Grow Me. Grow You.

Preschool Theme: Science
Self-Selected Time.
Circle Time. We read a big book called "What Makes Light". Each child stood up and shared something they are Thankful for (it's our last preschool class before Thanksgiving). Here are some kids explaining to the rest about the things they brought.






Art Time. I bought some turkey making kits at Michaels. They were just peel and sticks-perfect for this age of kids.











Academic Time. The kids traced Ms and colored some pictures that started with M.
Snack and a Story. I made "Yum Yum Brownie Muffins" and they were a hit. Every kid said "it's my favorite"-all repeating each other. I actually made them for the kids a week early and took them out of the freezer and they were still moist. I got the recipe out of the Lisa Lillien cookbook. She makes normal recipes more healthy. Ingredients 1 box devil's food cake mix (about 18 ounces) One 15-ounce can pure pumpkin Directions Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix the two ingredients together. Don't add anything else that may be mentioned on the box, like eggs, oil, or water. The mixture will be very thick, so you might be tempted to add in other things to make the batter smoother. Do NOT do this! Place batter into a 12-cup muffin pan lined with baking cups or sprayed with nonstick spray. Place pan in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Science Experiments. We did several. I made up a super cute (if I do say so myself:)) worksheet for the kids with pictures that had to do with their experiments. I put questions and left room for them to draw/take/scribble notes. If you want it, let me know and I can email it to you. Here are the experiments we did:









1. Dye in water. The kids watched as the dye mixed into a pitcher full of water. I asked how we could get the dye mixed faster. They said to stir (this is one of the core concepts for high school chemistry and my little preschoolers came up with an option!). We could also add a catalyst, I told them, and explained how it speeds up a reaction. My little Donny said, "Miss Robyn, a catalyst would speed up the reaction" repeating it back. He's so cute. Maybe this is why he remembers things so well because he says things out loud. Adding heat would also do it because the molecules move faster.



2. Evaporation. I filled up a cup with water and put a line at the top of the water line. I asked what would happen to the water. Donny said it will go all over the floor and Apollo said it would go everywhere. I love that they are making hypotheses. We'll talk about evaporation and the water cycle when the kids come back and see that water line has gone done.




3. Leave Skittles in water. The S floats to the surface. The colors make a cloud of color in the water.








4. Melt Starburst, shiny oil spots form.



5. We froze nerds in water. We'll see the results after our Thanksgiving break.





6. How far can you stretch Laffy Taffy? The kids drew a line on their paper showing how far they thought they could stretch their Laffy Taffy.





7. Heated Candy. We threw candy onto a pan and the kids guessed what would happen if we left it in the oven. Apollo guessed it would bubble and it did.






8. Invisible Ink. The kids wrote (drew pics) a note to their parents with lemon juice. They dipped q-tips into the lemon juice. To uncover the message, the papers need to be put by a light bulb or heated up (this is their homefun for the week).




9. Make cookies. Cooking is chemistry. Kids can learn about chemical reactions (how molecular bonds are broken to form a new substance) and they can learn the difference between physical and chemical reactions. We didn't get this far yet. We do hand motions or I tell them little things as they are doing activities. Maybe some of the words will stick and science will be a breeze for them later:)