Clouds

It was a perfect week to talk about clouds.  It was cold, cloudy and rainy.  We got to see the real action of how the water cycle works.

Cotton Ball Clouds

We made some clouds out of cotton, simple, easy tactile art project

which works well for the big and little kids

Windy Clouds

We talked about how the wind causes the clouds to move across the sky.  The kids were being the wind and blowing the marshmallow across the table.

Which they loved and did over and over and over again.

Puffy Paint Clouds

 I love puffy paint (just a mixture of 1/4 glue and 3/4 shaving cream).  We used a loofah to act as the cloud to paint the clouds.

The paint dries puffy, which Brielle has thought was really cool to play with this week.

 Creating Clouds

 We talked about how clouds are all different shapes and sizes.  The kids used playdoh to make different clouds.

Painting the Clouds

This activity is one of my favorites.  I first did it when I was working with day care kids in college.

yes, it is messy...but it's just shaving cream and cleans up easily.  The little kids (Ethan especially) are finally getting to the point where I'm not as concerned about them eating everything.  Everyone enjoyed this one, especially Ellie.  She stayed and played for an additional 10 minutes after the others were off doing other things.

Cotton Ball and Water

Dipping the cotton in the water to see how it fills with water and drips like rain

Rain Stick

I love this idea for making a rainstick.  I'm going to save that one for later, because I didn't want to have nails and hammer out with the younger kids, but golf tees worked for a temporary rain stick.  We poured in some beans and rice and listened to the sound that rain can make.

Books

Favorites:

Cloudland by John Buningham.  It is a weird book about a boy falling off a cliff and landing in the clouds, but Brielle asked to read it at least once a day.  She says it is her favorite.

It Looked Like Spilt Milk, a simple baby book with repetitive words, but the kids all loved it.

It Looked Like Spilt Milk

After reading It Looked Like Spilt Milk, the kids were eating popcorn for snack and 'quoting' the book as they looked at each piece of popcorn.  "It looks like a fish, but it isn't!" etc.

we also did a simple activity where we put a drop of paint on a paper, folded it in half and then saw what it looked like when we opened it up.

Just a random picture from this week.  Putting my kids to work.  Luckily they are young enough they still think it is fun.