Lots of learning

Lots of learning takes place at Faith Foundations. Today we explored the Cuisenaire Rods. We use these to learn our colors, and patterns, counting and just creative arts.

Today we explored the rods with playdoh. 

It was interesting to see how different the children processed ways to use their rods.

One child pressed the rods into their playdoh to make impressions.

The other started making a funfetti birthday cake.

He later added the black and brown rods to be his candles.

Later, we made sailboats.

"I'm tying my boat, Amy"

Ms. Amy filled a bucket and let the children float the boats they made.

As with any water time, splashing is bound to happen. If you see the pink towel, Ms. Amy was prepared.

I think the smiles speak for themselves

It's always fun to play with water

The water balls were bombs ready to blast their boats out of the water. Such cute little pirates they were.

Fun with Colors

We had fun exploring what colors could be found in different markers. These are what we came up with.

I am not sure of the type of paper we were using. I originally thought it was some type of interfacing but when I tried to use it, the colors just ran. They didn't stay steadfast as they did on the paper we got with the kit. So we sparingly used the paper that came with the kit (at least until I can trouble shoot what kind this is.

Things you will need:

Small 4 oz clear dixie cup
1"x 6" strips of the special paper
8 washable markers
Water

Fill the cup 3/4 of the way full with water.
Fold your paper strip in half.
1/2 inch below the fold draw a line with one of the markers (repeat this for each marker on different sheets)
Place the side without the marker line in the water. Leave the side with the color hanging over the other side.
Watch to see what happens.

The green line

The color brown

Orange 

Pink

Purple

Black

Blue

Chemical Reaction

So we did the milk and dish soap with food coloring experiment a couple of days ago. It was interesting to say the least and you do hear a toddler crying at the end because they managed to get a hold of the blue food coloring and dripping it places it has no business being dripped (it landed on his clothes and the table). He was a bit upset that we had to take it away.

So what we used:

2/3 Cup of Whole Milk

Various Food Coloring

QTips

1 Tablespoon of Dawn Dish Soap

Soak the QTips in a small bowl with the dish soap.

Pour the milk in a clear container. We used a glass pie plate so we could see the chemical reaction all the way around. 

Add three to four drops of food coloring in different locations in the milk. Do not mix it up.

Take the dish soap soaked QTip and hold it int he middle of the dish containing the milk for 30 seconds.

Watch the chemical reaction that takes place. We had fun allowing the QTip to drip in various places and watch the chemical reaction that took place. 

These took on an all new look. We thought it appeared like a planet. We also thought it looked like a giant jaw breaker as you wore away at it.

After about 10 minutes, this beautiful array of colors blended and became an ugly gray color.

Before they blended, we got to see how pretty it looked. This is a great way for small children to explore colors. My caution is keep the food color well out of reach of toddlers or any rambunctious preschooler. Well, that is, unless you don't mind certain items to become VERY colorful.