More Letter V activities & a New Sensory Table

Violet Vegetable V printing

(ok, purple, but we thought it could pass for Violet today)

We love open-ended art. Any teacher directed, "learning" type of art is always done, but not with the gusto as open-ended art activities. Each child spent just the right amount of time doing the Vegetable printing activity and quickly tossed those veggies (sweet potatoes) off to the side and got those hands in there. I managed to save the V paper and hung them up to dry while they got the Manila paper and went all out with the "pretty violet paint."

I love kids... I put out the "violet" paint, told the kids, "We will be making Vegetable V prints with Violet paint, what sounds do you hear??" Princess scrunched up her nose and said, "Isn't that purple paint Miss Michelle??"... "Yes," I said, "but Violet is another name for purple. Since we are learning about the letter V and it's sound, I thought we would call purple Violet today. What do you think?"... Princess said, "Oh okay, just as long as you really know it's purple." :) Love her!!

I love multi-age groups... Little Miss M is studying Princess, following her lead on where to put her hands.

I have been upgrading our equipment here at Kozy Kids... and I finally got our fancy, dancy new indoor sensory table up and going. I bought this one. I love it, except the shelf underneath. It seemed like a great idea, until I realized to get the water out I needed to find a small enough pitcher to get between the shelf and the bottom of the tub, open the faucet, let a little water out, stop it, dump the water into a bucket, and repeat. Many times. You would think for the amount of money it was, they would have thought that little snag through.

Anyway... I do love it, really. They kids did to. I purchased some great water exploring tools from here, and let the kids at it today. They spent at least an hour there this morning, all 4 of them. Little Man spent some time as well, but since he loves to splash and mouth everything, we had to limit his time there. He understood and had fun doing his own thing :)

(Love this photo, with the water gushing out of the pump Sprout has)

See, this kid can occupy himself with just about anything!! It did help that the kids were right next to him playing and talking to him and I was sitting on the floor playing peek-a-boo with him!!

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During lunch this week, we have been trying new vegetables. I have been putting different types of raw veggies on each plate with a little dip for the kids to try. I just forgot to post/photo about it. Today was fun, I put on a beet, broccoli (trees), tomato, & radish. Sprout finished ALL of hers!! Every last bite and asked for more. Gotta love that girl. She has eaten every new veggie I put on her plate except for all of her sugar snap peas and orange pepper. Otherwise, she has eaten a carrot, cucumber, celery, lettuce, purple cabbage, and the things we tried today. She is a real trooper, at first she didn't like the look of some of the veggies, but our rule is we must take one bite to try it. If we don't like it, we don't have to eat anymore. We had a lot of "yucks" & "no ways" but, everyone tried everything at least once.

Tomorrow we will be learning about Volcano's. Everyone who studies Volcano's has to do the baking soda & Vinegar experiment. The kids will be excited when they see the ingredients out on the table. It is always a favorite!!