June 24, "Making an Igloo"

This time, as we rounded up our exploration of solids, we explored ice and what shapes can we make out of it. We started with reviewing eveything we learned about the solids so far: all our chants and concepts learned. Then we went on to learn a new chant about igloo.

Nice ice keeps a solid shape,
Nice ice an agloo makes!

 Then we examined pictures of chidlren making igloo.

We talked about how salt will help put together a shape out of ice and keep it that way.

Our little scientists were very curious if it was freezing inside the igloos because ice is very cold.
The actual process of building the igloo was a little messy becaus of salt and slippery ice but we tried!

Home practice: I recommend freezing ice in containers different shapes and buiding an igloo step-by-step with freezing it over after each layer!

June 21, "Snack Mix"

Today we kept exploring the properties of solid matter. We reviewed Sculptures from last class: they are "frozen", and have a shape. We reviewed our chant "Solid, shape, sculpture".
Then we went on to discover what shapes and textures of solids we can use every day. The goal of the class was to find shapes all around us and practice a skill of following steps of the recipe.
We learned a chant:

Crunch, crunch,

We munch our lunch!
 

We learned what "munch" means and who are munchkins. Then we went on to making snack mix. We read the recipe all together and tried to follow it. We had to prepare the mix by combining and measuring the ingredients:  pretzel sticks, mini strawberry spooners, vanilla wafers and raisins.

We talked about different color and shape. I was really proud of our little scientists sharing bowls with the ingredients and using spoons to meausre them out into their snack bags.
(I apologize, something went wrong and my camera did not save any pictures with our children :-(
and here is the picture of the mix they made. That is if you did not see it and it was all gone by the time you picked up your scientist ;-) )

Home practice: I recommend to give your scientist a chance to make his/her own snack mix: figure out what ingredients to use and how to measure them!

June 17 "Solid, Shape, Sculpture"

This class we learned about solids as we continue to discover the properties of the matter. Since "solid" is a very foreign word for our little precious minds, I have decided to talk about sculptures first. We started with reviewing shapes. We examined the pictures of different sculptures and saw that each of them has a unique shape: a girl, a dog, a soccer player etc.

Then we played freeze game to explore what a sculpture does. When we are "frozen" like a sculpture, we cannot move, cannot talk, not even giggle because that's what sculptures do.
We then made a record in the journals by pasting a picture of a statue in and learned a chant:

Solid, Shape, Sculpture

And then we tried to make a sculpture of our own from air-dry clay. Due to our young age, we cannot really express everything we want to with our hands and fingers, but it was worth a try!

Home practice: I recommend to have your scientist's eyes peeled for sculptures and try to make one at home.

 

 

 

June 14, "Making Ice Cream"

Propeties of the matter theme is based on LiteraSci, Properties of the Matter Month; University of Rochester and LMK Early Childhood Enterprises, Ltd.
This time we started exploring the properties of matter. The concept that children had to learn is that liquid changes into solid when it is frozen. We were to learn this by making ice cream. In this class little sciencetists learned another notion: a recipe. I made a recipe with pictuires of how to make ice cream and we had to follow the steps of the recipe. Here is the recipe.

How to make ice cream:

You will need:

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 Tbsp. sugar
1/4 tbsp vanilla
Ice
6 tbsp rock salt (Also called Ice Cream salt)
1 small ziplock bag
1 gallon sized ziplock bag

 Directions:

1. Put cream, sugar and vanilla into small ziplock bag.
2. Seal the bag and squish it gently to mix.
3. Put ice and salt into the big ziploc bag.
4. Put the small bag into the big bag.
5. Seal the bag and shake for 5-10 minutes.
6. Take out the small bag.
7. Enjoy!

We talked about our favorite flavors and colors of ice cream and about the ingredients.
We also learned a chant:

I scream, You scream, We all scream for Ice Cream!

We figured that both letters I and C are for Ice Cream.

As we were shaking hte cream, we could see it geting frozen and it was amazing! However, our experiment did not go so well... We had a major spill because one of the bags broke so we did not get a chance to fully finish our experiment. I think I should have gotten some tiny containers that lock so I am looking for them currently and hopefully we can finish this experiment one day with success.

Home practice: I recommend top make ice-cream with the recipe above.