Earth Week: Caring for Our Planet.

 

This was part of our "Earth" week theme; Helping take care of trees and plants helps our earth stay healthy; plants clean our air make food and homes for animals, feed us and provide shade.
Good job!
 

Today we used kitchen utencils with poster paint. This project promotes fine and gross motor skills, social skills and language develoment. Plus it was alot of fun! 

Gak, Glurch and Goo, Oh My!!

Some call it "Gak," a recipe for strechy, slimey goo that kids love to play with. Click on this green sentence for the link to the recipe (Kinder art calls it "Glurch" but it's the same thing).
What can Children learn from this? Well, it's another one of those fabulous activities that promote self competence and team building skills.

It's also a (non-edible) cooking project. Though we did not make this batch today, making Gak is a good way to teach children measurement, and transitional changes that take place when things are mixed together and become something all together different, i.e. mixing cake ingredients together to make a wet mixture, baking and discovering a "dry" cake.

Very valueable science concepts.
 

Superunit

Our friends enjoyed a water play activity this morning.

It can actually be so much more than that upon closer examination. What they are engaged in is a "Superunit" activity. Which means that this particular water project can be used in more than one way, by more than one person and children can learn more than one concept from it.

Here are some discoveries children can make for themselves using this activity:
1. Some things sink while others float.
2. The ability to compromise and share while working in a group. Skills I try to promote as much as possible -- because we all want our children to be able to work in a positive way with others.
3. Balance. Hooking a scoop on a crane, filling a floating boat with sand, etc.
4. Cause and effect. If I crash into the water with my boat, it might get me wet.

Our Seasonal Art Collage in 3 Parts

Here we see our friends using markers to create images on their egg shapes. The picture collages below show that our friends are progressing through 3 steps of this project: 1. The begining (using markers, colored pencils) . 2. The middle, (the meaty part including scissors, glitter, stickers and other collage materials), and finally 3. The end (the finished product, clean up).

Traditional holidays are not celebrated here, instead we honor the first part of Spring in which birds laying eggs is a part. This week we have discussed eggs, what comes out of them who lays them, who does not, and how they hatch. 

Glitter, Glue and stickers. The choice is really up to the individual. Choices are an important part of a young child's life; they develop self-competence, and make the activity fun! There is also some fine motor work going on -- pasting on paper, cutting and peeling the backs of stickers.

The finished product, and all of our friends pitching in and willingly cleaning up the left over paper scraps and glitter. This is important. Children who develop a positive sense of work can carry this attitude throughout their lives.

Motor Skill Activity

Our friends enjoyed a bean bag toss game this morning. It's easy and appropriate for all ages that are able to toss. This activity builds social skills (sharing, taking turns), Self confidence (the feeling of "I did it"!), hand/eye coordination (making the shot), and large muscle development.