Preschool Science Slushie Drinks

For snack time we made homemade slushies today. Super yummy and super easy. Only a few ingredients needed and a few minutes squishing a bag! Here's what you need:

• 2 cups Ice


• 1/2 cup rock salt (found near homemade ice cream makers)


• 3/4 to 1 Cup Soda or juice already cold (this just makes the process quicker if it has already been in the refrigerator)


• Quart ziploc


• Sandwich ziploc


• straws or spoons

Place the ice & rock salt in the quart ziploc bag. Pour soda or juice in the sandwich ziploc and seal the bag. Place the sandwich bag in the quart bag and seal. Start squishing! It only took the kids about 5 minutes before they were enjoying a homemade slushie!!



We drank right out of the bag with a straw or used a spoon to eat it!

Preschool Science Growing Soap

Did you know Ivory bar soap grows? All you need is a bar of Ivory Soap and a piece of wax or parchment paper. Place the soap on the wax paper and microwave for about 2 minutes. Be sure to watch the microwave to see it grow!!
I sent a bar home with everyone to try it at home. I wrote the directions on the bar of soap with a sharpie:

All lined up to watch!

Preschool Science Sharpie Tye Die

This experiment allowed the kids to see how the colors would bleed into each other and create patterns. We used:

• Squares of white cotton fabric


• Different colored Sharpie markers


• Plastic cups


• rubber bands


• Eye droppers


• Rubbing Alcohol

Cut square of white fabric, place over a cup and rubber band on.

Color patters, picture and designs with the sharpie marker.

Using an eye dropper, drop alcohol onto drawing and watch the colors grow and change.


Allow to dry.

Preschool Science Crystal Trees

I found the details about making crystal trees while searching for fun ideas for this week of science based activities. This was my personal favorite. I love that you have a quick interesting result that kids can see and experience. Also all of the ingredients are easily accessible. Here's what you need:

• 1 TBSP salt


• 1 TBSP water


• 1 TBSP liquid bluing (Mrs Stewarts brand, they did not have it at Walmart, but did at our local Albertsons)


• 1/2 TBSP amonia


• disposable bowl, cardboard (we used TP rolls, but you can also cut out cardboard stand up shapes)

Mix well in a sealed jar.


Place cardboard in bowl and pour solution into bowl.

Watch grow!! (this is after about 1.5 hours)

In several hours you'll see a bit of growth and after 8+ quite a bit of growth. (This is overnight)


We tried using sharpies to draw on the TP rolls and see if we got colored crystals. We did not. You can use food coloring and it will produce some coloring on the crystals.

Preschool Science Colored Milk

This was a fun way for the kids to mix colors. All you need is:

• Milk


• Plates


• food coloring


• q-tips

Pour milk into a shallow plate,

Plate two dots of food coloring, not touching each other. Let the kids mix the colors using a q-tip.

Preschool Science Lava Lamps

A big hit with the kids were homemade lava lamps. Here's what you need to make your own:

• empty water bottle (with a lid)


• vegetable oil


• water


• food coloring


• alka seltzer tablets (the generic Walmart brand is about $2 for 36 tablets, each child used about 1 whole tablet)

Pour several inches of oil in the bottom of a water bottle. Then pour several inches of water on top. Put in several drops of food coloring. Let kids watch the food coloring for a bit. It slowly sinks through the oil. Place small pieces of alka seltzer tablets and watch the action!! Once done put the lid tightly back on and they can be fun to observe the oil water mixture. Open up again and again and put more alka seltzer in to see your lava lamp in action!

Preschool Science Colored Vinegar and Baking Soda

One of the favorite activities we did with science. Here's what you need:

• Disposable foil pans (the dollar store is a great place to get these)


• baking soda


• white vinegar


• food coloring


• eye dropper


• cups

Cover the bottom of a pan with baking soda. Mix vinegar with a few drops of food coloring.

Using eye droppers let children drop different colors of colored vinegar into baking soda.



When almost done let children pour cups of vinegar over baking soda.

Preschool: Color mixing

A great opening for preschool with minimal supplies. Here's what you need:

• Paint (I used finger paints, but tempura or craft paints would also work)


• Large Ziploc bag


• Tape (I used blue painters tape, but regular masking tape would also work)

Squirt desired colors into ziploc in separate corners. Carefully squeeze out as much air as possible without mixing the colors. Tape down to the table.

Allow children to mix colors, draw pictures and write letters in the paint.

Preschool Fall Ideas

Today my topic for preschool was Fall

Here's the lesson plan I followed:

Preschool Ideas: Fall

Objective: To help the children become familiar with Fall as a season and time of year.

Lesson Plan: November 2, 2011  School: Fall  Letter: F  Color: Yellow/Brown

Gathering (9-9:15): Leaf rubbings with crayons

Weather/Calendar/Letter/Song(9:15-9:25): Letter F-Fridge Alphabet letter “f”,

Lesson (9:25-10): Using leaves talk about leaf colors, what happens to leaves, etc

• Allow the children to throw the leaves in the air and see how they fall.


• Sing “Leaves are Falling All Around” using leaves

Craft/Hands On Activity:

• Fall tree: Glue leaves onto tree


• Count the leaves: place candy corn where the leaves are and practice counting


• Fall leaf “stained glass”-tissue paper & contact paper

Snack (10-10:10): Leaf shaped cookies, carrots

Music/Movement (10:10-10:25):

• Leaves are Falling All Around
  
  
  
  • ALL THE LEAVES ARE FALLING DOWN
    Tune:  “London Bridges Falling Down”
  
  
  
  

All the leaves are falling down, falling down, falling down.  (Imitate leaves falling down)
All the leaves are falling down, it is Fall.

Take the rake and rake them up, rake them up, rake them up.  (Imitate raking up leaves)
Take the rake and rake them up, it is Fall.

Make a pile and jump right in, jump right in, jump right in.  (Children jump forward)
Make a pile and jump right in, it is Fall.

• Turning Turning Turning

Book (10:25-10:40): Fall Books

• The Leaves on the trees


• There was an old lady who swallowed some leaves


• Colorful leaves

Free Time(10:40-pick up): Outside, train, blocks, more play dough

Leaf Rubbings (We do not live in an area with interesting leaves! So we used die cuts of leaves which totally still worked!):

Stained Glass Leaves: Use clear contact paper and randomly place pieces of tissue or other paper. Place another pieces of contact paper onto to sandwich in the tissue paper. Trace and cut out leaves. (In the end we traced a leaf shape onto the contact paper, time ran out!).


Fall Trees: Our school district has an awesome AV center filled with die cuts. I cut trees, leaves and the word FALL. This was great gluing practice!


Count the Leaves: This is how we started snack. They had to count the candy corn before they could eat them!


The kids favorite book on Fall: There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves!!