Teaching Pre-K: Science Week!

The last week of March was Science Fair week so we did a lot of fun experiments in class. Yes, I realize that this post is a month late, but better late than never right? All of these experiments I either found at Dollar Tree or found on Pinterest.

On Monday we started growing crystals; yep cool green kryptonite-looking ones! It was a kit that I found at Dollar Tree.

We also learned about filters and how they help clean the yucky stuff out of our water. As you can see from the picture we started with a bottle of water and added some dirt to make the gross muddy water below.

 First, we filtered out the bigger stuff with a regular mesh sieve. Below you can see that we got a good amount of the mud our of the water that way.

 Next, we used a coffee filter to get out all of the small particles that were still left.

 Look how gross! Since it was a coffee filter the kids were calling it "coffee". But you can see in the picture above that it made the water clear again.

On Tuesday we started growing the plastic grow frog. Again, found this little guy at Dollar Tree. They had other creatures too, but since we're the Frog class I figured a blue frog would be perfect!

We also started our eggs in vinegar experiment!

Wednesday we rinsed the remaining softened shell off the eggs and the kids were amazed at the rubberized bouncy eggs. I had planned to do an osmosis experiment with them as well, but letting kids touch them means that one broke (creating a huge mess on a tray thankfully!). I had wanted to put one in plain water and one in sugar water. To still demonstrate osmosis and permeable membranes I put the remaining egg in plain water. We spent the rest of the morning with the rest of the school building marble mazes, making cool chromatography art, and watching derby car races!

Thursday was my favorite experiment. I love anything that includes baking soda and vinegar! We made raisins dance, and also had some minor explosions thanks to me. I mixed the baking soda with warm water like the directions told me to, added the raisins, watched them sink to the bottom of the bottle, added the vinegar but it was reacting before getting to the raisins on the bottom. So I put the lid on the bottle and shook it a little bit. When I went to open it it exploded all over the table! The kids thought it was awesome, except one that ran to the back of the room and stayed there until the experiment was over, and wanted me to do it again. :) So I added a little more vinegar and baking soda, put the lid on, shook the bottle, and made it explode again. After two explosions we did indeed have dancing raisins! For the rest of the morning kids were watching them go up and down in the bottle. The picture below is after the reaction was finished and they were all floating on top, but you can still see a few bubbles.

Friday we didn't do any new experiments instead we wrapped up the ones we had started earlier in the week. Below you can see our fully grown crystals as well as the frog. I didn't have a chance to take a picture of the enlarged egg before poking a hole in it with a pin to watch the water shoot out.

What are some of your favorite science experiments to do with kids?

Teaching Pre-K: Winter Sensory Fun

Wow! It has been so busy, and crazy that I haven't had time to blog recently. I apologize for that!

Anyways, these are three of the winter sensory projects we did in my classroom. All of them were ideas I found on Pinterest; my favorite place for lesson plan ideas.

It seems I have forgotten to take a picture of the first one: snow paint. Found here. My students loved using a paint brush or their fingers to paint a snow storm, snow man, or snow angel.

The next science experiment/sensory project we did was snow slime! It surprised me which kids loved it and which ones were a little unsure about it. Eventually they all got into it, and had a great time. I think my assistant and I had just as much, if not more, fun playing with it as well! You can find the recipe here.

This week we made indoor snow with corn starch and shaving cream.  It made a huge mess, but the kids had a great time pretending to make it snow and making 3D snowmen. I liked the smooth texture that it had. Little did we know it was going to snow for real the next day! You find the recipe here.

Hope you enjoying these fun indoor winter activities. As always I love your feedback and comments!

Valentine's Day Crafts

I love February and Valentine's Day! Everything is decorated in pink and red with hearts. There's so many craft ideas on Pinterest that there's not enough days in February to do them all. So here are a few of the crafts the Frogs have been working on.

We learned about symmetry when we made these glitter paint hearts for our bulletin board.

Crayon melting on a hot plate is always fun! It's also an easy craft when the other teacher is sick, and you're by yourself at the last minute.

These are the simple heart flower Valentine's I made for the kids with the help of my Cricut. :)

I made heart chains to decorate the classroom.

Pink bubble prints were a hit! Note: poke a hole with pin so if they try to drink it they can't, but it still blows bubbles. :)

These TP tube heart stamps were a hit as well. Sadly, they didn't hold up too well after this one got done.

Simple yet cute hand print Valentine that the kids gave their parents.

Pipe cleaner and Cheerios bird feeders were another favorite project. One girl reported back the next day that the birds were eating the Cheerios.

 What crafts did you make for Valentine's? I love your feedback!

Winter Crafts & Activities

Now that winter is almost over, here are a few of the crafts and activities we did in the Frog class.

Lick and stick snowman pictures. Sorry, it's sideways.

Doily snowman picture. We hung these on their lockers. Again, sorry it's sideways.

We also made borax crystal snowflakes which I posted about a few weeks ago. The kids also had fun playing with the shaving cream snowman in a bag activity.

The beginning of February was literacy week at our school. We had fun reading The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse by Eric Carle and we painted funny colored animals, too! We also read The Mitten by Jan Brett, and decorated a mitten and made animal puppets to tell the story. Finally, for our assembly we retold the story of Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, and the kids loved making wild things masks. I wish I could post a picture of all of them because they were SO CUTE! Although, I'm slightly biased since they're my class. :)

These are just the few crafts and activities we had time for. I found tons more on Pinterest that I wanted to use, but there isn't enough winter! Maybe I'll use those next year.

What are some of your favorite winter crafts and activities with kids? I love to hear feedback!

Crystal Snowflakes

Our science experiment this week is growing borax crystals on pipe cleaners shaped like snowflakes. It was a lot of work, but the kids love watching them grow (so do I!). I forgot how fast the borax crystals form, and by the time I was finished with the last batch the first batch already had crystals forming on the top. I took the basic recipe from here which I found on Pinterest (of course!). I made most of the pipe cleaner snowflakes after having two girls try it, and the results weren't what I expected. We also chose to add blue food coloring to make it even more fun! Anyways, here are the pictures.

We didn't have enough mason jars (read: we didn't want to wash them all) so we used large clear plastic cups instead. I wasn't sure how they would do with the boiling water, but they held up great since I let the water cool a little before pouring it in. 

After only a few hours the crystals are growing!

Paper Plate Apple Craft

This year I'm in charge of crafts for my pre-k class since I'm creative. The other day we made these paper plate apples, and they turned out so cute!



Of course I found the idea on Pinterest which linked me to here. I chose to simplify it a bit.

All you need is:
Large paper plates
Red tempera paint
Green and brown construction paper

While the kids painted their plate, I cut out leaf shapes from the green paper and stems from the brown paper. After the paint was dry I glued the leaf and stem to the back of the plate. Voila! There you have a cute and simple fall craft for kids.

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