Children are always generating ideas about the world and how it works based on evidence from their own experiences.
Playing with water can be a wonderful tool for laying the ground work for future mathematical and scientific learning as well as a fun, hands-on learning experience rich with discovery.
Playing with water can be a wonderful tool for laying the ground work for future mathematical and scientific learning as well as a fun, hands-on learning experience rich with discovery.
Mr Ben created some fun water walls for us to explore some of water's amazing properties.
As the children play and investigate they are researching:
- How water takes the shape of its container.
- How water flows down to the earth pulled by gravity.
- How water sticks to itself (cohesion).
- Water sticks to other materials (adhesion).
- Air makes bubbles in water and rises to the surface.
- How water can turn things into mixtures or solutions.
The kids love this water wall made with pool noodles!
In Sink and Float experiments children can explore the forces of buoyancy, displacement, up thrust, porosity, density, as well as make predictions.
We gathered items from around the garden and made hypotheses of what would happen when we put them in a large tub of water.
A lot of the learning comes through meaningful conversations between the teachers and the children that supports scientific inquiry.
Inquiry is a process that includes foundational skills like exploring, wondering, and raising questions, and more sophisticated practices like collecting and recording data and analyzing previous ideas in light of new evidence.
We gathered items from around the garden and made hypotheses of what would happen when we put them in a large tub of water.
A lot of the learning comes through meaningful conversations between the teachers and the children that supports scientific inquiry.
Inquiry is a process that includes foundational skills like exploring, wondering, and raising questions, and more sophisticated practices like collecting and recording data and analyzing previous ideas in light of new evidence.
Teacher: "What's your hypothesis? What do you think will happen when you put the leaf in the water?"
Child: "It will float like a boat!"
Child: "It will float like a boat!"
Child: "The leaf FLOATS!"
Teacher: "Why do you think the leaf floats?"
Child: "It just floats."
Teacher: "Do you think the leaf is lighter or heavier than the water?"
Child: "Lighter!"
Teacher: "Why do you think the leaf floats?"
Child: "It just floats."
Teacher: "Do you think the leaf is lighter or heavier than the water?"
Child: "Lighter!"
We compared larger balls to smaller rocks:
Teacher: "How are the ball and the rock different from each other?"
Child: "Ball is bigger and the rock's little."
Teacher: "Is the ball heavier or lighter than the rock?"
Child: (long contemplation) "Lighter!"
Teacher: "How are the ball and the rock the same?"
Child: "They are both circles!"
Teacher: "How are the ball and the rock different from each other?"
Child: "Ball is bigger and the rock's little."
Teacher: "Is the ball heavier or lighter than the rock?"
Child: (long contemplation) "Lighter!"
Teacher: "How are the ball and the rock the same?"
Child: "They are both circles!"
After several trials the children were more accurate in their predictions! They learn so fast!!
We made a table with our sorted and categorized findings while learning new vocabulary words like bouyant and dense, shallow and deep, empty and full.
The floating naturally led to a fascination with boats!
In this science experiment we had a contest to see who can design a Tin Foil Cargo Boat that will hold the most pennies.
We floated our boats and slowly added and counted out the pennies as we explored further the concepts of gravity and buoyancy.
It took one boat 28 pennies to sink!
We made Sail Boats out of pool noodles, straws, and self-designed sails!
We helped them along with a little 'wind' and the kids were soon racing their boats!
DIY Water Slides are another fun way to explore the effects of water!
We compared making Watercolors on dry paper with watercolors on wet paper.
The kids love to paint on this Buddha Board where they paint with water and then quickly watch the painting evaporate. What a great paper saver!
These frozen Paint Cubes are a creative way to explore a solid that then melts into a liquid.
Great questions to enhance learning are:
- How does the ice feel?
- What is happening to it?
- How long do you think it will take to completely melt?
And when you get covered in paint from head to toe - what's going to clean you off?
WATER!
This Ice and Rock Salt activity was inspired by Figment Creative Lab - they have the coolest art workshops in Austin that focus on STEAM learning in an art studio environment!
We compared melting one block with just water and one bock with rock salt and water.
The group with the rock salt was able to free their insects much more quickly.
Teacher: "Why do you think the salt helps melt the ice faster?"
Child: "It's like the ocean turning it into a river?"
Teacher: "Do you think the salt raises the temperature at which water freezes or lowers the temperature that water freezes
Child: (long contemplation) "It lowers it!"
Allowing children plenty of time for contemplation gives them time to formulate their own hypotheses, predictions and ideas!
Child: "It's like the ocean turning it into a river?"
Teacher: "Do you think the salt raises the temperature at which water freezes or lowers the temperature that water freezes
Child: (long contemplation) "It lowers it!"
Allowing children plenty of time for contemplation gives them time to formulate their own hypotheses, predictions and ideas!
We extended the activity by creating Ice Sculptures with liquid watercolor.
Annie prepared Home-made Ice Cream with us! So simple and delicious with only coconut milk, raw honey, and vanilla essence.
We mixed water, corn starch, and food coloring to create Ooblek!
Teacher: "Do you think Ooblek is a liquid or a solid?
Child: "It's a liquid!"
Another Child: "It's a solid!"
Teacher: "You're both right!"
Child: "It's a liquid!"
Another Child: "It's a solid!"
Teacher: "You're both right!"
Picking and shelling (and eating!) black eye peas from the garden was another favorite activity!
The kids love feeding the bunnies carrots and collards from the garden too.
Hay Bale Playground!
Watermelon Pizzas!
Super-fun and super-yum! We were inspired by a picture in Thrive magazine to create these pretty fruit 'pizzas' with bananas, blueberries, strawberries, coconut, and mint leaves. Such a cute Summertime snack!
Super-fun and super-yum! We were inspired by a picture in Thrive magazine to create these pretty fruit 'pizzas' with bananas, blueberries, strawberries, coconut, and mint leaves. Such a cute Summertime snack!
Slicing the bananas and using tongs to transfer ingredients is a great Montessori exercise and helps create a fuller learning experience.
See you next time!
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