At the station...
Adding water and watercolors to the ice tray...
Then we put it in the freezer overnight. The next day, we checked the transformation from water to ice...
L creating purple color ice rubbings and feeling the cold sensation!
Each one used the ice cube in a variety of ways...that's the uniqueness of our children!
Some just rubbed it on paper, some laid the cube and waited for it to melt and then spread the melted color water with their fingers, some drew lines and swirls with the edge of the cube, while some even drew/colored holding one ice cube in each hand!!!
S rubbed the cube on her hand and realized that it melted much faster than it did on the paper. This was a teachable moment and I introduced them to our body heat as the reason behind it. We also discussed how the temperature of our body rises when we are ill and comes back to normal when we are well again.
Later during the week we made an igloo outside, pretending to be Eskimos living in ice and surviving the cold wether. This led to discussing different things that can help us keep warm in such an habitat.
Teacher Richa invited to work with water and soap and have fun rubbing the tires. Our friends jumped with joy and couldn't wait to enjoy this outdoor activity. We marched outside to clean our yard, and ultimately enjoyed a job well done. I had left a bag of ice for some sensory fun and they decided to add the same to the water that they were using to clean the tires.
Ice in the blue tray gave us a chilly feeling :-)
J said that the ice was too slippery to be held in the plastic scrub and kept slipping off. He told me to see his grip to not let the ice cube slip away. Bingo! He managed so brilliantly with a strong grip. Other friend modeled the same manner and saw how ice became smaller and smaller and finally disappeared. They tagged it as 'magic' ;-)
L decided to scrub the igloo too :)
While we began reading books about St. Patricks day, the leprechaun fantasy grew deeper and deeper. The most inquisitive question came up, "Are Leprachauns real?" Where one friend questioned, the other friends answered. They found a solution to check this issue, and proposed the idea of catching a leprechaun to know if he was real. It was an entire week's project with a deadline to set it up by Friday because friends remembered that nobody comes to school on Saturdays and Sundays :-)
Our little steps towards making a successful trap...
We first made our own leprachaus so that when the real leprachaun comes, he might be happy to see others of his kind!
Decorating the box with shiny materials (shiny fabrics, sequins, marbles)
Being thoughtful to add a comfy shiny bedding so that the leprechaun doesn't get hurt when he falls in the trap :-)
Adding shiny silver aluminum foil balls inside the trap to deceive/trick the leprechaun...
Making the rainbow with colored papers...
Adding more shiny stuff that S got from home...
Adding the ladder...
Walking our hand-made leprechauns and having fun!!!
Friends decided to set the trap outside...D placing a sign that said 'Way to the Pot of Gold' (He didn't want to leave anything to chance...)
O checking if the pot of gold was all in place and if everything looked good!
Yes, the last professional inspection! After all the hard work and brilliant thinking, they decided to stop with those final touch ups :-)
Next week the rest of the story will continue based on if we caught the leprechaun or if he outsmarted us. Until then, gear up your imaginations just like our creative Purple Room kiddos did!
Last Thursday we also got our caterpillars in the mail, so friends spent a lot of time observing them. Later we opened a station on drawing the anatomy of different 'I'nsects
For letter 'I' we also made collages using cutouts of igloos and ice cream, stickers of the letter I and insects, and letter I stamps.
Making homemade ice cream!!!
Enjoying it!!!
Another activity that kept us busy outdoors was spreading dirt and seeds on our bald grass areas...there teamwork played a great role!
That week Purple Room welcomed a new friend, W, wholeheartedly. It was amazing to see them click with W right away and some even gave W a little tour of the classroom. Some even remembered to remind him about some special rules that needed to be followed. It was great to see them practicing empathy and perspective as their new friend learned his way around.
At the same time, W was very enthusiastic as he embraced each and every friend who approached him, and their talks began right away. I look forward to seeing some positive friendship building among them soon. We are so happy to have him as a part of our classroom :)
Just a gentle reminder to turn in the Apex Gymnastic's field trip permission slips if you haven't had a chance to do so yet. Next to the sign-in binder you will find a sheet with the required information. On that sheet, you will also be able to sign up to be a voluntary driver or even let us know if your child needs a ride. We need as many drivers and chaperones as possible; thank you to those who have already signed up!
See you around!
Hugs,
Rashida.
