Preschool Corner: States of Matter

At a loss for what to do this next week, I visited the Kindergarten website of the local school where Kaelyn will be attending in 2011. I know I've been lacking in Science, so I decided to look at their science requirements and use it as a jumping off point for my lesson planning...

This week Kaelyn covered
States of Matter *we are doing Gas next week because Solid and Liquid were enough of a concept for this week)
started officially working on her sight words as part of our daily routine (a, at, be, can, do, each, for, go)
introduced the concept of vocabulary words (water, ice, liquid, solid,l)

This week Anna covered
Hot and Cold
Colors-reviewed Pink, introduced Blue
Shapes-Circle
ABC's
Counting 1-10


 I hoping to establish the following as our "daily routine" of Counting 1-100 using our chart, Calander Time, and Observing the Weather with Kaelyn. Anna and I sing our ABC's using her chart, Days of the Week with Kaelyn's help, point out the shape of the week and the color. I notice that if we start the day off the same way each day it's very beneficial to us being productive and in the right mindset. Waking up at 6 also helps seeing as I can start the day AHEAD of the kids/house instead of behind.

Science: States of Matter
For the following experiement I used this website. I loved the step by step process as well as the follow up questions to discuss with your child. I also love how, if Kaelyn gets it I can increase her grasp on the concept by proceeding to the next level with the experiment.

We talked about how water is a liquid, and how liquids take the shape of their container. We poured water into our heart shape containers and then froze them. While it froze we went to the park!

Then we played with the ice and set up our "melting" experiments.And talked about how temperature changes the matter state of being.

We tested with hot water, room temperture water and Room temperature without water to see which would melt faster.

In an attempt to introduce the concept of Gas, I had heated up the water...but it didn't really click for her.

Kaelyn's Light Bulb moment for States of Matter came when I asked her to find a solid (a princess doll naturally) and bring it to me. Then I took a cup of water, and made a huge mess by pouring some of it out on the floor. I asked her if the water changed shape, she said "yes". I told her that  a Liquid takes the shape of it's container...so when I poured it into a square glass it would be square, or we pour it into the heart pan it's heart shaped. Then we took the princess and dropped her on the ground...I asked if her shape changed? She said, "No", and I told her that the fact that it kept it's own shape meant that it was a Solid. *Please note that these are very BASIC definitions of solid and liquid, but she gets it now, she knows that OJ, Water, Milk, Etc are all liquids and that other things are solids*

Math: Counting (we are only missing 14 and 15 sporadically with her counting!!!), Patterns with Pom Poms and our Calander, and Telling time!

Writing:  F, G, and H page, Copying our vocab words and sight words.
Although, we haven't copied the sight words yet...we are doing that this afternoon.
Reading: We went to the library and got a bunch of GREAT free books! We are starting Junie B. Jones series during my reading time with Kaelyn, and reading Poetry at breakfast from the Robert Louis Stevenson book we found...for free, at the library! I've never seen so many great books just given away! I really felt like a criminal.






Anna:  18 months
Collage work with pre-cut circles and glue

Blue Foam Stickers for her "Blue" work

Shapes Puzzles, labeling them during play

Drawing with Kaelyn and talking about circles

(We've been playing A LOT of SuperHero and Super Fairy)

Collage work with Blue paper, shades of blue, painting with blue, eating blueberries for snack.

Her Blue Materials included blue foam stickers, chalk, fat markers, "circle" markers which are like the Bingo Dotters except smaller and found at dollar tree, skinny markers and crayons!

Other Fun Things included:

Fire Pit with Daddy (for his early birthday present!)...we talked about how the smoke was a gas!

Baby three is cooking! Me at 23/24 weeks

Video Game time!

Which leads me to my GREAT DEAL OF THE WEEK! Free Apps for you iPhone/iPod...Kindergarten is making their apps free for the ENTIRE month in honor of Autism Awareness. These apps are great, some are simple flashcard style (for Anna's age) and others ask questions like "What Rhymes with ____" and shows four options for your child to pick. Other Question games that we have found are What doesn't belong and a Healthy Habits Game!

Another GREAT DEAL is to go to Resturant.com and use the promo code FEAST to get a $25 Gift Card for dining out for $3!!! Please read the fine print as you aren't allowed to use the cards in the same resturant more than once a week...but still a great deal!

For other Preschool Corner Go here and for Tot-School go here!