Sense of Smell

Today we explored our sense of smell!

We read Smelling By Sharon Gordon

I love these books! They are perfect for preschoolers!

They talk about how smell goes from your nose and tells your brain that you are smelling.

It has great pictures and diagrams.

I gathered all of the perfume/cologne bottles in the house and let them smell each one.

It was fun for her to guess which one was for women and which was for men.  Then she chose her favorite scent and sprayed her wrists.

We made some some scratch and sniff paint

(AKA Kool-aide and water)

 I found this cute "fruits of the spirit" tree.

We read the scripture in Galatians and talked about it for a minute.

They both loved painting!

We used our left over Kool-aide to make play dough,

Which was a little fail, but we worked out the problems in the end.

I made my play dough using the following recipe:

2 C. Flour, 1 C. Salt  1 TBS Cream of Tartar {Mix together}

1 1/2 TBS Veg. Oil, 2 C. Water {Add, cook on med. heat, stir until it looks like play dough}

This recipe is modified from Teach Preschool.

Then I added the Kool-aide.

It didn't work.

This is what it looked like.

Totally Blah!

But it sure smelled good!

Which was kind of the point.

Then I added more Kool-aide to our play dough blobs,

and took it over to the sink and added a little bit of water.

Voila!

It worked...

But my hands may never be the same!

Fun times were had playing with the play dough!

So my suggestion is to make your play dough,

then when it is still a little wet in the pan,

split your recipe into fours,

and then add the Kool-aide,

and it should make a vibrant colors,

and you'll save your hands.

Or just make a whole batch of the same flavor.

Here are some of my older post's that explore the sense of smell:

Scratch and Sniff Book

Where we used Jello to make a sratch and sniff book.

Pepermint playdough

Here are all of my posts on the Five Senses:

Sight:

Smell:

Hearing:

Touch:

Taste:

V is for Volcanoes

Today we learned all about the letter V.

Here are our upside down V volcanoes.

We painted the V with brown paint,

and the hot lava with gel paint.

Last night I prepared a little volcano science experiment.

The best way to spice up school is with science.

I used 1/3 c. Baking Soda

and reserved 1/3 c. white vinegar (and red food coloring) for the experiment.

Ready, aim, blast off!! 

 For the five seconds that it was happening,

it was totally worth it!

We watched a you tube video of a real volcano erupting,

and we went upstairs to make our own edible volcano.

This idea comes from Craft Interrupted

We did it the same way.

Put chocolate pudding into an ice cream cone,

flipped it over fast,

put pudding around it a little bit,

then made the molten lava flow from it,

we used jelly belly brand cherry ice cream topping.

We also put dinosaur gummy bears on it,

(To link into our unit on animals)

Delicious and nutritious.

Um maybe not so much nutritious.

We then made our own human volcano.

The all had red, yellow, and orange scarves,

and pretended they were lava.

They hid under the blanket

(giggling)

until I said, "The volcano is erupting!"

And erupt it did!

And the lava filled the whole room.

 

We did it about three times,

because it was so fun and silly. 

{And educational, but don't tell them that!} 

Next we read a dinosaur book,

and did some dinosaur math.

The printable is found here.

Because their minds were so excited about volcanoes,

and dinosaurs,

they thought this was the best activity ever. 

 

I paired two children together,

an older one and a younger one,

so they could work on their numbers together.

This was great for team work, one on one correspondence,

fine motor skills, and thematic integration.

Then they played in the sand table with dinosaurs.

For more letter v ideas check out my pin board here.

The Queen of Hearts

I thought this poem would be a perfect way to link literacy to Valentines day.

I wrote it up on a little poster like this because M. is a pre-reader.
The pictures helped her recognize that words carry meaning.

I got out the old Lego table that we use as a water tub, sand tub, and play dough bin, and put all of our pink and white play dough in together. Along with some old pie tins.

We read from Disney's Mother Goose Rhymes
The Queen of Hearts
I had this book when I was a little girl,
I loved it, and my mom gave me the book and the tape!

I love the cute little illustrations.
While I was doing prep, she was listening to the rest of the book.

I found these little measuring spoons at target,
and she counted how many heart scoops it took to fill up her tart tin.

It was fun, and she is so sweet!
{Seriously.}

After this she got dressed up like a queen,
and ate lunch like royalty!

Instead of making pretend tarts,
wouldn't it be fun to make these yummy tarts!?
Maybe when I have a little more hand eye coordination!
{These are from Mad Baker}


Check out more ideas on my pinterest board.

Shepherds and Candy Canes

We had a fun & festive day!

In preparation for candy cane and shepherd day, 

Last night I made candy cane play dough.

To keep baby H occupied I got out a little bowl full of flour,

and some measuring cups and let him go to town!

M. also had a great time playing and pretend cooking.

She could have done that for hours!

The Recipe for Candy Cane Play dough found here

And the trick is to mix it on the stove until it looks like play dough:

Then you take it off the stove and knead it.

I made play dough a couple of years ago for valentines day activities,

and I didn't let it get solid enough on the stove,

and it turned into a gooey nightmare!

So once we had our sweet peppermint smelling candy cane play dough,

We rolled it out into "snakes" and twisted it around its self to make a candy cane shape.

Three year old hands needed help to get it just right!

Then we painted the letter C like a candy cane.
We used tape and peppermint scented tape.

We put on the tape, painted the C traced on the paper,
and blotted it try, and pulled off the tape.

It sure smelled good!

Then we read The Legend of the Candy Cane
By Lori Walburg

This "sweet" little story was about a man who mysteriously opened a candy shop in town, and a little girl helps him unpack all of the candy.  She finds a candy cane and asks what it is and he tells her all of the symbolism behind it.  My little girl loved it!

Then we made mangers with shepherds out of gram crackers,
and other yummy candies!

It was super fun to make a manger scene instead of a gingerbread house.  The children connected way more with it, and had their own ideas of where the angels should be, and where the shepherds should be standing.

To prep I put frosting to make their stables,
but in hind-sight, I wish I would have just glued it with a glue gun.
(no one ever eats the walls any ways.)

I had royal frosting in snack bags for them to use.
(The mess free method.)

I gave them some ideas and then let them jump into decorating.


It was a fun happy and meaningful mess!