Fun with Ice

Andrew and I had fun with ice yesterday. A few weeks ago, we filled up an ice tray and added green food coloring. That afternoon, we took it out of the freezer to see what happened to it and to play with it. It was too cold to play outside so we just filled up a bowl of water in the kitchen and I let him play. Yesterday we were able to go outside and use his water table. We still had some green ice left, as you can tell by the water. When we ran out of that, he just used regular ice. He had fun playing for a good 30 minutes or so.

Benefits of this activity:

Vocabulary/Language Builder:

These were some of the vocabulary and sentences we used:

ice, melting,

"Which one do you think will melt faster, the big one or the little one?",

"These are melting faster, than the other ones did. I wonder why?"

The ice is cold.

"How many ice can you fit in that container?" This can lead to a good discussion using numbers and math concepts: "You can fit the big one in there", "You can fit both in there", etc.

Science Exploration:

For us, ice melting is just something that happens. To a toddler, it's a whole new world.

These are some of the concepts they learn:

1. Wow, you put water in the freezer and it turns to ice.

2. You take it out and it melts.

3. It makes the water cold.

4. When you put food coloring in the ice, it changes the color of the water when you put it in.

5. If you give them different size containers, they are able to see which ones the ice fit in and how that changes as the ice melts. They are able to pour from one container to another and see how water fits in different size containers. (I just saved old containers from pill bottles, plastic Easter eggs, frosting bottles, etc., along with their lids. I wanted as many different sizes as possible. I store them in a basket. He used to play around with which lids fit on which containers. Now he brings it out when we use the water table.)

They also develop coordination and skills as they are pouring from one container to another.

Frog Habitat

Since I am having trouble uploading pictures to my frog post, I decided to write a new post to show you our frog habitat. We made it yesterday after looking in books at pictures at the types of homes frogs have. We went outside and collected leaves, twigs and rocks. We had some shells and some plastic animals that we put in there. There is a small frog in there. There is also a lizard, bee (or fly for our purposes), and ladybug because those are some of the things frogs eat. We poured a small amount of water into the habitat for a pond-like effect. This water is clean. Today the water looks a little more grimy because the dirt from the leaves, twigs and rocks has accumulated in it.

Here is a link to the other frog activities I posted recently:

http://toddlerandpreschoolfun.blogspot.com/2010/02/frogs.html

pictures

Frogs

Making Valentine Hearts for Grandparents and cousins

Website

I am moving into the form of a website to keep all the information better organized and accessible. I will still post to this blog, but here is the link to the website. Right now, most of the things on there are on the blog. I just copied and pasted, but it is easier to access older information and different kinds of information.

http://sites.google.com/site/toddlerandpreschoolfun/home

Frogs...

I tried to move these pictures below to the snack section, but blogger is not letting me. Here are two of the snacks we have had this week:

"Froggy Food": There is a link to the recipe below, but it is just plain m&m's (bugs), pretzels (worms), goldfish (small fish) and raisins (flies) - all representing different things frogs eat. Andrew had a good time helping me mix it up and eating it!

Frogs:

We are moving on from zebras to frogs. We checked out some informational books from the library about frogs. We are doing some research about frogs and then we are going to build a frog habitat just like we did with the zebra habitat. I'll let you know how it goes and post pictures.

I have the following information on activities and things associated with frogs:

Fun Frog Snacks:

These are SO cute. If you try any of them, send me a picture and I'll post it:

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/yourkids/birthdayparties/partyfood/snacks.aspx

http://www.perpetualpreschool.com/preschool_themes/frogs/frog_snacks.htm

http://www.ehow.com/way_5369757_frog-snacks-kids-make.html

http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/fruity-frog-699462/

Songs/Movement Activities:

Five Little Froggies (adapted from Ten Little Froggies on http://www.preschooleducation.com/sreptile.shtml)

One little froggie goes hop.

Along comes another and they just can't stop, soo...

Two little froggies go hop, hop.

Along comes another and they just can't stop, soo...

Three little froggies go hop, hop, hop.

Along comes another and they just can't stop, soo...

Four little froggies go hop, hop, hop, hop.

Along comes another and they just can't stop, soo...

Five little froggies go hop, hop, hop, hop, hop.

Drop! Time to stop!

The Frog

http://www.preschoolrainbow.org/animal-rhymes.htm
A little green frog once lived in a pool
The sun was hot and the water cool,
He sat in the pool the whole day long,
And sung a dear little, queer little song,
"Juaggery do, Quaggery dee,
No one was ever so happy as me."

Five Green and Speckled Frogs

Five green and speckled frogs

Sitting on a speckled log

Eating some most delicious bugs.

Yum, yum.

One jumped into the pool,

Where it was nice and cool.

Now there are four green speckled frogs, glub, glub.

Here are some links to various printable felt board stories:

http://www.storyit.com/flashes/maps/fivefrogs.pdf

http://www.childcareland.com/feltboard.html

http://www.ourschoolfamily.com/pdfs/5%20Green%20and%20Speckled%20Frogs.pdf

Here is a link to Lakeshore if you wanted to buy a flannel board set:

http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/search/results.jsp?bmForm=keyword_search&bmFormID=1265226834248&bmUID=1265226834248&bmIsForm=true&bmPrevTemplate=/seo/f|/Assortments/Lakeshore/ShopByAgeOrGrade/18mo3yrtoddler/viewall.jsp&bmText=initialSearchTerm&initialSearchTerm=Five+Green+and+Speckled+Frogs+Storytelling+Puppets&bmHidden=search&search=10&bmImage=search.x&bmImage=search.y&bmHiddenName=search&bmHiddenIndex=0&bmImage=search&bmHidden=SEARCH_INPUT<>searchFor&SEARCH_INPUT<>searchFor=Five+Green+and+Speckled+Frogs+Storytelling+Puppets&bmHidden=SEARCH_INPUT<>path&SEARCH_INPUT<>path=/media/content/search&bmHidden=SEARCH_INPUT<>path&SEARCH_INPUT<>path=/Products/Lakeshore&bmHidden=SEARCH_INPUT<>objectTypes&SEARCH_INPUT<>objectTypes=PRODUCT&bmHidden=SEARCH_INPUT<>objectTypes&SEARCH_INPUT<>objectTypes=CONTENT&bmHidden=SEARCH_INPUT<>searchTextOperator&SEARCH_INPUT<>searchTextOperator=and&bmHidden=autocompleteFlag&autocompleteFlag=autocomplete_search&bmHidden=FOLDER<>folder_id&FOLDER<>folder_id=2534374302099511&bmHidden=ASSORTMENT<>ast_id&ASSORTMENT<>ast_id=1408474395181113

Pictures/Videos:

Here is a link to National Geographic Kids with information and a video on frogs:

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Animals/CreatureFeature/Red-eyed-tree-frogs

The following has tons of pictures. I don't think they are free to print out, BUT, they are fun to look at and are helping Andrew and I as we do a little research about what a frog's habitat might be like:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=frogs'+habitats&oq=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=2s1pS770JJGgsgP59LSdBQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CB8QsAQwAw

The following has some video and sound recordings of frogs:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://californiaherps.com/frogs/habitats/rmuscosahabitatep606eggs.jpg&imgrefurl=http://californiaherps.com/frogs/pages/r.sierrae.sounds.html&usg=__QRDXJnirb2f2oZV9v29fLSP4kyo=&h=533&w=800&sz=209&hl=en&start=14&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=8hL1WwGcQ2lEvM:&tbnh=95&tbnw=143&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dfrogs%2527%2Bhabitats%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26um%3D1

Black History Month

Don't forget, along with Valentine's Day, that February is Black History Month. This is a good time to make your children aware of different cultures. I will have activities posted for this in the next day or two!

Valetine Cooking Activities

Here is a link to a website that I subscribe to. I don't always like all of their ideas, and they aren't always appropriate for the age of my child, but they have some really fun ones, too. This is a specific link to making heart rice crispy treats. Andrew and I are going to make some this week.

http://familyfun.go.com/valentines-day/valentines-day-recipes/valentines-day-candy-brownies/sweet-heart-krispy-treats-683701/

Red Food:

You could also do things with red foods like strawberries, cherries and raspberries. We are going to make strawberry and raspberry smoothies since he loves to make smoothies so much. If they are learning their colors, be sure to talk about the colors as you are doing it! Just add it in to your conversation as much as possible. "Let's add the red strawberries." "Oh, look, it's turning pink."

Recipes:

Remember to increase their awareness of print recognition, write out the recipes in simple words and pictures before you do them so they can follow along, too. You'll be amazed at how fast they start recognizing different pictures and words as having meaning and what they actually mean! Tip: make sure every ingredient has a picture and a word that you either drew or printed out. Pictures mean a lot at toddler and preschool ages, even if they are starting to recognize words.

Here is a link to the example I posted previously:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUljqqF5uL86NdmRk-mSjqn3THSFk7SDPv5x6yNyaHzfF41AAx7RDVSzw4sm9_lJa7CWrJ1vSdUQ3W_tBU3Et8OV8ZQRqIwTajYNwyo_3aSMk5I0jqQr_ODNcIplpKPMSV4NqyKh6myv2p/s1600-h/DSC00650b.jpg

Jello:

Use strawberry Jello in heart molds for fun one day.

Heart-shaped food:

Make pancakes in the shape of hearts or cut out your child's sandwich with a heart cookie cutter.

Valentine Art Activities:

You will see some similar art activities that recur each month, but only change colors or shapes.

Always a good thing to do:

1. Whatever shape you are working on for that month, cut it out of a large paper and put it up on a wall (or let them color on it on the floor). Let them paint, color, draw - whatever they want to do and you feel comfortable with.

2. What we did last year: We colored little Valentine Day cards from Wal-Mart for all of the kids his age that we were friends with and we went around to deliver them. He loved it. This year we are going to make cards for our friends out of hearts as well as for grandma's and grandpa's. I will cut the hearts out of paper or cardstock and he will be able to decorate them any way he chooses - with crayons, pencils, markers, or glitter. He will help me deliver cards to his friends and help me put the ones we have to mail in envelopes and mail them so he can see the whole process. For older preschool age children - have them trace a heart shape and cut it out, then decorate it.

Cutting, tearing, and tracing are all skills they should have by the time they enter kindergarten. Not that they have to do it as well as we do, but that should be something they are working on. Cutting and tracing are developmentally appropriate for 4 and 5 year olds and possibly some older three's, also. Tearing can start between 18 months and 2 years. Andrew loves to tear paper. I give him paper that is appropriate for him to tear and try to teach him the difference between what kinds of papers are OK to tear and what kinds aren't. So, when your toddler starts tearing paper, remember that it is 100% developmentally appropriate and necessary to some of their fine motor development. They just need to be given paper you are OK with them tearing.

3. Add some pink or red to shaving cream and let them go at it!

4. Use pink or red paint throughout the month. Remember, to increase their awareness of sight word recognition, it's always a good idea to write down the names of the colors you are using and have them posted where the child can see them often. You could do this by cutting out a red heart and a pink heart and writing on each of them: "red heart" and "pink heart". Then put it up where the child can see it often. They may want to play with it and that should be OK. Kids this age are very tactile, so you may want to cover them with some kind of laminate - like the kind you can get at Wal-mart.

5. Use red and pink glitter throughout the month in various art activities. You can add it to almost any art activity and sometimes it's fun to just let them experiment with glue and glitter to whatever degree you are comfortable with.

6. Shape of the month: Heart - this is obvious, right? I post the shape of the month on a wall where my toddler can see it all month. He likes to talk about it and he refers to it often. Along with the shape of the month is a letter of the month. This month, the letter is H, again, obviously. I print a printable letter out and post it. Remember, again, that kids this age are tactile and as much of these things as possible should be available for them to handle as much as they want.

Here is a link with some ideas for other art activities:

http://familyplayandlearn.com/FebruaryActivities.html