St. Patrick’s Day Green Pudding!
A scientist from “Mad Science” joined us today to introduce our preschoolers to the exciting world of color. The “Mad Scientist” walked us through some exciting demonstrations about primary colors and color mixing. Be sure to ask your little one what they learned today! The kids really seemed to enjoy everything she had to say and were intrigued at all of her experiments. They will visit again toward the end of the year to share a different program with about worms!
A turkey is a funny bird
The children have been using bright and beautiful water colors to create turkey feathers. This week we have been talking about the Thanksgiving holiday and they couldn’t wait to create their own turkeys! Here is a song we have been singing that you can try to sing at home!
(to the tune of “Pop Goes the Weasel”)
A Turkey is a funny bird
His head goes Wobble, Wobble
He only knows one word…
Gobble, Gobble, Gobble!
sensory table colored pasta
This week our sensory table is full of colorful noodles! The kids have been digging their hands in this colorful pasta and scooping and dumping it! They have been using spoons to scoop the noodles into the bowls and pretend they are making soup! Since all of the noodles are different colors this has been a great way to practice our color recognition as well!
Here are some of our Early 3’s children working hard at their scissor skills! They are cutting their paper into little pieces and sorting the scraps by color. They are really coming a long way with their scissors!
scissor skills and shape sorting
The Preschool class had a great time today working together to make our class pumpkin and bat, but it was no easy task! We had one very large white pumpkin and an oversized white bat that needed coloring in, however we didn’t use crayons, markers, or paint for this job! We got out our scissor and started snipping away at strips of orange and black paper. Each time we made a snip with our scissors we were able to add a small piece of color to our pumpkin and bat. Leaving a patch of white was out of the question, so the preschoolers put their developing fine motor skills to the test and worked very hard at getting the color just right. The PreK class was happy to help in finishing up during their afternoon class. It was a TEAM effort by all and we had a great time making them!
This week we have some creepy, crawly, colorful spiders in our sensory table. There are over 100 spiders hiding in the table and the children love searching for the small creatures. Once they’ve found a colorful spider they place it in the corresponding color bucket with the tongs. This spooky spider activity is great for a our fine motor skills!
more cooking today, this time . . . pumpkin pie!
We made Pumpkin Pie in a bag today! The children helped to measure and pour all of the ingredients into our special plastic bag. The best part was that after we zipped up the bag, everyone had a turn to mush and mix everything together with their hands! It was so exciting for them to see what it felt like as they were mixing the cold pumpkin pudding. To make the crust of the pie, the kids also crushed up graham crackers on the table.
Mixing primary colors to produce secondary colors with the toddlers
The toddlers this week have been practicing their color recognition and experimenting with primary and secondary color mixing. It is a wonderful experience for the children to see how primary colors mix to form secondary colors. The objectives of these exercises are color recognition, the ability to demonstrate creative expression and creating fine motor development. This exercise is one of the favorites of the toddlers. They get to manipulate the different colored solutions in the ziplock bags without creating a mess!
We have been working diligently all summer to advance our curriculum this year. With the teachers now returning from their continuing education conferences and various workshops across the country this summer, they are bursting with ideas. As always, our focus on creating the ideal learning environment by inspiring by good functional color and design has us implementing yet another vision of what we think children should be surrounded by in order to instill creativity in academics. This means a facelift to many of our regular areas. In fact, we have had many of our returning students drop by to take a look around this summer. At Tots, we are always happy to see our students take an interest in the process of learning. Even if it means just grabbing a paint brush and helping out with some of the remodeling. Its amazing how quickly skills develop in the kids that are given an opportunity.
We encourage you to participate – Thank you for your comments. We love to hear from all of you!