Boats

I just love the innocence of this photo and had to share it. On our way to our latest adventure.

Last time we took a trip to the forest we went exploring in the stream and two things happened. One: we hadn't had rain in a while, so the stream had dried up. Two: a homeowner yelled at the children through her window telling the children to stay away from her fence. That was embarrassing to say the least... especially since we weren't anywhere near her fence, plus her home backs onto a public green space!

This time around we decided to keep away from that area of the forest and knowing that it had rained quite a bit the last couple days, there was a pretty good chance that there would be water. Since the children eagerly race towards the stream each time we visit the forest, I wanted to ensure that the children stayed in one area of the stream (away from THAT end of the stream), so I brought along some styrofoam trays a grandparent had so graciously donated.

We quickly discovered that, although there had been quite a bit of rain, the stream did not hold as much water as we thought, and the 'boats' just kind of sat in the water. Not to worry though, it was neat to try out different areas, and to scoop the water with the trays... seriously, these children don't let anything stop them!

In the process we found ourselves soaked to the bone and loving every moment!

Some children tested out their boats with cargo to see if they could float as well 

In the end we discovered that nature has it's own way of making boats, we found a large cluster of pine needles that were able to float down the stream, this caused a lot of observing and a need to go collect our own needle boats... natural is always a better way anyhow! 

Those trays we useful in so many ways that day, and became a great carrying tray to bring forest treasures back to our school!

Caterpillars!

This is the first attempt we have made at hatching our own butterflies, and so far it's going well. So well that i'm pretty much jumping out of my skin in impatience, I can't imagine how the children are feeling... well actually they do seem to be handling it a lot better than I am! Funny that eh?

Initially we had them in a store bought butterfly enclosure, but quickly

realized that when it comes time for the little critters to make their

chrysalis' we wouldn't be able to open the top part to give the late 

bloomers their lunch, plus the holes in the netting seemed to be

just big enough that they could sneak out (yep, there were a few attempts!)

So then this beauty was conjured up. It used to be a guinea pig cage,

but serves our purpose. 

For a while the caterpillars did not seem to be interested in anything 

but food, and they grew rather large (I guess there was not need to really 

switch enclosures, because with the size they grew to, it would not be such a big issue)

*Just as an interesting side note, below you can see little yellow pebbles,

they are not to be confused as food, because it already was food... if you catch my drift*

I was away for the weekend, and was eager to check on the progress 

when I got in, and this is what I found!

(one of the big caterpillars snuck out somehow, and made himself 

a nice little chrysalis OUTSIDE of the enclosure!) 

6 more have made some chrysalis' (or on their way to)

nicely hanging INSIDE the enclosure

One even found our lilac leaves a great little place, nicely 

curling himself in to a little J.

So that's what we're up to right now, eagerly awaiting some butterflies. 

Stay tuned!!!

What's Inside

What's better than two broken tape decks?....

Discovering what's inside two broken tape decks!!

And discovering the speakers are magnetic!

The remains of what happens to two broken tape decks when you hand a group of 2, 3, and 4 year olds screwdrivers!

Celebrating April

April is one of those months that seems to be inundated with holidays and celebrations, and we like to recognize each and every one. Starting, of course, with April Fool's Day, and boy, did I get them good, and I, in turn, got fooled by some clever thinkers, as well!

I have no pictures to document my trickery, but I did come across preschool daze had done something similar a while back. Hee hee, I washed and filled an empty glue bottle with milk and made myself a cup of tea. When the children spotted my foolery, they screamed and yelled like all toddlers and preschoolers do, to which I played dumb and actually enjoyed the 'glue' straight from the bottle. They were not to be fooled, knowing me far to well to know that I would make such a careless mistake. Still made my day, though.

The next holiday that got us giddy was Passover. The children enjoyed a little story that explained the traditions surrounding Passover. In the story the children sang a song called Dayenu to the family and enjoyed some Matzah (we also enjoyed a story called 'The Matzah Man' a retelling of the 'Gingerbread Man' tale). During my travels a few years back to Israel, I picked up a few Hebrew Traditional Songs that occasionally I share with the children. Dayenu was one of them.

We enjoyed some scarf dancing along with the music. It always make me laugh that no matter the tempo of the music we listen to, the dance is always a tizzy of jumping and running!

The above photo was the children's attempt to copy a Hebrew dance I attempted to teach them!

Of course, how could we forget Easter! We have enjoyed a great number of Easter activities and experiences. Below is a pictoral journey through our Easter invitations!

Sensory Bin filled with Easter Grass and Hidden Treasures

Egg Dying

Egg hunt

The Bounty

Egg Painting... similar to Marble Painting

Peeps Experiment.... Ongoing!

Bring on the rest of April!

Sticky Wall and Volcanoes

Right now as I sit down to type this I can hear a possessed dinosaur toy, that has been roaring non-stop, after a little trip to the water table. I ended up stuffing it in the dryer (it's not running), just so that we don't have to hear it anymore. It's been making us laugh, but we've had quite enough. I didn't even know it made noise!

Back to the post! I've been eagerly wanting to make a contact paper wall in the centre the moment I came across it on pinterest. So here's our first attempt at it. We used our foam blocks on it, for right now the children seemed to be rather fascinated with the possibilities, so the blocks are placed on it in a random fashion. Give it time, and we'll start to see patterns emerge. 

At first the children did not even notice anything there, they really thought that there was just random strips on the wall, because even though you can see the contact paper in this picture, it's really not that obvious. So the first child that discovered that the wall was indeed sticky was a little taken aback! The border in itself is neat to get a close up of (i'll try to remember to take a picture of it), it's a reel from the local newspaper. I'm not sure if it's what they used to print from, or if it's for a projection machine.. it's just really quite neat.

We discovered something else our sticky wall was for.... it's great to stick our feel on....

.... which in turn leaves neat little prints.

To be completely random. We made a volcano! Our old playdough became a nice mold for the volcano. The children were anticipating the explosion! I will tell you that I, like the children, love a good explosion. I'm just not feeling the baking soda and vinegar deal, so i'd like to do this again with the neat recipe I found on pinterest. But the children screamed with delight every time the volcano 'spewed'

A little vinegar...

Kaboom!!!

I'm not sure why it turned yellow... there was both red and yellow food colouring in the volcano, I guess that yellow was the more dominant colour!!! 

It was really fun, and always a hit!