Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Watching Colours Move

Since school started we’ve been playing with colours.  Here are a few
experiments I saw on Pinterest and decided to try at school.
              sept 5 004
Fill three clear jars with water and add blue colouring to one,
red to another and yellow to the last.
sept 5 009  sept 5 011
Fold paper towel into long strips and place one strip half way
in one jar and half way in the other.
        sept 5 013
          Do the same for the other two jars.
sept 5 069  sept 5 020
During the morning we watched, talked and predicted what would happen. 
We saw the water creep up the towel and where the two towels touched a
new colour was created.

sept 10 004  sept 10 005
A couple of days later we started again but added three empty jars. 
Setting an empty jar between each of the coloured water filled jars.
       sept 10 018 sept 10 053
The same thing happened as in the first experiment, the colour crept
up the towel and down in to the empty jars.
sept 10 051  sept 10 050
But the liquid continued on to drip into each empty jar as a new colour.
           sept 10 052
We created orange, green and purple and a strong interest in colour mixing.

     sept 5 051  sept 10 022
                  It continues at the art area.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Five Little Pirates

We are fully in to pirates now at our centre.
sept 8, 2013 002  sept 8, 2013 006
       The ship is set to sail or row.
    sept 10 054
Pirates are in the crows nest keeping an eye out for treasure.
        sept 6 003
And we learned a new song, thanks to Colleen from a neighbouring StrongStart.

Five Little Pirates

5 little pirates went out one day over the seas and far away.
The captain said "YoHoHoHo"
But only 4 little pirates came back home.

4 little pirates went out one day over the seas and far away.
The captain said "YoHoHoHo"
But only 3 little pirates came back home.

3 little pirates went out one day over the seas and far away.
The captain said "YoHoHoHo"
But only 2 little pirates came back home.

2 little pirates went out one day over the seas and far away.
The captain said "YoHoHoHo"
But only 1 little pirates came back home.

1 little pirate went out one day over the seas and far away.
The captain said "YoHoHoHo"
But only 0 little pirates came back

Old sad captain went out one day over the seas and far away.
Old sad captain said "YOHOHOHO!"
And all 5 pirates came back home.




Monday, September 9, 2013

Another Pom Pom Play

    sept 6 043
These round bowl type toys are for stacking and the holes in the middle
make it easy for the little ones to pick up. 

But I wondered, couldn’t we use them for another use?  Say for
identifying and sorting colours?
       sept 9 002
I painted little paper plates to match each bowl and placed them out
with a basket of pom poms. 
       sept 9 013
The age that was most interested in this new play toy was under 2s. 

Was it the colours that attracted them? 
Or that they enjoy hiding items out of sight and playing a peek-a-boo game? 

I saw the children experimenting by pushing the pom poms through the holes,
even larger pom poms which they had to give a whack to make them fit.  

I challenge you to look around your room and find different ways to use
some of the toys.  Let me know what you found.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Flower Watercolours

Over the summer I spent sometime browsing the net and finding
great ideas to try at the art table.  You can check out my Art Pinterest
board to see what ideas caught my attention.

One idea was from Learn~Play~Imagine.  She made watercolour
paint from flowers.  I’ve dyed eggs using different vegetables and
liked the idea of trying flowers.
          sept 4 044
I’m not much of a flower gardener and have only weeded my flower
beds once this summer so I asked families to bring flowers in for this
art activity.
sept 5 016  sept 5 017
We started by picking the blossoms off the stems and putting them
into ziplock bags.
       sept 5 028
They really enjoyed that step, I think having the opportunity to pull
flowers apart when they are usually told to be gentle was liberating.

      sept 5 018
A bonus while picking apart the blossoms was finding this little slug. 
He eventually escaped, I hope it's okay.

sept 5 024   sept 5 037 
Back to the baggies, we added hot water to the bag and squeezed the air
out before sealing.  The children used rollers or their hands to squish
and squeeze the colour out of the blossoms.
sept 5 029  sept 5 041
We had some success.  If I had read her blog again last night I would have
learned that if we had left the flowers to soak for a period of time our
success may have been greater.
sept 5 052 sept 5 055
The flower that did create the best paint was a purple Dahlia.
sept 5 061 sept 5 062
               sept 5 063
Regardless of the colour (or lack of it) we created, the families enjoyed
the whole process.

      sept 5 068
   We’ve talked about trying it again with vegetables.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

The Day I Went to Sea

During the month of September there are fun days that are celebrated
internationally.  One of them is Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19th. 
It’s one of my favourites.
Capture
All the StrongStart centres in the district will be taking part
and we have the perfect setting living by the ocean.
shipwreck
Old shipwrecks maybe from pirates?

We have started getting ready for the day by learning a new song, 
"The Day I Went to Sea".

Here are the words for the song...

When I was one I stuck out me thumb
the day I went to sea
I jumped aboard a pirate ship
and the captain said to me.

"Aargh, we go this way and that way
forward and backward
and all around the sea."

When I was two I tapped my shoe
the day I went to sea
I jumped aboard a pirate ship
and the captain said to me.

"Aargh, we go this way and that way
forward and backward
and all around the sea."

When I was three I slapped my knee
 the day I went to sea
I jumped aboard a pirate ship
and the captain said to me.

"Aargh, we go this way and that way
forward and backward
and all around the sea."

When I was four I shut the door
the day I went to sea
I jumped aboard a pirate ship
and the captain said to me.

"Aargh, we go this way and that way
forward and backward
and all around the sea."

When I was five I took a dive (in the water)
the day I went to sea
I jumped aboard a pirate ship
and the captain said to me.

"Aargh, we go this way and that way
forward and backward
and all around the sea."





Tuesday, September 3, 2013

First Day Back to StrongStart


Coming back to school is so exciting. 
Seeing old friends, meeting new ones. 
Seeing what’s different, what has changed and what looks familiar. 

Here is a glimpse of our first day.
             sept 03 023
Collaborative art piece for our sign in this week.
              sept 03 013
A new toddler block exploration area, just the right height.
sept 03 009 sept 03 015
Feeding and taking care of the babies.
sept 03 008  sept 03 016
Cars, planes and ramps played in a variety of ways.
         sept 03 019
Checking out our new fuzzy caterpillar.
sept 03 024 sept 03 047
Campsite dramatic play.  Roasting marshmallows and keeping the fire under control.
        sept 03 028
A new climbing space for the pre-walkers.
sept 03 045  sept 03 051
Play dough, puzzles and self invented games.
       sept 03 032
Lots of art both at the easels and the ‘make-it’ table.
       sept 03 041
And story time.