Mirrors, Sand, and Symmetry

Last year my mother bought a butterfly kit for my son from Insect Lore.  Unfortunately, the live caterpillars did not survive.  We recently purchased a new batch - perfect for a spring/summer project.  The entire experience was a huge hit!  We checked out books from the library, watched short videos about the life cycle of a butterfly, and took advantage of opportunities to play, create, and explore.  Once the butterflies emerged, we talked about symmetry.....which led to this fun activity.  I don't have a lot of pictures because it was pretty spontaneous - as the activity tray was already conveniently full of sand and held the mirrors as well.

Using the activity tray with mirrors, I showed him how to draw half of a butterfly in order to create reflected symmetry.  Then he tried.....

My son's butterfly....quite impressive considering he rarely to never draws....ever!

"Mommy, I need to draw the caterpillar in the chrysalis, too."

He drew a sun, too!

The fun continued and has been revisited since (sorry, no pics)....drawing shapes, clouds, rockets, and a flying ladybug.

**Colored sand can be purchased on amazon or in the craft section of Michaels craft store.**

PAHM AMAZON STORE

- AK (MESE, MECD)

Invitation in Green

This summer we struggled to maintain enjoyed the benefits of a bountiful garden. We had more summer squash than we knew what to do with, so we gave a lot away and made a lot of squash muffins (think "zucchini muffins" but with squash...yes, it works, but it's not the same). We also had a lot of okra - yum! And we soon discovered that it was better to pick small okra in the morning because by evening they were too tough to eat (seriously, they grew THAT fast). Anyway, one day we had some giant okra, so I decided to create an invitation in green. We'd already done the Yellow Invitation using the squash so it made sense - why not?!

 I set up an invitation on the light table after collecting a number of green tools for measuring, cutting, writing, and general exploration. Lately Addi shows interest in having a variety of collected items to create with, so I really did include a a lot (last year this many items would have overwhelmed her, so it's important to research your child's individual interests and needs when setting up an invitation).



Addi immediately took the lid off the homemade light table and brought it to the ground along with all the supplies; she always knows just how she wants to play, lol. Then she set to work pouring the paint into the translucent cups.  She noticed the cups with paint were now opaque and explored how to completely cover all the cups...the green popsicle sticks worked well.

"I can see through these, but not that one. Can you help me? Oh, I got it."

This summer her interest in letters grew, so I try to include them in most invitations. I didn't know how she would use them in her work; she started off by painting around them while singing a song from one of her favorite books (Chicka Chicka Boom Boom).

"Weeee said D to E F G I'll beat you to the top of the coconut tree."
"K is out of bed & this is what she said, dare double dare you can't catch me..."

And she painted her hand, around her hand, and made a hand print.



"I'm painting my fingers, not your fingers. Is that cool?"

Luckily there was quite a lot of paint on the ground because Addi LOVES to spray and wipe up...well, she loves to spray. And she likes knowing she can get her own cleaning cloths out of the closet.

I make my own cleaning products, so she's welcome to spray away!

Researching our children's interests can be a fun challenge as long as we don't set ourselves (or our children) up for failure. There are several ways to do this:

• Does your child work more deeply with a few items or many?
• How does lighting affect his/her play?
• Include your child's favorite colors
• Include an object your child visits often (lion, letters, etc.)
• Consider a theme: color, animal, letter, medium (art, sand, water, etc.)
• Give yourself a pep-talk before setting up a potentially mess-making invitation, "This is going to be messy and fun. The more mess the more learning. I will ignore the mess until after dinner if I have to, even until after bedtime." If you start to panic, focus on the sheer joy on your child's face!
• Keep your sense of humor and playfulness.
• Follow their lead: if they want you to play you can whisper, "what should I do?" Otherwise you can simply enjoy the show.
• Jot down their reactions and responses. Their facial expressions and words can bring new and deeper meaning for everyone.
• Let go of how you want the materials to be used and instead notice how your child chooses to use them - become curious! "Why did he paint the cup rather than the paper? Interesting: she took apart the light table before using the other materials! I wonder why she included the horse?"

Raising children is full of magical moments when we are able find within ourselves the time and space to watch and listen. I hope you'll find some today...or tomorrow!

Broken Bones - Orthopedics at Work

As you all know my girls love playing doctor.  You can see our latest doctor post where they performed open heart surgery HERE.  Here is yet another extension off of that play.  One of their favorite books right now is "Maisy Goes to the Hospital".  In the book, Maisy falls off the trampoline and breaks a leg.  They are always asking a million questions...

How does it get better?

Is the cast hard?

Can she take it off?

How come her friends are writing on it?

I set us this invitation up for them below.

Casting Invitation

I know there are a bunch of different paper mache recipes out there.  For this invitation we used one part glue to one part water.  

Newspaper

Gauze

A willing participant.  (LOL)  

Pouring in the water

(All my oldest's curls are gone.  :-(  AK and I had some BAD experiences at the hair place last week)

Glue

Mixing it all up.  

My oldest (3.5) prepping me for the cast.  

Sorry about the quality of pictures.  I was taking them myself while they put my cast on.  

My 27 Month old getting her first strip ready.  She was EXTREMELY particular that they didn't bend, fold, etc.  Very true to her nature.  If it wasn't perfect she tossed it in the garbage.  

My oldest ditched the invitation at this part.  She did NOT want to get messy!  

Carefully placing newspaper on my leg.  

Very precise!  I was kinda shocked at how much she enjoyed this. I thought for sure my oldest was going to run the show.

Taking off excess glue.

Almost done!  

Finished!!  

Our original plan was to let it dry and then paint it white so we could color it.  It ended up being a bust. "The doctor's" told me I was healed much sooner than expected and we needed to cut it off.  :-)  We tried to save it so we can use it again for future play but it fell apart.  I'm sure it was a combination of taking it off before it dried and my 27 Month old didn't quite cover my complete leg.  There were a few holes and it was only a layer or two deep.  

This was a bit messy.  I would definitely recommend laying a blanket or some sort of sheeting down underneath.  I also had a garbage can and towel close by.  My 27 month old liked to wipe her hands off after each piece.  

RL  

Solar System - Summer Style

I love when play continues to evolve and as a result learning continues to evolve as well.  As many of you know after reading THIS post, my son is very interested in the planets/solar system.  He spotted these ice cube trays at the dollar store yesterday and said, “Look, Mommy.  Can we get these and make stars to go with my planets?”  YES!   

Star molds - Dollar Tree

My initial thought was – ‘ice brick planets’ – inspired by THIS post from last summer.  As we walked to the car with our new star ice molds I was brainstorming things to create our ice planets in.  My first thought was the obvious – some kind of round baking pans – but then I thought – BALLOONS!!  Could we freeze water balloons and have round ice planets??  I guess we’ll find out!

When we got home my son asked me if we could make the stars edible, so we used a mixture of lemonade and water.  Of course, he filled the molds.

Pouring into the molds

Then we got out his Space book to take a look at the planets again and come up with a plan.

• “So, how many planets are there again?”
• [Counting planets in his book] “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.  We need a sun, too.”
• “So how many balloons do we need to fill up?”
• “Ten.” [He gets out ten balloons, counting as he takes each one out.]

We used THIS balloon pump to fill up our balloons.  It was the best option for him to play an active role and it was the easiest way to get color into the water/balloons. 

Filling up balloons.  This was another opportunity for us to talk about the colors of the planets as well as the size.

Its important to check the balloons at least once every 20 minutes to see if they are frozen.  LOL - not yet!

Day 2 - sometimes things don't go as planned.

 Even us PAHMs have to remind ourselves not to go into activities/projects/invitations with our own agenda.  In my mind I thought this would be so cool.  We could explore our ice planets, put them in orbit, talk about their sizes, expand on our learning together, etc.  My 3 year old had other plans..... 

"I want to smash them, Mommy."

He was initially interested in using his book to place them in orbit (toddler style) and adding the stars to his "outer space", but that was about it.  Sun in the middle....then the planets/stars.  Some of our planets are oval - oh well, it was still fun and he had a blast smashing them to bits and eating the stars.

Our solar system

:)

Eating the planets

 - AK (MESE, MECD)

Honey Bees for a day - Questions answered

My girls are obsessed with all things bugs/insects lately.  My oldest is always asking a million questions a day.

Does that bee sting?

How come some bees sting and some don't?

Is that a honey bee?

How do bees make honey?

Why do they like flowers?

To be honest I can't answer half her questions!  

We first started exploring this by visiting the local library. We checked out 3-4 books on bees/wasps.  We have been reading these books for several weeks before I set up this invitation.  My oldest gave me the inspiration when she said: 

"I wish I could be a honey bee for a day."

The invitation

Flowers in water

Honey

Turkey Basters

Egg Carton

Bee costumes

I left this completely up to my girls to explore any way they wanted to.  

They started first by putting their nest (egg carton) "up high on the art table so no one would step on it"

My 27 Month old did not want to wear her wings and that is OK!  

Sucking up the nectar.  

My 27 Month old knew that the bees sucked it up from their mouth so she always put the back end of the baster up to her mouth.  

My oldest got a little frustrated with her baster so she asked for something else.  I gave her a medicine dropper.  

Putting the "nectar" into the "honeycomb."

My 27 Month old lost interest after a couple trips back and forth.  

My oldest declared me a "worker bee" and said "you need to squirt in some honey... but only where the nectar is, Mommy"  

Doing her "busy bee dance" to show all the other bees where the flower patch is.  

Collecting more nectar.  

Counting how many she has left to fill.  

Fanning the honey with her wings

I did NOT have wax paper out.  She asked for this to seal her honeycomb when it was done.  I thought that was a great association.  :-)  

My 27 Month old joined back in when she heard there was going to be honey tasting going on.  

Scrapping her honeycombs to put into jars.  

"Look at all this honey we made!"

And of course the taste test! 

RL 

Push Light Planets

I always try to follow the interests of my son when planning fun activities.  My hopes are to inspire him to delve deeper into learning about things he already loves.  He has been interested in the planets/solar system for months now.  He even requested Saturn (his favorite planet) as one of the paintings on his bedroom wall. 
 

He requests this book at bed time quite often….

This is the book we read a lot - and used for inspiration.

This morning I thought of using push lights to paint and illuminate the planets!  Dollar Tree sells push lights, but in my experience – they stink.  I bought this pack of 4 (small) push lights at Walmart for under $4.00.  The batteries that come with them are horrible, and we had to replace them the next day.

I bought 3 packs of these

I used glass paint (also purchased at Walmart for under $2.oo a jar).  Be aware that slathering on too much paint may cause the push lights to stick after dry.  Ours did not, but I can see how it could happen.  We also discovered that glass paint apparently doesn't adhere well to plastic.  When we pushed the lights to turn them on/off, some of the paint was peeling off.  I sealed it with Mod Podge and it hasn't happened since.

Paint

I initiated this activity by asking my son if he would like to help me put batteries in the new push lights.  He played an active role in setting up the entire activity.  We took the time to flip through each page of the book to see which planet he wanted to paint first – Jupiter.

The invitation.  My son played an active role in setting this up.  We paper clipped opened the book for inspiration.

Painting Jupiter.  I asked him why he was painting the sides and he said "because Mommy, the whole planet has color, not just the top".  I stand corrected.

We talked about the colors in each planet, he chose the corresponding paints, and he counted out the number of brushes needed.  He painted one planet at a time at his own pace.

Mars

Saturn

Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter - completed, dried, and illuminated!  Cool!

Earth

Venus.  The OCD in me wanted to tell him that the black on the left side of the planet in the picture is a shadow....but this is about so much more than "doing it right".   I think he did an amazing job!

Neptune

 Here are the 6 planets we have done so far.  My favorite parts of this activity was the dialogue it inspired, watching my son become so engaged in painting (something he RARELY does), and seeing him glow with pride.

painting Uranus with Daddy

Painting Mercury

Painting Mercury

Painting Pluto (and yes, Im aware that there has been some controversy as to whether Pluto is really a planet.)

The Solar System through the eyes of a 3 year old.  He still wants to get a big push light to paint the sun.

AND FINALLY.....THE SUN....

Its been about a month since we created the planets with push light and today he was finally ready to add the sun.  I asked him if he would like to use his book as reference and he said, "No thank you.  I know what the sun looks like".

Painting the sun

Beautiful sun

"Let's count them."

The sun and planets

This is how my son set them up when we were talking about the sun being the center of the solar system and all of the planets revolving around it.  AWESOME!!

MORE IDEAS:  

·         Buy different sized push lights to really represent the size of each planet.

·         Add glow in the dark stars to the wall with the completed, illuminated planets.

·         Encourage reading by using a label maker to label the back side of each planet with its name.

·         Encourage further reading and knowledge by printing fun facts about each planet onto sticker paper sheets and then adding them to the back of each light.

- AK (MESE, MECD)