April 8th and 10th

The Tale of Peter Rabbit
By: Beatrix Potter

I was so excited about this week, because I love this book.  I especially love the illustrations.

On Tuesday after reading the book, the kids had a lot of questions as to why Peter decided to be naughty even after the McGregor's put his dad in a pie. 

For our activity we cut out triangle carrots and put them in Mr. McGregor's garden.  They had a lot of fun with this and really got into where they placed their carrot. They have all improved so much at cutting things out and staying on the line :)

After snack we revisited Mr. McGregor's garden to measure their carrots with the cubes.  They all did really well understanding the concept and following through with the assignment. 

For the craft we painted pots that we were going to plant on Thursday!!!

On Thursday after reading the book we talked about how Peter was naughty and didn't listen to him mom. We talked about the importance of listening to our parents. We then played Mommy and Daddy says.  They had so much fun with this and really listened, I had fun trying to trip them up but they ALL had great listening ears. They had so much fun with this that we played it during our recess time along with red light green light.

For snack we talked about growing food in the garden and had carrots and cucumber with hummus, and of course potato chips ;)

Math time we did button flowers, they had to look at the number by the stem and put that many buttons on each flower. They did really well and after the first flower most didn't need additional instruction.

For our craft time we planted their pots they painted on Tuesday. They had so much fun doing this and they were very patient while they waited their turn to plant.  Then I lined them up in front of the garden they "planted" with carrots on Tuesday and took their picture. 

 

And book look, which EVERYONE loves!!! 

 

This year has been a blast and I have loved watching the busy bees grow up in so many ways!!  Thank you, thank you for letting me be a part of this.

Mad Scientist Field Trip

 A few weeks ago, we had our last field trip.  Jenna, did a tremendous job with the field trips this year.  She put together this 'mad scientist' field trip, and the kids LOVED it.

 First was the cloud experiment.  All the kids got to add a big dollop of shaving cream to a cup of water.

 Of course, they all loved getting their hands dirty.

Once all the cups had plenty of shaving cream on top, Jenna started adding food coloring. 

 Once the 'clouds' (shaving cream) were full of 'moisture' (food coloring),

 It started to 'rain'. 

 The kids loved it, and thought they were so smart, because now they know how clouds and rain work.

 The next experiment was my favorite: Elephant toothpaste.

 The kids added some yeast to a little warm water,

 then when they added that mixture to the bottle of colored hydrogen peroxide..........

 

elephant toothpaste explodes. 

 You can tell from their expressions how impressed they were with this one.

 Of course, the temptation to play in it was too great.

 This was post explosion.  Stewart thought he would try holding his hand over the bottle after the yeast was added.  Needless to say, it exploded. It got all over, and Trevor was right in the line of fire, so he wasn't too thrilled about it.......Stewart however..........

 thought it was poor excitement! :)

 It was a perfect transition for the next experiment.  Baking soda and vinegar rockets. Jenna rigged up a cool bottle rocket and on the third try it was a success.

 Oh yeah, it was raining on us most of the time.  The kids didn't seem to mind and we were under a pavilion for most of the experiments.  We had a couple grandma's there to help with the chaos.

 It worked!  See the yellow bottle in the air?

 Next was giant bubble blowing.

 Bubbles everywhere!

 

 Then it was hands-on experimenting.  

Moon dough

Flour and oil (baby oil or mineral)

Feels like sand, but when you squeeze it together it holds it shape.  Fun to play in. 

(I don't think any of these links are the ones Jenna used, but I just thought I would add a link in case you ever want to refer back and use them again.)

 Oobleck

This stuff is so weird.  Basically it's cornstarch and water.  When you push on it or move it around continually, it's a solid, but the minute you stop handling it, it turns to a liquid.  

 Experimenting trays

All the trays had different mediums in them (water, soap, oil, etc.) and then they added different reacting agents (oil, soap, hydrogen peroxide, etc.) to the tray to see what would happen.

 

This field trip was so much fun!  The kids love just being together, but when you add explosions and wacky experiments it makes for a perfect day - even when it's raining.  

Thanks Jenna, you did an amazing job.