Really? They can sit still, pay attention, and focus?

I have a few kids in my class who NEVER sit still.  They are always rolling, running, flipping, skipping, MOVING.  They can pay attention, but it's that distracted, looking around the room, pointing out who's hiding a bead in their pocket, while paying attention type attention.  They flit about from one thing to the next, spending a long time only in areas that permit them to be active, moving around, and using their hands, feet, arms, and whatever else can get into it.  Unless they are sick, I NEVER see these children (who happen to be boys sit still).  This is not to say I don't have my share of perpetually distracted girls, but they are not quite on that same level.
In any instance,  recently acquired a special "present" from the director to our classroom- a weaving loom.  I never imagined its power.

 At first only the girls only did it.  They spent a twenty minutes to forty five minutes a piece on it- a remarkable time as it is.

They need some instruction to learn how to do it.  They also needed some help "turning around"  to weave back the other way, some more than others.

 The boys said they didn't want to because "only girls sew,"  but they were eventually won over by observing the girls interest in it.  I have never, ever, seen boys sit this long and pay as close attention.  One of them did it for an entire hour, and never quite understood how to do it without asking for instruction every few minutes.  (Today, he could do it on his own practically).  They were so focused and interested, and ASKING for instructions, which they attended to very carefully.

Five Uses for Muffin Tins

One of my favorite "things" to use in the classroom is a muffin tin (or five).  There seems to be no end to the uses for a muffin tin in a preschool room and you can often find them for just a dollar!

Use #1:  Sorting or holding beads or other small craft items:
We used them for this just today.  A couple girls sorted the beads by colors, one of them spent the entire time just sorting! The other children used the tins and other containers to hold the beads so that they could pick through them and get the ones they wanted. 
I also often use these in the sensory bin when things like mixed beans are in it because they encourage sorting (and dramatic play) and they also love the sound of the beans hitting metal. 

Use #2:  Palates for painting and mixing paints:

See this post for more about paint mixing.

Use# 3:  Ice mold for sensory bin or ice painting

Use #4:  Molds for crayons

I first heard of this from Bev Bos's book Don't Move the Muffin Tins.  The instructions are simple; take peeled old crayons in muffin tins and put them in a 300 degree oven.  Keep an eye on them and when they are completely melted turn the oven off and let them set for a few hours (I usually just let mine sit overnight) and when they are completely cool break them out of the tins then color away!  

Image from Triangle Mommies

Use #5:  Make bath bombs 

These are great for sensory tables or to make with kids (probably not a project for toddlers, but three and up would work) to give as gifts.

There are great directions for this from the Science at Home site.  

Image from Science@home (site link above)

ice, failure, spiders, and pests

Do you ever have times when the "lesson" you planned for a paticular day completely flops?  It doesn't happen to me very often, but whenever it does I am always surprised that something ALWAYS emerges from that failure.
Today, I had planned a big ice activity (I will spare all of the details until this project is successful).   We put containers with water outside and I asked for a hypothesis about what would happen.  There were two answers:  1. The water would evaporate  and 2.  It would turn into ice.  However, when we checked it an hour and a half later NOTHING had happened, (although the children astutely observed that the water got really cold).  The reason?  The temperature outside was 33 degrees.  SERIOUSLY?  33 DEGREES?  I was frustrated.  Why didn't it freeze, Miss Elizabeth?  Well, it seems it is not quite cold enough outside.  It feels cold to us!  Yes, it is cold but it needs to be a little colder, 32 degrees, to freeze, and I just checked the thermometer and it is 33 degrees.  Do you think we should leave it overnight and see if it freezes?  YES!!
Surprisingly, they weren't frustrated by this, and didn't seem to mind waiting until tomorrow.

We went back inside and play resumed as usual.  I set to work hanging clothes line across the ceiling to hang pictures up on.  Apparently, according to "the regs" I have too much art on the walls- only "20% of the wall can have paper on it,"  so as a solution, and so that we can still have children's art work in the room,  I am hanging some on the ceiling.

*instructions for the art on the front row can be found here, and for the back row here.

What are you doing, Miss Elizabeth?  Hanging some rope.  For what? To hang paintings.  Why? To decorate our room and display your art work.  Can we decorate our room? If you want to.  What do you need? Yarn.

So I gave them some yarn, and they started "decorating" the area where the blocks are kept.  It started out as just strands of yarn here and there, but eventually they decided to make a "spider web."  

As you can see they worked very diligently, both boys and girls together.  

We left it up for the entirety of the day.  They enjoyed adding to it and crawling under and over the strings.  

The spider web did its job and captured a pest!

A little spider even slept in the web during nap time.  (You can see the blue cot in the corner of this photo).  

The spider also got our table.  The kids thought it was interesting that the table was round, but the spider web was square because of the legs.  

All and all it was a good day.  They also played limbo and jump rope with the string.  So I guess the moral of the story not to fear when my plans don't work out, the children will always find something else to learn from.  

They like to do what grown- ups do

This week I had two activities that I put out for the kids that shared the common thread of "things grown ups do."  This was not accidental, and not really an idea of mine; it was the idea of the children.
I often put out sponges in water with a little bit of  baby soap in it on Fridays in my room and let the kids clean the tables, chairs, shelves, and toys.  Obviously, this is not a replacement for regular room cleaning, but it stemmed from their interest in watching teachers cleaning tables, toys, and other things during the course of the week., and asking to help.  Sometimes I put out little squirt bottles (with just water) and rags for them to clean with since this is what we actually use;  I tend to do this in the summer since the fans are running and windows open to help dry out the excess water (and we can escape outside while it does dry).

There are plenty of benefits to this activity- pride and sharing in responsibility in their classroom, gross motor development, and learning words like "wring," but importantly, the children really enjoy doing this, as they enjoy mimicking many other activities that adults do.  I also keep little hand sweepers in the room for them to sweep whenever they want but also to sweep up spills from the sensory table or little pieces of paper at the art table, etc.  (Generally, I do not make them sweep things up, but when they are done I ask them if they could help sweep up (they usually are excited to do so) , if they say they don't want to then I "help" sweep- meaning I sweep and they come to my aide as much or little as they want to).

The next activity is new to my "repertoire,"  after I had a child ask to use my hole punch and then several others wanted one too.  I bought several hole punches and left them out with colored scrap paper and let them go to town.  They seemed happy enough just to punch holes for the sake of punching, and I kept the "dots"  they didn't want for collages, etc.

While they just enjoy this activity for its own sake- it is also a very practical activity.  This develops hand muscles and coordination needed for writing and cutting.  A child, who had just been using the hole punch, and then started to use the scissors, said to me "scissors easy after the hole puncher."  Sometimes I wonder if they read my mind.  :-)

"If it hasn't been in the hand, it can't be in the brain"

"If it hasn't been in the hand, it can't be in the brain."  Bev Bos

Here are some ideas to accomplish just that.  Most of these things can be used multiple ways- in and out of sensory bins, at home and in schools.  

#1: Mixed dried beans 

Last week we had beans in the sensory bin (actually there were peas and corn as well). This isn't really anything special, but it it really pretty and promotes sorting.  They were specifically fascinated by picking out the huge white lima beans. 

The mix of kidney beans, pinto beans, white lima beans, black beans, black eyed peas, split peas, and left over indian corn kernels make up this mix, but really any mixture of beans/ etc will do.  Below you can see there were spoons scoops and cups in the sensory bin but also sometimes ice trays or muffin tins can encourage sorting as well.

#2: Goop (also known as "Cloud Dough")

Last week we also made what my kids call "goop"- a concoction borrowed from Lisa Murphy, the Ooey Gooey Lady.   This mixture is made up of only two ingredients flour and baby oil- so you have double sensory smell and touch.  (I love the smell of baby oil).  

I let them help make the goop, they decided to have just slightly more runny than doughy.  

They also wanted to add a little blue.  

After a while they asked if we could have more goop in the sensory bin, so we made more- this time the "goop" was much more like dough.  

#3:  Moon Sand

Recently, a parent donated four small bags of Moon Sand with "Moon Sand toys" to our classroom.  While, yes, you can make really cool sensory things on your own or use just wet sand, Moon Sand is pretty cool, and versatile.  For anyone unfamiliar with it, it holds shape like wet sand and never dries out.  This Moon Sand came with some houses, a swing, some cars, and some people molds. They didn't care much about the swing or houses, but they (of course) loved the car, and also really loved the people molds. 

I put it out on box tops, (that we seem to have an abundance of), for easy set up and clean up.  They seem to enjoy it as a quiet activity.  This is also really great for any children that require sensory input. If he or she starts losing control I can just pop the top on the table and ask the child if he or she would like to play with Moon Sand (the answer is always yes).  For an "on the go" option, I can put it in a ziplock and stick it in my apron pocket, then when I need it I just hand the bag to the child and let him or her squeeze the bag.  It works for sensory input or as a transition activity.  


#4: Water, ice, snow

See entry here about water play.  There is really no end to what they can do playing with water in any form.  






#5:  Colored Noodles, Scented Rice


I took full advantage of the snow day today to create some new things for collages, mosaics, and our sensory bin.  


The scented rice idea came from this entry at teachpreschool.org. I modified it slightly, however.  In a bowl I mixed 2 packets of Koolaid with 3 teaspoons of boiling water and a teaspoon and a half of rubbing alcohol, until completely dissolved.  Next I put this liquid into a ziplock bag containing six cups of dry rice.  I mixed the rice and liquid completely.  Then I laid it out for four hours on wax paper before putting it in an air tight container. 

For the pasta I started with the instructions found here, but, again, modified it.  I used only a teaspoon of food coloring, and three teaspoons of rubbing alcohol, then added it to a ziplock bag containing 3 cups of pasta.  The instructions at the website above suggest that there should be more food coloring and less pasta, but as you can see below the pasta is quite dark and while they will lighten a bit when they completely dry, it will not be a lot.  

Purple mini rotinelle (wheels)

Green mini farfalle (bow ties)

mini orecchiette (shells)

Hot pink mini radiatori (nuggets)

Have fun and enjoy; I know we will. 

Painting six ways

#1: Drizzle painting: for this I gave them three containers of tempera paint with pipettes.  I used powdered tempera mixed to a consistency thick enough to stick to the paper towels, but thin enough to run down the paper.

This girl was particularly interested in how high up on the paper she could put the paint and get it to still drip on the floor.  (Process!)

The girl who made this painting was persistently trying to make vertical lines; she said to me, in only a slightly exasperated voice, "even when I make lines across, they still drip down." 

#2: Color mixing. This activity is pretty self explanatory, but I cannot say enough about it.  They loved this activity (boys too) and created some fantastic shades.  See at the end of this section for a Bev Bos video that inspired it.  

video:

#3:  Dough Paint:  I found this in the Science Arts book.  The paint is made of equal parts salt, flour, and water, with a little paint added.  The book calls is "Sparkle Dough Paint," but I wouldn't say it actually "sparkles."  None the less it is a fun art activity.  They helped me funnel it into squeeze bottles and off they went.

Most of them chose to do "fold over" paintings, I did not suggest it, but one child did it and it caught on like wildfire.  (The term "Fold Over Painting" is borrowed from Bev Bos.

I love the one above.  It took forever to dry (three days) but I thought it was such a creative use of the materials. 

I love how this one (above) was folded at an angle to make an interesting shape.

#4:  Salad Spinner Art: This is one of everyones' favorite ways to paint at school.  All it takes is some precut paper, some liquid water colors, pipettes, and a salad spinner.  Like most of these painting options- no instructions are needed.

Add as much or as little paint as desired.

Spin for as long and and as fast as desired.

Ta- Da!

#5: Bubble Painting:  Some children a little older than my class did this project and was fascinated by making really cool designs on their paper with the over flowing bubbles but my class wasn't really interested in what was happening to their paper.  They were interested in what was happening in the cup: the bubbles building, the bubbles overflowing, the bubbles popping.  This being said, we switched from paper to paper towels so we could do more bubbles faster and clean up faster.  

#6:  Incline Painting (with cars and marbles!):  This activity was inspired by one of my favorite blogs:  Teacher Tom's Blog.  Now, mine was not as complex as Teacher Tom's, but I am not a builder, or a "tinkerer" or anything of the sort.  

My simple solution was to adjust only one side of our adjustable table.  I put a sensory pan at the bottom to catch the cars and left the roll of paper on the floor by the legs, pulling the paper over the top and cutting it off for the next group.  

This was pretty fun, and kept the boys interest for more than ten minutes!