Renovations to the Castle

The children’s interest in our castle is slowly fading but we don't want to take down the castle quite yet.  Instead of clearing it away we’ve decided to renovate.
      
Some of the children have expressed interest in trains so we decided to change the castle into a ticket station.  We started by cutting off the crenelations along the top and paint the walls red.

I moved a shelf around to block the drawbridge so we needed to cut a new door.  Like any old castle it had an inside wall so now it has two doors.
            
         A window was added to sell tickets and a sign was painted.
 
                We were almost ready to open for business.
         
Inside the station we added a small table and chairs under the window.  Cash registers (one is never enough) and an open and closed sign.
      
      A clock and schedule were created and pockets to hold tickets.

                 Finally we were ready to open for business.
    
              We’ll be back to share how we made our train.
    

Planting a Promise Update

We’re half way through our Spring Break and I’m still catching up on blog posts.
                    This activity we did just before our break.
    
I was worried that our daffodils might bloom while we were away so we did
                       one last check and measure.
                     
       The stems are getting tall and we can see a bud forming.
 
We recorded what we saw; the height and what the plant looks like.

     
      Our new graph that shows the growth of each child’s plant.

The side note in pink explains that it snowed a lot on those dates and
                slowed the growth of the plants.

Drip and Roll Rainbows

As you can tell this past week has been about rainbows.  The art table has allowed us to try different techniques to create colourful expressions.  
                
Our last rainbow art project was to drip paint on to paper and then roll over it with rolling pins.  The morning started with the children using little syringes to drip the paint on to the paper.  But that soon changed to spoons as the syringes caused more of a splatter (especially on the walls) then a drip.

        Look how she’s checking out what happened to the paint.
              Is she wondering where to roll next?

This art was almost as popular as painting rainbows with trains and buses. 

             Look at the full body movement he’s enjoying.

And how he is standing up to try to roll the paint in another direction.  I wish I had more pictures of this activity.  The children proudly shared their pieces with me as they said goodbye at the end of their morning and many of the parents commented how much their child enjoyed the activity.

Rainbow Patterns

   
  An extra special snack this week were colourful Fruit Loops. 
      
  I made up several pattern sheets for the children to match
                  while they ate their snack.
   
   The younger children liked to match the pictures by placing
                 the loops on top of each.
      
        While some of the older children used it as a guide.

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.