it's time for our estimation jars!

There are five jars for the children to investigate. Each jar contains a set number of like items such as rubber duckies, stretchy snakes, butterflies, small pebbles, and a large mossy (faux) rock. We set this up along with a couple of clipboards and pens to encourage drawing what they see. This year around, it was more fun to stack the jars as high as they could. Either way, it's all learning!

bean counters!

I love a wooden Mancala board for sorting small items in the classroom. I think we have two or three in the classroom as they are easily found at the thrift stores. Here, we popped a handful of mixed beans into the large well, along with one of each in the small wells. Yay for sorting!

fun with dyed chanukah pasta

When I found this happy bag of Chanukah pasta at World Market I scooped it up with a whoop and imagined how pretty it would be dyed in all sorts of happy colors. So I took it home and did just that using this method.

The bag itself isn't too large so each color is only maybe two cups or so of noodles. The teal and purple were accomplished using liquid watercolor while the dark blue and the white needed a little help from some acrylic paint mixed with water. The white and blue got a bit more wet than usual in the shaking process so needed a day to dry with a manual flip in between to get both sides.

Once the noodles are all dry there are oodles of ways for your kiddos to play! Use the pasta as a stand in for gelt during dreidel play. Add it to play dough or color sort onto a sorting mat made from printed/solid paper taped or stitched together. Felt will work for a more permanent mat but happy scrapbook paper will do in a pinch!

Stack the pieces! Have a contest to see who can stack the most in a set time. Up the ante by using only your pinching fingers. Grab a pipecleaner or some yarn and string the noodles up for a pretty necklace or bracelet.

Work on math and patterning by creating various patterns with your kiddos. Set up an art table with glue, paint, and glitter and get to it! There are all sorts of ways you can play! Happy Chanukah!

fun with pencils

 For many years I organized an international swap group that had over 1000 members. We exchanged swap packages each month. Over the course of five years I received all sorts of fun and nifty items. I also received a ridiculous amount of pencils and not being one for throwing away useful (and not so useful) things I held onto them until I could figure out a better use.

Enter a classroom of three-year-olds! I set up a bamboo utensil box with a variety of pencils for sorting and a tray with a pencil sharpener and smencils. The children sorted the pencils by color (math), counted the pencils (more math), arranged the pencils (spatial intelligence), and sharpened the pencils (fine motor) for days and days and days. One industrious youngster figured out a way to stack the pencils (awesomeness). Who would've thought?

making smoothies in the classroom

One of our activities for our week of The Very Hungry Caterpillar was to make fruit smoothies. The children were very excited at the idea and talked a lot about when we were going to do it.

On smoothie day, each kiddo brought a piece/type of fruit to class. I notified parents ahead of time and asked them to not bring bananas as I worried that each kiddo would bring a banana, I would supply those.  I also brought along a few other types of fruit that I thought would be fun to explore. We did not stick with the fruit from the book as I wanted the children to decide which fruit they brought to class. We had strawberries, blackberries, apples, peaches, plums, oranges, apricots, and kiwis. A cornucopia! Thank goodness we have no fruit allergies in this class!  The children were very excited to get started as they were going to cut their own fruit with real  (butter) knives! Each piece of fruit was introduced and we talked about the visual characteristics. I talk a lot about us being detectives of the world and how we use our five senses to seek out clues. We used our eyes to give us visual clues to determine what kind of fruit we had. We see an orange is round and of course orange. We then use our nose to smell the fruit before we cut it, we use our hands to touch and then we use our mouth to taste, etc. Some of the fruit was new to the children and we would guess what color the inside was and write down our predictions. There was a lot of excitement, vocabulary, community, etc.

I found this really awesome blender at Target for $15. It makes a 16oz drink and you can drink from the base if ya like. It is not a very loud blender but still loud enough to unsettle my sound sensitive student so before using it we talked about the sound a blender makes and she took some time to decide if she wanted to be in the kitchen with ears covered our in the reasing corner with pillows piled over her, etc. We put in our fruit with a few ice cubes, a smidge of pineapple juice to help get things going and the children took turns blending away. It was thrilling! When the smoothie was deemed finished, the children took turns pouring their drink into their own cups.  Making a smaller smoothie is crucial as all that fruit in those little bellies...well...you know.

Here is this photo again showing the scale of our blender. I love it and the children were so serious when they were blending their smoothies. It was a delicious smoothie and made more than enough for our small group. If you have room in your class to store a small blender I would highly recommend it. Though, I do have to admit I take my blender home to store and use as I find it makes a much better smoothie than our large Oster. Cheers!

rainbow percussion play

Can you tell I like a rainbow? We made a classroom xylophone using a variety of coffee/frap bottles, liquid watercolor, and water. Our books were A Rainbow of My Own and The Listening Walk. We did this project for both books and again when the children wanted to. We talked a lot about order and sequencing as we arranged the bottles in and out of rainbow order and discussed the steps for making our xylophone. I talked to the children about sounds, vibrations, music, and percussion. There had been a lot of discussion about all of those things in our classroom during the week and creating our own xylophone tied it all together.

We began with glass bottles (not a bad excuse for drinking fancy bottled coffee drinks) that had just a little bit of liquid watercolor in them. One of the kiddos was really excited to see all of the colors of the rainbow. They had even made sure the bottles were in rainbow order before we began.

I introduced the funnel as a tool for pouring liquid into the bottles without spilling. The kiddos use funnels a lot in water play and sensory play. This was the first time they were using it as a kitchen tool and they were very excited!

The children took turns pouring water into the bottles. All of them oohed and aahed over the brightly colored water.

 We worked in a small group to give everyone a chance to pour and talk about what they were doing.

I was surprised and delighted that the children did not wish to pour equal amounts of water into the bottles. There was some ownership over who poured the water in each bottle so later as they played, they would refer to the red bottle as theirs or the blue bottle as his...etc.

Aren't they pretty all lined up? The next day when we did the project again, the children in the next group poured equal amounts of water into each bottle. They worked very carefully and eyeballed their amounts. One of the children had an a-ha moment and went off in search of a measuring cup. It was super cool.

They had so much fun playing their new classroom instrument. Variety of sound was magical to them. The second rainbow xylophone made with equal amounts was also just as fun to play. One of the children noticed the sounds were not that different and another a-ha moment happened when he told the other children they need to change the water.

See? So much music and fun. Here are two of the kiddos playing their Jazz music. We play a lot of jazz in the classroom though their favorite is rock n roll. I have a video to post also. I just need to figure out how to make the file smaller. Stay tuned!

investigating the lid bin

It took me months to save up enough lids for an impressive lid bin. When I introduced it to the children we were all sitting in our kitchen area enjoying our lunches. I brought out the lids which I placed in a sturdy shallow wicker and wire basket. I held the basket/bin under the table and shook it. I asked the children if they could guess what I had. I did this so long ago I forgot what their guesses were. I placed the bin on top of the table and the children were very excited. Who knew? We talked about the shape of the lids, the various colors and how some of the lids had words on them. I told the children the bin would be in our block area if they would like to investigate and immediately upon finishing lunch they swooped down on it. There was stacking and sorting, nesting and counting, design making and patterning. There was a single purple lid that allowed one of the kiddos to complete a "beautiful lid rainbow". All the busyness and exuberance makes my heart go thumpity-thump.  The children enjoy working with the bin and are extra delighted when they find a cap in their lunch or snack bag. Now we have more than one purple lid for more rainbow making. This is preschool math at its best.

cocoa center in the classroom

It's been so so hot lately that I cannot even muster any cocoa fondness save for the fact that the children love when we have a cocoa center. Plus, it's gotta be cocoa weather somewhere, right? Our last cocoa center was in March on a rainy day. The set up is a plate with a ceramic mug, an open packet of instant cocoa, a spoon, and a small container of marshmallows. There is also a pitcher of warm water on the table. We do not have any allergies in our classroom so are able to use good old fashioned instant cocoa. We talk about the difference between cocoa recipes and the children love to share how they make it at home. We warm up our water in the microwave and transfer it to a plastic pitcher sized right for smaller hands. Before we begin the children name the items they are going to use and then together we talk about the steps or sequence of cocoa making.  They love adding their water and stirring it all up and often time will continue adding water until they no longer really have cocoa but it's all good and they own it!

Things learned at the cocoa station: vocabulary, patience, motor and math skills.

oh, the fun that we had: pink ink

Another fun project from One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish was making Pink Ink (it's what the Yink drinks).  We do a lot of recipes in the classroom, both real and made-up (concoction making and experimenting). Recipe following falls right in line with early math skills. Children are learning sequencing along with cause and effect (what happens when we add something, what happens when we leave something out). Cooking and recipe following in the classroom is always exciting. The children also learn new vocabulary words and further develop all those motor skills that are so important to coordination, balance, and learning.

 

For our Pink Ink recipe I wanted to do something easy that mostly focused on following steps in order. My first thought was strawberry milk but that was just so pink. Then I thought of making a french soda without the fizz and off I went in search of juice. I knew we were going to use whipped cream and sprinkles so I went with a no-sugar added option. The problem with that is the more natural the juice the less pretty it is (not really a problem but it was funny when the pink ink was hardly pink).

 

The set up included clear cups on plates and a happy curly straw. The first step was to pour some juice into their cup. Each child took a turn and poured as much or as little as they wished. We do a lot of pouring practice in class when we make cocoa (which is always a treat and I need to do a post on the cocoa fun) and the children know that sometimes a spill happens and that's okay, we just clean it up. They all know where the dishtowels for cleaning up are which makes it easy and they own it.

After juice came milk  then whipped cream (we did not get a chance to make our own cream so I sprayed some on top for them).

 

After the cream came the sprinkles (which thankfully had soooo much color in them the drink did indeed turn pink after much stirring had happened) then the straw.

 

 

The children oohed and aaahed over their concoctions and went about investigating them as they would any set of science supplies I set out for them. I asked them to use their senses and tell me what they observed. There was a lot of enthusiastic sniffing and poking and tasting. Oh so much fun!

oh, the fun that we had: graphing goldfish

 

 

During our Dr. Seuss week we read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. We read it many, many times. One of our fishy activities was to graph goldfish crackers. I generally do not do worksheets in the classroom. These goldfish sheets were a take home project for the children to do at home. I wanted to familiarize the children with the process and so we set up an area for the graphing. It goes without saying the the mere presence of the bag of crackers was exciting. What was even more exciting was when I opened the bag and the children saw that the crackers were in different colors.

 

I used this graph printable and laminated it with clear contact paper so that it could be wiped down and used again. I placed a random handful in each child's cup and we discussed the graph and how it was the same yet different than our large masking tape graphs we use in the classroom for various searches and hunts.

 

It took a few tries for the children to get the hang of the graph. After they finished placing their crackers onto their graphs each child estimated which row/color of goldfish had the most. Each child counted their rows which spared conversations and estimations regarding who had the most/least, etc. After all the counting, estimating, and listing had happened the children got to eat their crackers.

 

After a round of hand washing the children got to count out ten crackers to take home for graphing at home. The parents were really keen on the activity and the children had a blast! Oh the fun!

on sorting and set ups...

I teach threes in a literature based school. We focus on one book for the week, pulling out theme and curriculum ideas from the book. No matter the theme, I will always have one or two sorting activities out along with fine motor fun, our sticky easel, maybe a felt board, a story basket, the mystery bag, a sensory bin, play dough, and art stuffs. Repeating these projects and actions using different materials is a great way for children to learn and stretch their growing minds and fine motor skills. The success and anticipation of knowing how to use the materials builds their confidence and autonomy while allowing for creative play when they engage with the materials in ways of their own choosing. Each time they succeed or stretch those thought processes connections are made in the brain. It's really cool! So whether or not the children put the correct amount of pom-poms on the corresponding gingerbread person there is still development happening. If the children color sort the poms (like one did in the picture) while another simply throws them all in the air, that's okay, the brain is still working and growing and the child is learning about the world around them.

 

The pretty set ups in my classroom are to engage and invite the children in and create a pleasing environment for myself and their parents. The set up is the photo-sell of a classroom but the real magic happens when the children arrive and create new ways of playing and manipulating their environment. Those photos don't really show the magic but it is there in super leaps and bounds. It is the main reason I work with children, that magical moment of learning that happens when nothing seems to be happening at all.

These gingerbread people were picked up from the dollar section at Target. I'm not a big foam fan but thought these could last a few years. There are numbered dots on one side with the number written on the other. One of my children immediately ripped a leg off of poor number six. After we discussed what was suitable for tearing, we figured out a way to repair the leg and then grabbed some tin foil and construction paper  to create a tearing station. For the sorting pieces you could use pom-poms, stickers, punched pieces, small counters, beans, or even wrapped candies though with a room of three-year olds you may find one hiding out in the gingerbread house with their cheeks full of peppermints...ahem.

sorting gingerbread people

 When we go with a theme for the week, we GO with a theme. Our week of gingerbread touched on all areas of our curriculum. We painted, we mixed, we did experiments, we read stories, we told stories, we played out the story, we sang songs, and we sorted. I picked up these fantastic gingerbread people from etsy seller How We Learn at Home. I didn't have a plan but loved them so I put them out on the tray. I then rediscovered a color carton made by my co-teacher and loved how they matched so I put it out as well. I walked away and began setting up other areas...

When I made my way back around the room with camera in hand, I found this! I love it when they do this. I thought for sure the people would end up all over the place but there they remained nestled in their colors, occasionally dumped and resorted, or put to bed as one of the children kept saying.