Warming Tray Crayon Art

Look at the art work that happened at our centre today.

I think these are the most beautiful pieces of art work that I have ever seen.  It's the glossy shine that they have that I appreciate the most.

We used warming trays, big and small, to melt crayons on paper.
I pushed the table back against the wall so all the cords could safely be out of the way.  I had quite the concern of someone getting burnt during this project.
Watch how this little guy quickly understood what was happening.

Mom encouraging him to hold the crayon in place to begin the melting.

Once he figured it out mom got into it herself.

Adding more colour and sometimes laying the crayon flat.

The smaller mug warming trays were a little trickier and they sometimes needed assistance to hold the paper in place.

We did learn where was the safe place to hold on.

Although he learned from experience that when the crayon melts that wax is still hot.  Ouch to his fingertip.
We used tools to help move the melting crayons around or to make designs.

We also noticed that the colour separated from the wax and the wax spread much farther than the colour.

We will definitely do this art exploration again very soon.

Our Many Ways of the Three Little Pigs

Our fairy tale for the week is The Three Little Pigs.  We've discovered many ways to experience the story.

We've played with toys of the 3 little pigs.  We've read the book.

We made our own houses and acted as the big bad wolf but all the houses, including the brick house, were easy to blow down.  So we had to figure out how to make them heavier.  One of the boys suggested putting rocks in the brick house.  So we did. And then added sticks to the other and straw to the final one.

Then we tried blowing them down again. 


It was now harder to blow down the brick house even though there were two wolves.

This week we also made large pig houses and painted them.

After they were dry they were set up to play out the story.

Our grade 3 buddies treated us by acting the story out.

It's been pig-wonderful week.

More Mud More Pigs

Do you know the book "Mrs Wishy Washy" by Joy Cowley?  I love it.  It's easy for the littlest ones to get involved recognizing the animals (can make their sounds), repeating the phrase 'wishy washy', and acting it out.
This week our water table is focused on the book. 

I pulled up a second table beside the water table put a tub on it for the animals.  The first couple of days I put sandy mud in the tub and then soapy water in the water table.  Added the three animals from the story, pig, cow and duck plus scrubbing brushes.  The children really were drawn to it.

 Oh the bubbles that we made with all the scrubbing.

And the parents enjoyed reading the story while they were playing.

The scrubbing was fun but watching how the mud clings to the brush and then slides down the side of the tub is fascinating too.

Today I used the leftover chocolate pudding from yesterdays craft instead of the sandy mud.

It was creamier and smoother and still fun to wishy washy.

Pigs in Mud

This week we are all about pigs; The Three Little Pigs, Mrs Wishy Washy, Pigs Aplenty Pigs Galore, it's pigalicious.

Today we experienced mud painting at the art table. Well the pigs were painted and we drove vehicles through it.  The sensory experience for the children was wonderful to watch.  Some were very hesitant at first to get their hands dirty.  But I think the smooth feel draws them in to explore. Plus anything that involves cars is a big draw.

 Our mud was actually chocolate pudding (I mixed it with water instead of milk - didn't feel right wasting milk).  I encouraged the grown ups to call it mud and not pudding to reduce the chance of the little ones eating it.

 It didn't take long for the pigs and vehicles to dive into the container of mud left in the middle of the table.  We did a quick change to a flat container which became the pig pen.

 Oh what fun it is to move freely around the table (no chairs for this activity) and drive our tractors, cars and planes.  We could see the tracks they left behind.

Lovely mud.  It squishes between my fingers and glides down my hands. And the pigs love to bathe in it.

 See this one has a smile on it's face.