Preschool Powol Packets

The perfect plant to grow with preschoolers grows quickly enough that you can measure new growth every day.  This is the one!! Growing plants with preschoolers is a classic science activity that can tie into math, language, and so much more!  The entire lab gets even more exciting when you use the perfect plant:  green onions! Green onions are relatively cheap, wonderfully useful, and grow much, much faster than many other plants.  The picture above shows how you will see the cuttings grow to a plant over a foot tall in a week.  Each day, you can measure about an inch of growth! Here's the easy How-To: 1- Cut the green onions down to about four inches above roots.  (Make something yummy and healthy with top part!) 2- Place the 4"-long cuttings, root sides down, in a cup with enough water to cover half the cuttings. 3- If you're going to be measuring and tracking the growth, this is a great time to get your initial data.  It's es

Play is a powerful tool you can use to teach many skills to preschoolers.  They will discover and cope with their world as they play, and if you play with them you can take advantage of countless teaching opportunities.  Here's a few ways to teach young children math and counting skills through dramatic play: 1.   Store .  Both boys and girls love to set up toys and food to create an imaginary store, buy their goods, and even play the cashier.  In fact, I usually have to moderate turn-taking so we don't have any fights over who gets to be the cashier at any given moment!  You can use real money, a "bank card" (an expired gift card), real "fake" money, gold pirate coins, or a fistful of invisible money.  When you play with them, make sure they count out the coins, or count up to the cost of each item.  As children develop a stronger grasp of numbers, try over-paying them and asking for change.  You will have to help them figure it out the first time o

Eruptions, explosions, science experiments, and glitter are some of my daughter's favorite School Time topics.  She can tell you about quite a few reactions and, today, with the help of this science project, she learned about a new one:  the Alka Seltzer Eruption. Once she saw all the ingredients, she couldn't wait to begin experimenting.  They were all familiar to her expect the Alka Seltzer.  I explained that when it dissolved in water, it released carbon dioxide bubbles.  She knows about bubbles.  She also decided that we were missing an ingredient:  sparkly glitter glue.  (Of course!)  Once she had that, she was ready to go! Eruption #1:   1. Fill the vase about 2/3 full of water and add 4-5 drops of food coloring . 2. Add about an inch of oil . 3. Squeeze in some sparkly glitter glue . 4.  You only want about 1/2 inch of space at the top of the vase.  Feel free to add more water, oil, or try another liquid! 5. Add 2 Alka Seltzer tablets, broken into quar

It's watermelon season, and everybody loves a monster!  Inspired by the many shark-melons I've seen lately, I decided to make a Monster Melon...partly because I knew my kids would love it, and partly because when I tried to make a shark it looked much more like a monster! To make this lovely monster, start with half a watermelon.  Hollow out the edible red part and set it aside.  Flip the melon upside down and carve out the mouth, using a serrated edge knife.  (It feels a bit like Halloween in July.) The trickiest part for me was getting the mouth out.  It helped to cut the mouth shape, and then remove it in 4-5 smaller pieces. Set the head in a bowl big enough to hold it and the fruit.  Carve out two small holes for the eyes.  Use two "trash" pieces of rind to make the eyes: cut off all red parts, and cut them so they will wedge inside the two eye holes.  Add raisins for the eyes.  Cut the fruit and dump it in the mouth. Let your little monsters

Well, friends, this post is really hard for me to write and, yet, it's exciting too. Some of you have asked about Teach Me Tuesday this week (and last week).  The short answer is, it's not here. The long answer is, I have some really exciting news that I can't wait to tell everyone about and it makes my days go by incredibly fast because it makes me so tired that I have to take naps and even go to bed before midnight but it leaves me totally drained and really scatter-brained and very prone to extremely run-on sentences.  And, besides, I'm pretty sure the picture gave it away.  ;)  We're expecting our third child in January!!! The first trimester is always really hard on me.  I've learned the hard way that if I don't get enough rest I get a complicated pregnancy and delivery...and I don't want another one of those!  My second baby was very un-complicated, but involved much, much more rest.  So, I'm trying to learn my lesson and have another &

Firetrucks, dump trucks, cement trucks, and all other trucks are major themes in my son's little life.  He turned two in May, and I knew a firetruck birthday cake would be perfect.  I had a ton of fun making it, and thought I'd share an easy how-to for anyone else with little boys in their lives! First, make three cakes (each in a pan about 8" x 10").  Leave Cake #1 its original size, cut about 2 inches off of Cake #2, and cut Cake #3 in half.  Cover two pieces of cardboard in aluminum foil--one piece the same size as Cake #1, and one piece big enough to hold the whole cake.  Then, assemble the cake as shown in the picture below (click on the picture to be able to read the text): Use frosting as glue and cover the whole cake in a "primer" layer.  Place the whole thing in the fridge for at least 20-30 minutes, or until the white frosting doesn't smear if you touch it lightly.  Then cover the truck body with a layer of red** frosting.  Draw th

Happy 4th of July!!   We had a wonderful time making Patriotic Puffy Paints today...it would even work well tomorrow if you want a last minute sensory, science experiment-y, patriotic craft! The homemade paints puff up in the microwave as they dry in seconds!  Check out the close-up above! The Simple Supplies: * construction paper  * black crayon * 1/4 cup flour * 1/4 cup salt * 4 teaspoons baking powder * 1/2 cup water  * 6-8 drops food coloring The Easy How-to: 1- Prepare a piece of construction paper or cardboard by drawing a flag outline in black crayon. 2- Mix all the other ingredients into a tin to make the paint.  To make ours patriotic, we mixed two tins: one red and one blue.  The recipe makes quite a lot, so if you only have one or two children you may want to mix the ingredients, separate it into more than one tin, and then add the food coloring.  The ingredients are harmless, so letting your children mix them, feel them, and taste the