It's Winter

The arctic blast blew through Georgia and brought with it freezing temperatures.  We were beginning our winter unit, and it couldn't have come at a better time...helping us experience winter in its pure form.  70 degree weather makes it hard to discuss winter. :)

So here are all things winter!

Science

Our first night of below freezing temperatures, we set buckets of water outside to freeze overnight.  I placed a few toys in the water that they would have to "dig" out the next day.  Old Crow and I reviewed the freezing point.  When we noticed that the water had not completely frozen,  Dad reminded us that 32 degrees is the freezing point for pure water.  Impurities in the water can keep it from freezing unless at a lower temperature.  We made an educated guess that our water had some impurities.

They enjoyed feeling the ice and digging for their toys.

This also gave us the opportunity to discuss the states of matter.  We felt the ice and talked about how it was a solid.  We left the container of ice on our counter and watched it melt and turn to liquid.  After it had completely melted, we boiled it on the stove and watched the steam rise...creating our gas.

Solid, liquid, gas...all from one fun experience.

Crazy Horse and I read from an ABeka Kindergarten Science book about the different seasons.  He enjoyed playing a file folder game where he sorted various pictures and placed them in the correct season.

Sensory Activities

Our first attempt at making snow was a lot of fun for the kids...but extremely messy for me.  We made Sparkling Snow by mixing:

2 16 oz containers of corn starch

1 can shaving cream

White sparkling glitter, flakes, or confetti

 

Our next attempt at snow was much more life-like and MUCH cleaner!!!  We used Insta-Snow that I ordered from Amazon.  You can read more about our fun with Insta Snow here at my previous blog post.

We also made white slime from our trusty recipe that I first used back when we made green slime during our Grinch Unit.  Crazy Horse begs to make slime about every two weeks...that boy loves it!!!  

Directions for slime taken from Grinch Unit:

You mix 1 teaspoon of Borax powder with 1 cup of water.  Mix and set aside.  In a separate bowl mix a whole bottle of Elmer's glue (4 oz.) with 1/2 cup of water.  Add food coloring choice to the glue mixture (dont' add any to make white).  Mix well.  Then combine the glue mixture with Borax powder mixture.  Almost immediately the liquid will begin to form solids...perfect science lesson!  The more you knead and squeeze the more it will turn firm.  Pour out excess water and continue to squeeze!

Reading and Literature

Old Crow is currently reading Stone Fox and it is the perfect addition to our winter unit.  We enjoyed researching dog sled races to give us background knowledge for the book.  More to come on this soon! :)

We created a book basket with all of winter themed books.  We collected winter books from our house and checked out some from the library.  This basket was available so the kids could pull them to read at anytime.

Art

We created our own snowmen art by making a white puffy paint.  We mixed equal parts glue and shaving cream.

I found that the younger two needed help in creating their snowmen.  So I created the 3 circles and then had them move the paint around until they were filled.  This gave them a template of sorts.

Once the paint dried, we pulled out our art materials and they had free reign to create their snowman.

Extra Fun

They loved pulling out the game, Don't Break the Ice, and it is a perfect addition to any winter unit.

Memphis Belle and I also enjoyed creating her snowman for her preschool class.  They sent home the snowman cutout from poster board and then each child could decorate it.  We had a lot of fun with this one.  It was her idea to cover it in the sparkly flakes that we had leftover from our sparkling snow activity. :)

   

Stay Warm,

Jenny

Fun in the Cotton Field

Back in October, we had the chance to tag along with Crazy Horse's preschool class for a trip to the cotton fields.  What a blast we had!!  I wanted to include this with our crop studies and do a more in-depth study for Old Crow, but with the holidays and our crazy schedule we just didn't have time.  So I thought I'd share our trip and the fun the kids had.

The first leg of our trip was a hay ride through the cotton field.  As we rode through the middle of the "southern snow," the kids were able to see how the cotton grew.

Then the hay ride stopped and let everyone get off for a close-up examination of the cotton plants.  The kids were able to pull off some of the cotton and feel the texture.  They also looked for the seeds inside the cotton boll.  

We boarded the hay ride and it took us farther down the field to the cotton module builder.  They opened the doors and let all the kids play in the cotton.  They had such a good time!!  So did the adults! :)

Then we once again boarded the hay ride, and as we rode back through the field the cotton picker drove alongside us.  It picked the cotton, and we were able to look closely at this mighty machine.

Back at the barn we all had a picnic...a perfect way to end the morning.  :)

Jenny 

Cloud Unit: The Heavens Declare His Glory

The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the works of his hands.
Psalm 19:1

Old Crow shared with us that he was interested in learning about the clouds.  So I set out to make that happen.  As I began looking for ideas and projects, a unit began to take shape.

Here's a look into our fun with clouds. :)

Books We Enjoyed

          

               

Nature Study

Each day we spent time outside cloud watching.  We would talk about the clouds we saw and take pictures with our camera.  (I saved these pictures in a separate file on my computer for a later activity.)  Then Old Crow would draw in his nature journal.

Bible Study

As I began gathering ideas, I was fascinated by how many times in Scripture the Lord used clouds for his purposes.  Here are the verses we read and discussed.

Our main verse for memorization was Psalm 19:1.

Exodus 13:21   God went ahead of the Israelites in a cloud.

Exodus 16:10   The glory of God appeared in a cloud.

Exodus 19:9   God comes to the people in a dense cloud.

Exodus 24:15-18   The glory of God settled over Mt. Sinai in a cloud.

Luke 21:27   Jesus will return in a cloud of power and great glory.

1 Thessalonians 4:17   We will be caught up in the clouds with the Lord.  

Craftivities

Cloud People:  Our first activity was to make "Cloud People."  I made 3 different clouds in their typical shapes and 3 different pairs of legs in varying lengths.  Old Crow looked at each cloud shape and labeled them and then added the correct pair of legs.  So the stratus clouds are low in the sky.  Cumulus are in the lower/middle part of the sky, and cirrus are high in the sky.

Cloud Art:  To create a puffy and textured paint, we mixed together equal parts of Elmer's glue and shaving cream.  Then Old Crow created his clouds.  Once dry, the paint is a soft and puffy!  Very cool!!!

Then he wrote his memory verse and we added it to his painting.

It looked like a... activity:  After reading It Looked Like Spilt Milk, Old Crow designed his own cloud shape with cottonballs.

Cloud Flip Book:  Old Crow used cottonballs again for this activity as he depicted the three different clouds.  You can get the labels here.  

 

Sensory Play

Cloud Dough:  Instead of "playdough," we created Cloud Dough.  By mixing together 8 cups of flour with 1 cup of baby oil, we had a soft, cloud-like sensory activity.

Soft enough to feel like a cloud...yet it held its shape.  

I suspected Crazy Horse would love this...and boy, was I right!  He played, played, and played!  :)

Ivory soap cloud experiment:  We put a bar of original Ivory soap (and it must be Ivory) in the microwave and watched as it transformed into a soap cloud.  It grew and grew and grew!!  It feels stiff in the expanded form but can be easily smashed into smithereens...looking like snow.  So beware of doing this part in the house.  We also took it into the bathtub and let it snow!  You can find more great ideas for the soap cloud here.

Shaving Cream:  We sprayed shaving cream onto the tabletop and had fun.  Drawing, writing, and playing in the cloud-like shaving cream!

Extras

All About Clouds...YouTube Children's Video

Clouds...YouTube Children's Video

Science for Kids: Clouds...website

All About Clouds reponse sheet for recording information from videos, websites, books, etc.

Cloud Snack...jello and whipped cream.  :)  

Now as for all of those daily pictures we took of the clouds...

Once we have several pictures of all the different types of clouds, I will have them printed.  Then we are going to sort them by type and create a booklet.  We'll also add our craftivities to the booklet to have all our projects in one place.  I made these booklets once we finished our Butterfly study and Crop studies.  We keep them in our Nature Center, and Old Crow loves to go back through them and look at the things we have done.

Happy cloud hunting!  And I hope you see more than just clouds when you look into the sky...I hope see the glory of God and the works of His hands.

Jenny

P.S.  I'm sure family and friends may wonder where Memphis Belle was during this entire unit.  I assure you we have not given her away. :)  Most of these activities were done during her naptime.  We saved the cloud dough...she'll get her turn. ;)