Water Mixing Tub

Using glass containers and pipettes I made a simple sensory tub with different colors of water. It was a perfect day to sit outside in the sun but not get too hot. A very simple idea but water tubs are always a favorite! I added blue water beads, a funnel, and some ice cubes to make the tub a little different. Loved seeing how the water beads would practically disappear when in the water.

Seeing how the water alters the ice!

Experimenting with squirting the water in through the top of the funnel.

Looking at the different layers of color and water beads. Very cool!

Mad Scientist Lab

Using a wide range of materials, tools and containers I made a mock science lab. Letting him explore the different textures of each item and see what happens when some of the items mix together.
I used shaving cream, baking soda, water, corn syrup, salt, flour, vegetable oil, vinegar and kool aide powder. I added spoons, pipettes, and a chopstick for mixing. It was a lot of fun and kept him occupied for an hour. He even said "This is more fun than fighting" which from a kid who constantly wants to play superheroes and bad guys is an amazing thing to hear!!

I had also added empty containers to mix concoctions in

I added green food coloring to the corn syrup, blue to the water and blue to the vinegar in the squirt bottle. 

The corn syrup was so fun as a green slime!

WHAT A FUN MESS!

Ice Tub

Living in Southern California it has been ridiculously hot out the last couple days. So what a perfect way to cool off with a new type of water tub.

I froze ice in different size containers over night. I used large yogurt containers, small yogurt containers, and to go containers from different restaurants. I used food coloring to dye them and I noticed that since I did not stir the food coloring in it made a deeper color on the bottom and on the top of the ice it was practically see through. It was a very cool coincidence it turned out looking so cool.

It was a lot of fun seeing which pieces could be stack on top of each other and which ones could not work. We talked about why we thought some did not work, the color we thought they would make when the melted and how would could break the ice into smaller pieces.

The only thing else I added was a spray bottle filled with warm water. It did not make a big enough difference to make the ice melt faster but it was a nice relief to spray on our hands when our hands were freezing from the ice.

When we were done playing with it we left it outside to keep track every hour on how fast the ice cubes were melting. We noticed the larger ice cubes melted the slowest compared to the smaller ice cubes. Also the end result of all the colors melted together as an awful green yellow color but it was a super fun to guess which color we thought it would turn out to be.

Trying to stack the different ice

Using ice as a tool to try and break open a larger ice

You can see the layers in the color

SCENTED PAINTING

Focusing on different kinds of sensory projects I decided painting with scents would be fun! and it turned out to even be a little bit funny watching the little dudes face when he smelled some smells he didn't quite like.

I mixed oregano, cinnamon, and nutmeg with watercolor and glue to make a sort of thick paint. I thought of doing the seasonings with their natural color but decided it would be more fun making them different colors.

The activity turned out great and its fun to sort of make our own scratch and sniff papers when they dried!

5 Clean Squeaky Pigs Flannel Board Story

Great idea borrowed from Story Time Katie

5 Clean Pigs

Five pigs so squeaky clean

Cleanest you’ve ever seen

Wanted to go outside and play

Oink! Oink!

One jumped into the mud

Landed with a great big THUD

They there were four clean squeaky pigs

Squish Squish

3…

2…

1 pig so squeaky clean

Cleanest you’ve ever seen

Wanted to go outside and play

Oink! Oink!

He jumped into the mud

Landed with a great big THUD

Then there were five quite dirty pigs!

Materials needed:

-Five double sided felt pigs
-One felt mud pile

-One fence surrounding mud pile

What needs to be done ahead of time? Five felt pigs. On one side of the pig have it be clean and on the other side of the pig have it be dirty. Paint brown smudges on one side to mimic the mud.  Have a brown felt mudpile for the pigs to jump into.

How is the activity set up? Place the mud pile to the left of the five pigs. As you sing and as the pigs jump into the mud flip them so that they are now dirty pigs.

Jellyfish and Shark Puppets with poem

Five Little Jellyfish

5 little jellyfish floating in the sea  (5 fingers moving slowly)

1 shark says, “Looks yummy to me!”

(Hold up 1 finger and then rub belly)

The shark swims up quiet as can be and EATS a little jellyfish floating in the sea

(Whisper with shark fins on head, then clap to eat)

4 little jellyfish floating in the sea…

3 little jellyfish floating in the sea…

2 little jellyfish floating in the sea…

1 little jellyfish floating in the sea…

To make the jellyfish finger puppets I just folded over some of the remaining felt and hot glued them half shut so that they would fit on fingers. I measured off of my fingers and just made them a little tighter imagining little fingers instead. 

Materials:

-1 shark puppet

-5 jellyfish finger puppets (I made 12)

Use:

Start with each child having a jellyfish. While the poem says five jellyfish you can either repeat with five until everyone gets a turn or give out all the jellyfish and start out with how many children you have in the class. When you get to the shark eating the jellyfish stand up, walk around, and choose a jellyfish you, as the shark will eat. Eat all the jellyfish and they if the children would like start over choosing a child to be the shark this time.  Remind the children every one will get a turn if they want one. To make the group time go by fast if the children are being impatient only allow the children to eat one jellyfish at a time.