What's on the light box

The light box is so fun!

I gave the children plastic mobile pieces to use on the light box.

They work really well and I love the shapes and colours.

I added plastic page dividers which I cut into halves.

The two items worked well together.

I wanted to note that I used those repositionable gel stickers for Valentines and they stained the surface of the table.

Our table is covered in stick tac paper so we can change it - thankfully!

What's on the shelf for Valentines Day?

The collection!

Counting coins - transfer from one heart to the other.

Opening and shutting small containers / putting in and out erasers.

Also used for memory and matching skills, sorting + counting.

Counting heart gems,sorting and putting them into the heart tray.

Pouring mini erasers from one pail to the other.

I spy Valentines jar - which the kids filled.  

Gems and containers on our light table.

Used for counting - matching - sorting, pouring etc.

Then top that with play dough fun - using valentines cookie cutters!

Playing with colour

I was lucky enough to pick up these plexiglass panels this weekend for FREE - the kids loved them!

They could colour mix - test which ones were translucent, opaque, or transparent.

I don't think they will get tired of playing with these.

Today we went buggy!

They're creepy and their crawly - and no I'm not talking about my toddlers - LOL

I'm talking about all those bugs out there that are appearing in this warm June weather. Time to examine them up close and personal.

At first we explored bugs that didn't wiggle and squiggle to avoid any fears. We only wanted to encourage curiosity.

 The bug photos came from exploring the internet.

Then we made our own bug catcher from a large sized spice jar and a small sifter! Here we are cutting holes in the lid.

Adding the sifter to cover the holes so the bugs couldn't climb out!

A few of us went out into our garden (see Children's Garden post) and collected bugs - then brought them in to show our friends.

http://kreativeactivities.blogspot.com/2011/05/childrens-lands-part-one.html

http://kreativeactivities.blogspot.com/2011/05/childrens-lands-part-two.html

With four toddlers out in the garden, I couldn't take pictures and collect bugs at the same time - sorry for that.

Do you see the dragon fly in the bottom?

He later climbed to the top! :)

There is also a spider on the stick - to the right.

Trying to find the ant!

A closer look.

The bugs are a hit!

At the end of the day we released our friends back into our garden!

This class will be prepared to discover more about insects next year.

Here is a link for Montessori insect cards:

 http://www.shop.montessoriprintshop.com/Insect-Cards-CCF-27.htm

Colour Mixing - Follow up!

So today we revisited our colour mixing activity and it went well! 

We each took turns using the droppers and mixing the colours. We got the desired result with no difficulty. The children followed the colour chart for mixing the correct colours. (As seen in the previous post.)
We had reviewed the colours we knew so that the younger children would be able to help identify the colours we were using. In a toddler classroom we have children at different skill levels, so reviews are always important.

Some of the children could use the droppers independantly and others required a bit of assitance, but everyone was anxious to mix their own colours.  

Once we finished with the droppers we moved to the light table to view colour mixing through the baggies of coloured water. At first the baggies had too much water in them, and the colour change was so faint we could hardly see it. So we had to dump out some of the water.

My light table is on an angle it does not lay flat - a flat one would have been better.

Still too much!

OK it was getting there!

We liked this result!

The blue and yellow to make green was really cool!

Neat eh?!