Well we packed as much punch as we could into the shortened day yesterday and our only full day of the week today. Here's hoping that the winter weather will be over now and we can just get on with the task at hand....spending time together learning, being and having fun!
We had a lot of fun this morning exploring solids, liquids and gases. We discussed how water in the form of a solid can hold its shape, and had ice on hand as an example of this. We observed how water takes on the shape of its container and attempted to boil a kettle and observe water boil, evaporate and become a gas but were foiled when we blew a fuse. However, we went to plan b and observed a candle in its solid state, lit the candle and observed it burn and become part liquid and then blew it out and observed it as a gas. It was so much fun! We discussed our bodies being vessels of solids, liquids and gases....bones, blood/water and air....the children were so engaged in this lesson! Since they will be home tomorrow feel free to do some experiments of your own....jello is such a fun one to do. Boiling water to create steam, adding it to jello crystals to create liquid and refrigerating it to make a solid....sounds like a lot of fun to me! (just don't blow a fuse :) You could include I spy in your endeavors....I spy with my little eye something that begins with the j sound (give the sound rather than the name of the letter)...yes jello!!!! If you have time tomorrow count anything and everything, cook, sort things....laundry, buttons (shape/color), read, rhyme, treasure hunt for shapes in your home or geometric solids, cubes, cylinders, rectangular prisms, cones etc.
Flower arranging, color mixing and bubble making were added to our shelves this week and many, many bubbles were created. Our classroom shelves have been beautified with carnations. These additions to our practical life contain multiple steps and are some examples of the practical life more complicated works helping children develop order, concentration, coordination, self-confidence and independence. Baby washing and dish washing will soon follow. If you would like to send in washed egg shells for the next few weeks we will add them to our practical life works, use a mortar and pestle to crush them and add them to our compost!
I hope you all have a great weekend and lets keep our fingers crossed that the bad weather is over for this year and we can resume with no further interruptions!
The Primary Team