Luck of the Pirates!

With St. Patrick's Day around the corner, we have been having a great time talking about rainbows, Leprechauns, treasures and other fun and magical things!  We started with the Stars of the Week and then got into some fabulous science experiments. 

First, we took water and dyed it green then put it into a few cups.  Next we took paper towels, napkins and toilet paper and made 'rainbows' reaching from the cups filed with water to empty cups.  We watched the water "race" across the rainbows and guessed which one would fill up with the green coloring first.  Many of the kids chose the toilet paper (correct answer) because they said it was "softer".  What a fun experiment to try at home!

We made a few shamrock projects this week as well as we had the preschoolers help us work on their fine motor skills by folding paper and arranging them into a four leaf clover for good luck!  
We also practice writing wishes on clovers in hopes for some good luck to come our way this spring.  Then, we made good luck charm bracelets to wear as well!

We made magic happen with mixing Magic Milk!  We use powered milk (it's cheaper in bulk and lasts longer) but 'regular' milk works the same.  
After a thin layer is poured into the bottom of the tray, the kids count out food coloring drops onto various points in the milk.  Then the "Magic" happens.  
The kids take a Q-Tip dipped in liquid soap and touch the milk.  The colors "magically" flee and the more the milk is touched, the more the colors move around on the surface of the milk. 
Other fun science experiments allowed preschoolers to guess what ingredients make things foam up or "explode" as they call it.  The magic of baking soda and vinegar go far when children want to see how much of each ingredient are needed to make the cup overflow. (In the color green of course).
As stated earlier, rainbows have played a big part in our lessons this week.  We have talked about what colors are in rainbows and allowed the kids a chance to design their own with hand prints, Popsicle sticks and torn up paper!  Remember while there might be an initial plan in mind, the process is often more beneficial than the end product.

After all this crazy leprechaun, rainbow and treasure talk, we needed to take time to be silly too!  Tooty Ta was learned and is a new favorite in the afternoon class while we performed some Irish Jigs in the morning session!

We worked on practicing our writing skills by making books (which also helped us with reading) and we played with "Paint in a Bag" and allowed the preschoolers to practice writing in paint without the mess.

Graphing is fun when it's done with sweet treats!  (Don't worry, no one ate these.) We took Lucky Charms and placed them on graphs for each preschooler to take home.  
Then, we were able to see who found the most stars, hearts, rainbows, etc.  Some of the kids took pride and time to seek out certain marshmallows and were willing to give others to their friends to make sure they had the most of a one item or another.





We also sorted and graphed two different types of shamrocks and the preschoolers were able to paste them in their graph and find out which one they had more or less of out of the two.
We have a great surprise brewing for the morning preschoolers on Monday.  


The kids decorated Styrofoam cups with green markers and if they are very lucky, the Leprechaun just might bring them back tomorrow (St. Patrick's Day) shrunken down to Leprechaun sizes!

Our last science experiment of the week was Green Good Luck Goo!  We had a great time mixing glue and liquid starch together then adding the green.  The more the children play with their Good Luck Goo, the more like Silly Putty it will become as the water evaporates!  

What's Coming Up?

Monday is St. Patrick's Day so expect some silly stories to come home with the preschoolers!

The rest of the week will be about Spring as we approach Spring Break which will be from March 22nd through March 30th.  Enjoy this week off with your families and we will see you on Monday, the 31st for "Fun and Games" as we hope the weather will take a turn for the warmer!

Fall Preschool 2014 Registration is officially CLOSED!  We are FULL for the fall so if you want to join up again in the Spring semester next year, please email me for directions and information.