Sorting Seashells, Sorting Seashells, Sorting Seashells!

We have been having a ton of fun in the Our Time class with the Going to the Ocean curriculum! Here is an activity for you to do at home with your child:

Seashell Sorting

If you have seashells available to you, you may wish to play a sorting game. Although seashells come in many shapes, sizes and colors and have many descriptive names, to your child a seashell may just be a seashell. Help him learn to sort and find commonalities by looking closely at individual shells. Decide on ways to group them: color, shape, size. Also, allow your child to discover his own groupings, thus enriching the experience by making it more personal to him. 

Love and Grow Crafts: Vinegar and Baking Soda

Given the odd weather of late, I have been searching high and low for suitable indoor crafts and experiments. The former Chemistry teacher inside me just loves anything science-related so this craft was right up my alley.

The original source for this idea came from Two Big Two Little. This is literally the easiest craft yet, and you will always have the supplies on hand.

Here is what you need:

Vinegar
Baking soda
Food coloring

Here's what to do:

Pour the baking soda onto a tray. Fill small cups with vinegar, coloring each cup a different color with the food coloring. Then, show your kids how to drop the food coloring onto the baking soda for a cool "reaction."   When they run out of food coloring, they can smush the final product in their hands for a great sensory experience!

Here's my sweet Lucas experimenting!

Make Your Own Snowflake!

As a former chemistry teacher, this craft is right up my alley! Aside from being incredibly easy, all of the supplies for this project can be found at home! For those that don't know, Borax is a naturally-occurring mineral that is used for cleaning; you can buy it for super cheap at stores like Walmart. You can find the original "recipe" here. I recommend you use gloves when handling the Borax. Adult supervision is always required and you can also make a snowflake using sugar or salt!

Source: www.ask.com

1.            The first step of making borax crystal snowflakes is to make the snowflake shape. Cut a pipe cleaner into three equal sections.

2.            Twist the sections together at their centers to form a six-sided snowflake shape. Don't worry if an end isn't even, just trim to get the desired shape. The snowflake should fit inside the jar.

3.            Tie the string to the end of one of the snowflake arms. Tie the other end of the string to the pencil. You want the length to be such that the pencil hangs the snowflake into the jar.

4.            Fill the widemouthed pint jar with boiling water.

5.            Add borax one tablespoon at a time to the boiling water, stirring to dissolve after each addition. The amount used is 3 tablespoons borax per cup of water. It is okay if some undissolved borax settles to the bottom of the jar.

6.            If desired, you may tint the mixture with food color.

7.            Hang the pipe cleaner snowflake into the jar so that the pencil rests on top of the jar and the snowflake is completely covered with liquid and hangs freely (not touching the bottom of the jar).

8.            Allow the jar to sit in an undisturbed location overnight.

9.            Look at the pretty crystals!!! You can hang your snowflake as a decoration or in a window to catch the sunlight :-)

Tips:

1.            Borax is available at grocery stores in the laundry soap section, such as 20 Mule Team Borax Laundry Booster. Do not use Boraxo soap.

2.            Because boiling water is used and because borax isn't intended for eating, adult supervision is recommended for this project.

3.            If you can't find borax, you can use sugar or salt (may take longer to grow the crystals, so be patient). Add sugar or salt to the boiling water until it stops dissolving. Ideally you want no crystals at the bottom of the jar.

What You Need

•               string

•               wide mouth jar (pint)

•               white pipe cleaners

•               borax (see tips)

•               pencil

•               boiling water

•               food coloring (opt.)

•               scissors

About Us

In a Kindermusik class, educators lead a group of parents and their children through joyful activities, using music and movement. Parents learn more about their child's unique developmental process, and the shared learning experience creates a unique bond as the child associates learning with fun, musical play. The learning process continues at home, guided by specially designed books, CDs, and games.

Kindermusik's philosophy is founded upon rigorous research and our fundamental beliefs that every parent is the child's most important teacher; every child is musical; the home is the most important learning environment; music nurtures a child's cognitive, emotional, social, language, and physical development; and every child should experience the joy, fun, and learning which music brings to life.