Weather Mobile

To finish up our Weather Unit,

We made a little Weather Mobile.

I was planning on making this ever since we started our unit.

We loved learning about the weather,

and now we can use it in our preschool classroom.

To start I modge-podged some remnant fabric onto this foam ring

I had from the fabric store.

To hang it I used a 3M hook and some Raffia to keep it up.

It was such a fun way to celebrate the end of our unit.

Now, we can have the preschoolers point to what

The weather is like each day.

Useful and pretty!

Here are links to all the things we did during this weather unit:

Rainbows:

Salt Crystal Snowflakes

Shining Sun

Let's Go Fly A Kite

Raindrops



Weather Busy Box

This week while studing Weather I decided to do something new.

I made a Busy Box for M.

To coordinate with our weekly theme.

I pulled it out a few mornings this week so she could learn,

while I could get some chores done.

I started with some learning sheets that I slipped into sheet protectors so she could reuse them

Plus, writing with markers is 10x more fun!

I found this sheet here.

She was working on these just after breakfast,

so I could tidy up the kitchen!

Don't you love the bedhead :)

I found this sheet here.

Naturally when baby H. saw her working on her busy box,

He wanted to join in the fun.

I had her line up the blocks on the letter Ww for "weather"

And he had fun messing them up and doing his own thing.

I found this sheet from here.

I also wanted to have some more fine motor skill fun!

So I bought some fun umbrellas from the $1 and let her put them into our sugar shaker.

She loved the frilly-ness of this!

Here are some other sheets that I also put in her box.

This one found here and others here.

I also slipped in some weather books she could look at and study too.

Some people might think that this is just to keep M. busy,

but that's just a bonus.

All the activities are helping her become school ready.

Really! They are, like putting the umbrella's in is helping her with her fine motor skills that will help her be able to do handwriting better. Placing the blocks on the letter helps her do similar things, as well as helps with letter recognition. And all of the activities help her connect with our weekly theme of weather so that some cross curricular learning is going on. (Aka she is recognizing weather wherever she goes!)



Weather Unit: Melted Crayon Rainbows

This is day one of our Weather Unit.

March is the BEST time to study weather because the weather is so versatile in March.

Ever since I saw these hearts I knew I wanted to make my own wax paper/melted crayon project.

We read the darling book, What Will the Weather Be Like Today?

By Paul Rogers.

This book is a MUST for weather units,

the pictures are great and each page is filled with cute rhymes.

We were lucky enough to inherit this book from my mother-in-law who is an AMAZING Kindergarten teacher. 
Right now this book is listed on Amazon for $85, so if I were you I would check it out from the library, or try to snag it at a Thrift Store or library book sale.

The book ends in a beautiful rainbow with the rhyme,
"And sometimes the rain and the sun come out to play,
and make a beautiful rainbow in the sky that day."

We talked about rainbows and then we practiced the sequence of rainbows, which was a new concept for M.

Then we got out our less used cheese grater and grated some crayons in rainbow order.

Then I used our iron placed old rags on top and on bottom to iron the crayon and wax paper together.
(If you do this use old rags, because the rags get stained and waxy.)

Here's what they looked like!
We did not iron them on the ground. :)

Then I cut them out into arches and let M. practice rainbow sequence again.

Then I taped them onto a string and hung it in our window.

I'm hoping our cheese grater will make a full recovery...
But if not it looks kinda pretty like this.

Here are some old posts about

Rainbows from our weather unit last year:

Taste the Rainbow

  

Let's Build A Rainbow

 

And Edible Finger Paint

Edible Finger Paint

Yum! Finger Paint you can eat!!

I used to love to finger paint as a child,

I actually have memories as a 2 year old me finger painting.

I was sitting on the floor finger painting with banana pudding

onto the back of a Kleenex box.

That inspired me to make my own edible paint.

All we did was mix up some banana pudding,

and add food coloring.

M. loved helping mix in the colors.

We used baby spoons to mix the colors,

Not that it matters, but she had fun looking ahead to see what color we would mix next!

Such a simple idea,

it was cheap ($0.44 for all that paint!)

and it was fun for the whole family!

We actually did this learning time at night,

we first learned about Noah and his arc,

and we learned about the rainbow,

and about following the prophet.

We put a little paint on every one's paper,

and had some fun!

 Daddy had the best technique using a Popsicle stick

H. had way more fun,when he didn't have to touch it.

Sweet baby is a little o.c.d.

We kept painting and painting,

We let it dry overnight,

and even the goopy parts dried.

The colors were just as vibrant as the night before!

Outdoor Fun!

Let's Get Outside!

This week is dedicated to putting a

new spin on outdoor activities.

I wanted to put a new spin on water play,

And to have a learning moment as well.

I wanted to help Miss Sassy learn more about colors.

I started out with clean milk jugs

and added red, yellow and blue food coloring.

(I used 2-4 drops.)

I had her guess what colors would be made

by mixing red and yellow.

Although we've done secondary colors before, she still couldn't remember.

She added the food coloring and mixed the jug.

She loved seeing the colors bleed into the water.

When we finished we had a milk jug rainbow!

Now for playtime!

I gave her spoons and cups.

I wanted her to practice pouring "milk"

Without the stinky mess.

She had a great time experimenting with colors,

while she practiced pouring.

I had her choose one color to share with her brother.

He loved pouring it out and spilling it on the ground.

They (surprisingly) played with the milk jugs

for over an hour.

It's amazing how adding a little color really spiced things up!

For our Outdoor Fun Unit, we also learned about the Science of Bubbles, Floating Ice Boats down the river, Went to our local Splash Pad, and made our own Water Station.

Making Colors

Today we created a Rainbow,

Modern Art Style

Isn't it beautiful?

Maybe it's only beautiful to me... :)

On Monday, I picked up these finger paints at the store.

Today, I got paper, paints, and wet wipes ready.

First, I put two dots of color on her paper,

and she mixed the two colors together.

I had to move her hand a little to really get her to stir the colors together.

She could really see how to make colors.

Now, for the fun part...

I took her hands and squirted red on one hand,

and yellow on the other.

I had her rub her hands together...

Presto!  Orange!

She thought it was amazing!

Then I had her rub her hands all over the paper.

We had her do the same with making green and purple.

I'm glad I had lots of paper nearby.

It made it less messy.

Then we let her paint with the colors she had made.

I initially had wanted to have her make a Rainbow.

But it was better to just let her have fun and discover.

Yes that is a 3 year old sitting in a high chair!

She climbed in after lunch, and I thought, "Perfect! Less Messy!"

Let's Build a Rainbow

Today we built a Rainbow!

We used a foam ball cut in half, colored noodles,

 pipe cleaners and a paper plate.

First, we colored our noodles.

We did it yesterday while she was still willing...

To color noodles you add a little Rubbing Alcohol and a few drops of food coloring.

This was a great way to see how to mix colors.

Then, we put them onto pipe cleaners,

counting as we went.

She is doing a lot of learning at this moment:

Sorting, Using Fine Motor Skills, Identifying colors, and Counting.

Look how engaged she is!

She loved attaching the pipe cleaners

to the foam ball.

We had a few technical difficulties,

I wish I would have glued the foam balls to the plate BEFORE we started.

But all in all it was a great activity!