Floating and Sinking Eggs

Starting off posts regarding our egg unit we've been working on for a while... Today we took the incubating eggs off the automatic turner in preparation of hatching.

The center eggs were old ones, so after 18 days in the incubator as heat indicators, they are good and rotten. PERFECT for our sink or float experiment.

I asked the children if they thought the new egg, straight out of the carton and white, would sink or float. We discussed it, and the concepts of sink and float, with the sinkers and floaters votes equally divided. Even the 2s had opinions on this. Then we discussed the yucky old egg and what it might do. 

It did help that they were different colors for the children to be able to easily see which one was which. Then the older girls placed each one in water and we saw what happened.

We observed the air bubbles coming off the eggs and discussed why that was.

I asked if they wanted to smash the yucky old egg and smell it's stinkiness, but they declined. They trusted me on that one.

SKILLS: 

Science density, gases, air, rotting, water displacement, volume, floating vs sinking, prediction, deduction, hypothesis, classification [old/new, sinker/floater]

Math graphing, counting, one-to-one correspondence [glasses to eggs to children who put them in], prediction, deduction, classification [old/new, sinker/floater], shapes: oval, cylinder [tumbler], rectangle [tray], circle [tops of tumblers]

Language vocabulary, adjectives, placement words, colors, explaining their vote

Observation

Tags: preschool, childcare, daycare, pre-k, prek, kindergarten, homeschool, eggs, egg theme, egg unit, Easter, float sink, science, spring

Truth Tuesday #6 - Baby It's Cold Outside

Truth Tuesday is blog posts regarding my 

Murphy's Laws of childcare.

#6 Good, caring, concerned parents WILL dress their child inappropriately for childcare. This is especially true when it's REALLY important, like it's ridiculously cold outside. 

This morning's conversation, exactly as it went down...


Mom, coming through the door: "SORRY, I didn't know it was going to be so cold today and I dressed her in shorts. I thought it was going to be like yesterday." 


Me: "Shorts?"


Mom: "I know..."


Me: "WHITE shorts? Seriously?! REALLY?!!"


Mom: "Well....they looked cute with her t-shirt."


Me: "WHITE!"


Mom: "I know..."


I redressed her in black pants with mom standing there. She's one of the best mom's I know, and STILL. 


It's especially bad with parents who enter the car through a garage, park at work in a garage and go straight into their nice warm office where they spend the day. I try to get across to them that we are mandated by the STATE to be outside for a minimum of one HOUR a day, even if it's in spurts of time because it's too darn cold out for sanity. They still send them in light jackets when it's freezing outside, or the girls in dresses or light weight leggings, etc. 


I also love it when the toddlers are potty training and arrive in overalls. That's a good one. 


SIGH! Happens all the time.
Tags: childcare, daycare, preschool, pre-k, prek, outside, appropriate dress, parenting, teaching

Easter Bunny Cupcakes and Minis

Jen brought these for snack today. The big one for me, and anticipating a sugar rush weekend for the kiddos, the minis for them. The peeps were too big for the small ones, so she had the brilliant idea of putting the Easter candy corns in as bunny ears. The children thought it was great to have bunnies hiding in their cupcakes.

Easter/Egg Coloring and Pre-writing Printables

FREE on TPT 

A coloring page for your Easter or egg unit...

And its pre-writing counterpart. Advanced level on the top and bottom. Don't forget to have them trace over Egg!

Also included is the printable for our You're A Good Egg! craft.

A Blessed Good Friday and Easter to all!

SKILLS:

Fine motor: tracing, coloring with the lines

Math: shapes circle, triangle, oval, symmetry

Language: spelling egg, letters e/g

Art: creative expression, color recognition

Tags: Easter, egg, coloring, pre-writing, prewriting, childcare, daycare, homeschool, art, craft, worksheet, crayon, crayons, marker, markers, paint, bird, theme, unit

Ahhh, SPRING!

I simply LOVE springtime!! We are outside pretty much all day every day during this beautiful weather. 

The mature lilac was one of the main reasons I wanted this property when we were looking 13 years ago. It's still one of the things I love most and look forward to each spring. I can remember laying under my mother's pride and joy lilac and reading, my senses just bathed in the scent. 

Dandelions are edible. A good choice for infant introduction to flowers.

 This forsythia started as a twig from my grandmother's garden. Her forsythia hedge was ripped out by the city in a street-widening project years ago, and last year her house was sold and she moved into an assisted living facility. This forsythia is a wonderful reminder of my childhood as well.

These are true pear trees, not decorative. We get some wonderful fruit from these, along with the apple, peach, cherry, apricot, and plum trees. Some of the better planting decisions I made the first year we owned this property. I appreciated that this volunteer cedar tree chose to grow directly in the middle of the two, when viewed from the house.

The only things prettier than the flowers at spring time, are these adorable students of mine.

Colored Glue and Water Color Resist

I love this art project! I think it came out really fantastic. 

I let the children pick out which color of glue they wanted to use and  put a few squirts of the color of choice into a 1/2 full glue bottle. I let the children shake the bottles until their arms and/or attention span gave out. I like the idea of older children using the glue for more detailed drawings, or tracing a pre-drawn picture or coloring page. These children aren't to that stage, though, so I left it as a free expression activity.

The 3 1/2 year old had no problem with the glue activity with minimal verbal instructions.

 Since this was a new activity, I found several issues with the toddlers, though:

• When we glue, I always tell them to keep the tip on the paper to not create globs of glue, so they had issues with holding the glue up above the paper.

• They were fascinated by the glue coming out, and just wanted to watch it do so, rather than moving it around to create something. Once they started moving it around, the tip automatically went onto the paper to "draw."  

• They had no trouble squeezing the bottle, but it took some effort to get their hands in the correct position and they had to use two hands.

Final version for G, 22months

I realized that this is a 3-instruction task and that the toddlers are still at a 1-2 instruction level. The need to hold the glue up, squeeze and move, all at the same time, was confusing for them and required some assistance/instruction on my part. They eventually got it, but I had to help hold it up and squeeze while telling them to move it around for a few seconds before letting them go to it.

It was high humidity here so the glue remained tacky for more than a day. I could have used the blow drier or oven on low to help them along, but we weren't in any hurry so I just let them air dry on the counter. Unfortunately, I did get a lid on my son's and smudged his some. I'm sure I'll hear about that for a few years.  

Final version for B, 3 1/2

B had no trouble with the concept of using different colors, washing her brush between colors, and staying in the lines as much as possible. She was very diligent and did a great job, as I expected at 3 1/2.

H at 2 1/2, though, I was not expecting to be as diligent. I was pleasantly surprised however. She worked really hard at staying in the lines and making different areas different colors. She did do more mixing of colors than B.

Final version for H, 2 1/2

I just let the toddlers have at it with watercolors, but was surprised that they were actually fairly meticulous with their brushing as well. It always helps to have the older ones go first for demonstration.

J at almost 11, wasn't really interested in the activity, didn't cave to my admonishment that art is good for the soul, and only did it because it got him out of doing math for a few minutes. He free hand created an ocean scene with bubbles, sea weed, a fish, an oil spill and a dark skinned mermaid. He said he felt it was just wrong that mermaids were always white skinned. [I liked that, but he still made her blonde. Go figure.] He liked the process and is interested in exploring it further and putting more effort into his next creation.

Final version for J, 11

We all really liked this craft and will add it to the repertoire. I need to get more glue bottles, but we will keep a rainbow of glue colors available for art from now on.

The Pinterest pin for this idea, geared towards older preschoolers to school age is from Pink and Green Momma, and the original is credited to this post from That Artist Woman, geared towards school-age children. 

SKILLS:

• Fine motor
• Gross motor
• Art creative expression, mixed media
• Following directions

Tags: art, craft, preschool, daycare, childcare, pre-k, prek, glue, water color, resist, stained glass, toddler

Truth Tuesday #5 - Days End Meltdowns

Truth Tuesday is blog posts regarding my 

Murphy's Laws of childcare.

#5 A child will have the most wonderful day...until 30 seconds prior to his/her parent arriving. Either another child will take away their toy, they will trip, they will have a production in their pants, get into trouble, or some other childhood catastrophe will befall that requires them to be screaming and wailing like a banshee when mom or dad walks through the door. 


We try for the utmost zen environment here, but I swear the children have an uncanny knack for knowing when their parents are arriving and the precise moment to go ballistic.
Tags: childcare, daycare, pre-k, prek, tantrums