Sometimes things don't always go the way we plan. This was our reality on Wednesday when not just one, but two of our activities posed some challenges.
I've been wanting to give the children more opportunities to explore color, and that morning they were each given a large block of ice and three dropper bottles full of colored water: red, blue and yellow. The idea was to drip the water onto the ice and watch what happened. But the droppers were hard for the children to manipulate, and it was apparent that this had the potential to be more frustration than fun. I then suggested dripping the water from the bottles, and soon everyone had a nice brown puddle on their tray. Later, I'd planned an "What happens when we spray the ice?" activity with spray bottles for our time outside. While the children enjoyed looking at the now-frozen 'soups' from the day before, the new spray bottles were a problem for the children; the bottles pushed all the air out with the water and ended up collapsing and not working. The children lost interest and moved on to working with tools in the dirt patch.
In my opinion, our activities needed a do-over. On Thursday morning we approached our blocks of ice with colored water and paintbrushes, which was more fun (although we learned that wet paintbrushes can sometimes get stuck on the ice!) and lots more dripping was done. The children were happier because they felt more competent, and we talked about the colors we saw forming on the ice. Outdoors, we took the sculptures from home over to the dirt patch and the children were given containers of salt and small spoons. They poured and piled the salt onto the ice. The ice with food color began to change the color of the salt. "What made the salt turn blue? Yellow?" They had fun scraping the salt off and piling it back on, and we compared the salted ice, now with rough edges and gullies down its sides, with the unsalted and still smooth ice. They also enjoyed sharing about the objects they'd chosen to freeze and pointing them out to each other. The children were far more engaged with this, now that they had materials which worked for them, then added pine cones to the ice sculptures as decorations.
Another example of "If first we don't succeed, try, try again."
The rest of this week's play was extremely engaging and fun. When I reminded one child to be careful with the handle of the play broom, they asked me what a handle was. "The handle is the place you put your hand so that you can make something work or use it safely" was my reply, and we spent a few minutes identifying handles around the house. The kitchen is full of handles, for teapots, refrigerator doors, pans and so much more. Perhaps one day soon we can try out the handles on such machines like the food mill or the pasta maker.
What else might you have seen if you'd peeked in this week?...
...children spontaneously moving the puzzle table and chair out of that area to 'mop. They asked for water, so I dribbled water onto the floor and they used the mops from the Housekeeping area. I was impressed at the cooperative nature as they maneuvered the furniture into the kitchen together without much discussion but a sense of single-minded purpose.
...one child 'reading' to another from a naturalists book on moths and butterflies.
...children gathered around the big tub of rice, pretending the rice is "milk" and pouring it into each other's bowls and cups. Also, a conversation about the numbers on the measuring cups and what they mean.
...lots of stories about rainbows, rain, and umbrellas. We made rainbows spin all over the walls and floor when we wound up a crystal hanging in the window on a sunny morning.
...Hide and seek play is still going strong!
...children sitting down to "write" mail to each other, then stuffing the paper into their friend's mailbox. Interestingly, the children didn't bother to check their own mail, they were so engaged in the process.
...House play outdoors. The space under the plum tree, near the fence, is the house so far, and the children peered over the low branches. "I'm looking out the window!" they exclaimed.
...a "campfire" outdoors. We gathered up sticks to build a pile, which the children located in their "house", and now we've picked the yard clean and will need more sticks soon.
Do you have budded branches for forcing? We'll be bringing in some forsythia next week, to see what happens, and if you have any potential blooms to add, we can find room for those too! We'll see you next week!
