Blog Archives

Water Flows Through Me

7/2/2024

“A drop of water, if it could write out its own history, would explain the universe to us.” -Lucy Larcom

It's summer time and we are having so much fun with water! In our music, in our art, in our science projects, at yoga time, story time, in our meals, and especially in free play!

Water is such an AMAZING substance! Did you know that the water flowing through Ivy Creek and our faucets at home is the same water that the dinosaurs drank? All living things, no matter how big or small, or whether they live up high in the tree tops or in the deepest parts of the sea, need water to survive! It's because of this that scientists believe that searching for water on other planets is the best way to search for other life. Even by searching our own ocean here on Earth, we find new species all the time.

Unlike most liquids, water expands and floats when frozen, which is a good thing because if the frozen glaciers sank instead of floated, all the oceans (which cover more than 70% of the earth's surface) would freeze solid! Water can also defy gravity! Because water likes to stick to itself, droplets are able to travel from the roots under ground all the way up to the leaves.

But what's really awesome about water? There's no better way to beat the heat than to engage in water play! Check out how we explored the wonders of water through tons of fun and refreshing projects!!

Water Table Play

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.

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)
How water sticks to other materials (adhesion)
How air makes bubbles in water and rises to the surface
How water can turn things into mixtures or solutions

Watercolor Explorations

There are so many ways to learn with watercolor!

What will get revealed when we watercolor over white crayon?

What happens when we mix watercolor and oil?

Or sprinkle rice onto our watercolor and let it dry?

Not only do these rice watercolors look magical with the tiny glowing outlines there's a host of academic learning opportunities in art class, a small example:

MATH: Name and describe spatial elements such as over, middle, left, right, and under. Build awareness of quantity, like “Here, there’s a lot,” and “Here, there’s less,” and the concept of lines and shapes. Counting the grains of rice, counting by 2's...
LANGUAGE: Explore new vocabulary to communicate ideas.
SCIENCE: With this play invitation, children can explore concepts such as spread and mixed; observe rice’s reaction to water and pigment; and use observation and investigation to identify, describe and seek explanations for phenomena, and to formulate new theories.
ART: Develop perception of colors and hues, experiment with composition and visual balance.

What happens when we sprinkle sea salt or pink Himalayan salt on our watercolors?

Or use spray bottles and sea sponges to paint these flying fish wind socks?

Ice Sculpture Lab

We compared melting one block of ice with just water and one block of ice with rock salt and water.

We then extended the activity by creating Ice Sculptures with liquid watercolor.

Diffusion Experiment

Diffusion is the movement of molecules from areas of high concentration to areas of low concentration. If you put food coloring in a jar of still water eventually the coloring will move all around the jar until the color is all spread out!! Wow the molecules are moving!

Learning to count to 30 is so much more meaningful and fun in a science experiment!

Next we wanted to see if we could get the molecules to move from one jar to another. What do you think - can they do it?
Will the yellow and blue water molecules move to the empty jar?
What color will the water be in the center jar?

After 45 minutes we could see that the molecules were really moving and after 24 hours the levels have become equal and reached equilibrium!
Nature likes to be balanced!!

Sink or Float?

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 the water table.

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.

What sinks and what floats? How many items are sinking? And how many items are floating? Which number is greater?

Penny Boat Experiment

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.

One boat was able to float with up to 28 pennies!

OOBLEK!

Oobleck isn’t a liquid or a solid, it’s a non-Newtonian fluid. At times, it may seem like a solid or a liquid but it acts differently than a normal solid or liquid. Making oobleck is a great science experiment to show how changes in pressure can change the properties of some materials. Sort of like how temperature changes the properties of water. Cold or freezing temperatures turns water into ice. Whereas warm temperatures melts ice and turns it into a liquid.

Ooblek is so much fun that the kids ask to make it almost every day :)
Want to make some at home?

All you need is:

1.5 - 2 cups cornstarch
1 cup water
Food coloring (optional)

Instructions:

Pour water into a bowl and add a few drops of food coloring if desired.
Add in cornstarch by the spoonful and stir until combined.

To test if your oobleck is the right consistency, try out some of these little experiments that also show off the unique properties of non-Newtonian fluids.

Pick the oobleck up out of the bowl by squeezing it in your hand to form a ball. Uncurl your fist and the oobleck should drip out of your hands like a liquid.
Take a spoon (or any kitchen utensil) and quickly hit the surface of the oobleck. The spoon will bounce back, giving the appearance of oobleck having a hard surface. Press the spoon slowly against the oobleck, however, and it will sink instead.
Try swirling your fingers or a utensil through the bowl of oobleck – slowly at first, then quickly. You will face far more resistance when trying to move quickly through the oobleck.
Pro tip: to dispose of your oobleck, simply leave it out to dry, then crush it up and pop it into your compost.

Painting with Water

Practicing painting out our names with this Buddha Board has been a lot of fun, a cool exploration into evaporation too!

Just Add Water

We made some cool sculptures with these cornstarch beads that get sticky when wet.

The Stories of Water

Storytime has been filled with books to inspire our curiosity and learning about all the varieties of water, how it nourishes us and all of life, how we are made of water, and how even our popsicles are made of mostly WATER!

Bilingual water books too!

Water Animals

Learning about so many animals that live in oceans, rivers, ponds, and streams has been so fun!

Ocean Creatures Face Paint

Octopus Collage

How many arms does an octopus have??

While we are creating art together we love to weave in interesting facts. Like did you know that the plural of octopus is octopuses, not octopi! And that 2 of their arms function like feet! And that they are smart problem solvers and can change color to blend in with their surroundings. If you haven't seen it yet we highly recommend the documentary My Octopus Teacher!

Sensory Literacy with Mermaid Sequin Fabric

SO fun to practice writing our names and secret messages in!

Yoga Adventure to Mama Ocean!

We got in our airplanes to fly to the beach!

We landed by the bay and met some mighty crocodiles...

and some swaying palm trees...

then we rowed our boats out to the ocean...

and on the beach we met some crabs! They walk sideways!

Some friendly starfish too!

Out in the ocean we met some singing surfers!

In the water we met some sweet baby fish...

And uh-oh! A school of sharks!

Swim little fish swim!

We love to relax after yoga and listen to a guided meditation.

Learning Teamwork with Narwhal

Narwhal! Or as the kids call her - Unicorn Fish.

She teaches us some great core beliefs:

I can do hard things
Mistakes help us grow
I can ask for help
Asking for help is OK
I can try new things

How can we work together as a team? Can we all hold hands and spin in the same direction?

Peace Like A River

Ben Bear's parents came to visit and shared the song Peace Like A River with us with their beautiful music!

I've got Peace like A River (x3)
In my Soul
I've got Love like the Ocean (x3)
In my Soul
I've got Joy like a Fountain (x3)
In my Soul
(Then sing them all together real fast!)

Check out this sweet video!

Watermelon Pizzas

What fruit is made almost entirely of water?
WATERMELON!!

Fresh blueberries, borage flowers, and mint from the garden made them extra special!

Garden Basil Pizzas

Chamomile Herb Fairy

Practicing our handwriting skills is so much more fun when we learn with the herb fairies and the plants we tend to in the garden!

Fresh Chamomile Tea Party

Circle Time!

We had so many fun sea songs and games at circle time this month. We have also been discussing the virtue of Consideration. In circle time we have been reading the Virtues Project cards and pondering...
What are ways we can be more considerate at home, at school, in our community?
What is the best gift you have ever received?
What kinds of things can we do to be helpful at home?

We Love Our New Tarp Shelter in the Big Yard!

Let's build a pretend campfire! S'more's anyone?

Teacher Birthday Celebrations!

We made some delicious treats for Teacher Evan and Tia Wryn's birthdays!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

Cupcakes:

4 small bananas mashed
6 tablespoons maple syrup
1.5 cups sunflower seed butter
2 large egg
2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cups cacao powder
1/4 cup dried coconut flakes for sprinkles

Frosting:

4 sticks butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup cacao powder
3 teaspoons vanilla

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400°
Mix together banana, maple syrup, sunflower seed butter, egg, vanilla, baking soda, and cacao powder.
Scoop into the muffin pan and top with the chocolate chips. Bake for 7 minutes.
Mix together butter, honey, cacao, and vanilla for frosting
Frost cupcakes once cool and top with dried coconut flake sprinkles

Sweet Potato Brownies

These were so easy and yummy!
Simply mix together 1 mashed sweet potato, 1/4 cup cacao powder, 1/2 cup almond butter, 1/4 cup honey, and 1/4 cup chocolate chips. Then bake in the oven at 350 for 12 to 15 minutes. We froze ours after baking for an hour for extra chewy cooling yumminess!