Hope everyone is doing great and enjoying the summer. Children were talking excitedly about the water week beginning the week before. When it was finally time, they couldn't wait to hit the outdoors!
We started with water sprinklers. The favorite was the caterpillar sprinkler where the arms wiggled crazily, making the children super excited.
Children enjoyed using shields for water, while some drank it, and some even captured it in tubs to measure how much they collected!
The entire week children were engaged in playing with the water in different ways: sprinklers, water tables, water run, hoses, water slide (where one teacher hosed the slide with water and children slid down soaking wet!), making big plastic boxes their bathtubs and holding the sprinklers overhead pretending taking a shower (hehehehe), funnels, and squirting each other. You name it and they played it! Thanks to all the teachers to make this week a success by arranging and allowing the children to explore the nature of water freely in the ways they desired. In turn, children were very respectful about asking teachers if they wanted to do / open something related. Thumbs to all the kids and all the teachers for making the week a success!
Other things we incorporated during the water week:
ICE...
We spoke about different forms of water and different sources of water and overall water as one of the most important elements of living things.
We added salt to watch the ice melt, then watercolor to see how water penetrates and makes it way through cracks. They all said that it looks like a waterfall!!!
Exploring colors and seeing them mix while still adding salt...
It was fun to see and compare the two ice blocks. Which one melted faster and why was a big topic of discussion. There is so much to learn out of these little moments and there is never an end!
COLD CHALK...
We put chalk in the freezer to give a different sensory experience. As soon as the chalk turned warm, the children placed them in a tray of ice to freeze it again!
MAKING AN OCEAN...
COMBINING OIL AND WATER IN A BIG ZIPLOC BAG...
They even requested to add blue ocean color and silver sparkles.
B feeling the jiggle jaggle, and making waves :)
Friends noticed that though they added blue food color, the water looked black. I have to say, what a great observation!
We took the bag and placed it on the light table. And guess what, tada! It looked totally blue. The children moved it from the light table to the wood table to check the change.
Seeing their interest we did a couple of Ziploc bag activities...
Adding paints, flattening up, and seeing some new mix of colors!
Adding hair gel and choice of sparkles, and trying to even it out. Using their fingers, some drew smiley faces on it while some wrote letters. Hair gel was so much fun to feel, squish, and had a great smell as well.
I's mom from Blue Room brought a picture as well as a really big sunflower growing in her backyard.
Children even tasted the sunflower seeds...
Great minds at work!!!
A few answers of children of why they think it's called a 'sunflower':
"Because it is yellow"
"Because it looks like a sun that we draw"
"It is round and the sun is round"
"Because it drinks a lot of sunlight"
Other interesting activities they loved doing over and over again during the week...
SEWING
USING TUBES AND PIPES IN DIFFERENT WAYS
They zoomed cars and marbles and learned a lot about force and slopes. Yes, physics into action!
Here they are all laying down pretending to take off like a rocket to space..5 4 3 2 1 blast off...
MAKING/ BAKING PLATES TO FLOWERS
They colored and designed their own plates and then we put them in the oven to see them transform into beautiful flowers.
DECORATING CD's
The transparency and reflective properties of these materials (plates and cd's) reflect light through it. These masterpieces beautify our classroom windows now.
FALLING/ DROOLING GAK
Our couch wanted a cover and we decided to tie-die our own.
We wet the cover, tied it with strings, and each one of us added the color of our choice. We put it to dry outside in the sun.
Early the next morning, we opened it and to our surprise the couch cover was all ready to be draped...friends helped with full excitement!
Our week couldn't be busier. Looking forward for many such more.
Keep seeing you'll around!
Hugs,
Teacher Rashida.
