Weather Discovery Tray

First I must say thank you so very, very much for the warm wishes and thoughts you all sent our way last week. I was truly overwhelmed by the fact that so many of you cared enough to comment and email me about our happy news. I kept saying to my husband, "My gosh, there are so many good people out there!". Honestly, I feel so lucky to be a part of such a warm community. Big hugs to you all!

Ok, now before I get too sappy, let's move on to the discovery tray... :)

It'd been a while since I put together a discovery tray for James and after some thought I realized I could easily create a weather-themed tray that appealed to nearly all the senses. James absolutely loves this tray and pulls it out nearly every school day!

Here's what you see:
:: CD with thunderstorm sounds.
:: A prism (leaning against the CD) - to represent a rainbow.
:: Hand held fan - to represent wind. This is James' favorite!
:: A bowl of ice cubes - to represent hail and/or the change in temperature within a cloud as the ice melts into water.
:: Our homemade rainstick.
:: Spray bottle with water inside - to represent a light rain.
:: A tornado bottle. My husband purchased this on Amazon.com. It's SO cool! As you gently swirl the bottle, it creates a tornado effect. This one is my favorite! :)

A couple of items we added later...
:: An inflated balloon which we rubbed against our heads to create static electricity - to represent lightening.
:: A flashlight - to represent the sun.

I should note that even though many of these items do not provide accurate scientific representations, they've provided LOTS of learning fun! And, in my opinion, that's what it's all about!

~Thank you for your comments!~

Homemade Rainstick

In honor of our weather theme this month, James and I made a rainbow rainstick using this tutorial. It was such a fun craft and since the weather outside was warm and sunny, we took it all outside!

First we hammered lots of nails into the cardboard mailing tube. This was James' favorite part, though he got bored with hammering about halfway through. :)

Next we filled the tube with river stones and rice.

The inside of the tube looks a little scary - watch those fingers!

Testing out the sound.

Then we we decorated the tube with all sorts of colorful goodies.

The rainstick makes such a beautiful sound and will be a welcome addition to our classroom instrument basket!

~Thank you for your comments!~

Weather Songs & Storytelling

We've been having lots of storytelling fun with our felt board! I cut these weather themed shapes out of felt and oh my goodness, what a hit they've been! James loves to make up stories and with the assistance of these felt pieces he can be heard regaling tales of mighty hurricanes where cats fly through the air, and calm, sunny days filled with popsicle eating. I just sit back and enjoy his stories - they always make me smile.

We've also used a few books and songs with our felt board. Our favorite song to sing with this is "What's the Weather". I've written the words below, in case you're not familiar with it:

What's the Weather?
(To the tune of O' My Darlin')

What's the weather, what's the weather, what's the weather today?
Is it cloudy, is it cloud, is it cloudy today?
** Here you'd introduce the clouds to the felt board. **

What's the weather, what's the weather, what's the weather today?
Is it raining, is it raining, is it raining today?
** Here you'd add the raindrops to the clouds on the felt board. **

And you'd continue on like this with the remaining pieces:
Snowflake
Rainbow
Sun
Lightening ("stormy")

It's easy to use these pieces with other weather songs, too, and you can certainly create more or different pieces to suit your songs. Here's a link to the songs we're singing this month - simply copy and paste the link into your address bar:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0By-8pEe8O7e5OTFjZjEyMDktZjVjNS00OGY4LWEwYzMtMmIzNTY1M2QxYmFk&hl=en&authkey=CLuu7qwO

As always, my printables are for your personal use only - please do not sell or offer them in giveaways. Thank you!

~Thank you for your comments!~

March Playdough

Unpredictable Weather Playdough :)

I made one batch of playdough (click here to see my recipe & notes) and split it into three sections: yellow w/gold glitter (sun), blue w/ white glitter (rain), and white (clouds/snow). Note: the white is simply plain dough - no food coloring.

I also made some weather word cards for James to use along with letter shaped cutters. James loves to spell and read and so this was a HUGE hit with him! Btw, we received the cutters as a birthday gift a couple of years ago - this exact set is no longer available, but this one is similar.

I've made a PDF of the weather word cards - simply copy and past this link into your address bar:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0By-8pEe8O7e5NWM0YTBjNTktMmExMC00YTA2LWE4ODktNjdjMDA5MTUyODAz&hl=en&authkey=CMXohg4

As always, my printables are for your personal use only - please do not sell or offer them in giveaways. Thank you!

~Thank you for your comments!~

On Our Shelves - March

As I've mentioned, our theme for this month is weather. I was tempted to do a St. Patrick's theme like we did last year, but I thought we'd try something different instead. :) Note not all the activities below are theme related.

Practical Life

Tweezing "Starbursts".

Lacing. I found this image of a sun and a cloud on Google, which I printed off and laminated. Then I used a hole puncher to turn them into a lacing card. (The laces are in the little straw basket.)

Pouring Water. I used just a bit of blue food coloring to make the water easier to see. James loves this small, lightweight glass pitcher - it's perfect for little hands. I found it at Montessori Services, but I see it's no longer listed on their site.

Spooning Pasta. This tiny pasta is shaped like little suns (I dyed it yellow). Spooning into the funnel is a fun challenge - you have to be careful to spoon in just a little at a time.

Pushing Umbrellas into Styrofoam. This one was a favorite when we did it for our beach theme last summer.

Table Washing. We've done this before and it was a huge hit. The spray bottle has just a bit of soap in it, which James will spray onto our little table. He'll then use the sponge to wipe it clean and he'll wring the sponge out into the bowl. Voila - a clean table! :)

Open & Close Basket. I always try to include a variety of containers with different closures (e.g. zipper, snap, screw top). There's a little trinket inside each container - James loves this.

Still on our shelves: Dressing Basket.

Sensorial

Weather Sensory Tub.

Unpredictable Weather Playdough

Build-A-Kite. Sorry, I can't recall where I found this as I printed it off months ago. If anyone knows, please feel free to leave a link in the comment section - thanks!

Still on our shelves: Geometric Solids, Knobbed & Knobless Cylinders w/ extensions, and the Pink Tower.

Language
Weather Matching. This activity involves matching seasonal clothing to three weather cards (rainy, sunny, snowy). I found this on Kidsoup.

Worksheets. I believe I found these sheets on abcteach. I made a fun flower pencil for James to use with this activity. :)

See & Spell. This is from Melissa & Doug - we love it!

Sandpaper Phonograms. We've moved on to the green series. James can read quite well now and has no problems reading Hop On Pop straight through. A few blends (like au, ie) still trip him up though, so it's timely we're focusing on those now.

Books. We have a good selection this month and all have at least a little something to do with weather:
How To Build A Rainbow by Eric Carle
Spring by Nuria Roca
Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
Little Cloud by Eric Carle
Snowballs by Lois Ehlert
Hurry Home Little Kittens (one of our Kindermusik books)
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
We're Going On A Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen

Poetry Basket

Still on our shelves: The Moveable Alphabet

Math
Skip Counting. I made these little clouds and numbered them 2-20. James will need to put them in order and then use the snowflake beads as counters.

Rainbow Game. I created this rainbow mat which James will use along with the dice and place markers. This is a great addition/subtraction game!

Math Puzzle. I found this at our local teacher's supply store.

Counting "Raindrops". I'm eager to see how James will like this activity. It's interactive in that I'll clap a certain number of times and James will place that number of raindrops (clear beads) on the cloud. Thanks, Kidsoup, for another fun idea!

I also created a few dot to dot sheets.

Still on our shelves: Number Rods and Sandpaper Letters.

Culture & Science
South America Continent Bag. Well, just a few pieces of it. :) I like to put it out a little at a time - much easier to look through that way.

Family Nomenclature Cards.

Types of Weather 3-Part Cards. I also have Types of Clouds cards, too, but I see I forgot to photograph them. Both are from Montessori For Everyone.

Discovery Tray

I have LOTS of fun science experiments and projects planned for this theme and I'll try to blog about them as we go. We'll be having plenty of outdoor school this month!

Seasonal I Spy Bottle.

Still on our shelves: Continent Globe & Puzzle.

Art & Music
Composer of the Month: Vivaldi. I chose Vivaldi because of his beautiful Four Seasons concertos.

Every month I gather (from the internet) a selection of short, theme related songs for us to sing during circle time. Click here for the link to download this month's songs.

Homemade Rainstick

Art Basket. I have to confess, the whole art basket idea didn't go over as well as I had hoped. Sigh. But, it wasn't a total flop so I'm trying again. :)

Coloring Pages.

I have a few art projects planned as well and hope to share them throughout the month.

Still on our shelves: Instrument Nomenclature Cards.

~Thank you for your comments!~

March Sensory Tub - Weather

Our theme for this month is weather! I'll be sharing our playdough and what's on our shelves later this week, but in the meantime here's our sensory tub...

I can't even begin to express what a HUGE hit this tub has been with James, the lightening bolts in particular. He spends ages with it and all I hear the whole time is "ka-chung, ka-chung!" (which, of course, is the sound of thunder!) :) Today we listened to a thunderstorms CD while he explored the tub. He was on cloud nine about this and acted out a little "play" with the objects as they coincided with whatever was happening on the CD. It was an absolute treat to watch!

Here's what's inside:
:: Blue aquarium rocks (the sky)
:: Cotton balls (clouds)
:: Blue beads (raindrops)
:: Silver pipe cleaners (lightening bolts)
:: A felt sun
:: Small puffs (snow) & snowflake shapes
:: Rainbow pom poms (click here for my tutorial on how to make your own)
:: Plastic cubes (ice/hail)
:: Small silver pitcher and shovel (for scooping & pouring)

Click the button below to see a full list of my sensory tubs or click here to view my slideshow on the Counting Coconuts Facebook page.

~Thank you for your comments!~