Kids Learn Through Play: Snow and Ice

Before I talk about all of our happenings this week, I wanted to take a few minutes to let everyone know that most of my ideas are inspired by many wonderful educators and homeschooling moms on Pinterest. I am going to try to give credit where credit is due after today's post. I thank all that have inspired me :-)

We did a great lesson on Dr. King. We read several books and reviewed a Weekly Reader poster about what it means to be fair. Children this age need connections to their own life when learning about abstract concepts. We also talked about the color of our skin and the fact that even though we may have differences on the outside, we are the same on the inside. A great object lesson followed our discussion. We brainstormed and came up with ideas for an anchor chart listing all the ways that the eggs were the same and all the ways that they were different just by observing the eggs on the outside. We then cracked the eggs open.

Our science lessons this week were all about ice. Our first experiment was about what best makes ice melt. We had four chunks of ice. We left one alone (the control), put water on one, salt on one and sugar on the fourth. After some time passed, the kiddos discovered that salt was the best substance to melt the ice. Most of the kiddos made the connection with their experiences at home. Many mentioned that their parents put salt on the sidewalk. A few said that they'd rather have sugar on their sidewalks because it would taste better. Hopefully no one is tasting their side walk!!!

After our experiment concluded the kiddos had a great time chipping away at the ice to find the hidden treasures (arctic animals). They used safety knives and a squirt bottle with warm salt water. They were required to wear safety goggles. Everyone agreed that it was important to be safe.

We painted snow. A few asked for water for the water color paint, but after some prompting they figured it out.

We finished up counting by tens. During the week, we counted pennies, cups, fingerprints and jumping jacks by tens. We kept track of the jumping jacks by using tally marks which opened to door to counting by fives.