Friday Fun!

The end of this week brought us one of our most fun explorations of the year! The children got to paint and explore ice in our sensory table. We filled the table with ice cubes and some cups we had filled with water to make ice mountains. Then we gave the children some paint and paintbrushes and let them go to town.

Painting the ice with blue, green, and purple was a great exploration this morning. We heard many of the children say "ice" and "cold." They observed that the paint became more runny as soon as it touched the ice. 

 When our hands got too cold, the toddlers took a break and explored painting with cotton swabs. This is a fine motor activity that helps with pre-writing skills. They added some great lines to our mirror painting!

This was the final result of the mirror painting after our three days of fun!

We were happy to be able to go outside today! Playing on the swings helps the toddlers work on the core muscles they need for dynamic balance. Most of our Katon friends still prefer the fully-enclosed swings, but some of our older friends really enjoy the regular swings.

When we came back inside, the children realized that the ice was melting and making water in the sensory table. We threw on some smocks and let them explore the water. They had so much fun watching the colors mix and stirring the water with their hands and the paint brushes. Of course, we had some splashes as they got more excited about playing in the water!

We have one more week before winter break! Next week, we will be continuing our exploration of colors and will be adding red, orange, and yellow back into the mix for some review.

We are also working on the color names in Hebrew with some of our more verbal children. We would love any suggestions you might have for songs or rhymes that will help us reinforce this skill!

Indiana Early Learning Foundations:

ELA3.1: Experiment with a variety of writing tools, materials, and surfaces

M3.1: Identify similarities and differences in objects

M5.2: Use any basic measurement word or gesture to express measurable attributes, such as big/little, hot/cold

SE2.1: Regulate some impulses with adult support

APL1.1: Show interest in what others are doing

APL4.1: Participate in play activities with a small group of children for short periods of time

SC1.1: Identify and solve problems in the environment through active exploration

SC1.2: Describe physical properties using simple words

SC5.1: Demonstrate curiosity