Curious George Story Cooks Day 2

Today we gathered for a second session of Curious George Goes to the Ice Cream Shop!

We followed the same recipe, but today we got our freezer cooler and the ice cream was perfect!

We painted our ice cream bowls...

And enjoyed exploring the ice on this super hot day.

Finally, it was time for banana splits!

We loved meeting new friends today and seeing some Sunshine Kids too!

Happy last days of summer!

Story Cooks Curious George and the Ice Cream Shop

Today we read the story of Curious George and the Ice Cream Shop.

We followed a recipe to make our own ice cream.

We poured, mixed, measured and stirred all of our ingredients together.

Then we learned how to stuff an ice cream freezer! 

While it churned, we painted ice cream bowls!

Then we peeled bananas...

and made banana splits, just like George did in our story.

They were delicious. We closed our day with a fun game of "Cold Ice cream"instead of "Hot Potato".

Can't wait to do it all again tomorrow!

Mad Scientists Day 3 The Paper Bag Princess

The Paper Bag Princess is the story of a Princess, a Prince and a Dragon.  We opened our day with a period of observation on F's bearded dragon!

After reading the story, we made our own dragons!

Then we mixed an acid and base to make the dragon breathe smoke!

12 times we got the same expression of wonder and amazement!

During centers we painted story stones.

We made a Princess, Prince, and Dragon.

Finally, we made a Paper Bag Setting for the characters.

The front of the bag was a castle, and the back a cave!

Each child went home with a complete story telling kit.  I hope they are having as much fun as we are!  This was one of my favorite days ever at preschool!

Maybe someone will share a close-up of the completed story stones with me!

Mad Scientists Day 2 Jack and the Beanstalk

Jack and the Giant had us exploring physics today!

We read the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, then I challenged the children to make a parachute to break Jack's fall. We gave not further instruction and provided them with various papers, strings, tape, glue and scissors.

They got right to work.

Each child worked at their own pace with their own design.

We climbed up high and tested our parachutes.

We timed the fall and recorded the results.

After the first trial, we challenged the kids to make adjustments to their design that would increase flight time.  They had great success and really enjoyed the engaging in the scientific process.  

We painted paper plates that would become beanstalks.

We build castles in the clouds!

We enjoyed magic beans and beanstalk pudding cups!

We have stretched our imaginations and minds in the best way!

We ended our day with a dramatic retelling of the story using puppets!

Mad Scientist Day 1

Today was the first day of Mad Scientist camp!  We dove into the chemistry of candy making, inspired by our reading of Hansel and Gretel.  

Opening choices had us mixing colors.

After story-time we carefully measured, poured, and mixed our ingredients for melt-away candy.

We mixed the base well,

then added the flavors of our choice.

Finally, we dropped our candy on the wax paper to cool.

During centers we made paper bag candy houses!

And we engineered tiny little candy houses during snack. 

Finally, we sorted skittles...

made predictions about how they would react to water...

and painted with Skittle paint!

We had SO much fun with science today!

Before dismissal, our candy was ready to taste.

The reviews were mixed on the candy, but all agreed that the first day of camp was a blast!