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Happy St Patrick's Day!!!
I'm orginally from Newfoundland so maybe that is a reason why I love St Patrick's Day...it reminds me of home. However, I think it might also be because of all the fun you can have with kids and the story of the leprechauns. Leprechauns are pesky little elves that like to visit places where there are little children and they like to play tricks and cause mischeif. Here are some of the things the leprechauns did in our classroom this year.
And what would St Patrick's Day be without some Irish music. I had a pot of gold filled with paper coins labelled with different shapes and shamrocks. We played a game where once the music stopped, the person holding the pot got to pick. If they picked a shape, they were to name it, if they picked a shamrock, we all stood up and danced a jig to the Irish music. Let's just say, everyone wanted to pick a shamrock! What a great group of Irish dancers!! I even had a request to leave the Irish music on while we did our craft. Below are a few of the other things we did during the week... As you can imagine we spent lots of time discussing the leprechauns, what they looked like and what would happen if we caught one (you have to make them laugh and then they will take you to their pot of gold under the rainbow). We spent lots of time acting this scenario out and felt that we needed a realistic costume. We all worked together to make this beard. This little boy was a great leprechaun and we all had lots of fun trying to find him and make him laugh. Happy St Patrick's Day!!!
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Magnets are always interesting to play with because we sometimes take it for granted just how much a child knows about magnetism. For our experiment we discussed what materials are attracted to magnets. We then went around the classroom and tried to see if our theories were correct. At the table I gave each child a glass of water and paperclips. They were to try and get the paperclips out of the glass without their hands. Ta da! the magnet was strong enough to pull out all the paperclips at once! For this experiment I used a lot of kitchen ingredients and we then attempted to see if they would dissolve in water. The next time I think I would ask everyone to bring items from home; one that they thought would dissolve and one they thought wouldn't. I was worried that this experiment might seem a little "boring" compared to some of the others that we did but I forgot how much children love to mix and stir things! They loved it and were excited to keep trying to get something to dissolve. For this experiment we used milk (whole milk works best), food coloring and dish soap. We touched the dish liquid with a toothpick and then gently touched the food coloring that was dropped into the milk. "The reaction of the soap disrupting the surface tension of the milk causes the colors to radiate away from the toothpick." I think all my explanations as to why this was happening were lost on everyone as they all were so excited by what they saw. This experiment showcased absorption. Everyone colored a dot onto a paper towel and then we placed it in a tub with a little bit of water in the bottom, enough to soak up on the paper. It didn't take long to see what would happen. Next, everyone made a design with white glue on a sheet of paper. They then sprinkled salt over their design. With an eye dropper they dropped colored water onto the salt. It absorbed into the salt but it was also interesting to see the colors mix and change. While everyone was painting with the dropper we waited for water to make its way from one glass to another. Everyone thought this was magic! By the end of class the empty glass was almost half full!! We finished off the month of February with some science experiments. This was so much fun that I will try to do more throughout the year. An experiment always has an element of surprise to it. It is so much fun to see the excitement in each child. I found all of my experiments through Pinterest. All of the instructions can be found there if you are interested in trying these again at home. I start the experiment by explaining the ingredients and then asking everyone to think about what they think might happen when we mix the items. We also talked about using all our senses when doing an experiment...not only what do you see, but what do you smell, hear and if it is safe, taste. In this case some kids did taste the vinegar In this experiment we mixed baking soda and vinegar. I also added some food coloring and a few drops of dish liquid.
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Miss DawnI teach preschool in my home to 3 and 4 year olds. It's a wonderful adventure filled with lots of laughter and learning. Archives
January 2017
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