Art Time and a little spelling Practice

Deborah over at Teach Preschool has a wonderful Facebook page, where she shares great ideas that she runs across when she is online.  It is truly fabulous.  And that is where I found this little idea about puffy paint (and I’m kicking myself for not noting the blog where she saw it).

This project was definitely a hit!

We’ve done something similar to this, here, and that was also a hit with M, but today’s version gets microwaved and turns all soft and puffy (or hard if you put it in for too long – oops!)

Recipe: 1 Cup of flour, 3 tsp of baking powder, and 1 tsp of salt.  Mix these together, then add enough water to make it pourable, but not runny.  It’s a bit like pancake batter, so go for that consistency, although I think ours would have been better just a tiny bit thicker than we had it.

 

I used a funnel to pour it into 3 squeeze bottles, filling them up about 2/3 or 3/4 of the way; then added food coloring and shook them up until it was mixed in.  The shaking part may not have been the smartest decision since it made the baking powder want to explode out of the bottles, but oh well.  You might want to mix your colors in bowls, and then transfer them to the bottles. ;)

 

I had written our last name on some cardboard, in “bubble” letters and M filled them in with the paint.  He loved this.  I’ve been trying to get him interested in learning how to spell our last name, and was so happy that this worked!

This is how the paint looked wet, as M filled in the letters:

He loved doing our last name so much, he asked me to write his first and middle names out for him too, so I did and he painted his entire name. :)

We put the painted cardboard in the microwave for about 20 seconds at a time, testing it each time to see if it was done.  It puffs up and feels a bit like play dough, except firmer and not mold-able of course. 

Very cool results:

 

I was thinking of this as art, but M kept referring to it as our “science experiment”, and I guess he was right too!  So, we had art, spelling, and science – and fun – all in one.  It doesn’t get better than that! :)

Have a beautiful day! :)

Art Time! Autumn oil pastel artwork

 

M and I recently made some autumn-themed artwork with oil pastels.  They turned out so pretty and were fun to make too.  M had to get past an initial “this feels weird on my fingers, and oh ack, it is making them dirty too” sort of thing, but then I reminded him that he is washable and he began to enjoy the process. :)  (That conversation was a bit surreal for me, considering the fact that he is normally drawn to dirt and messiness.)

Our supplies:

Construction paper in light colors, and cut in half (we used a light brown, white, and yellow); shape templates cut out so there are both the negative and the positive pieces (I found these printable shapes at Lakeshore Learning – they have quite a few free printables); and oil pastels.  We tried using cotton balls to smear the pastels, but found using our fingers gave us a much better result. 

The framed picture is there because we took a few minutes to look at it and talk about the many, many autumn activities going on in it.  I love this set of seasonal prints that I got for free at a book sale.  They weren’t painted by anyone famous or anything, but the detail and the style really appeal to me.  I’ve framed them and placed them in our breezeway above M’s little desk (we’ll switch them out each season):

We talked about the colors of autumn, and M decided that just about any color can be an autumn color if you do it right, so we decided to use all the colors of oil pastels.

We each chose a cut out shape, or a page with the shape missing, and talked a tiny bit about how these are referred to as positive and negative spaces. 

To do this, place your shape on a piece of paper, and color around the outline, using quite a bit of pressure: 

Then use your finger to smear and smudge the color onto the paper.  For the above photo, you’d smear the pastel outward, for the photo below M smeared it inward: 

And look – pretty, pretty artwork:

We made several of these and plan to string them into a banner.  Hopefully I’ll have a picture of that to share at the end of the week.

The inspiration for this art project was from this post over at Catholic Icing.  I thought it would make a beautiful project for fall.  It would be fun to do something similar with watercolors, don’t you think?  That just might have to make it onto our art to-do list!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Learning by Heart – Oct. 21, 2011

“The mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom.”

      - Henry Ward Beecher

 I never see M more joyful than when he is playing in the leaves!  But why does he wear his bike helmet non-stop?  Do your children do this?? :)

Technology really seems to have something against me this year.  I lost my USB cable for my camera, so there are not many photos for this week.  {Sigh.}  We actually had a really great week and I was very excited to write about it.  Ah, the irony. :)

However, for you that means a nice short and sweet post. :)  Here’s a bit of what M’s week was like…

Nature Basket – I recently added a magnifying glass to this to add a new level of interest.  Here are M’s fall treasures thus far:

Pinecones, sticks, interesting weeds and rocks, a cattail, 3 feathers,
and a shell from our river walk. 

 

Remember last week when he learned our phone number and how to properly use a phone?  Well, this week he learned our cell phone number, and took to calling himself and talking to himself on both the cell and the home phone: I am not kidding.  He was actually having a conversation with himself. :)  Looks like a good one too, doesn’t it?

 

FINE MOTOR SKILL WORK:

Scissor Practice – I folded some construction paper in half and drew one half of an image on the front: M had to try to cut right on the lines and then guess what it was before he opened it up.  This tied nicely into our recent discussions about symmetry too.  Interestingly, he didn’t guess any of them right.  He guessed a hill, a blahblahblah (some nonsense word), a Christmas tree (?!), and a robot.  :)  They turned out to be, in order: a pumpkin, an acorn, a leaf, and a scarecrow – he could tell when they were opened up (thankfully!).  I drew the pumpkin, acorn, and scarecrow freehand, and found a maple leaf template on Google Images (I’m not sure of the link, but there are many available).

He did great with these and stayed right on the cutting line, having trouble only with the scarecrow who unfortunately lost part of his hat, and had his head entirely cut off. :)  Thank goodness for tape!  M had a lot of fun putting funny faces on them (the stickers are from Michael’s) and hanging them on the window!  This turned out to be a big hit!

 

Lacing cards – I sometimes forget about these, but we have many of them, and it is easy to make your own.  M still loves to do these, and he comes up with new things to do with them:Like “sew” them together and hang them up as part of the fall decor.  Sometimes I think our home looks like we have a 5 year old decorator, and then I realize we actually do and that I love it. :)

 

Caramel Apples – We had fun making caramel apples this week – just 3 of them because somehow we ended up with a very small amount of caramels. :)  M was in charge of unwrapping all the caramels (great fine motor work that takes a long time, but is highly motivating): 

I think we added a bit too much milk to the mix because even after our caramel had cooled and we had dipped the apples, only a very thin layer covered them.  But they were delicious!  And I think they were beautiful, don’t you?

 

Crocheting!  That’s right – crocheting!  I’ve been crocheting for over 30 years now, and over the summer M took a huge interest in this and we’ve been crocheting up a storm together ever since.  This is how we do it:My hands are on bottom, holding the crocheted fabric.  I love seeing how much alike our hands look. :)

It is too difficult for him to maneuver the crochet hook and yarn while holding onto the fabric, so we snuggle up and I hold the fabric for him.  He does everything else and he has really gotten very good at it.  Of course I guide him and talk him through it as needed.  It’s a good little extra snuggle time for us. :)

Here’s a “shaving washcloth” he made for Daddy’s birthday:

We did manage to squeeze in some math, science, art, and a little phonics work too, but those pictures are still waiting.  Hopefully I’ll be able to share them next week!

 

Linking up to:

 

 

 

Have a beautiful day! :)

Science Sunday – Heat and insulators

 

We did two science experiments this week, both related to heat.

{I find many good ideas for preschool and early elementary science activities over at Kids Science Experiments.  There are a lot to choose from, and most are very easy to prepare for.}

 

First Experiment – Magic Jumping Coin

To do this you need a glass bottle, icy water, and a quarter.

Place the bottle neck and the quarter in the icy water for about a minute:

Take them out and place the quarter over the bottle opening.  Place your warm hands around the bottle neck:

After a few seconds the coin will “jump” (more of a small “pop” up and back down).  Why?  The molecules in warm air move around more and take up more space than the molecules in cold air.  When your hands warm up the air in the cold bottle, the molecules start moving around more and to make room, they “pop” the coin off the top of the bottle. 

 

Second Experiment – Insulators

***Note!***  Karen from Science Matters (click on the link to check out her awesome blog) emailed me with some good information about the experiment below.   Apparently we did it all wrong, and that is proof that learning is a lifetime sort of thing, right? ;)  Here’s some good information and ideas that she gave me:

“To truly test the insulating properties of the materials, you'd want to wrap the sides of the glass (around where the water is) in the material.  You actually lose more heat through the sides of the glass than the top.  It's not surprising that the temperatures were very similar, since all 4 water samples were losing heat through the glass at about the same rate. 

It's surprising that the aluminum foil insulated as well as it did - aluminum is a conductor, basically the opposite of an insulator - it carries heat away.  Think of stirring a big pot of soup... if you used a metal spoon, what would happen after the spoon was in the pot for awhile?  It would get hot - too hot to tough eventually.  It's carrying the heat away from the soup (and to your hand).  A pot holder or an oven mitt is a great insulator - if you put that around the spoon, it will be insulated and the heat won't reach your hand (or it will take a very long time to do so). 

Wool is a great natural insulator - it's job, on the animal, is to keep that animal warm by trapping its body heat.  Cotton does pretty well, when it's dry.  The problem with cotton, is that when it gets wet (either from sweat or from precipitation) is that it traps the water, which kills its insulating properties.  (That would be a great experiment - comparing a dry cotton cloth with a wet one).

If you ever decide to re-try the experiment, some other fun materials to test: a pot holder, bubble wrap.  Of you could try several different mittens/gloves and see which would do the best job at keeping your hands warm!”

We gathered up our materials: 4 glasses, 4 rubber bands, a fluffy sock, newspaper, aluminum foil, and a cotton cloth:M and I both guessed about which of these materials would keep hot water warm for the longest amount of time.  I guessed the aluminum foil, M guessed the cotton cloth.

We heated some water in the microwave, and filled each glass to about 2 inches below the top.

Then we quickly placed our insulating materials over the glasses, and held them in place with rubber bands:

We set the timer for 30 minutes, then checked the glasses:

Each one still felt pretty warm, so we got out our candy thermometer and took their temperatures:

The glass that was covered with the cotton cloth had the warmest water.  The aluminum foil glass had the second warmest.  The sock glass was in third place, and the newspaper glass was the coolest.

We were supposed to use a woolen sock, but I could not find one (I know my husband has some that are real wool, but they are stored away right now).  I’m guessing the wool would be the best insulator, and so I guess it makes sense that cotton came in first with our experiment, although I was surprised at first. 

     

To make the experiment as accurate as possible, we should have had 4 candy thermometers and placed them in the glasses all at the same time.  However, the cotton-covered glass was the third one we tested, and it was still warmest, so I suspect our results were correct.

Check out the Science Sunday link-up to find more fun science activities!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Scribble Art – Giveaway Winner!

 

There were 77 total entries for this giveaway; I hope you all enjoyed reading MaryAnn Kohl’s thoughts about the importance of art in early childhood.  If you didn’t win, be sure to check out her website, where you can order her books or even download an e-version of many of her books!  Many libraries also have them!  These books are an indispensable part of our home.  I know I have been encouraged to do more art with my son, and I hope many of you have also!

Here’s the random winner: 

Comment # 31 was on the second post of the series, and was made by Andrea, who said, “As a kindergarten teacher, I've noticed so much problem-solving and cooperation that develops as children interact at the art centre.Thanks for sharing your other ideas about how art helps development.”

Andrea, I’ll be getting in touch with you to get your shipping address!

On a side note, I received a couple of entries late yesterday via email.  Apparently my comments section was loading slowly, and this kept more people from entering.  I’m truly sorry for this, and wish I had known about this problem sooner.  I’ve begun using Disqus.com for comments, and while it is great for the most part, it does load slowly.  I promise to find a fix for this before my next giveaway.

Have a beautiful day! :)

Learning by Heart – Oct. 14, 2011

“The mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom”
- Henry Ward Beecher

  M’s finished “autumn decoration”, caught in early morning October sunlight. 
Beautiful, isn’t it?

We’ve settled into a sort of routine, finally.  Mondays we do math.  Tuesdays we do science.  Fridays are our field trip days.  These days have been going well, for the most part.  Wednesdays I plan literacy activities, and Thursdays are for art.   But M’s enthusiasm and my motivation just seem to dwindle away on those days.  It does not help that I plan too many things on my own to-do list for Thursdays, making it easier to decide to not get out the paints, or whatever, after all.  And  M is not enthusiastic about any of the literacy activities I plan and I am ambivalent about forcing him at this age.  Will it help him prepare for Kindergarten?  Do I really think it’s age appropriate?  (Truthfully, no!)  Isn’t having fun and enjoying himself more important at 5 years old?  If I could be certain of homeschooling him next year, I would not worry about it a bit and would just let him run and play and forget about any sort of formal learning this year (except for what he loves and would beg for on his own, which is science and art, and some days math).  But, if he goes to school the truth is he will need to know quite a bit literacy-wise in order to avoid all those awful labels that schools love so much. {sigh}

Ah well, on to what we did accomplish this week: 

FIELD TRIP:

This week we went on a nature walk in an area near the Mississippi River.  Photos pretty much sum it up, I think.  Next week I’ll try to have a picture of M’s nature basket; he has found some wonderful things this fall!

 I love how the trees form a canopy over the path to the river!

 M in front of a giant cottonwood tree.

A peaceful part of the river.

 

Daddy came too!

There was this very cool partial rock wall not far from the water’s edge. 
Not sure what it is for, but M loved it!

 

MATH:

M’s favorite dot-to-dots are from a book I found on Amazon:

I may have mentioned this late last spring, but it’s worth mentioning again.  The dot-to-dots in this book all go from 1 to 100 and they are not too difficult, not too easy – just the right amount of challenge and success.  M loves them!  And for the most part, the pictures aren’t easy to guess at, so working a puzzle is worthwhile in order to see what the picture turns out to be.

Check out that tripod grasp! {Love the tattoos too. :)}

 

More patterns and pattern blocks this week:

 

The Hit of the Week was learning our phone number. :)  M had so much fun with this!  First I wrote our number out on his whiteboard, and he used 3 colors of dry-erase markers to trace over the numbers (rainbow numbers, we call them):

Obviously not our real phone number. :)

Then I showed him how to use our cell phone to press the numbers and push the “talk” button.  He absolutely LOVED this and called me about 20 times that day, then called Daddy when he came home from work. :)

Love that little pointer finger all set to push buttons! :)

We started by sitting next to each other so I could help him with the numbers.  Then we progressed on to calling from separate rooms, then on to calling without looking at the whiteboard at all.He did great. :)  By the end of the day he knew our number by heart.  We also practiced answering the phone properly (I called him and he answered). 

 

SCIENCE:

M worked with his Snap Circuits set again, and we used a small cup of water to connect the circuit, making a light turn on (this activity was in the book that came along with his set; I was a little hesitant about it at first, but it seemed perfectly safe).  Interestingly, the circuit wasn’t strong enough to make a small motor go.  We guessed that too much of the energy from the batteries (2 AAs) went out into the water, and not enough made it’s way into the rest of the circuit.  The water “watered down” the electricity.  Clever little pun, no? :)

 

We also baked brownies in M’s Easy Bake Oven (found at a garage sale).  We made two pans – one with a pinch of baking soda, and one with 2 pinches of baking soda (the brownies are tiny; you could do this in the regular oven, but of course you’d need to use the right amount of baking soda for one batch and about half that amount for the other batch.) 

The brownies tasted the same, but the second batch rose about twice as high as the first batch (why didn’t I take photos of the final product??!).  This was a great hands-on way to find out exactly what baking soda does.

 

We also did a couple of heat-related experiments, which I will post about on Sunday, so check back!

 

INDEPENDENT ACTIVITIES:

This year nearby friends may come over at anytime to play (as opposed to actual “play dates” last year) and because of this I’m no longer placing little activities on M’s shelves like I used to.  His shelves also hold his toys, and I do not want to be taking school activities on and off the shelves all day long.  So I’m now setting one or two things out for him on our art/kitchen table each morning.  Usually these are activities he can do on his own after a little instruction from me, and normally they focus on fine motor skills, often combined with a math or literacy type of work.  He does not do everything I plan for him, and I am really trying to be ok with that and working to find more activities that appeal to him.  This is so much more difficult than it used to be! 

This week he enjoyed…

Making robots, from this kit: :

 

Sticking a variety of autumn decor into florist’s foam:He used velcro dots to attach the mini gourds and pumpkins around the outside of the basket.  You can see his final masterpiece in the photo at the top of this post.  It really turned out nice, and this is always a favorite with him.

 

While I had the velcro out, I gave him a little bucket of craft sticks, old ribbon spools, and plastic lids.  He placed pieces of velcro on each of them (see the original idea here), then enjoyed sticking the pieces together to create little sculptures:

One of his creations:

 

  And a new puzzle from the dollar store, which we did together:       

 

I found these little linking people at Target’s dollar spot a while back.  I’m sure they are for children younger than M, but I just couldn’t resist getting them.  I set them out for him to just play with.  He enjoyed linking them together, and placed little groups of “happy little people” all around our house (I bought 3 sets, so we have 36 total). :)     We’ll use these for patterning and math activities too.

 

That was it for this week!  I’m gathering ideas on helping M learn how to spell our last name, which is quite long, and we’ll be working on this for the next couple of weeks.  Any ideas or tips for this?  I’d love to hear some!

I am linking this post up to Preschool Corner and Weekly Wrap-Up.  Check them out for some great homeschooling posts!

Have a beautiful day! :)