This week was all about water and ice! Since the snow in our outdoor classroom is still about 5 feet deep, we decided to bring the snow inside! To start the week off, we gathered the children and held a group discussion on water and ice. "What does it feel like?" "What does it look like?" and "What is the same/different?" Those were just some of the questions we asked the children. The children shared observations such as the ice feels, slippery, smooth, cold and hard and the snow felt soft. Another discussion later in the week showed the children why an ice cube is a cube shape. We used the word "mold" to describe how the cube takes its shape.
As the week progressed, the children participated in many activities involving freezing, melting, painting on and painting with snow and ice! The teachers froze colored ice cubes that the children created pictures with, including a "tsunami" and "a cave." The sensory table was filled to the top with white fluffy snow and the children built tiny snowmen and practiced their fine motor skills using eye droppers to color the snow with beautiful colors. In our secondary sensory table, we experimented with Jelly Beadz. The children observed that when the Jelly Beadz (teeny tiny colored pebbles) were added to a bin of water, they "grew" into a larger, squishy, translucent "sphere." It was a pretty cool sensory experiment! Check out the pictures below!
Because our week isn't complete without an experiment, Mrs. M had a really cool experiment for the children this week. Mrs. M first filled a bowl with water, dropped an ice cube in and the children observed it floating to the surface. She then asked the children, "Can you lift an ice cube into the air using nothing but a piece of string?" Very trusting of Mrs. M's experiment, the children guessed yes, it could happen! We began a discussion about the freezing and melting point of water. It turns out, salt causes a chemical reaction that results in the instant melting of ice. So, Mrs. M sprinkled some on the floating ice cube. She then took a wet piece of string and gently placed it on the salt sitting on the ice cube. The melting ice and the salt created a glue and she lifted the cube into the air! Who knew?!
In keeping with the water theme, Mary Beth asked the children how many drops of water could fit on the face of a penny! We tried it and we challenge you to try it at home! The answer will surprise you!
Coming up next: March will be Map Month! The children will be exploring all different types of maps and learning what it means to map something! A map doesn't necessarily mean a picture of countries, states and roads. Stay tuned for more exciting details on our month of map explorations!
Friendly reminders:
- Our Butter Braid fundraiser is due TODAY (Friday, February 27th). If you did not submit your payment and forms and are interested in ordering, please email me!
- Scholastic Book Club orders are also due today. If you did not bring your order to school, it's not too late! Orders can also be submitted online. The next order will be submitted at the end of March.
- Picture Day is coming! Please plan for Thursday, March 19th and Friday March 20th. Forms with your child's specific picture day will begin to go home shortly. If your child is at school on Thursdays and Fridays, his/her picture day will most likely be Thursday.
- March tuition is due on Monday, March 2nd.
Take a look at all of the fun we had with water and ice:
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| Painting with ice cubes! |
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| Exploring snow and melting |
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| Water Beadz! Luckily no one tried to eat them! |
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| Painting snow with eye droppers, doubles as fine motor practice! |
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