Fishing for Letters

I put these cloth alphabet letters in the messy table and we used some fishing poles I've had for awhile that I think I got at Target......way fun and cute!! So the kids had a blast fishing for the letters, putting them in the bucket and making sure they don't get away by using the fishing net!

I saw so much great interaction on going on. I would jump in every once in awhile and ask, "What letter did you catch? OOh, I think I hear it saying something!" (I would obviously follow up with the sound that letter makes).

Don't let them get away!!

Something that I saw happening in the classroom that I didn't expect......the kids started bringing the letters over to the kitchen area and cooking up the "fish" letters. They would serve them by saying, "Here, have a letter M." I just love it when the kids carry the activity that I put out a step further!!

GREAT!!

ABC Week

In the messy table today I had all of these different magnetic letters to explore with for the kids. Cookie sheets and magnetic chalk boards work great. I saw so many great things going on. I love the stage of reading and writing where the child links together a whole bunch of letters and then asks, "Teacher, what did I write?" This type of thing happened all day. We all get a big kick out of it because the words are so silly. For example......"trhugnf". I always say something like, "What did you write? trhugnf? You silly, what does that mean?" Sometimes they like to think of their own meanings for these silly words.

Some kids are at the stage of sounding out phonetically. When it comes to phonetic spelling I'm a big believer on letting them sound out on their own and figure out what letter it is. I don't care if it is spelled correctly, but just to see them figuring it out and getting the letter sounds is AWESOME!! Eventually, when they are more developmentally ready, they will be ready for all of the crazy rules. But right now, they need the confidence with those basic letter sounds.

One child sounded out, "pulees reer reer". Which translates into "Police - reer, reer" (making the siren noise). Wow - I LOVE to watch learning in action!!

Valentines Slime

We enjoy getting MESSY in preschool! This slime always seems to be a favorite and really brings the kids together playing and exploring. I figure it's a great way to build our friendships stronger and have fun with eachother. We also talk about opposites...to me slime is an opposite word for Valentines day because slime is yucky and gross and love and friends are fun and enjoyable! To make this stuff, just mix as much elmers glue as you are going to want slime and add your food coloring. Poor in some liquid starch until it's not sticky but slimy and stir it all together. FYI - I buy the gallons of elmers glue. You can get it from Lowes or Home Depot or I'm sure order it from a school catalog.

Pinecone birdfeeders

I'm sure these are pretty self explanatory and have been being done (is that how you say that?) for years. But, nonetheless, I thought it was a great activity to do for our winter unit. We just got done talking about animals in winter last week, so we talked more about how many birds fly or migrate to warmer climates to survive the winter. But there are still many birds that stay where it is cold and eat what they need to survive. Sometimes snow can get very deep and it's hard for them to find food, so that is why these niftly little bird feeders come in handy!!

I let my kids go at this in the messy table, because after all.....it IS a mess! But they were so excited to "feed the birdies"!! Let each child have a popsicle stick and they can plop as much peanut butter as possible onto their pinecone.

As soon as it is covered with peanut butter (and believe me, this takes these little ones a little bit of time), they get to roll it in wild bird seed. I just got crushed sunflower seeds for birds from Walmart. I'm sorry about the above picture, it's kind of blurry.

Then I tie a string onto them so they can be hung from a tree for the birds to easily get at. For easy take home, I just put them in plastic ziplocks and put their names on them. Most of the kids made about 3 or 4 of these.....what a blast!!

Colored Snow

Snow in the messy table today with bowls of colored water and eye droppers!! The children absolutley LOVED changing the snow colors. It was fun to see the primary colors make new colors. Since we have learned about colors earlier in the year, this was a great reminding concept for them. We talked more about snow today, how the clouds make it, where it comes from, etc. It is always so much fun to see how interested the kids are in snow and how it is made!!

Happy snow coloring!!

Melting Ice

This week we are learning all about Winter and how cold it is outside!! In the messy table today we had ice cubes (it would also be fun to use large blocks of ice) and turkey basters and eye droppers. We had a hot bowl of water also so the children could drip warm water onto the ice. Watch them as the ice begins to melt. What kinds of interesting shapes begin to form as the ice melts? Does "steam" rise from the ice as the water is poured over it? Encourage the children to touch the ice and put their fingers in the holes that are formed!!

Happy Ice Playing!

Animals in Snow

In the messy table today we filled it with snow, frozen snow (that acted as icebergs) and all sorts of animals that survive in the winter. I saw so much interaction going on and discussion of what we have learned this week about animals. I love it when an activity just enhances the learning I want to happen dramatically!!

Ghost Goo

This is always a favorite and we usually have to keep it in our classroom for a couple of days because the kids just LOVE to explore with this stuff!!

This is actually called OOBLECK (most teachers know what I'm talking about), but at halloween time I change the name to "Ghost Goo". The kids think it is soooooo cool and talk can be heard throughout the room about ghosts, goblins, ghouls, witches, and much more.

One boy asked me today, "Do ghosts really leave this behind when they visit you?" I told him that if they were real they just might, but there is really now such thing as ghosts.

So the recipe goes like this (so simple)......cornstarch......water......voila!!! Just mix equal parts of each. This substances so interesting, it hardens when you pick it up and turns to slime in your hands. It really is too fun to play with. Just be prepared to have cornstarch drippings from your messy table to the bathroom.....or keep a tub of water close by for quick rinsing. The nice thing about this stuff is that it cleans up so easily (it's just cornstarch after all). So don't freak out if it gets splattered in a few places....kids will be kids! Happy Haunting!!

Tupperware Madness

For our messy table on our sense of sight day we added LOTS of dried beans and tupperware. This was tricky and took thinking skill to match up the lid to the right piece of tupperware. The children enjoyed pouring, filling, and even started sorting the beans (I was quite excited to see this taking place, I didn't even think of it!)

One child was determined to find the lid to a particular tupperware piece. He had them all matched up (or so he thought). I watched him as he continued to figure out which lid was incorrectly placed. I love watching the wheels turn in their smart little heads. Happily, and with much excitement he finally figured it out!! Boy do I love preschoolers!!

Sweet Smelling Shaving Cream

OK, so don't you think shaving cream smells so good? I sure do!! So what a great sensory experience to add to our sense of smell day!! Not only do the kids LOVE to feel this stuff, but they get to smell it at the same time. Believe me, our classroom was super aromatic today (AAACHOO!)

We are also discovering more about the letter Aa this week, so I did some teacher guidance with the letter Aa in the shaving cream. The kids thought it was totally cool how you could make letters and pictures appear in the shaving cream. The children who know how to write their name had a grand old time with the letters in their names. It was also great practice to assist the kids who are still catching onto their name writing!

Colored Rice

Colored rice is always a favorite in the Messy Table. Rice is so small and fun to feel between your fingers. It's just such a great sensory experience that is always a must! The children expecially love to watch the rice poor, fill and twist....oh to be a child again!!

To make....

Put about 2 Tblsp alcohol and your choice of food colorings into gallon ziplock baggies. I do a different batch for each color (obviously). So if you are making 5 different colors, you'll need 5 different bags for each one.

Now put rice into the bag. The more rice you have the lighter color it will be, the less rice you have in the bag, the brighter it will be. I try and make big batches for the messy table, so I make mine on the lighter side.

Now mix and squish the bag until all of the rice pieces are coated. Once you have it mixed to your liking, lay out to dry on a tray or sheet cake pan or whatever else you have that can let the rice dry pretty flat.

Happy rice playing!!

Messy Table Moon Sand

What a better way to start out the Messy Table then with Moon Sand - this great new craze!! If you've never played with it, you simply MUST!! It's absolutely cool! It never dries, and molds incredibly good!!! Just like other sand, it's not always fun to clean up, but what fun is the messy table without a little mess??

St. Patricks Day Green GAK

Slime never gets old. This is another recipe, it turns out a little slimier then the glue and starch.

Recipe:

* 16 oz. white glue

* 2 cups water (halved)

* Green food coloring

* 3 teaspoons Borax Powder

* 1 medium bowl

* 1 large bowl

In the medium bowl, combine the glue, 2 cups of water and several drops of green food coloring. Stir this constantly. In the large bowl, combine the remaining water and the Borax Powder. Stir this until the powder is dissolved. Pour the glue mixture into the Borax mixture. Stir constantly until a glob of GAK forms. Let the children squeeze, knead, aquish, and ooze the GAK between their fingers.

Messy Table Madness

We've had some fun in the messy table with colored rice. Rice is always a favorite because of the great sensory feeling the kids can experience as the rice runs through their fingers and pour them into different containers, etc. The children seem to really love that it is colored........"How did you do that Miss Chelsea??"

You can make colored rice by placing rice in a large ziplock bag and adding about 1 or 2 tblsp. rubbing alcohol and then some food coloring. Mix the rice around in the bag until they are colored evenly. Lay the wet rice out on a cookie sheet or tray to dry. WA-LA!! This is also they way you would color noodles for necklaces or whatever.

We've also had water in the messy table to go with our "firefighter" career day. It's so fun to act out being like a firefighter or policeman. We've had a lot of things going on in our classroom this last few days........I can't wait to be ____________ when I grow up!!

Sand in the Messy Table

Sand is always a great experience to have in the messy table. This sand that I have I got at an Early Childhood conference one year. It's VERY fine, and just runs right between your fingers!! If we get it wet, it is PERFECT building sand. This time we kept it dry. A great experience was had by ALL!!

The Fun of Flour!

Last week in the messy table we had FLOUR!! This is such a great sensory experience since most children are not allowed to actually PLAY in flour. Not only does it have the coolest feeling, but if you pack it in just right, it will stay in the shape of it's container!!

We also got to play with bread dough......grind some wheat......etc! It was fun to see the process that wheat goes through! The Little Red Hen book was definatley a favorite throughout the week!!

The children absolutely ADORED experiencing flour!!

Sweet and Slimy!

Hmmmm.....what to do in the Messy Table this week??

SLIME - what could be a better idea? Well, nothing!!

Love can be kind of slimy!

So we mixed this together as a group in the messy table!

Equal parts Elmers Glue and Liquid Starch. We added some fun LOVEY colors!!

The students have absolutely LOVED feeling this all week!!