Mad Science Monday: Make Your Own Rain Cloud! Plus a Bonus Story Stretcher...

 I have a confession: we totally did our Mad Science Monday on a Thursday last week! Phew. I already feel so much better. It was the perfect day for it, too; too hot to go out for long, the fourth day of our week long play-theme on Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi and Ron Barrett, and there was a free science show at one of our local malls I wanted to take the kids to, so we were also short on time. Those types of mornings are perfect for a short stretch story stretcher and I had one more weather themed book I wanted to include this week: Eric Carle's The Little Cloud. This book is a great read to supplement a weather theme and goes perfectly alongside the supplemental book we read earlier in the week, It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles Green Shaw. Like the latter, this book also follows a cloud along its journey of changing shape until it makes a glorious rain. After reading the book together, we set out to experiment with making our own rain clouds using household ingredients you likely have on hand as well.

We have read this book often and are huge fans of Eric Carle here. We are also big fans of science experiments (in case you haven't noticed)! I found the idea for this experiment written up on this blog post quite a while ago and saved it for a rainy day--or a hot, sunny day! It is super easy to set up and orchestrate and requires only a few, very inexpensive materials. To make your own rain cloud, you will need:

• a clear jar, bowl, cup or glass
• shaving cream
• food coloring
• pipettes (optional)

Begin by filling your vessel with water, nearly to the top. Young scientists will love to help with this part, whether it's filling from the tap or from a pitcher. You can fill one jar or several. Next, squirt a decent sized blob of shaving cream on top; it will float! This is a great time to discuss floating and sinking with your young scientist. It is fun to observe from various angles how the "cloud" remains on top of the water. Ask your junior scientist what he or she thinks might happen if you add food coloring to the top of the cloud. You can choose one color or two or more. It's a great opportunity as well to explore color mixing. If you choose to use pipettes, you can dilute your colors and your children can use the pipettes in jars of colored water to suck up color and squirt it atop the cloud. We just squirt directly from the food coloring bottles. Please note that diluting the color will change the rate of the experiment as the coloring is less concentrated. I should also mention that food coloring undiluted can stain skin temporarily. Experiment with how many drops of color to add. If you are doing several demonstrations, you may wish to compare how the shape of the vessel or the number of drops of coloring affects the rate of the experiment. Remember to change only one factor at a time (like shape of the vessel or number of drops of coloring) to truly carry out and observe the experiment in scientific method. The next part is to wait! Once it starts "working," the color will drip through the cloud down the water in beautiful streaks that look like rain!

If your water gets too full of color, you can pour it out and try again should you wish! 

Want to do more rain cloud science? Try out this rain cloud in a bag experiment I posted earlier in the year!

Want to stretch out your story stretcher a bit?

• Here's a great art extension: Eric Carle made beautiful end pages in this book using white finger paint on blue paper. Let your young illustrator in training finger paint with white paint on blue construction paper to create his or her own cloud designs. Alternatively, experiment with symmetry using white paint on folded blue construction paper as we did in this post.
• For some more sensory fun, squirt a blob of shaving cream on a tray for your little one to play with. It's great and cloud like all on its own, mixed with some paint or food coloring to explore how colors mix or along with some tools like forks, combs, cookie cutters or anything else you'd like to to add. It's also a good medium to practice letters with for early writers and even sight words for beginning readers!

shaving cream sensory play

Beyond the Book: Eric Carle's "The Tiny Seed"

What is Shavuot without flowers? And one of my very favorite children's books about flowers is The Tiny Seed, written and illustrated by Eric Carle. This beautiful story chronicles a group of sunflower seeds through the seasons. As they make their journey through the pages and through different terrains and trials, one question remains--what will happen to the tiny seed? Will it succumb to its humble stature or triumph over the obstacles placed along its way? In addition to sequencing the four seasons of the year and the physical journey of the tiny seeds and its larger counterparts, this book also demonstrates the life cycle of a plant.

We have explored the themes of flowers, plants, and gardening before here through a variety of play activities and wonderful children's books on the topic. We have even read The Tiny Seed before and done extension activities with it. When it comes to Story Stretchers, repetition is OK! After all, how many times does your child request to read and reread a favorite book? I have even talked before about the benefits of using Story Stretcher activities to expand upon themes and concepts presented in a favorite book. This can encourage your young reader to engage in fabulous pretend play, sensory exploration and expand upon language development and other pre-reading skills. It can also eliminate some of the monotony of reading that same book again and again and again...

I find it helpful when engaging in a story stretcher to set out certain activities ahead of time and to have others prepared in advance to introduce throughout the day. I did a slight remodel of our toy/materials shelf to include some of the day's themed activities.

In the morning, I had set out this simple Flower Garden sensory bin for Table Time:

I included plastic flower pots, artificial flowers, scoops and tongs and a fluffy bed of paper grass. S LOVED planting flowers. He even went to our STEAM cart to add more flowers to the scene from another activity!

I introduced our target book at our Morning Meeting. S loves this book so much he wanted to read it twice in a row! It is a rather lengthy story so young readers may prefer a paraphrased version to reading it word for word. I also like resources like YouTube or audio books/Scholastic videos from the library for introducing children's literature. We did indeed listen to The Tiny Seed from the YouTube video posted above as we ate our lunch!

S genuinely wants to play with Y now that he is growing into more up and alert periods of the day and quite smiley and playful to boot. I have been eagerly brainstorming ways beyond our "brothers' basket" of toys to include Y in our play and learning activities. Creating a Tiny Seed Sensory Bottle seemed like a great activity to do with S that he could then share with his baby brother. I set out two plastic bottles (I bought these at a craft supply store, but you can use a recycled bottle if you have), some dry black bean "seeds" in a tall cup with a small scoop, a funnel with an opening large enough for the beans to fit through, and a collection of colorful silk flowers. I had a roll of thin duct tape with a fun floral print on hand for tightly sealing the bottles when we were done. You could use any type of duct tape or even hot glue your lid on if you wish.

S was so proud to be making sensory bottles himself and especially eager to share it with his brother...

...so eager, in fact, that delivering his gift could wait for nothing, not even a nap to be done!

The materials are quite simple, but the burst of color and the sound of the black beans as the bottles are shaken are wonderful elements to intrigue the sensory development of infants (and older siblings!).

While Y finished his nap, S and I took a Seeds We Eat Scavenger Hunt in our fridge and pantry. We looked for foods that

• have seeds on the inside (we found apples and pears, cucumbers and peppers, oranges and grapes, even frozen blueberries)
• have seeds on the outside (strawberries were a perfect candidate for this category--we had some in our freezer as well for use in smoothies)
• are seeds! (We had a snack of trail mix made from mixed nuts and seeds. We also talked about foods like beans and peas that are seeds we eat!)

Speaking of beans, transfer activities have been a longtime fine motor favorite for S--I set out this simple transfer tray and he played with it for quite a while! 

Next, it was time for a game! We played "Whose Seed Is That Anyway?"--a simple matching game I devised from recycled and laminated seed packet photos and ziplock bags of leftover seeds (ones we had from our planting earlier this season).

To play the game, I set out the pictures and held the bags of seeds. Each bag is labeled (so I know what's inside!) and one at a time, I presented a bag of seeds. Certain seeds, S recognizes quite well--like beans and peas. These are seeds that look like foods he is familiar with. I still present a series of clues with each bag, although as he familiarized with the game (and asked to play again and again!) I simplified my clues and eventually eliminated them altogether.

We had a lot of fun with The Tiny Seed story stretcher activities we did at home. Perhaps you'll try some of them in your own home or classroom. Want to do more? Here are some other play and learning activities related to The Tiny Seed:

• Plant some seeds of your own! Whether indoors or outdoors, planting seeds is a great way to take the journey in this book into your own hands and garden! You can chronicle your own seed's journey as it grows into a sprout, a plant, a flower or vegetable... Visit your seedlings often to observe and discuss their progress.

Observe a variety of seeds and photos of their mature plants. How are seeds different and how are they alike? Do big fruits and vegetables always have big seeds? What other things do you notice or wonder about seeds?

• Get crafty!

This was a cute handprint/footprint painting our local playgroup instructor did with everyone to create a sunflower painting. S loved getting his hands all painty and Y tolerated his foot being dipped in. We glued on poppy seeds and voila! 

Painting/printing with flowers is another great activity to try. We had some flowers on the wilt last year around this time and used red and yellow paint to create our own sunflower like the one on the cover of The Tiny Seed.

Aww, look at little S! He had such a great time dipping and dabbing those flowers on the paper plate that had been prepared with slits around the edge to resemble petals of a flower.

Once the paint was dry, we glued on some dry beans in the center to resemble sunflower seeds. You could certainly use actual sunflower seeds if you have them on hand!

• Get moving! Create motions or choose from Yoga poses to act out the story of The Tiny Seed!

What fun even the most familiar stories can be when we stretch our imagination and expand into a world of play and hands-on learning! Instilling a love of literacy in young readers is as simple as planting a tiny seed. Hope you enjoyed reading and playing along with us...

Happy Playing!

Beyond the Book: Eric Carle's "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"

We are BIG Eric Carle fans here, and since we are learning about the lifecycle of a butterfly right now, it's a perfect time to incorporate one of our favorite books of his, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. In fact, my older reader has liked this book since he could first get his hands, er, mouth on it! Now a new little literacy lover has joined the family to share in our love of this book. We even have an infant-friendly soft copy and caterpillar rattle that was a baby gift from Big Brother's infant days!

This morning, Big Brother couldn't wait to see our caterpillars, who have been in the house for three days now. They are, indeed, already getting bigger and bigger!

Day 3

Table Time was already set up with a simple journal prompt using cut outs of a caterpillar and a butterfly (Dollar Tree) and a story prompt. My son was eager to invite his Tatty to draw with him even before he ate his breakfast. Later, he dictated his story to me. He has been enjoying hands-on exploration and play with our theme related toys and materials and talks a lot about various aspects of the lifecycle of a butterfly--many of which he learned and remembers from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Carle's classic and beautiful illustrations help dictate the story of this life cycle as a caterpillar hatches from an egg, eats and grows and eats and grows, builds a cocoon and emerges as a beautiful butterfly! The story also incorporates counting and days of the week--two important developmental target skills for preschoolers, as the Very Hungry Caterpillar increases his food consumption by one item over the course of a week.

We've had our board book copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar handy on our shelf throughout our gardening unit and my toddler has requested to read it together daily. He certainly knows it well enough now to "read" along! Today, I brought it out during our morning circle time and we sat by our flannel board. As I read the story, I used a flannel board set I had constructed several years ago while I was teaching. I printed some images and drew/cut out others. You can create your own set in this way or even check out some of the great free printables and activity ideas that are listed on this fellow blogger's post. Sometimes we also retell the story using toy food and our toy caterpillar. Retelling children's books using props and felt board sets is a great way to spice up an old favorite or to introduce a new book while appealing to a variety of learning styles.

He loved retelling the story on his own afterward! If you'd like to introduce a great theme-related fine motor activity to a preschooler and make your own flannel board set at the same time, provide your printed and/or cut out fruits and foods along with a hole puncher for cutting out caterpillar "bites!" Squeezing a hole punch is a great way to build those little muscles in the hands!

Next it was time for our little craft activity. There are so many wonderful arts and crafts ideas related to Eric Carle's beautifully illustrated books. You can explore ideas all across the internet and in resource books. Since we are in the process of growing our own butterflies right now, I decided to combine that lesson with our target story in this cute little Lifecycle of a Very Hungry Caterpillar collage. I created our vocabulary sentence strips in advance and a sample. We used a combination of stickers and items cut from construction paper. You can do the same or draw your own pictures. You can print images from the computer and I have even seen the lifecycle of a butterfly depicted in dry pasta and beans. In the past when I have done this project with students I have done combinations of all of the above. For the sake of my own little guy, I pre-cut our shapes today, wrote on the associated vocabulary words and let him have fun with the gluing and sticking stickers. I am most often a fan of process art over these types of "cookie cutter" projects, however, there are important skills that are developed through following a sequence of directions and being able to copy and recreate from an original sample. I do not "force" him to recreate his project exactly as my sample is and rather use language like "this is how I made mine, but you can make yours how you like." Over the course of my working with children of a variety of ages, some like to do their own thing, some like to copy exactly (and some get frustrated if/when they cannot) and others do a combination of both. My son falls into the combo category!

He is quite proud of his work!

We had a great time reading, playing and crafting about The Very Hungry Caterpillar and it was a great extension activity for our current learning theme. Want to read some more great Eric Carle books related to gardening and creepy crawlers? Check out

• The Very Lonely Firefly
• The Very Grouchy Ladybug
• The Very Busy Spider

and

• The Tiny Seed

You will likely be able to find copies in your local library! Until then...

Happy Playing!

Noah's Ark Theme: Part 4

We wrapped up an amazing week of learning and play in the theme of Parshas Noach. Within the story of Noah's Ark, there are so many sub-themes that could easily stand alone! Animals are a fun and incredible topic to explore with children, and I usually devote a few weeks to a theme like this one rather than cram into part of one week. The animals on Noah's ark still made an appearance in our activities, nonetheless, particularly gaining a lot of attention from my toddler in the theme related discovery basket I set out and in our teivah sorting activity. Building the teivah could also become a theme in and of itself through building with different materials at home and other construction related activities. I made sure to have some building toys, hard hats and tools accessible this week for theme related independent play, and many an activity was spent over the last few days with me wearing a yellow hardhat because my son requested it!
We shifted our focus this time on the colors of the rainbow and some basic concepts of clouds and rain. It was fabulous to watch my son learn through art, science and hands-on exploration. Perhaps the absolute highlights were watching how excited he was each day and engaged in many of the activities. As an added bonus, he walks around the house singing the Rainbow Song now!
We read Eric Carle's Little Cloud together and had some sensory fun with shaving cream to make our own Little Cloud. To help weave in our learning about color mixing, I added a squirt of red and blue paint to the shaving cream. I offered a plastic fork for mixing and playing but also let my little one know he could get his hands in there, too! He does not mind getting his hands messy altogether, but seemed to favor the fork overall and also likes to be able to clean off his hands independently as he feels ready. For that reason, I also provide a wet wash cloth when we work with messy materials so he doesn't need to leave the activity to intermittently wipe off big gobs of paint or shaving cream or glue. With the red and blue paints, he experienced hands on the mixing of our final secondary color in the rainbow, purple! This led us right into the final strip of our rainbow texture collage.

For some more purple themed fun, read Crockett Johnson's Harold and the Purple Crayon!  Now, having explored each of the colors individually, we had some playful fun with all of the colors of the rainbow.

I saw a lot of cute ideas using playdough and pipecleaners to build a rainbow. Somehow, I lacked a set of pipecleaners in each color, so I checked my craft stick stash--also missing colors! Guess it's time to restock, but for now, I was inspired to create an Invitation to Play with the Colors of the Rainbow using loose parts. 

He had a blast! 

After sticking the foam beads inside the ball of sparkly purple playdough we made earlier last week, he used the craft sticks to cut up his "challah" and even made a brachah on it!

Then he used the foam beads for building (and knocking down) towers! I confess to breaking my own rule and buying those beads from the dollar store over a year ago with no plan in place for them. They have sat in a container for that long and today, my son showed me what to do with them! I suppose it was worth the dollar!

We took our easel outside with paints in all three primary colors for some color mixing process art. Mixing to brown is a learning experience, too! Although this time he didn't quite reach the brown stage!

We usually reserve our Friday mornings for Field Trip days. I find that focusing the "homeschool" aspect of our week into four days allows us both more time to unwind at the end of a week and for me to plan for the week ahead, wrap up anything we didn't get to and/or prepare for Shabbos. Plus, having a fun outing in the morning helps us spend quality time together before my husband and I get busy preparing for Shabbos to begin. This week we visited our Science Museum, which has a fabulous exhibit for children ages 0-5 all about colors and light! He always has a great time here, and we were able to incorporate the themes of animals, weather, rainbows and even building while we made our way through the museum!

Join us this coming week as we start exploring the theme of Autumn. Until then, happy playing!

Beyond the Book: "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?"

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle is a book beloved by many. When it comes to those books your little one wants to read again and again (and again and again), I take an "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" mentality and spice things up with extension activities. We've revisited this book a lot over the last couple of years, beginning last summer during an animals theme in our Mommy & Me Camp. At one, wasn't quite at the point of sitting down for a story in the traditional sense. This book, however, has a great rhythm and simple text that even the youngest emergent readers can appreciate. To add a hands-on element, I collected black and white clip art prints of each animal in the story. My son was able to fingerpaint or paint inside a ziplock bag (for less mess and a different sensory experience) many of the animals and I colored in a few myself. I laminated the set and used it as we read and retold the story and he loved picking them up and playing with them.

This summer at age two, he can recognize the names and animal sounds as well as the colors of the animals. I added a circle of Velcro (the scratchy side) to the back of each animal in our set from last summer and we used it with our felt board for more story telling fun. My son had a great time selecting the animal as we read about it from the collection and putting it up on the felt board.

He had a great time retelling the story and recreating the scene even after the book was done!

 A little note about felt boards: we love them here, but store bought options can be a pricey investment. We have found some great boards and sets secondhand at a local thrift store. I've also made my own felt wall using a large sheet of felt tacked to a child-height space on our upstairs hallway. I use these smaller sturdy boards against an easel like this for vertical use and on the table/floor for horizontal use. You can easily make your own using sturdy cardboard to the size of your choice, felt and a stapler. I've also often used just a rectangle of felt itself--great for portable play and storytelling.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear is a great introduction to colors, animal names and my son has also added many animal sounds!

Our local library has been a great resource for extension ideas and activities. We recently checked out a set of books and materials to go with Brown Bear, Brown Bear, including a couple other books in the series, activity ideas and this block puzzle. Older kids could put each cube together appropriately to reveal a picture of each animal and my two year old had a great time stacking them and arranging them back in the rectangular tray. We also make use of our library to check out extra copies of a favorite book, what I call "yours and mine" copies--I like for my son to be able to have a board book copy to hold and look at as I read a larger paperback or hardback version. Audio versions are another great option, especially for traveling!

A few more ideas:

• Go on a color scavenger hunt to observe and collect items in each color from the book
• Make a book either with illustrations or photos in the style of Brown Bear, Brown Bear of members of your family or classroom
• Children/family members can act out the story each using a puppet, prop or costume of the animal 
• Laminated pictures are a great story add-on. They can be used as is, for felt boards as portrayed above, or as stick puppets. Made smaller, they can also be added to a sensory bin or used creatively for fine motor practice, as portrayed here:

Happy playing and reading alike!