Bunny Noses

                      
Want a fun, quick Easter craft to do?  Make a bunny nose with whiskers. 
I saw this idea at Kailo Chic and modified it slightly.
 
Just a few materials needed; tongue depressor or popsicle stick, pom poms,
qtips (Kailo Chic used white pipe cleaners but I didn’t have enough) and
hot glue gun. 
          
He wanted eyes so we dug out the googly eyes to add.
   
You could use white glue but the children would have to wait
for them to dry.

Family Tree Group Project

    
Nicole set up this Family Tree project so families could share and
learn about each other.
     
She introduced it during circle time, explaining that the project
 would be set up for the next several days and familes could
participate when they had an opportunity.
 
It didn’t take long for the children to start drawing the different
members in their families.
  
They were also encouraged to write the names of each family
member.
           
Now we have this beautiful tree decorating our wall.
Thanks Nicole for another wonderful project.

An interesting conversation arose after this project was started.
We were singing a traditional song about families.
It goes like this...
"Come a' look a' see here's my mama
Come a' look a' see here's my papa
Come a' look a' see my brother tall
Sister, baby,
I love them all."

Because families come in all different shapes and sizes now,
how would you change this song to make it more inclusive?

Hot Rock Crayon Melting

        
I was so excited to try this art using hot stones and crayons. 
Thanks to The Artful Parent for sharing this great idea.
 
After heating the rocks in the oven at 350 for about 15 minutes
we placed them on cardboard covered with foil.
        
While the children waited for me to get the stone from the
kitchen they started to peel crayons.
 
The rocks are HOT and I was concerned that the children would
forget and grab it with their free hand so I provided mitts
for them to wear.
 
It was a lot of fun to watch the crayons melt.  It was almost like
painting because the crayon glided over the rock very smoothly.
 
The colours blend and run together in a beautiful blur.

As a group we talked about what you could use if you don`t have an oven handy.  A couple of suggestions were to use a heating pad, or a toaster oven, or even a crock pot.

A few of the families mentioned they will be repeating this at home.

Easter Fun

Here are a few activities we have been having fun with
this week.

Coloured egg sort by colour and size turned quickly into
being a bunny and hiding the eggs around the room.
 

In our sensory table they found coloured grass, plastic eggs
and egg cups.
         
 

Then there was Jelly Bean Stew.
 
A chance to pretend cook together, share and take turns.
 
A chance to learn a new poem about colours.
 

Paper Egg Dyeing

 
What happens when crepe paper gets wet? 
              It bleeds! 
That was the motivation for the artwork this morning.

The children were encouraged to rip the crepe paper into
small pieces and lay them on their white egg shaped paper.
 
The fun part is using the spray bottle.  Learning how to press
it to make the water come out.  Making sure that the nozzle is
pointing in the right direction so you don’t spray yourself in the
face.
 
After it was wet we laid a another egg on top of the wet one
and pressed.

Most were very wet and as we pressed down we started
to see the colours come through.

Pull the two paper eggs apart to see what happened.

For smaller children we found it easier to use a brush
and water rather than the spray bottle.

Comparing Airports

Each year we visit our airport and each year we create our own
airport at school.
  
 This is the check in counter where we show our tickets and
 
have our luggage weighed and tagged.  When it is ready it disappears
on a conveyor belt into the Baggage Security area.  We can't take picutres
in there but the suitcases go through a big xray machine then out to
the cargo area.
 
At school we sell tickets and get the baggage ready to put on the plane.
We don't have a conveyor belt but we started thinking of what we could
use to make one.  One child suggested rubber bands and tubes.

  
We learned the signals that the marshal uses to park the plane.
Outside we saw a yellow “T” on the ground where the plane needs to stop.
 
Back at school we practiced the signals for turning and stopping a plane.

 
We added a runway with lights then after visiting the airport we added the “T”.
 
Ready to fly?
Some of our destinations were to Hawaii, Mexico, Toronto,
Vancouver and the most popular Disneyland.

 
At the airport we were able to watch a plane land, taxi in, marshal to a stop,
unload and reload.  It’s ready to head to Vancouver.
  
We saw where the pets are kept while waiting for their plane.
And what happens to the luggage after they are unloaded from the plane.

 
Back at school the flight attendants were busy taking snack orders
and providing reading materials for the long trips.


Thank you to Alex and Lesley for taking the time to show us
around the airport.  And letting us pretend to be planes on the
tarmac.