Our Piggy Project

Three Little Pigs week was a success!  Our engineering project took some time, but the kids loved every minute of it.  Our goal was to build a strong house for our little pigs that the big bad blow-dryer could not blow down.

First, we chose what materials we would make our houses with.  We did a short experiment to find out which materials would or wouldn't blow away.

Second, we planned.  We discussed what a house was (shelter) and what it should have (floor, walls, a roof and a door).  The kiddos had to choose at least two materials and draw what their house would look like.

The next step was to construct our houses.  The kiddos started with their two materials and their original design.  However, Mrs. C and I helped them problem solve how they could make their house stronger.  They could add one or two more materials and had to choose how they wanted to hold everything together.  The popular choice was glue.  After one child finished his house, I asked him if he was happy with it and he said no.  When I asked him why, he responded, "It wasn't what I wanted at first, but I used science to fix it so the big bad blow-dryer won't blow it down."

This kiddo wanted a mobile home so that the pig and his house could escape. 

This kiddo's design included a colorful roof and had a couch inside.  She chose to use colorful straws and pipe cleaners for the roof and put a cotton ball inside for the pig to sit on.  She even glued pebbles down for a stone path.

This kiddo used toothpicks and marshmallow to make a cube.  He covered his walls with cardboard so that the pig wouldn't fly out.

This guy wanted to make his house out of stone.  Instead of glue, he used clay

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 This kiddo used toothpicks and marshmallows, but wanted a tee-pee structure instead of a cube.  She covered the toothpicks with marshmallows and poked more in anywhere there was space.

The last thing we did during our project was to test our houses with the big bad blow-dryer.

The kiddos made all the voices and put on quite a performance.  All of the houses stood up to the big bad blow-dryer!!!!

February Fun

Our writing center was turned into a post office this month.  The kiddos spent a lot of time writing beautiful valentines to each other.  My baby spent the day celebrating with us!  The kiddos love when she visits and brings her friends to play.

We took turns delivering all of the packages and letters to each other.  We learned how to write and mail a card to say "I love you."

Our dramatic play area became a bakery.  The kiddos made many sweet treats for each other.

February is National Children's Dental Health month.  We did an experiment to find out what different drinks do to our teeth.  We soaked eggs in pink lemonade, tea and soda.

When we removed the eggs from the liquids all the kids said, "GROSS." However the egg that soaked in the pink lemonade was the yuckiest by far. 

We made our own toothpaste and the kiddos brushed the "teeth."  They couldn't remove the brown stains on the tea and soda eggs, but all the pink came off of the pink lemonade "tooth."  However, the shell began to erode.  This visual made a huge impact.  

Jennifer at Crossroads Pediatric Dentistry came and gave a presentation.  

They had a great time brushing the monkey's teeth.  

We've been stuck inside so much that as soon as I saw a few big snowflakes fall we RAN outside to catch a few on our tongues.  It was a bit brisk, but so worth it.  We did a winter sensory walk.  It was so quiet that once everyone settled we could hear the snowflakes hitting our jackets.

Another way that we keep active is by dancing.

I absolutely love this picture of the big girls having a great time dancing right along.

We have really enjoyed our Science Project Fridays.  Since this past week was V week, we made and erupted a volcano!!!!  I may have had more fun than the kids.   

A Winter Wonderland of Learning

Wow...it's been awhile!  December and January flew by.  December was just plain busy, but January came and went in a snowy, icy, cold blur.  I thought I would organize this month's blog post by highlighting some of our favorite activities over the past few months.

Nature Study:  Porcupines and Snowy Owls

I love nature, which means my kids love nature too.  Even if they come in September weary of anything outdoors, I guarantee that they will have a genuine love of it by June.  We learn about the animals in God's creation daily.  The kids were very fascinated by porcupines, so we decided to make porcupines out of play dough and toothpicks. This led to a lot of great discussion about spiky prickles.

Our December Nature Curriculum includes a study on coniferous trees.  We collected a ton of pine cones, so the next logical step was to turn some into snowy owls.  We read the book "Owl Babies" by Martin Waddell and used our fine motor skills to pull apart cotton balls and push them into the nooks and crannies of pine cones.  A couple of google eyes and pipe cleaners later, voila, baby snow owls!

Art Study:  A Starry Night

Candy Cane Science

The kids were given bowls of baking soda and cups of red vinegar (with peppermint extract).  They used droppers to transfer the vinegar into the bowls.  They soon found that there were candy canes hiding in the fizzy foam. This lesson kicked off "Science Project Friday."  The kids really look forward to it every week.

Graphing Fun

We spend a lot of time in January learning how to create and analyze a graph.  We did a living graph answering the question "How did you come to school today?" (mittens, gloves, or bare hands).

How do you like your hot cocoa?  We discovered that all but one child likes their hot cocoa with marshmallows.

We also made snowmen glyphs. Each child recorded their answers on a data sheet.  Then we transferred all of the information from the data sheets onto a graph.  Once everything was on the graph the kids were able to easily answer my questions using great math vocabulary.

 

Making Snowflakes with the big kids

We have high school students visit our class room throughout the year.  They read, work in small groups, do art projects or just play with the kids.

Penguin Play

Will it slide?  After learning about penguins and how they move, we decided to do a science experiment to find out if various objects would slide down a sheet of ice.  First we made a chart that listed the item and if we thought it would or wouldn't slide.  Then, as we did the experiment we were able to go back and see what we predicted.

After the experiment, we smashed the ice with a wooden mallet. 

I finally got a light table!  I always wanted one, so I treated myself.  For penguin play, I covered the table with opaque plastic to diffuse the light some more.  I then placed small penguins, glass beads, clear blue plastic cups, cotton balls and yogurt containers on the light table. That's it.  This center kept them engaged for over a month.   

Lego Man Rescue

When the kids came to the table I told them that their Lego Men left the classroom and got stuck in ice.  It was their job to rescue them.  First, we brainstormed how to get them out.  Our list included...fire, the microwave, warm water, a hammer and (with a little guidance) one child said to use salt like on the sidewalk.  We agreed that it wouldn't be safe to use fire or the microwave, but warm water was doable, as was the salt.  No hammers, but a plastic butter knife was a great chisel.  They worked diligently until every last Lego Man was saved!