Rainbow in a Jar

I was intrigued by this science project of making a rainbow in a jar
           that I found over at Sweet and Simple Things.
        
                         Ingredients needed:
Clear corn syrup, blue dish soap, water, cooking oil, rubbing alcohol
                        and food colouring.
 
Only a couple of children wanted to participate so they had lots of
               opportunity to pour each ingredient.
  
While adding the colouring to each ingredient we noticed it acted
       differently.  In the corn syrup it spread across the top.
          
                        In the water it sank and swirled.
     
   
     As each ingredient was mixed we slowly poured it into the jar.
           
                          Our finished rainbow.
If you compare it to the rainbow on Sweet and Simple you’ll notice that our yellow rose to the top.  It could be because I substituted canola oil for olive
           oil (I was conscience of the price).
            
The next day our rainbow was sitting on the snack table.  Sometime during the morning someone had picked it up and shook it.  This is the results.  I wonder if
it will settle back into the layers.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

      
 
          
                   

Jenny Jenkins

This is a song that I use to sing with my children when they were little.  It has a catchy tune, silly words and focuses on colours.
      
I found these images while searching Google.  Perfect for the song.  We have sung it several times now so will need to make more dresses to include other colours.
     
I like this song because of the rhyming component.  As I introduced a colour we brainstormed, as a group, words that rhyme or sound the same as it.  Here’s an example;  blue – shoe, do, new, few, glue, and the list went on.
           
I would pick the rhyming word from our list then we would start the song.
Jenny Jenkins
Oh will you wear blue, oh my dear, oh my dear?
Oh will you wear blue, Jenny Jenkins?
No I won’t wear blue, it just won’t do!
           
Buy me a roly-poly, fildy-foldy, seek a double, use a cozza, roll to find me.
Roll Jenny Jenkins roll.

We repeated this with each colour.

To listen to the song you could check out Jerry Garcia and David Grisman's version on Youtube

Rainbow Rings

                This is the beginning of a week full of rainbows.
To start I made Rainbow Rings using old wooden curtain rings and ribbons.
               
I found ribbon on sale at Michaels but I wish I would have bought a wider size.  It would have made the rings look a lot fuller and the colours more dynamic.
   
A couple of songs that we will sing are “I See Rainbows” by Jean Warren
    
                             and “I Can Sing a Rainbow”.
Red and yellow and pink and green,
purple and orange and blue.
I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow too.

Buddy Colour Hunt

    Today we did an outdoor colour hunt with our big buddies.
                     But it took a bit of prep.
 
Last week I met with the big buddies to introduce them to ‘magic rocks’. 
         
Mixing baking soda and green water makes a paste that we molded around Good Luck coins.  We left them to dry so they would be ready for today.

        
This morning I gathered all our materials and the big buddies set it up outside.
   
They hung seven different coloured scarves on the fences around the school yard.
             Leaving magic rocks around each of the scarves.

Once we were all together we started by singing and signing “I Can Sing a Rainbow”.
      
     Then each little buddy got a colour card and they were off searching.
   
              
          Running across the field and finding their matching coloured scarf.
      
They picked up a magic rock and headed back across the field to see what to do
                                                   next.
    
Time to drop their rocks into the pot and watch as we poured in the magic potion (vinegar).  The rocks bubbles and foamed.  The colour you see is from food colouring that I added to the pot the night before.
    
       The children stirred and watched until the bubbles faded away.
         
      To magically find green coins on the bottom for them to take home.

Spuds in Tubs 2014

You know it’s spring when it’s time to plant spuds.
We needed to get ours planted before our Spring Break happens next week.
        
Our StrongStart program has participated in this BC Agriculture program for several years.  They provide the soil, seed, tubs, posters and curriculum.  It’s great.
        
The tubs were ready with a bag of soil in each.  Our seed potatoes had sprouts on them and we had to pick off the longest ones before planting.
   
      We mixed the fertilizer into the soil then dug holes.
      
The children picked their potato and checked that they were ready to plant.
      
      They dropped them into the hole and covered them up.
            
        We also talked about what the seeds need to grow.
     
         And finished off with giving the pots a good soak.

At the same time we planted bean seeds.
We will watch and see which one will grow the fastest.
 
       
The beans are planted in these little beakers and will sit on the window sill above the spud tubs.

Book–The Little Rabbit Who Liked to Say Moo

You can’t go wrong with a book that has animal sounds, especially if your group involves toddlers.  Story time at StrongStart includes babies up to 5 year olds.  So to find a book that is enjoyable and keeps the attention of those various ages is a book that I will use again and again.
                     
This book, by Jonathan Allen, is a fun way to introduce sounds for each animal. Which keeps the young members of the group involved.  For the older children I used it to help focus on the first letter sound in each word.
                 
The first time retelling the story, without the book, the word bubbles were blank.  When introducing each animal and after the children told me the sound they make I wrote it on the bubble sounding out each letter.
           
The book, pictures and word bubbles were left for the families to explore and retell.  I noticed several families use it as a matching game.