Toddler STEM: Five Senses

This was definitely a popular theme! We had seven stations:

I hung around a bit to talk about refraction - the bending of light, which causes us to see things differently. When kids had glasses on, I talked about how the eye doctor measures that when he is seeing what kind of glasses they need.

I used various baking oils and spices. 

Afterward I emptied them out in the trash can next to my desk. Lemon and peppermint seem to be vying for most potent. It's an interesting combination.

I didn't want to take chances with allergies, so "taste" was just an art project.

This one took some demonstrating, but it's fun to watch people's faces when they do it!

Basically, we normally hear sound waves as they travel through air (a gas), but in this experiment the sound waves are travelling along the string (a solid), and they sound quite different!

Wednesday's group would have been quite happy if I had just put this one out:

Of course, it didn't stay in that tub for long.

My keys came up missing, and a couple little girls decided they must be in the cloud dough (they weren't, but they made a VERY thorough search!)

Cloud dough is pretty easy to dust off, for the most part, but it does go EVERYWHERE.

Just a few swipes with a stiff broom, though, and:

The second (blurry - dangit) picture was taken literally less than a minute after the first. It looks like an awful mess, but it cleans up quickly!

Lots of fun, and I think some learning happened. 

Now, if I could just find those KEYS...

Playdate Picnic at the Library

Why is starting something new so nerve-wracking? Even when you have done it before? The regular preschool program routine of stories and crafts is familiar and comfortable, but everything gets a bit stale after a while. One of the things I hear often from parents is that they bring their kids to story time so they can be around other kids. For some kids (and parents), sitting together on the rug or at the craft table is enough to form bff relationships, but others need a little more purposeful but relaxed interaction.

With that in mind, I took a portion of our old lapsit programs, stole a program name from another library, and this week launched a monthly Playdate Picnic. Generally speaking, parents bring an early lunch or snack for themselves and their kids, and I put out some sort of semi-educational creative play items, and we just see what happens.

Since we are starting in October, dress-ups were a natural first choice! They are also not something I am lacking at home, so I carefully washed everything we had on hand, and added a few items from the dollar store.

No pictures of the program, because I was too busy having fun, but both days went well! Wednesday's group was a little more gregarious than Monday's - it's funny how you get a different mix each time. Monday's kids were more interested in using ME as a dress-up doll, which was unexpected but loads of fun! One little girl had the most infectious laugh, which she would launch into every time they added a costume piece to my head.

I made snacks to share, which helped break the ice - pumpkin bread on Monday and pumpkin cookies on Wednesday, because - October! I put them up on a table away from the costumes, with ingredients posted, so parents could steer their kids away without drama if necessary.

We had hand mirrors to look at ourselves in. I wish I had funds (and space) for a big, sturdy stand-alone mirror! One hand mirror hit the ground hard and broke Wednesday, but no injuries. It was one of those more-plastic-than-glass types, and I was able to get right there and clean up all the pieces.

I also brought in some board books that featured clothing. That helped on Monday with some of the shyer kids - they squatted down next to me and we looked at the pictures together. With some of the babies I put semi-sheer scarves over my face and tried to get them to pull them off.

All in all a success, I think, and a couple parents thanked me for having it. Next month our theme will be building - duplos, mega-blox, and some newly donated Lincoln Logs!

What We Love

I was very happy to have Valentine's Day off this year - I always seem to end up working, and it has been a while since we had a 'fun day', so this worked out well. Unfortunately, Daddy and M. had to be out of town - after seeing pictures and videos on Facebook, however, they may have felt lucky to have escaped the mayhem.

 

To plan for the day, I focused on things we love: glitter, and messes. We started by thinking of others, though:

 

 

The critters,

 

and the family. Each person's cookie was marked with his or her initial before S. and L. decorated it.

 

 

This was M.'s, can't you tell? I guess I'm not the only person heavy-handed with toppings! Daddy and M. took theirs on their trip, and the sugar rush lasted through the entire state of Texas.

 

 

Mmmmmm, sugar!

 

Next up: rock painting.

 

"Look Mommy, I made a happy face!"

 

Um...if you say so, son.

 

Nothing says Valentine's Day like a spooky ghost!

 

Did I mention someone was a bit heavy handed?

 

Okay, so now the table (and kids) are a mess. Did you know, if you put a little bit of dish soap, and a little bit of water in a blender and turn it on, you get a LOT of foam?

 

Who was I kidding with this tub, anyway?

 

Yep. Oh, better move the salt...

 

Uh-huh.

 

 

 

Yeah, the tub was kind of pointless.

 

I...have no idea.

Fortunately, Grandma stopped by about this time, with my 8mo granddaughter G. in tow. I thought G. was going to get whiplash from trying to look in every direction at once. Mean old Grandma wouldn't let G. get down and play (in her pretty new outfit), but she did supervise a thorough rinsing in the tub while I mopped up the dining room. The kids are still a bit pinkish, but my table and floors were sparkling clean - momentarily.

 

Time for a snack! We had some shredded zucchini left from Bountiful Baskets, so I made zucchini 'pancakes' with pink sour cream:

 

 

More crafts, then - a commercial kit I picked up last year, when everything was 90% off. More glitter!

 

 

The table was no longer sparkling clean, but it was definitely still sparkling.

 

Lunch and nap time, during which I grabbed the leftovers of the Valentines we had bought for C.'s class, and hid them around the house. After naps, we picked C. up at school, played on the playground for a while, then came home and had a scavenger hunt for them.

 

 

The candy inside turned out to be ridiculously hard, but we're flexible. We can do patterning with the candy and just glue it to paper, and the plastic hearts will see many reincarnations, I'm sure!

 

Can't have C. missing all the mess, time for glitter slime! There are many slime recipes out there. I wanted to use the one with liquid starch, but every single store in town is out. Highly bizarre. Instead, we mixed:

 

6 oz. glitter glue

5 oz. clear glue

3 cups water

 

and added about 3T Borax in 1 cup warm water. The kids mixed it up by hand...

 

 

...and then experimented for a while.

 

As gooky as it looks, it's actually pretty easy to pick up again. After they had their fill, I put it in an airtight container to play with again later.

 

We had a blast, but by this time, I was ready for a little order. Fortunately, the kids were ready to just plain play, so I was able to get dinner together and spend some cuddle time with Baby S., who had had enough of watching from the sidelines. We finished out the evening with a movie, and ate the rest of our very-colorful heart cookies. 

 

This is not a normal day off for us - I don't think we have EVER had this many activities back to back. The kids have missed out a bit with all the new-baby-craziness, though, and have been super about it, so I was determined to make this one day all about them. I hope you had a fantastic day with loved ones as well - and, if not, in the words of Cheap Otter, "If you don’t have anyone to smooch with, don’t get discouraged. Watch “Must Love Dogs” or “You Got Mail” and eat some chips and salsa…."

 

Hmm...I think I just figured out my bedtime snack...