Book Review: Bubbles, Rainbows and Worms

I've just finished reading Bubbles, Rainbows and Worms: Science Experiments for Preschool Children, by Sam Ed Brown. I am really impressed by the simple layout and the fundamentals on which this book is based. This is not a book with detailed lesson plans for extended projects, though there are ideas for multi-day explorations. You get a list of the materials you need, what to do, and why you're doing it all in a clean format.

Right away you know that this book is just a little different than other books with a lesson-plan focus. Brown says on page 10, "To be honest, we do not really teach children, we provide an environment that encourages and allows children to teach themselves." When talking about exploring gravity on page 48, Brown reminds us, "We can lay the foundation for future understanding." THAT, my friends, is what preschool is all about. We're not creating kids who know everything, we're creating kids who are capable of learning anything when they're ready for it by providing a good foundation.

What I really love is that almost all of the activities are one page exactly. So, if you feel like you need to make a copy of something in order to protect the book you don't have to worry about multiple pages flapping around. Also, each activity has a section on how to explain the scientfic concepts. There is a focus on conservation and on frugality, so most of the activities require things I can easily find around my own house or in our school's supply room.

This book is geared toward the 3-5 crowd, though I could see plenty of things I can modify for toddlers. For example, we were already planning on doing a "dark day," but I'll be adding the "Sillhouettes" activity on page 37. I found several examples of things I could set up in my classroom for the toddlers and 3s to explore at their own pace.

I found this book at my library, but if I had to spend the money on it I probably would. I only wish, as I often do for activity books, that the binding was a spiral one. Then I wouldn't feel like I had to copy pages in order to keep the binding from breaking.

Lesson Plan for Week of February 18, 2009: 2 Year Olds

Sensory Table: Mixed dry beans and scoops

Gooey: None specifically, though we will have some gooey for our sensory footpath either a new recipes I found for pearly clay or regular play dough

Easel: Paint

Art: Tempera cakes with q-tips

Other: Sensory footpath with a variety of things to walk on. A bucket or basket for shoes will be kept by the back door in case we need to exit the building quickly.

Notes: We only have class one day this week because of President's Day on Monday. We are also going to get a new student. We aren't sure if there will be confusion or if it will all go smoothly.

Lesson Plan for Week of February 17, 2009: 3 Year Olds

Sensory Table: Soapy water with dishes and dish cleaning supplies Tuesday, Dolls for bathing for Thursday

Gooey: Pink play dough (gluten free)

Easel: Paint Tuesday, Crayons Thursday

Manipulatives: Linking people

Writing Table: Usual things Tuesday, scissors attached to table on Thursday

Other: If the sensory footpath survives my other class, we will use it here.

Notes: Thursday will be the first time this class has used scissors in the classroom. Typically scissors are a part of the classroom from the start at this age, but given the personalities in the class we've waited until now.

Lesson Plan for Week of February 9: 2 Year Olds

Sensory Table: Coffee grounds with flowers, flower pots, trowels, and rakes

Gooey: Play foam (Monday); play foam or play dough (Wednesday)

Easel: Crayons on one side, markers on the other (Monday); Paint (Wednesday)

Manipulatives: Small play houses, people, furniture, vehicles

Other: On-way mirror painting (Monday only)

Because we wondered if the mirror painting might not be a huge, uncontrollable mess (it wasn't) we decided to go easy on other messy activities. On Wednesday this week we have our parent/teacher conferences, so we will have substitutes in with the children while we meet with the parents. For that we will also go easy on the messy stuff. We have some good messy ideas for next week, so no one will feel cheated!

Lesson Plan for Week of February 2, 2009 2 Year Olds

Sensory Table: Snow, which later had paint added by a creative child

Gooey: Clean mud on trays (it was in the sensory table for one day last week)

Easel: Puffy paint on black paper with chubby brushes

Art/Manipulatives: Tempera cakes with water added directly to the cakes already, chubby brushes, large pieces of light blue paper

We took advantage of the snow outside to bring some inside. We started with shovels and the like in the snow. By the end of the morning we had large plastic animals, some trucks and bulldozers, and at one point someone put a baby doll on top of a snow hill. When the first child came in I asked him if he's like me to add color to the snow. He said yes. Since I was thinking liquid watercolor I headed for the cabinet in the room where we keep it. He, having never seen a tempera cake before in his life, loaded up a brush with color and proceeded to paint the snow. It looked beautiful.

Lesson Plan for Week of January 26, 2009: Toilet Paper!

Today was what we like to call a "too much" kind of day. We asked our parents to each bring in two rolls of toilet paper to supplement what we had on hand. Far and away the most favorite activity was the two rolls we rigged up from the ceiling. Luckily we made it relatively easy to reload those rolls because we went through a lot of them! It's hard to see in the picture at left because of the wind sock, but that roll of paper is hanging from the ceiling and the paper is dangling where the kids can reach it.

Here's a rundown of our plan:

Sensory Table: Clean Mud

Manipulatives: Rolls of toilet paper on a thing that had safe prongs so the kids could unroll the toilet paper

Easel: Two rolls of toilet paper rigged up on the easel with two colors of watercolors and small diameter brushes

Gooey: Play dough, colorless

Art: Toilet paper on a table with markers, scissors, and stickers; Also a ramp was set up against this table so toilet paper could be rolled down

Other: Two toilet paper rolls hanging from different areas of the room that could be pulled with force

Sadly the rest of the week was taken up by bad weather cancellations. We might keep the clean mud in a bowl for future use.

Lesson Plan for the Week of Dec. 2

Sensory Table: Corn meal with corn kernals in it, sifters, scoops, cups

Gooey: Play foam

Easel: Dot painters

Art/Manipulatives: Stamps of various shapes and letters

Lesson Plan for the Week of Nov. 26

Sensory Table: Cardboard tubes, long chenille stems (some are several feet long), clothespins. We may have something different on Wednesday if the other class doesn't care for this.

Gooey: Play foam, possibly Gak on Wednesday

Easel: Shimmer finger paint

Art/Manipulatives: Using toy cars to paint

Lesson Plan Review for the Week of Nov. 19

Wow! Having the gutter at the sensory table was so fun! I think the kids liked having the room moved around just for variety. We did have to keep emptying out the table, but there was someone playing with the water the entire time. I'd love to do this again some time. On Wednesday we did put floating cranberries in the table. We only used one bag because we couldn't find them on sale, but two bags definitely would have been better. In any case, the kids scooped them up with funnels and nets and enjoyed them.

The children are really enjoying plain old crayons and markers. And when we cover the whole table they don't have to be concerned about who is drawing where. It also makes keeping up with the artists a whole lot easier. Now if we could just get the parent helpers to leave the crayons alone!

The blocks we borrowed from the Big Room were great. With the large space and lots of building materials the kids built and moved and added and took away. There was quite a bit of cooperative building and some fixing with our play tools. This is a definite must-do-again activity.

Lesson Plan for the Week of Nov. 19

Sensory Table: Monday we're going to run a gutter from the sink to the table so we can have running water at the table. Wednesday we'll just have regular water in the table, maybe with some cranberries.

Gooey: Pumpkin pie play dough.

Easel: Paint

Art/Manipulatives: Monday we'll move our art table to another location, wrap it in paper, and set out markers and crayons. In the large area that remains we're going to bring in heavy, large wooden blocks from the Big Room and some lighter cardboard blocks as well. On Wednesday we'll have the crayons and markers in at the art table in the usual location.

Lesson Plan Review for the Week of Nov. 12

The baking activity Monday went pretty well and the kids loved the muffin recipe. After that we set out cornstarch and water (a non-Newtonian fluid, FYI) on trays, but only my co-teacher and I seemed to play with it. I think since toddlers haven't formed their own opinions about how solids and liquids are different they just aren't impressed. So, we did liquid water with droppers color on large and small coffee filters. Most of them needed to have the droppers filled for them even though the color trays were within reach because they haven't figured out the whole dropper thing yet. But boy, can they squirt the color out!

The leaves in the table were used occasionally. Wednesday we had fabulous weather, so we propped open the door so the kids could wander as they liked. We even went to the bigger play yard next door. The breeze was strong on Wednesday, so we had pinwheels and fabric streamers out. On Monday we set out markers and crayons on an outdoor table, and they drew more than I've ever seen them draw. We also did snack outside on Wednesday, and for the first time we didn't have to do much reminding to sit while eating.

The teachers we share the room with added record players on the floor in a corner for Wednesday. The kids loved it. In case you've never seen this, you take an old record player, poke a hole in the middle of a paper plate, and let the kids draw on the plate with marker while it spins. You have to be sure there's no needle in the arm and that the arm is securely taped down. We had one little girl that was more interested in stacking and unstacking the supply of paper plates, so while we usually keep those out of reach we just left them with the markers next to the record players.

Lesson Plan for the Week of Nov. 12

Sensory Table: Leaves with various objects for manipulating them.

Gooey: Pumpkin pie play dough.

Easel: Paint

Art/Manipulatives: Monday our parent helper is bringing a muffin recipe for the class to make. After that is finished and on Wednesday we will do corn starch and water on trays.

We'll be going to the Big Room this week and doing as much outside time as we can in between rain drops since the temperature will be nice.

Lesson Plan Review for Week of Nov. 5

This week was fun, but not quite what we expected. On Monday the kids used the sensory table to wash the shaving cream off their hands. After the table was full of shaving-creamed water no one wanted to play with it. Our aquaphiles ended up back at the sink. On Wednesday we added droppers with liquid watercolor to the shaving cream table, which was a huge hit. We put a bucket of water near that table for cleanup and the sensory table stayed a bit cleaner so we could clean dishes, toys, and babies. At some point several children noticed all the hand washing that was going on and started to put shaving cream in their hands and then ask to wash their hands at the sink repeatedly. All in all, the shaving cream was enjoyed by most of the children.

The chalk was a bit boring. We had a few takers, but I think it's time to get back to messy stuff at the easel.

We spent some time in our Big Room (large motor) this week, which the kids are slowly getting used to. Our assigned time is right at the beginning of class, which makes it more challenging for parents dropping off all the stuff at the room and then coming to the Big Room after hand washing. Once it becomes routine I think it will be easier.

The kids seem to be a little bored with our small outdoor play area. I think next week we should either take them to one of the larger areas or create some activities outside rather than assuming they'll be able to figure out what to do with themselves. I don't recall another class having this same boredom outside difficulty, but each class is different and kids get less and less outside time at home each year, so they may just not know what to do with it. We have lots of outside toys, climbers, sand toys, riding toys, slides, and building toys to keep them busy.

Lesson Plan for the Week of Nov. 5

Sensory Table: Soapy water to wash toys or dishes in. We have a couple of aquaphiles in the class and it would be nice to get them away from the sink.

Gooey: Pumpkin pie play dough with an assortment of dough toys

Easel: Chalk

Art/Manipulatives: Shaving cream on trays with brushes and combs

Music: Robin, our music teacher, will be by in addition to the spontaneous stuff we sing

Books: The kids are really fond of a book along the lines of "5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" but with dinosaurs. I think because it has big, googly eyes sticking out the book. I think the thing is a bit scary, but they laugh at it. They also like the repetitive Eric Carle books, so we'll have some small group readings when there seems to be interest.

Lesson Plan Review for Week of Oct. 28

Wow, what a great week! The dough was a huge hit, as were the coffee grounds.

Monday the kids instantly got into the coffee grounds, which were so fine that I set it up with fake flowers and gardening equipment. After a little while a few wandered over to where we had set up the dough on trays. Each tray had a little cup of flour, a spoon, and a spice. Initially most of what the did was to dump the flour and ask for more without doing any mixing or kneading. One of the children, who obviously had done some bread baking, started rolling the dough around and stretching it to mix the flour in. Then everyone was giving their dough some pounding. Tip: don't stand next to someone who is beating their floury dough--it's tough to breathe!

After a LOT of flour (remember, Bev Bos says that kids need too much!) someone noticed the spice bottles. We sniffed them all and then the spicy dumping began. By snack time most of the kids had flour and/or spices up and down their fronts. Between the spices and the coffee grounds the room smelled like we had been baking holiday cookies with coffee as a drink.

On Wednesday the parent helper had planned with me to let the kids make Monkey Bread. You'll find the recipe in a lot of places, but it amounts to rolling small portions of dough in a light sugar coating and putting all the balls in a large baking pan, usually a Bundt or something similar. An adult pours over a butter topping and then it's baked. Our recipe called for using biscuit dough as the balls. The parent had set up two shallow bowls with the sugar mixture and the kids had a blast rolling the little balls around and putting them in the pan. Some kids just wanted to put the balls in the sugar over and over, but some of the older ones were more careful about rolling them around and placing them in the baking pan.

I love baking in the classroom. This recipe has to bake for 40 minutes, so while we normally would have the kids help us mix the sugar coating portion we elected to do that ahead of time. As it turned out we had to have snack near the end of class because of how long it took to bake. I also prefer to bake healthier things, but this did lay the ground work for having the group focus on a task together. At least for those who were interested.

Anyway, after we put the Monkey Bread in the oven we went back to our dough on trays. Several of the children could have done that happily for the rest of the morning.

Lesson Plan for the Week of Oct. 28

Here's what we're doing this week:

Sensory Table: Coffee grounds with artificial flowers, garden tools, and cups to plant in

Gooey: Dough (flour, water, oil) with small cups of flour and spoons for putting more flour on the dough for kneading; several balls of dough on trays so several children can play at once

Easel: Paint in cups with lids with chubby brushes, multicolored paper

Art/Manipulatives: We'll pull a new manipulative from the closet this week

Music: Robin, our music teacher, will be by in addition to the spontaneous stuff we sing

Books: A book at snack, probably chosen by a child with a strong preference, in addition to books we read to various children throughout the morning