Crystal Inquiries

Though the cold can be very brutal this time of year, a magical thing happens that captures the imagination of the children, crystal begin to grow outside!

From icicles and beautiful shinny snowflakes, to the patterns found in frozen water.

Last year we tried out a great water color recipe that "grows" crystals, and I thought it would be a wonderful thing to do again at this time of year.  Here is one of the recorded conversations we had when talking about crystals.

Danielle:  "What do you think makes crystals?"

F.F.: "Ice and a little bit of tree wax make crystals."

Danielle:  "Are you thinking of an ice crystal or a crystal you can hold in your hand?"

F.F: "I am thinking of a wood crystal made out of wood and water that feels wet.  I take it and polish it to make you feel better.  Yeah, you can hold it when you are sick."

RH: " I have a real crystal rock."

Danielle: "How do you think that crystal was made?"

RH: "Um, with crystals."

FF: "It can grow like a special plant."

CF: "They grow in caves!"

Danielle: "How do you think they grow in there?"

CF: "They grow down and up."

Danielle: "What makes them grow down and up?"

CF: "The sparkles!"

FF: "Maybe there is magic on them."

CF: "I think there is a door in the cave, and a lever, a crystal lever and you pull it down and they come out."

Danielle: "So is there a person in the cave making the crystals?"

CF: "ugh-huh."

ZY: " My daddy has an alarm to open the door."

Danielle: "Hmm, and what do you think about crystals ZY?"

 ZY: "Well, mine look like this and that, and the crystal is made out of wood and put in orange polish and then the bears eat it,because the polar bears come and eat it, and they want to go back inside but they don't know how to go inside the door because it is frozen, so they eat it all."

Danielle: "So when you think of crystals you also think of ice?"

ZY: "Yeah and the bears eat it."

Danielle: "Hmm, you all are giving me a lot to think about."

Danielle: "Has anyone ever seen crystals in the ice?"

LP:"I've seen it, they kinda look like salt.  It's just frozen bubbles."

R.G.H: "Mommy has a crystal on her shelf.  They're shinny and they are made out of ice."

E.Bee.N: "Yeah, like Elsa's."

R.G.H: "They are made out of glass too."

Danielle: "It's interesting that LP said they are like salt because we are going to make a paint using salt and we will see if it makes crystals on your paper.  Do you believe me?"

All the kids "No!"  and then a couple yeses after.

We then set to work.

The children had a container of table salt and Epson salts.  They took a large teaspoon of  Epson and a small spoon full of table salt and mix it together in a paint tray.

After they set up their salt in their trays, they add 2 table spoons of water which they measure out with the pipettes.  Once they stirred and dissolved the salts, they added liquid water colors to their trays and began painting.

Some children continued to be interested in what makes crystals grow, so they set up a little test to see if the water would freeze outside to make crystals.  We set up two variables, one with salt because that is how they created the crystals on their paintings, the other was just colored water.

(A conversation happening as they create their experiment)

CJ: "I think the color helps make the crystals."

RH: "I wonder what colors freezes faster."

We set them out side to freeze.

When we took them inside later, a group of boys began to examine them, discovering that the salt water was "still wet!"

We then began to look at geodes and crystals that we have in the classroom, as well as look at the paintings created by their classmates the day before.

NF:"I think when the crystals are in the water they pile up on each other and make bigger crystals."

Three Little Birds

For almost three weeks Art and Soul has been bird sitting three little birds.

Tomorrow these little friends go back home, but throughout there time at school they have been well loved and have inspired many projects.

Because the children have taken such an interest in birds, and in keeping with the reggio philosophy, even though our friends are going home, I feel the bird project will continue to have life and thrive. 

For the first couple days the children enjoyed visiting the birds and getting to know there ways.

Some initial comments were:

EB: "look one curled their toes."

Me: "Why do you think they do that"

EB: "Because they can"

MK: "They're not much a talkers.  Birds can tweet but not talk."

TM:"I saw them kissing."

EB: "awe, they're so cute!"

One of the main queries about the birds was in regards to their eating.  The children always wanted to see the birds eating and what did they eat?  Anytime a birdie was caught eating the kids happily pointed it out.  They also looked at the types of food in the cage, they noticed there was bird seed, a cracker, lettuce, water and a clump of bird seeds on some sort of shape.

I pointed out that this is a kind of bird feeder and asked if they would like to make one as well.  Two days later we made similar bird feeders, however we gave ours to the birds outside.

Here is the recipe we used:

Bird Feeder

4 cups wild birdseed

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup water

3 Tablespoons corn syrup

1 envelop Knox gelatin

We took non-stick cooking spray and sprayed cookie cutters and then placed them on a piece of wax paper laid over a cookie sheet.  We then filled the cookie cutters and smoothed out the top with the spoon.  A little later we used a straw to poke a hole in the feeder for hanging.

Ours came out red because I didn't have the Knox gelatin and had to use the strawberry gelatin we had in the house.

On another day of school the kids pointed out that the birdies did not have a nest so that night I gathered some materials and the next day they made some nest for the birds.  These nests had eggs and of course wormies for the birds to eat.

 

I had these bird shapes from a while back and the kids did water color painting on one side to make birds for their nests.  On the other they layered colored tissue paper and sprayed the paper with water sprayers to make the colors bleed.  We then removed the paper and unveiled the colors.  I love how they came out.

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Bird's Nest Sensory Station

 One morning I put out a bin filled with plastic containers, and recycled straw filing and shredded paper bags.  The invitation was to make birds nest's in the bowls.  They were most excited about the eggs and it became a race to see who would get the most.

One of the completed nests made at the bird nest sensory station with lots of EGGS!

That same day the children took turns in front of the cage observing the birds and drawing their version of the birds.

I am interested to see where this project may continue to take us.  My hope is to stay open to the cues from the children, and continue with studying birds as long as they are interested. 



Bella Luna

Today we are back from a two week break, and back on a full moon.

I have noticed that full moons often effect people of all ages, but preschoolers in particular.

Something wild takes over.  Instead of worrying about it, today I decided to embrace the energy of the full moon and talk about it with the kids.

So, we created our own full moons.  We also looked at the phases of the moon, and talked about the different images we see in the moon.  We saw rabbits and faces.  We also talked about why the moon glows at night, and my favorite reason was Jasper's: "the moon glows because it has electricity."

This was a simple and fun project, because the kids loved watching the marker bleed on the paper with just a few drops from the eye dropper.

Start by using water color paper or a thick absorbent paper, then have children color all over with a washable marker.

 Give the children a cup of water and an eye dropper and let them go to town.

After the paper drys, let them draw with glue on the circle.



Then let the glitter fun begin.  let them sprinkle it on top of the glue, make sure to keep a dish or a cookie sheet under them to catch the glitter.  We would also knock some of the excess glitter off now and then.  It is a fun project because they love experimenting with materials; The way the marker bleeds, the pouring of glue, the shaking of the glitter, it is just plain old fun!

Following our art time, we sang some songs about the moon, and instead of a sun salutation during yoga, we did a moon salutation.  We had a dance party to "Can you Catch the Moon" by Elizabeth Mitchell and Lisa Loeb

Later we read a couple great books with the moon in them, which I listed below along with our songs.

It was a beautiful lunar day for us at school.

Books we read:

Just the parts on Winter Moons.

Great book!

Songs we Sang:

"Can you catch the moon?"  Lisa Loeb and Elizabeth Mitchell

hit the link below to see the video and hear the song...very sweet

http://youtu.be/epRWUbgw9V4

THE MOON IS CIRCLING ‘ROUND THE EARTHTune: “When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again” or “The Ants Go Marching”

The moon is circling ‘round the earth, hurrah!, hurrah!
We cannot see it, in the day, the day.
But when day turns into night,
We can see the moon so bright.
Oh, we’re oh so glad that the moon is in the sky.

Jean Warren

MAN IN THE MOON

Man in the moon,
Man in the moon,
Shinning in the night.
What a happy face you have,
Big, round and white.

                        Jean Warren

I SEE THE MOON

I see the moon
And the moon see me.
God bless the moon
And God bless me!

                        Traditional