busy hands

building a tower
with the broad stair
~I love those legs
lounging in the background!~

"tap, tap, tap!"
hammering barnyard animals
onto cork board with tacks

using an eyedropper
to fill a whale ice cube tray
with orange water

carefully carrying scissors
and special snipping paper
across the classroom

the snip cutting begins!
~I wish I could show you the
concentration
on this little person's face!~

twisting a nut
onto a bolt

sorting teeny tiny treasures
from two drawers of the alphabet box
~/a/ and /f/~

apple tasting

The first two apples we tasted
were picked from the playground....

The children made observations about their
color, size, taste, and texture.

I recorded their observations,
and then they voted for their favorite of the two.
~We decided that there was no
right or wrong answer;
it was just a matter of
personal taste.~

The next two apples we tried
were from the grocery store.
~We looked at their stickers,
and discovered that
one was grown in Washington
and one was grown in New Zealand!
(both a LONG way from our playground!)~

red delicious & granny smith

our results
~The children had a tough time choosing a favorite!~

The last apples we tried were of
mysterious origins...
one was from a playground tree
and one was from the store.

We used our apple tasting skills to determine
which was which.

the results...
~The sweetness of the pink lady apple
was pretty much a dead giveaway :) ~

*I did this apple tasting experiment with the kindergarten students this afternoon. These 5 and 6-year-old students are part of the regular mixed-age classrooms, but everyday they meet to do something special together for 20 or 30 minutes. If you're interested, I'll try to share some of these games and projects that we do. This one went over huge - anything with food usually does! Even the pickiest of picky eaters got in on the action! :)

color mixing II

Here it is...

color mixing II:

This lesson requires
organization,
fine motor control,
commitment,
and sometimes a little problem solving.

It's pretty much a
big deal
around here!

The set-up for color mixing II
is the same as color mixing I,
but instead of using only two colors,
the child must use all three.

Here are the color ratios, clockwise from the top:

• 4 yellow
• 3 yellow :1 red
• 2 yellow : 2 red
• 1 yellow : 3 red
• 4 red
• 3 red : 1 blue
• 2 red : 2 blue
• 1 red : 3 blue
• 4 blue
• 3 blue : 4 yellow
  
• 2 blue : 2 yellow
  
• 1 blue : 3 yellow

The child mixes the colors together with a toothpick...

...carefully places a white paper towel over the top,

and viola!

a spectrum of colors!

primary, secondary, and tertiary!

* I'm not sure who to give credit to for these brilliant color mixing lessons... they were already in my classroom when I started teaching. I have had to remake the color mixing cards over the years because the children use them so much!

color mixing I

There's always a little magic in the air
when a little one watches
two primary colors mix together...

This is one of the lessons
I would do on repeat
if I were 4. :)


Color mixing on the shelf:

What you'll need:

• 3 eyedropper bottles filled with red, yellow, and blue (diluted food coloring or liquid water color both work well)
• toothpicks for mixing
• white paper towels
• laminated color mixing cards
• a damp sponge for cleaning up
  

This is my best picture of the color mixing cards! Hopefully, you can kind of get the gist of them through the glare! First, I drew circles on sheets of computer paper (cut down to squares). I used stickers to mark the color quantities, wrote the numerals next to each quantity, and then ran everything through the laminator. Don't worry, the quantities do not have to be exact - just keep in mind that one card should make shades of orange, one shades of purple, and one shades of green.

red and yellow make orange
red and blue make purple
blue and yellow make green

The child selects the color she needs,
and droppers the appropriate
amount onto the card.

Then, she mixes the colors together with a toothpick.

Finally, she lays a white paper towel over the mixed colors
and presses down gently.

ta da!

The primary colors have been replaced by
different shades of a secondary color!
green!
orange!
purple!

Of course, I don't say this or anything at all, really.
I hold my tongue and let the child have her
experience
in color mixing.

I'll share photos of color mixing II (the spectrum) tomorrow!

reduce, reuse, recycle

Let me try to explain...
in Montana, we have these transfer stations where people who "rough it" in the country can still throw away their garbage. Most people who choose to live this way do it quite poshly, so I think it's worth peeking through their "trash" every once and awhile...

I promise I don't do this very often!

...but, Hubs and I were going on a hike, and there was this PERFECT chair by the side of one of the green cans when we first went by...

We decided that if it was still there on our way home, we would pick it up. Of course, it was gone. I was crushed and there were tears, but Hubs made it up to me by agreeing to let me check all the cans for some sort of suitable replacement.

It turned out to be a stack of children's books.

Who would ever throw away Mrs. Rumphius?
Or any book for that matter?!!!
Geez Louise, people, it's a recession!
Even if it wasn't, haven't they ever heard of reduce, reuse, recycle?

Good thing I didn't fall in! ;)