Water Temperature Experiment

Today we did an easy but exciting experiment. Well, Monkey and I both thought so! It shows you how the temperature of water can affect the speed of movement of molecules... not that I tried to explain it to Monkey that way! 

I saw the experiment here: http://www.coffeecupsandcrayons.com/simple-heat-experiment/

Supplies: three glass jars, food colouring, cold, hot, and room temperature water 

Last night, I filled one jar with water and left it on the counter to become our room temperature jar. 

Today, we started off by labeling the jars. 

Once the jars had been labeled, I put the kettle on for the hot water. Be careful with the boiling water, especially around your little one! Obviously the glass jar got very hot and I had to use oven mitts to move it after pouring the boiling water in. 

I filled the cold jar with the coldest I could get from the sink. If I did this experiment again I would put it in the fridge overnight to get it even colder. 

Once all three jars have been filled, quickly put two or three drops of food colouring in each one. In order to compare what happens you have to be fast! It would be even better if you could drop food colouring into each one at the same time. 

Here's a picture taken less then a minute after Monkey dropped the blue in. 

The food colouring spread through the hot water the fastest. 

It only took a few seconds for the water to become fully saturated with blue. 

The jar with room temperature water saturated a little slower. 

The cold water took the longest. 

At the top of the cold water jar you could still see all the individual 'strings' of blue, it looked really neat. 

Like I said previously, I didn't really get into the science of this with Monkey. But we sat and watched the colour swirling around and talked about which jar was all blue the fastest and which one took the longest. 

Monkey checked back often to see if the room temperature and cold jars were completely blue. This picture is approximately ten minutes after the start of the experiment. 

Easy set up and dramatic, works for me!

Mar 

Dinosaur Small World Play (Part 1)

Small world play. It may be a phrase you've never heard before, but it's a great branch of play that is perfect for preschoolers and kinders. 

Essentially, small world play is when children use toys (usually miniature) to recreate real life or stories. 

I got the idea for dinosaur small world play from my great friend, Katie. You can buy the kit at Walmart for $10. I have also seen dinosaurs at the dollar store. 

Supplies: bin, kinetic sand, dinosaur kit, rocks

I asked Monkey if he wanted to use his kinetic sand, playdough, rainbow beans, or water for his dinosaur world, and he chose kinetic sand. It was also his idea to grab the decorative rocks from our front hall shelf to add in. I'm always so happy when he shares his ideas for our activities because it means he is as equally invested as I am. (In this case, probably more!)

After we poured the sand into the bin, I dumped out the bin of dinosaurs and we went though everything together. I wanted to make sure Monkey knew what everything was. We didn't know the names of all the dinosaurs but thankfully, he didn't care. 

Then we set up the dinosaur world together. 

Monkey chose where to put the volcano, pond, and forest, and he put the rocks all around the pond, too. Sometimes I wish I could get into his brain and see where he is getting all this prior knowledge!!

Usually when I'm taking pictures, Monkey is super patient. He'll often grab his toy camera and take some too. Today, I had about five seconds to snap a photo because he was dying to get his hands onto the dinosaurs! 

He started out by very thoughtfully placing the dinosaurs in the bin. You can see there is one having a bath in the pond. This is an example of role play. Monkey is recreating a familiar, real-life experience in his play, and it is one important benefit of small world play. 

Soon, Monkey's dinosaurs were all a big family who were looking for something to eat. 

The dinosaurs were talking to each other ("It's just about lunch time"), developing Monkey's language skills, imagination, and creativity. Monkey is almost four (what?!) and has just begun telling us stories. A small world like this lets him pretend to be all sorts of different characters and develop a story in any direction he wants. 

For the most part, I left Monkey alone with the dinosaurs, because independent play is an extremely important skill promoted during small world play. He asked me lots of questions, especially about what dinosaurs eat, and if I noticed that he seemed a little stuck, I would sit down for a minute and help him get a different story going. 

We've had the bin out for a few days now, and Monkey now sets up the small world independently. Sometimes his world spills out onto the floor or table as well. 

There are so many possibilities for small world play. Google or Pinterest for lots of ideas. And stay tuned for Part 2 of Dinosaur Small World Play!! 

Mar 

Outdoor Coloured Ice Play

It's been quite cold the past few weeks so when I saw the forecast for this week was a little less cold (i.e. manageable), I wanted to do some sort of outdoor activity with Monkey. 

I am stealing this idea from the amazing ECE I work with at school. It needs to be organized at least one day before you plan on playing. 

Supplies: food colouring, balloons, various sizes plastic containers (you can also use containers from the recycling bin which is what the ECE does at school!)

Mix some water and food colouring in a pitcher or glass measuring cup.

We used about 4-5 drops of each colour. As you will see below in the pictures, this was not even close to enough. If I do it again I will use 20+ drops to ensure the colour is very bold. 

We made four different colours and poured them into all the containers. 

Then we put all the containers into the freezer. 

When Monkey's daddy got home, he helped me fill the balloons. I have a small balloon phobia so he did most of it. First we dropped food colouring into the empty balloon, then filled it with water straight from the tap. 

I put the balloons on a baking sheet and slid that into the freezer, too. 

Today, we pulled everything out of the freezer and popped it out of the containers. 

**The balloons were not completely frozen after 24 hours. We'll save them for another day!!

Then we got bundled up and headed to the backyard. 

Monkey quickly started making tunnels and bridges out of snow and using the ice to make trains and cars. 

I convinced him to try to stack them up, too, but this was not as much fun for him as it was for me. 

By far, his favourite thing to do was shove each piece down into the snow. 

We also pretended that the ice was all the different characters from his TV shows and they had an outdoor adventure. 

I didn't really want to bring all the ice back inside to the freezer so we stored it all under our barbecue (it doesn't seem to get very snowy there). If they last, we can use them again, hopefully with the balloons, too!

Mar 

Valentine's Salt Dough Hearts

A few years ago when Monkey was at daycare he brought home a salt dough Christmas ornament. It is so cute and to be honest I didn't expect it to last so long, so I wanted to try out making the salt dough myself. 

Supplies: flour, salt, water, heart cookie cutters, baking tray, letter stamps, paint tray, paint brushes, pink, red, and white paint 

To make the salt dough, mix two cups of flour with one cup of salt. Originally we tried a recipe that was four cups of flour and one cup of salt and this did not work!  

Mix in one cup of water, a little at a time (you may not need the full cup). Then knead the dough with your hands until it is completely uniform. The texture will be similar to playdough. 

I had two fantastic assistants to help with these steps. 

Use a rolling pin to flatten out the dough. The thinner you make it, the less time is will take to dry. 

We used all different sizes of heart cookie cutters. 

We left most of our hearts plain and flat, but we tried to put fingerprints in some of them, and we also used letter stamps to make the kids' initials and write 'love'. 

You can dry the salt dough two ways: you can bake it at a low temperature in the oven for a few hours, or you can leave it at room temperature for a few days. I baked ours in the oven at 200F for an hour. When I took them out they seemed dry, but I stored them in a plastic baggie overnight and in the morning they were all wet again, so I would recommend two hours or more. I laid the hearts out for another 24 hours to make sure they were dry. 

We had some leftover salt dough so I put it in a plastic bag, removed as much air as I could, and stored it in the freezer. 

Once they were totally dry, I set Monkey up with the hearts and some pink, red, and white paint. 

It took a couple of coats of paint before the hearts looked finished. 

We added some magnets to the back of the hearts with a glue gun and gave them out to some loved ones. 

Happy Valentine's Day! 

Mar 

Sticky Hearts

The day has finally come. It's the first activity I'm writing about on the blog for Peanut! Monkey has gotten a lot of attention over the past year, but Peanut is ready to share the spotlight. 

This activity is in the spirit of Valentine's Day but can be adapted to almost anything! It is something I will do pretty regularly with Peanut using different objects. 

Supplies: contact paper, tape, foam hearts (or any object that will stick to the contact paper)

I cut out a strip of contact paper the width of the easel. I wanted Peanut to be standing at the easel because it's got that nice little tray that is perfect for holding the foam hearts and because he's working really hard at standing (he can almost do it by himself) so the more practice he can get, the better. 

Peanut was right beside me as I was setting up, obviously interested. He usually has to watch Monkey do activities from his high chair, or he naps right through them! 

I stuck one heart on to show him what to do and then he pulled himself up to try. 

So cute!!!

I had big plans to add another layer of contact paper and hang it in the window, but it turns out that Peanut just wants to pull the hearts off again (and place them neatly in the tray of the easel) and then put them back on again. Well that's just fine with me!

Mar 

Bingo Dauber Heart

We made some beautiful Valentine's Art last week to send to friends and family. Today I wanted Monkey to make something to keep for our house! 

Bingo daubers are a staple in my arts and crafts cupboard as well as in my classroom. There are so many uses for them and they are available at the dollar store. 

I saw the idea here: http://yourfaceislikethesunshine.blogspot.ca/2012/02/here-and-now.html?m=1

Supplies: bingo daubers, painter's tape, cardstock 

To get this ready for Monkey, I laid out some of the painter's tape and drew (okay fine, traced) a heart. 

Then I cut out the heart, which was much harder than I would like to admit. I was hoping I could save the outside so that we could do the positive and the negative of the shape but there was just no way I could! Once I had the heart cut out, I stuck it onto the cardstock. 

Then I helped Monkey get all set up. 

Monkey is well experienced with his bingo daubers so he got to work right away. 

Monkey asked for a little help to make sure all the white spots were covered. 

Once the ink was dry (about half an hour), we peeled off the heart. 

 

So cute! We were able to use the heart again and Monkey made another to share with his grandparents. 

Mar