Bubbling Over with Excitement for Valentine's Day!

Ah Love, it is in the air at Art and Soul Preschool.

Here are some of our highlights from the last two days.

To say the kids were a little excited during our two days of Valentine's celebrations is an understatement, they really were bubbling over with excitement.

This activity of making our hearts "fizz" was actually a great centering activity, they were so absorbed in the activity that I felt like it gave myself and my assistant a moment to get centered as well.

I froze beet juice and vinegar in silicone heart shaped muffin tins.  

The children were then given baking soda water and a pipette, and the fun soon began.

We have been doing a lot of color mixing and reaction experiments over the past couple months, that this was right up the kid's ally, and a little bit of the unexpected as well because the experiment was heart shaped as well as frozen.

I came across a tutorial on how to make scratch off cards, and wanted to try it out with the kids.

Really, it is a project that older kids would get more out of than my 3 and 4 year olds, so I tried to figure out a way to have it represent their artwork, but be fun to scratch off as well.

 

Originally I was going to have the kids try and draw an owl, but I soon realized they really just wanted to do their own thing,and when I printed the cards they all said "Guess Whoo Loves You," so guess what's behind that little heart sticker instead, yup the other "o."  

For the scratch off the children painted over their faces.

Here is how the scratch off works:  put a piece of packing tape over the part that you want scratched off.  Then paint on the packing tape with a mixture of 2 parts acrylic paint, and 1 part dish soap.  It will need about 3 coats in the end.

 

Of course my daughter was the one who scratched off ours.

I am going to have to do this again as an on-going project to have out for the kids, because it was hard for them to wait to give it to their parents as Valentine's cards. I am curious what types of images they would hide on a regular basis; collage, drawings, words?  I think it would be fun.

Perhaps the most excitement came from the Valentine's Post Office.

It is very sweet seeing the children be so excited about giving to one another.

That is always better then whatever it is that I may receive  just that pure joy they have to give something from themselves.

After I just wrote about the joy in watching the kid's give, it was also adorable to see them sit down with their delivered mail and open up their mail bags.  I have to say, these kid's gave each other the best Valentine's I have ever seen, far more better than my "Alf" valentines cards I remember handing out.

I only manage to snag a couple for a quick photo before they were snatched back!

 And, one of the favorites of the day were our heart shaped chocolate chip pancakes for snack.

It was a another LOVEly day at Art and Soul.

Invitations to Play at the Light Table.

One of the areas of school that the children gravitate the most to is the light table and gemmie area.

For the fall we had acorns, leaves and pumpkins, the children loved these so much that I just finally switched them out.  They love concocting drinks and plates of food with these, so when I saw the Valentine cupcake wrappers, I had a feeling they would enjoy them. 

This little baker is very intent on her creation!

"Cherry" cupcakes ready for a friend.

I work with children 2 and half years of age to 5, and they all love playing with this light table set up.

There is something about the lights, colors, and the tactile exploration that keeps them focused and engaged for long periods of time.  When someone at school is having a hard time, either feeling shy or missing their parents, this is the area that helps calm and center them.  They play here for a little bit, and then smiles and active participation follow.  It is Magic!

Another recent addition to the light table were these colored ice cubes

 I love to shake them up and see the bubble inside go from many and work their way into one large bubble

I purchased them at the Dollar Store, and they are a lot of fun for the light table, 

but the kids have been enjoying them in the kitchen area as well as when they play doctor.

 I love that they can be stacked like blocks.

 I thought this was very clever how he placed them inside cups and made pyramids with them.

The Buggy Bin

 

When we start the day at school I have a loose plan of how our day will go; the projects, circle time songs and stories, art projects and experiments we may get to in the day.   I say loose because even though I have an idea, the kids really lead the way at this age, and I love that.  Somethings that I have in mind we never make it to, others they are not interested in, and then many they are so in love with that we spend weeks exploring and doing projects on.   However, I do have days when I am stumped and I start the day with no back up plan, it is just what the kids lead me to do.  On these days, I find that some of the best projects and play emerge and really take off.  In teaching it is very true that when you get out of your own way, something magical can take over, and so the buggy bin emerged last Thursday and has been a favorite at school since then.

So, what is the "buggy bin?"  Well, I had a storage tub with colored decorative rocks.  The kids were having a hard time with each other, and so I needed something to engage them and took this bin out.  It helped, but was lacking something, so together with the kids we started pulling different items out and adding them to the bin.  We added rocks from our nature shelf, marbles, and then I pulled out the drawer of bugs, and they had to go in, along with tweezers and magnify glasses.

The fun began!

My daughter had a bug birthday party and we had some left over bug containers from the Dollar Store, and these were added into the box on another day.  Having it all on the light table makes everything glow and is very inviting.  For over a week, this has been a delight for the kids, and I love that they helped set it up and it was not a planned activity.  

For me, this is getting closer to the ideals of The Reggio Emilia Approach, because I had little to go on that day, I had to listen more to what the children wanted to engage themselves in.  They were the leaders and I was there to facilitate their ideas and desires.  Who knew we would be discussing entomology this week!

 Great for hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.

 

Buggies kissing, how cute!

 

 Young entomologist at work.

Even Skunks got in on the action.

Never saw someone so happy with a swarm of bees.

In the end, some of the bugs tried to escape, but we were able to catch them all and put them back!