, using THIS product. This is a really fun sensory AND science experiment. I always find the snow at our local teacher's supply store, but add in small trinkets and tiny winter objects to make it a hide and find game. Maddie and her friend Mya played for quite a while with our giant bowl of snow we made!

For this one, I also grabbed an old dish and together, we sprayed shaving cream (Dollar Tree!) inside. We pretended that this was snow, too and Maddie had a BLAST smooshing and squeezing and spreading it all over.

Look at those snow monster hands! :)

It's such a great time to talk about textures, temperatures, sounds and smells.

To make bath time educational fun, we learned about icebergs and simulated lots of small icebergs by ice cubes in the bath tub.

She loved this and I think I finally drew the line after I'd refilled our ice bowl six times. Ha!

It was fun to hear the cubes crackle as they were dropped in the water and she loved watching them (sometimes helping them along) dissolve and get smaller.

Literacy

These next printables are from Making Learning Fun.

With this one, I'd call out a letter (this page was all lowercase letters) and she'd peel off a sticker and cover the correct letter.

*And no, she can not write her name. She did make the letter M, but the rest was done hand-over-hand.

We also read and colored a book about a melting snowman. :)

Fine Motor and Logic

This started off as a simple fine motor skills practice with objects, an ice cube tray and chopsticks.

She had fun transferring the objects from the bowl into the tray.

But, then I decided to try something new and it was a major hit (major as in, we played for a solid 30 minutes and the minute Mike got home from work, she made him play, too!).

Her job was to match the winter objects side by side in the tray. Then, she'd close her eyes and I would make an error. We started off with her having to open her eyes and correct that one error, moving all the way up to her having to identify and correct up to six errors at once.

I know, it doesn't sound huge but she loved the challenge and it was a great logic activity. She'd have to move several of the pieces around to get them all back to their matched state.

So, that was our mini-unit and I think she had a blast! I love that I'm able to tie her preschool curriculum into our home learning because I think it just makes everything so much richer!

Halloween Tot School!

Last week, we had our Halloween Tot School and, as always, it was a blast! I have pictures of the trays and the crafts!

Trays:

Open and Close

Each vessel had a Halloween trinket inside (fuzzy spiders, pumpkins, ect).

Tweezing plastic pumpkins (Dollar Tree) into paint tray

*These tweezers are from Lakeshore Learning, but other good places to look for tongs and tweezers are the Dollar Tree (think plastic serving tongs!), party stores (again, serving tongs) or dollar stores (even real tweezers are awesome!).

Tonging green glass rocks into paint tray

Tweezing itty bitty pom poms in ice cube mold

Make a Halloween bracelet with pipe cleaners and pony beads

Sorting acorns, skulls and bats into divided tray (99 Cent Store)

Tonging tiny acorns (Michaels) into pumpkin mold (Dollar Tree)

Sorting pumpkins and acorns (Dollar Tree) by either type or color

Halloween graphing with various trinkets

Dry pour between two pitchers (filled with lentils and beans)

Count and clip cards

Now, onto the sensory activities and crafts (all outdoor activities!):

Beans and rice table filled with spooky Halloween pieces (Dollar Tree)

Crepe paper collage and water play

Pumpkin Mosaics

Pumpkin painting on large, construction paper pumpkins (precut)

Spider web marble painting

The coolest flying ghosts

(found HERE)

Seriously, every single kid flipped for these. I highly recommend them!

Sensory box with beans and black-eyed peas, tiny pumpkins and tiny skulls (and tongs to search!)

And, dot stamping!

Look at these beautiful creations!!

For snack, we had Halloween cookies, apple slice and caramel dip.

During circle time, we worked in our journals and then painted and decorated real pumpkins.

What a fun, fun time!!