Easy and Cheap Smelly Paint

We made smelly paint as part of our 5 senses unit. It's really easy and cheap! All you need is kool-aid, water, and a bowl (and the obvious like paper and a paintbrush). 

All you do is add some water to kool-aid and walah you have smelly paint! Our room smelled sooooo good while the kids were painting. There's no exact science when mixing the kool-aid mix and water. The less water you add the more vibrant your colors will be. A little paint goes a long way. We used three different colors and only needed half a package of each for 10 kids. 

When the paint is wet, the colors are very vibrant and the smell is strong. It does fade a little as it dries. It also loses most of its smell after it dries. Make sure to wear paint shirts, as I'm pretty sure kool-aid will stain clothes. 

You can read more about my 5 senses unit from a previous post here.

On a different note, I'm looking for some new blogs to follow. I've switched over to Bloglovin since google took down google reader. And in doing so, have weeded out some blogs and added new ones. So if you have a blog, please leave a comment with the link so I can check it out! 

Look in the side bar to follow my blog or grab my button! :)

Exploring Machines in Preschool

This is my third year teaching preschool, but it's my first year to teach a unit on machines. In the past, it's always been intimidating. Exactly how do you teach 3, 4, and 5 year olds about machines? This year, I took the plunge and I was blown away at how much they understood about machines. Here is the approach I took to teaching machines in preschool. 

What is a force?

We read the book And Everyone Shouted Pull, by Claire Llewellyn. This is a great book to teach about forces. The book follows a group of animals as they take their goods to the market. They push and pull their wagon to get it to the market. 

After we read the book, I set out materials for the students to explore. While they were exploring the materials, I encouraged them to use our new words; force, push, and pull.

Another fun activity to go along with force is balloon rockets. You can read about them at discoverexplorelearn.com. 

Simple Machines

After learning about force, we moved on to simple machines. The first machine we learned about was wheels and axels. 

Wheels and Axels

We read the book Wheels and Axels in Action, by Gillian Gosman. I love this series for teaching about simple machines. The books are short and simple, but yet still full of great vocabulary, pictures, and explanations. I read a few sections word for word, but mostly summarized in a way my preschoolers would understand. After reading the book, I set out cars, pipe cleaners in beads, and other items in our classroom that had wheels and axels for the students to explore. 

Screws

We read the book Screws in Action, by Gillian Gosman. The book uses lots of everyday items, such as water bottle lids, to explain how screws help to hold things together. After reading the book, we went on a screw hunt around our school. We found screws everywhere!

Inclined Planes

We weren't able to read this book, because it wasn't in at our local library. But we still talked about inclined planes. We used blocks from our block center to make inclined planes for our cars. We experimented with putting the planes at different angles to see what would make the cars go faster or slower. 

Levers in Action

We read the book Levers in Action, by Gillian Gosman. Did you know scissors are two levers held together by a screw? While we read the book, I could tell my students had a harder time understanding how a lever worked. But when we did the activity after, they started understanding levers. 

To make levers, I hot glued two small popsicle sticks together to make them wider. Then I hot glued a marker lid to the bottom. I made some with the lid in the middle and others had the lid more towards one side. I did this so the students could experiment to see which one made a pom pom go farther. 

For the activity, I grouped my students in pairs and gave one the lever with the fulcrum (lid) in the middle and the other student had a lever with the fulcrum towards one side. They worked together to see which lever would make the pom pom fly the farthest. My students loved this activity! We still have the levers in our block center over a month later!

Wedges

The library didn't have this book available either, and we ran out of time in our unit. So we didn't explore wedges this year. But if you have any great ideas please share them!

Pulleys

We ran out of time to do pulleys as well. So please share any ideas you have, I'm hoping to fit more into our unit next year. 

Building Our Own Machines

After exploring force and the different types of simple machines, the students designed their own machines. First, they decided what they wanted their machine to do. Then, I had them draw a "blue print" of their machine. I prompted them with questions like "If the machine is going to . . . then what shape does it need to be?", "How is the machine going to . . .", "What button do I push to get it to . . . ". 

After everyone had designed their machines, we started making a model of their machine. I had asked the parents ahead of time to donate materials. (boxes, soda bottles, buttons, things from their junk drawers, etc.) The students helped pick out the items for their machine and my teacher's assistant and I hot glued their machines together. They turned out really great. It did take a lot of time though, so next year I think I'm going to have them work in groups of three so their are less machines to put together. 

This machine shoots out balls. You put a ball in the hole in the front and it shoots it out the tube on the side. 

This machine reads books to you. It's "face" is the shape of a heart and her name is Heartla. 

This machine gives you bubble gum! Yum!

That's our unit on machines! I'm glad to say I'm no longer intimidated by teaching about machines. I'd dare say it may be one of my favorite units now! 

Happy Teaching!

Mouse Paint - Color Mixing

This week, we've been exploring color mixing during our science time. I love the book Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh. It's perfect for teaching color mixing. In the book, three white mice find three jars of paint. (red, blue, and yellow) Each mouse hops in a different color paint. When they get out, they drip paint everywhere. They discover that the paint starts mixing together and making new colors. 

We read the book together during our large group time, then made our own mouse paint in plastic bags. Each child got to choose two colors (from red, blue, or yellow) to add to their bags. Then they squished their paint colors together.

From experience, we learned that the less paint you use the better. It also helps to put a different color in each corner, instead of just squirting them both in the middle. This allows for all three colors to be shown in the finished product, instead of just the new one. 

My wonderful TA traced two of the mice (from the cover) onto all the plastic bags before we started the activity. 

I also recommend taping the top of the bag, so curious kiddos can't open it! 

Happy Exploring!

Our Five Senses

I received such a great response from this post, I created a Five Senses Unit using many of the ideas below (plus a few more)! 

You can find out more about it here

Don't miss the freebie!

Or purchase it here

We had a great week learning about our five senses! I started using science journals this year and so far I am loving them! It's such a great way for all my students to be able to participate during our large group time. During our large group time, we drew our five senses in our journals. 

Nose - Smell

We explored smelly jars for our sense of smell. The jars are really simple. You can use film canisters, baby food jars, or empty spice containers. Place a cotton ball in the film canister and then drop a few drops of "scent". I used cinnamon, chicken bullion, peppermint extract, chocolate, perfume, and vanilla.

Eyes - See

We explored the outdoors using our sense of sight. I had my students draw what they could see. We talked about what color the grass is and what color we would use to draw it in our journals, etc.

Ears - Hear

We played a smartboard game to explore our sense of hearing. It was really simple. I just went into Microsoft Powerpoint and used the sounds already in the program. On the first page I put a sound, then on the next page I put a picture of what makes that sound. I added about 10 sounds, which was the perfect amount for the attention span of my kiddos. After I played a sound, the kids tried to guess what makes that sound. 

Skin - Feel

We added different textures to a hand cut out for the sense of touch. I got this great idea from pinterest of course! I was really suprised at how much of a vocabulary lesson this turned out to be. I ended up sending the hands home with a note to parents encouraging them to go over the hand with their child and go on a "hunt" for textures around the house. 

soft - cotton ball (or pom pom as shown here)

smooth - scotch tape

rough - sand paper

hard - uncooked pasta

bumpy - rocks or pebbles (aquarium pebbles shown here)

Tongue -Taste

The last sense is taste. We talked about this sense some last week when we made our friend mix. We will also be talking about it this week when we make pancakes. We didn't get a chance to do a specific activity for this sense, since I was out of the classroom for meetings that day. 

It was a fantastic week. We really got a lot accomplished. I'm really excited to actually begin teaching! The first few weeks are routines & rules, routines & rules, routines & rules, it's nice to see the light at the end of the tunnel! We also focused on our names last week. I'll have to include those activities in a future post. 

Hope your school year is going smoothly. 

Science "Rules" Poster

I've been busy today (well really the last two weeks) getting everything ready for the new school year. I love the start of a new school year. And I go back three weeks from yesterday! I laugh every time I see these statements on pinterest.

I feel like the guilty newish teacher at the back of the room, raising my hand timidly and saying, "actually . . I'm ready for summer to be over." Not that I don't love summer, but with no kids, my husband at work, temperatures over 100 degrees, and being stuck in my apartment with my adorable but often times annoying puppy dog, I'm ready to go back to school.

Couldn't resist adding a picture of my puppy. (Although he's about 20 pounds heavier then when this picture was taken)

So, back on topic. I've been spending most of my waking hours the last few weeks working on back to school stuff. Today was no different. I made a "science rules" poster to accompany my super scientist badges. I used quotations, because I don't really like the word rules, but I never know what else to call them. I presented my expectations in a very positive way, by wording the "rules" as things that scientists do. We will read our poster about what a scientist does before our experiments and inquiry lessons. After reading the rules, my students will put on their scientist badges and be ready to be scientists.

The poster and super scientist badges can be purchased at my tpt store for $1.00. I debated charging for items on my tpt store or keeping them free. I decided to sell my items for only a dollar. Hopefully this will help fund my new found clipart obsession. I'll see how it goes. Might as well try right?

Here's a picture of my super scientist badges. Click here to read my post about these.

Do you have a tpt store? Do you charge for your items or keep them free? I would love to hear how this went for you. Please leave a comment. :)

DIY Super Scientist Badges

So far, I've finished 5 back to school projects. The super scientist badges are my favorite. The idea originated from Kindergarten Kindergarten. After I saw her post about science badges, I knew I had to make them. 


A large part of our curriculum is teaching the students how to "be a scientist." We focus on using our 5 senses to observe the world around us and record/report the information ACCURATELY. At the beginning of the year, I show my class  an object (lets say it's yellow) and ask them to draw it in their science journal, over half of the drawings are blue, pink, purple, etc. After we finish our unit on being a scientist, the super scientist badges will be a great visual to remind my students what it means to be a scientist. When they put on their badge, they also need to have scientist eyes, ears, hands, thoughts, etc. 


So after much ado . . . .here they are!

These badges were fairly inexpensive and simple. I started off getting a couple packages of horizontal badge holders and badge id clips. I got mine at Wal-Mart. They are sold in packs of 12 for $1.88. 

Then I found some scientist clip-art. Jessica Weible has an awesome Mad Scientist pack for $5.00. Click on the picture to follow the link.

The clipart is Skinny Latte by Kimberly Geswein. You can download if for FREE by clicking here.

I designed the badges in publisher. I made a box with a thick black border and added the clipart and text inside. My badge holders are 3 1/2" by 2 1/2". So I made the box a little smaller then this, so that I could add scrapbook paper after it was printed to add a colorful border. 


Here's one last look.

Download for FREE at my TPT store! 

If you are a blogger, please leave a link so I can check out your blog. Good luck with all your back to school projects.