Week of December 10-14, 2018
Two weeks ago on Friday, we received a book on how to make slime. Brayden caught a glimpse of the book, and exclaimed, “How do you make slime?!” A group of the kids thumbed through the pages of our newest book and picked out their favorite slime recipes. Kate was enamored by the glitter recipe, while Cameron wanted to make the glow in the dark slime. At the beginning of last week, we were quite busy with Hanukkah, so we never had a chance to put these recipes to use. Then, on our rainy day, last Thursday, Teacher Mari searched the classroom for any ingredients that would help us conduct this experiment. She found a few items that could work, although they were not the ones listed in the book and had to find a new recipe. After lunch, during free play, she set up shop at one of the tables. She rummaged around the classroom to grab all items necessary, yet none of the children seemed to notice what she was doing. They were ensconced in an intricate Lego set up. We were curious as to how long it would take the kids to notice what she was doing. Mari sat down at one of the tables and began mixing white glue, food color, water, and liquid starch. It was a trial and error kind of experiment to figure out how much starch was needed to make it solid. We were absolutely shocked that 5 minutes into mixing the children had still NOT noticed what we were working on! Finally, Brayden walked by on his way to the garbage, and he inquired about what I was making. He was excited to hear that it was slime and asked to join. About 10 minutes later, Avital and Cameron joined the slime experiment, but none of the other children showed an interest, which was quite surprising. Finally, after making 2 different types of slime, the entire class caught on to what we were doing and were googly eyed over this mysterious substance. As an entire class, we sat down on the floor, and all the children helped mix a fluffy type of slime in purple, green and blue. Ask your child what the secret ingredient was to make the slime extra fluffy. Although it took the children a bit of time to catch on, they did not stop asking about making more slime. Over this weekend, we gathered more supplies to create different versions of slime such as clear glue, corn starch, contact solution and washable paint. On Monday, we set up the slime as a morning center, and the kids flocked to it! We made a monster slime by mixing yellow and blue paint, clear glue, contact solution and baking soda. Once it turned green and ooey and gooey, we added googly eyes to make it a monster. We also made a clear type slime. Instead of adding paint, we added a bit of food color to keep it transparent. Then, we added water beads to the substance. Adding water beads served to intensify the sensory experience, and it also ended up posing interesting questions the next day. Julian, Sasha, Cameron, Evie, and Christopher took a liking to this slime the morning after we made it. They investigated the concoction and realized the water beads did not stick to the slime. “Why did that happen?,” we asked. Sasha explained that they are too mushy to stay in there, and Julian thought it was because they are water. They were both right! Rather than squishing and stretching the slime, the children decided to pick out every single water bead from the slime and sort them into a cup. They also picked out all of the googly eyes from the monster slime. We loved their creativity and thought process. It was interesting that they enjoyed sorting over mushing and squishing. We are excited to continue to create more slime and more science experiments next week. We also practiced our fine motor skills and ability to sustain attention in a large group activity. The children sat at the tables and worked on coloring in an adult coloring page. Each child received a different intricate design. They had to use patience, attention to detail and a strong grip to remain in the lines of each piece of the worksheet. We introduced this activity early in the week and worked on it for about 15-20 minutes three separate days this week. The children enjoyed this quiet time and showed great skill in their ability to remain focused. Grayson especially loved this activity continued to ask us to work on his sheet every day. This type of assignment prepares the children for Kindergarten and provides them with important skills to succeed as an adult. We will continue to work on these sheets until complete and introduce more of these quiet working periods throughout the year. We also want to thank everyone for joining us to celebrate the Room 8 December birthdays this week. We are so appreciative of all of you and had a wonderful time relaxing, chatting and singing Happy Birthday to Evie, Avital and Teacher Aaliyah. We hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and we will see you next week for our last few days before Winter Break! Shabbat Shalom, Mari and Aaliyah Reminders:
Shabbat Family Schedule:
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Pre-K Room 8Mari Greifer Archives
March 2020
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