100 days of School

In most school systems, the 100th day of school occurs during January. This can be a reason to celebrate for teachers and children alike. It’s fairly common to think of January being the beginning of the end of the school year. Some children and teachers even begin counting how many days left. So, when you make snowflakes for an art activity, why not add 100th activities, as well. Kids can use cheerios to glue on papers, make funny looking faces out of the number 100 by adding hair, glasses, nose, mouth. Have each child bring in a picture of their favorite thing and see if they can make them add up to 100. Counting beads is a good activity and making necklaces with 100 Cheerios, Fruit Loops, pieces of pasta helps develop fine motor skills. You may have many, many more ways to celebrate the 100th day of the school year. Just remember to have fun! Children learn by playing!!

Pat

Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

I had the opportunity to read the book, The Help, recently. January is when the country celebrates the birth of Dr Martin Luther King, JR, so it seems fitting to talk about where we were, where we are, where we still need to go. Needless to say, this book brought back terrible memories of a much darker era in the history of our country. It is thanks to Dr King that we have made significant progress in how we treat others. I vividly recall going to Sears at 8th and Broadway with my parents and seeing two water fountains and two bathrooms, one marked colored, the other white.  It’s difficult to believe now that it was a reality then. A Parish bingo hall where I worked sent all of the minorities up a long flight of stairs and kept the “whites” downstairs. (Wonder if they patted themselves on the back for being integrated)? Yes, every bit of it is in my conscious memory, and it bothers me that it happened. Thanks to Dr King’s “I Have a Dream Speech”, the countless marches attended by people of many races, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, things are better now. Our children and grandchildren may not have any sense of the injustices suffered by minorities and that is a good thing. Discuss it. Talk about how it feels to not be included. How many times have our children told us they feel like outsiders, especially when it comes to sports or birthday parties they aren’t invited to?   Talk about Dr Martin Luther King Jr. and how one man’s resolve, refusal to quit, can change the world for the better.

Pat

Come be a part of the largest rally for kids in Kentucky!

Children’s Advocacy Day at the Capitol is the opportunity to show legislators that Kentucky cares about its children and youth, and talk with them about the most pressing issues Kentucky’s kids are facing today. Join us for the 8th Annual Children’s Advocacy Day at the Capitol on Thursday, February 16, 2012. Any and all are welcome to take a stand and raise their voice. Elected officials, social workers, teachers, law enforcement officers, judges, doctors, public health experts, therapists, members of the military, seniors, and kids will all come together to rally on children’s issues at the Capitol Rotunda and talk to legislators about the Blueprint for Kentucky’s Children agenda.

Register for Children’s Advocacy Day at the Capitol here today! More information is available here.

Prescription for Play

Why Preschool Benefits the Brain

In the current issue of Psychology Today is a fascinating article about why preschool benefits the brain. It cites a 1930 hypothesis which Nobel-prize winning ethologist and zoologist Konrad Lorenz tested to see if geese instinctively followed their mother or if it was a learned trait. It provided early evidence of critical periods of development and learning. Preschool provides necessary skills which are essential to getting a job when children reach adulthood.

Visit psychologytoday.com for this article and many others relating to the importance of early childhood development.

Wonderful Worms

Earthworms don’t have eyes, ears or noses, and instead of lungs, they breathe through their skin. But more than just learning some fascinating facts, bringing live earthworms into the classroom gives children an up close encounter with a gentle, harmless animal.

I recently brought earthworms to Yvonne Fisher’s classroom at Dawson Orman Education Center. After reading a story and practicing moving like earthworms during circle time, we spread out some newspaper and let them crawl across the table. The children squealed with delight as they watched the earthworms stretch and squeeze their bodies. Almost every child was willing to pet an earthworm, and most also picked one up and laughed as it tickled their hands.

Earthworms are everywhere and are very beneficial to plants. In one yard of earth, there can be thousands of earthworms!  Go for a walk and hunt for them. Try digging in the dirt or lifting up rocks and leaf litter. Look on the sidewalk after a heavy rain and model good stewardship by returning them to some dirt where they can dig back underground. Most of all, let children know that they don’t have to be afraid of something just because it moves!

 A word about earthworm care:

Remember that they breathe through their skin and need a damp environment; so keep a spray bottle handy, but avoid letting them “swim” in water. They can drown too! They eat dirt and decaying leaves, so if you plan on keeping them a few days, be sure to provide them with food.

 Literature connections:

• Wonderful Worms by Linda Glaser
• Garden Wigglers by Nancy Loewen
• An Earthworm’s Life by John Himmelman
• Earthworms by Claire Llewellyn and Barrie Watts

Clean Mud

Clean Mud

• 1 Roll of Toilet Paper
• 1 Bar of Ivory Soap 
• Vegetable Peeler 
• Water 
• Large Bowl

1. Take the roll of toilet paper and tear the sheets in to small pieces.
2. Place the pieces of paper in a large bowl.
3. Use the vegetable peeler and shave about a quarter (1/4) of the bar of soap into the bowl filled with the paper.
4. Add warm water to the mixture. Start out with just enough water to dampen the paper.
5. Have the child mix the ingredients, working the “clean mud” in between her fingers.
6. Slowly add more and more water to the mixture to create a slimier feeling.

 Less Mess: Place the mixture into a Ziploc bag and allow the child to feel the “clean mud” from the outside of the bag.

 More Mess: Mix small items (such as coins or small plastic beads) into the mixture and have the child find the hidden objects.

Karo Syrup Color Mixing

At a recent training with teachers involved in the PNC Grow Up Great with Science grant, we explored the properties of liquids and some unconventional ways to experiment with color mixing. Karo syrup provides a unique experience, because the colors don’t mix immediately but instead slide over one another creating a variety of shades and patterns and sometimes allowing the primary colors to re-emerge. If you are looking for an activity that is mesmerizing, try this one out. Just look how transfixed these teachers are!

Materials: Karo Syrup, Food Coloring, Large Waxed Paper Plate

Instructions:

• Put a large drop of Karo Syrup in the middle of a paper plate.
• Add one drop of yellow, one of red, and one of blue food coloring on opposite edges of the syrup. 
• As the child holds the plate vertically and lets the syrup run, the colors begin to mix and make other colors. 
• Keep turning the plate so that the syrup does not drip off. 
• What colors do you see? Can you make any new colors?
• Turn it again. Do you see any of the colors you started with?

Noticing the Details

I don’t know about your life, but mine seems to get busier and busier every day juggling work, home, family and friends. There always seems to be reasons to do things faster, just to get them done, to have time to do more things in the limited hours of the day. But the issue with faster and more is that there is little time to appreciate the details in life. Noticing details is a hallmark of a good scientist. Up close is where the discoveries are waiting, the ones that spark curiosity, make you wonder why or how or what and invite you to take another look, examine closer, or read more.  

Life can be full of these moments of wonder, but you have to slow down to find them. Have you ever noticed that drops of water cling to your fingers before falling off or examined salt to that see each individual crystal is a cube? Have you ever wondered why little rays of light seem to dance on the table when shining through a glass of water or why cream swirls in a cup of coffee? These are the types of observations that invite your mind to question and ponder how the world works, which is exactly what we want our children to be doing. What do you notice? How does it feel? How does it smell? Does it remind you of anything? What do you think would happen if…? The right question at the right time can help children focus on details, make connections and lead them to deeper learning.

One thing you should know about me is that I carry a pocket microscope in my purse, and I use it all the time. Just today I was showing my coworker, Brenda, an insect I found outside our door. It was some type of beetle I had never seen before, but the colors were amazing; lines of emerald green running down its wing edged with magenta, iridescent blues, purples and copper on its back, silver eyes made of hundreds of tiny lenses. Noticing these things myself makes me a curious person, but sharing what I am curious about with others is when the magic happens; when Brenda gets curious and calls to another coworker inviting her to look closer. We wondered together what kind of insect it might be, why its eyes have so many lenses and what the world must look like through them. You don’t have to wait for rainbows to feel the wonder of living, and the more you can model wonder for children, the more children will appreciate the world around them and want to know more about it.