Ice Cream in a bag!

For our nutrition activity last month we did ice-cream in a bag.  This is a great activity for science and uses  some gross motor skills too.  Not to mention it is very inexpensive for those on a class budget :)

Here are all of our ingredients: Ice Cubes; Ice Cream Salt; 1 cup half and half; 2 TB sugar; 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Add everything but the salt into a ziplock bag.  

Then close it tightly and place it in another bag that is filled 1/4 way with ice cubes. Next sprinkle in the salt. 

I didn't get a picture of the kids shaking the bag but here is the finished product!

Winter Water Table Play!

This time of year I always do a winter unit and include some sort of frozen water play, winter art, winter science and winter drama area.  For the water play my assistant had the idea of filling up a 5 gallon bucket with colored water and placing winter sea animals and polar animals into the water and freezing it over the weekend.  This was a big hit with the kids and lasted over a few days.

We also gave the kids sponges to work the ice down.  They couldn't wait to see what animal they would discover next.

   After a day of sponges we brought in basters and lastly salt.  This science discovery play is a wonderful opportunity for the children to learn about the properties of water!

I'm also working on assessments so I brought in the objectives comparing objects by differences and size with foam snowballs.

It helped that I printed the word small on smaller letters and the word Big on larger letters.  This way the kids knew which basket to sort into for the activity.

 Our state standards require that we have a sand and water table available daily, which limits me on other sensory play. So... I decided to bring in an extra sensory bin for other fun tactile experiences.  This is my rice bin that I placed snowflake confetti and foam snowflakes in for the winter theme.  The kids loved it!

One project we did for art was marshmallow painting.  I read Snowmen at Night first and I used big and small marshmallows so we could work on the comparing objective again :)

Here is a picture of my cold center.  The kids really enjoyed getting dressed up for the cold weather.

Then....I turned it into a Hot Cocoa center!  I posted on this in a previous post, Brrrr baby it's cold outside! but this year I added some new things: New sign, laminated hot cocoa packets, hot cocoa metal tins and boxes, marshmallow jar and peppermint jar.

  

This is one of my favorite times of teaching!  What do you do for your winter theme?

Exploring the Ocean with Wave Bottles!

Since it is sunny in Seattle right now I thought I would share one of my favorite ocean projects that we make towards the end of the year.

For this project you will need:

empty water bottles; water, baby oil, funnel, blue food coloring; hot glue gun, several Rubbermaid containers or pans, plastic fish, seaweed, stickers, sand and sea shells.

Step 1:  Fill the water bottle 1/3 way full with water.

Step 2: Add 2-3 drops of blue food coloring

Step 3: Add some sand, sea shells, sea shells, and plastic fish to the water.

 

 

 Step 4: Using a funnel fill the rest of the bottle with baby oil. I ask parents to donate this as it helps with the cost of the project.  I think the parent purchased these at Walmart :)

 Step 5:   Place lid on the water bottle and decorate with stickers

Step 6: Hot glue (teacher only) lids to bottle so they don't leak.

I always have one or two parent helpers with this project, it just makes it so much easier to complete!  What fun ocean projects do you do for your class?

Bringing the winter theme across the developmental domains!

THIS IS A RE-POST FROM MY OLD BLOG FROM FEBRUARY

The last couple of weeks we have been working on learning about winter and polar animals.  Here are some activities we did and what domain they apply towards.
Fine Motor and Cognitive: I downloaded these mittens on-line and then laminated them for durability.

The children put a white button on the picture that matches the letter “Oo” for this activity.  I downloaded it from a learning site and then laminated it for durability.

For art we made icicles out of foil and glitter.  They used hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, and creative expression for this project.
  
For Science: we learned about cause and effect with ice in the sensory bin.  I froze containers of ice with fish inside of them and then placed them in the sensory bin full of water.  The children loved discovering what happened to the ice in the water!
  
I also added polar animals and Styrofoam as ice burgs.  This was a very popular center where the children worked on their social and emotional skills!

Another fun art and fine motor activity was making igloos out of Styrofoam cups and marshmallows.  The kids painted on the glue and placed the marshmallows on one by one.

Here is a finished one!

For a gross motor and fine motor we  stamped with bubble wrap.
 
We experimented with “insta snow.” This worked very well in teaching children about making hypotheses and predictions.

We also had a very fun day with our snowman snack party, but that will be in another post
~Meghan