Baking Soda and Vinegar

Yesterday we had a lot of fun with vinegar and baking soda trying out lots of different little experiments. The first idea I got from Teacher Tom and it was the first experiment that we did. I put about 1/2 a cup of vinegar in the bottom of the bags and then put about 2 tbl. of baking soda in half a paper towel and then folded that up and put it in the bag (quickly zip locking, squeezing out what air I could) and then we sat back and watched as they slowly bloated with carbon dioxide. In theory the bags were supposed to pop open like a little bomb, however, we used quart sized freezer Ziplock bags and instead of popping they stretched just to the brink of explosion and then the air/liquid leaked out.

The second experiment merely consisted of a small vase half filled with vinegar and then added a little over a tablespoon of baking soda and watched as it foamed up and over the edges. The best part of this experiment was asking the kids prior to dropping in the baking soda what they thought would happen. "I think the glass will shatter" and "I think the glass will blow up" were some of the best.

The third experiment was more exploration based and was stolen from Child Central Station. I filled two cake pans with baking soda (just covering the bottom with a significant coating of the powder) then I half filled little cups with vinegar and food colouring that matched the colour of the cup. I then took straws and cut them in half (1 for each child), I wish I had turkey basters like in the fore-mentioned blog post. Having 14 kids it was a little hectic at first, but after a few minutes over half of them decided they were done and moved on to play time while I stayed with the remaining handful as they continued to explore. With fewer children we started pouring the cups of vinegar into the pans and watched the coloured bubbles expand and then disappear; it was quite enjoyable.

Being a Scientist

Wow, I don't even know how I so abruptly stopped posting...we're going to have to fix that. I can say that since it has been summer for a few months now that we haven't done quite as many fun learning activities; however, we did a fun wall display this month where the kids coloured beakers on a piece of paper and I asked them what they would do as a scientist....this is what they came up with

          4y boy - as a scientist I would find bones
          4y boy - as a scientist I would figure out things, like how the liquid in shark fins take over your brain
          3y girl - as a scientist I would study weather
          4y girl - as a scientist I would paint pretty pictures of flowers
          4y boy - as a scientist I would find bones
          4y girl - as a scientist I would teach friends how to do science stuff
          4y girl - as a scientist I would teach people how to do science stuff; but different than [previous student], making colours out of boiling hot water
          4y girl - as a scientist I would explore with pandas
          3y girl - as a scientist I would play hide and seek
          3y girl - as a scientist I would experiment on how to make a banana
          4y boy - as a scientist I would learn how to make a paper plate
          4y boy - as a scientist I would figure out how things work, like planets
          4y boy - as a scientist I would do explosion experiments
          3y girl - as a scientist I would study lions and tigers
          4y boy - as a scientist I would look for animal bones

Jellyfish Hall

 The original plan was to have the children each make their own jellyfish, however, there were some surprises that popped up and they didn't get a chance to make their own, so I went ahead and made a few myself and hung them up in the hallway. The children loved them, it led to lots of questions, which was a fun way for the kids to learn about jellyfish. I also enjoyed having them in the hallway because it gave some movement and dimension to an otherwise boring walkway.

Fish Fun

We had a 2 week ocean theme and the kids just loved this fun fish craft project! It's simple for setup too! The kids used their fingers to paint the bottom side of a plain white paper plate with any colours that they wanted and in any design that they wanted. I then let them dry and then I cut a triangle into the side for the mouth and used that piece as the tail (just taped it on the inside) and then I used a black sharpie to draw an eye. With their names being written on the inside of the plate and then taped to the wall the kids had a lot of fun trying to guess which fish was the one that they had painted.   :)

Career Week

The kids love career week, it gives them a chance to explore the possibilities, to tell stories about themselves or people that they know, and at the end of it all, to dress up! So we did lots of fun activities, including one where they drew a picture of what they wanted to be and then said why they wanted to be that; but the pictured activity on the right, is a graph we made of each of the students' parents professions, which was a lot of fun. I already knew all the parent's technical titles and then I reduced those to an easier level of understanding for the children. Then they went through and were able to put a star on the proper group, one for their father and one for their mother. It really got the students to talk about jobs and to explore their friends, especially after hanging it up on the fridge for another week or so where they could always come back to it. You can find my activity packet here.

Luck o' the Irish

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you! We had a lot of fun St. Patrick's day fun and I wanted to share it all with you! The above image is our display board of little leprechauns (their handprint cutout on cardstock with a little green construction paper hat on top; I drew their faces with a black sharpie). This was fun and the parents all thought their little faces were adorable, but the true hit of the display was the cloud rainbows. 

The cloud read: "If I found a pot of gold and a leprechaun gave me 6 wishes I would wish for a rainbow of things" (this worked out great because we also had been learning about rainbows in class). Then on each rainbow colour we wrote down the wish that the students would ask for and boy-oh-boy there were some funny ones! The kids absolutely loved sharing it with their parents too.

We teachers also captured a leprechaun early in the morning before the students arrived and placed him in a box to show them later...but he magically escaped and left us clues to find his hidden treasure. Our simple treasure hunt had our kids reeling with excitement and when they eventually found his pot of gold (a painted black cottage cheese container with a black pipe cleaner as a handle filled with cuties) they were overjoyed!

Sticker Charts are Overrated

So many teachers do sticker charts and they're just SO overrated....sure the concept works and the students love it. But there is so much waste in this style of a reward program....so what did I decide to do? Make something a little more re-usable that sparked a little more creative process. Instead of a sticker, the students earn a "step" from the village toward the castle and when they reach the castle they earn a prize and then they start all over at the village again. The kids love it and the fun images that appear along the way (wishing well, unicorn, dragon, and mermaid [not pictured]). I just googled images online for the moving characters (2 styles of princesses [one more feminine and one more ranger style] and 2 styles of princes). The kids love it and I'm not wasting paper and stickers. 

These are the guidelines I use:

find it on my TPT site here