Driving a Rainbow

This had to be the most popular rainbow art we did all week.  The children loved it and several parents told me they were going to do it at home.
      
Using toy trains and buses the children dipped them in paint and drove them across their paper.

       
We have painted with toy vehicles before and I purposefully remove the chairs from the art table. 
         
Each time though I see someone trying to pull a chair over so I explain to them that this activity is great for using their whole body.  Without a chair it allows them to move freely, twisting their body side to side.
   
I appreciate the variety of movement I see in their art work.  Interesting how the lines are going in different directions.  There are long and short lines and curved lines too.

Rainbow Slime

     
Browsing on Pinterest I noticed that slime made with metamucil seems to be the ‘in’ sensory experience.  Using metamucil instead of the borax recipe means that it is less harmful if a child swallows it.  It is really easy to make, just one tablespoon of metamucil in one cup of water.  Microwave for about 2 – 2 1/2 minutes.  Watching and stirring as it begins to bubble.
               
   The table was set with tubs of slime, bowls of jewels and scissors.
 
The slime is very jelly and doesn’t pull apart or drip like our borax recipe.  It also doesn’t stick to your fingers.  The children poked and pushed the jewels into the slime.
          
During the week the more the slime was cut, squished and squeeshed the slimier it became.  Then it began to stick to fingers and the jewels.
 
A bonus of this slime is that it doesn't blend easily.  So when they made rainbow stew we were able to pull most of the colours back apart to start again the next day.

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.