Look at our Giant Balance!

Kerry has spent the last couple weeks building this giant balance that I saw on the internet and just had to have for this year's science projects. It's the perfect toy for our outdoor water and sand table.

Today the kids just experimented with the balance and weighed different amounts of sand.

Water was the next obvious choice to try out on the balance. A soaker hose has been wound through the shrubs, tree, and over the playhouse to create "rain" on hot summer days. The kids decided filling their measuring cups from the "rain" was ideal.

We'll continue to experiment and compare other things this week. We'll look at wet and dry sand, water and sand, water and river pebbles, sand and pebbles and whatever else the kids want to weigh.

Little Pandas Playschool

A Very Wet Day!

On Wednesday after music circle time the children listened to Alexander's Outing written by Pamela Allen. Alexander's family goes on a walk, but Alexander can't watch where he's going and falls down a hole. Several attempts are made to rescue him, but all fail. Finally a little boy spills his drink into the hole and everyone notices that Alexander floats up a bit. In the end everyone pours water into the hole and Alexander eventually floats to the top and hops out.

After reading the story the preschoolers went outside to try the experiment for themselves. They put ducks into "holes" (plastic containers) and then poured water in and watched the ducks float to the top.

In the afternoon the children played with colored water and tried the duck experiment again.

Many toys and tools have been set out for the children to explore. At one point they decided the boat needed to be washed.

The misters felt good on a hot day! A soaker hose was wound through the shrubs above the walkway and play house. Kids tried catching the "rain" and enjoyed getting wet.

What Floats? & Ping Pong Balls

Today while waiting for friends to arrive a couple of our boys played in the gym with some brightly colored ping pong balls. The boys had a great time bouncing the balls and then catching them in cups.

During the next couple weeks we have several water activities planned. We began this week just exploring and playing in the new water table. Today the children experimented with different objects to see which would float or sink.

Tin Foil River

Today the teachers created a tin foil river for the children to float different objects such as toy boats, bottle caps, and cut up pool noodles. The kids had a great time experimenting and getting wet!