Painting on Ice

              
Our play trays this week contains watercolour paints, brushes and blocks of ice.
              
I put the blocks of ice on the trays about 20 minutes before I opened the centre
so they were somewhat melted when the families arrived.
                  
Monday the school was fairly cold, after being closed for two weeks, so the
ice lasted quite awhile.
                     
That gave the children plenty of time to experiment with a good size block of ice.
            
As the morning progressed and the room warmed, there was more water on the
tray to really make a lot of colour.
          
The ice provides a slippery surface so the brush glides across it and the paint will
pool in any little holes or cracks.
It was a new experience for many and some children were fascinated with the
temperature of the ice and having the freedom to paint all over.

New Sand Structure

             
Raymond created a new toy for us over the Christmas break.  The inspiration came from KodoKids, the site where we bought the rubber ramp kit.
                 
I had hoped it would be a bit shorter so I could set it on a toddler sized table but since it isn't I placed it in a wading pool on the floor.
  
                  

It works well on the floor for all the children even our youngest.

It has funnels, scoops, tubes and cups.  The longest tube is see through which the children enjoy watching fill up.
                         
I’m very excited to watch how the children will use their bodies as they explore this new structure.  No one has climbed in yet but I expect it will happen.

Growing Candy Canes

Don’t you just love, and hate, browsing through Pinterest and find an idea you just have to do even if time is limited?  That’s what happened this week.
                
123Homeschool4me has shared print outs for growing candy canes.  I love magical activities like this and knew we had to try it even though we had four days left of school before Christmas break.
                             
The seed packet is fantastic in its detail.  Directions of how to plant, with what materials to how long it will take to germinate.  I really appreciated that it looks like a seed packet.
                         
The only change I made was which candy I used as the seed.  That was because being short in time I couldn’t run around to find the red mint candy.  The first store I visited had these Christmas candy corn and candy canes to match in colour – perfect!
    
On Tuesday, I had a smaller group at circle time which worked well for this activity.  I introduced the idea of candy canes growing.  Has anyone ever heard of growing candy canes?  Have they seen a candy cane seed before? 
  
After showing them the package of seeds and what the seeds look like, we filled our planting pot with North Pole Potting Snow.  Each child received a seed to plant in the pot. 
                
We left the North Pole fertilizer for children that would be attending an evening session that night.  But we ended up being busy doing other activities and forgot.
                        
The seeds didn’t need it.  We were thrilled to find that they had sprouted overnight. There were lots of candy canes at all different heights.
      
At the end of this morning, as the children were leaving, I reminded them of what the seeds looked like then they harvested a candy cane.  The roots were long and they had to brush off the snow.
                       
                  The best part was the Merry Christmas hugs. 
       Be sure to visit 123Homeschool4me to access the printables.

Snap Blocks

                    
A few months ago I shared the snap blocks I had made with a fellow StrongStart facilitator.  I finally had a chance to put them out for the children to play.

Once they figured out how they went together they started to build.

The fact that the blocks spin once they are together was a lot of fun.

Enjoyed watching these two working side by side then smoothly start working together.

What Do We Do With This?

                      
    I set this table last week and the question I heard most often was
                           “What do we do with this?”
              
                                       My answer – ”explore”. 
    

                      And that’s what the children and adults did.
   

They sometimes worked with the marks I had drawn on the paper that
                                         covered the table.
They followed the lines.
         
        They matched the coloured lights and worked between the lines.
            
Some children worked together to see what they could create with the materials.
Can you guess the pattern?

     
The lights drew the most interest with adults and children.  The children liked that they could turn the lights on and off themselves. 
Tomorrow when they arrive at school they’ll find the table has changed but the focus will still be on lights.