Activities With Children » Family Child Care

Making Colored Sand or Salt

admin — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 19:23:47 +0000

mamarati wrote an interesting post today on
Here’s a quick excerpt
Here’s a movie of my kid and I making some colored salt…

As you can see, these are pretty easy to make. I know the big name guys like Discount School Supply sell this stuff inexpensively, but really, you can make it yourself and use the money you’d save on some colored butcher rolls. (Always seems like there’s never enough of that…)
Home Depot or Lowe’s will have sand in different grades (play sand is fine to use but white sand is way better) in giant bags… and generic salt is pretty cheap. If your center has a Sam’s account, go ahead and invest in the ginormous bag of salt for a project like this. Better yet, just have parents pick up a 30 cent tub of salt on their next grocery run and bring it in… that way each child has their own.
Salt
So, the [...]

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Learning about Rainbows

admin — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:00:55 +0000

mamarati wrote an interesting post today on
Here’s a quick excerpt
There are so many teachable moments with kids, but sometimes we forget when we get caught up in routine or mundane tasks.
For instance, when you fill up the wading pool or you’re hooking up the sprinkler for the kids this summer, remember to take the time to show them how you can make a rainbow and give them turns holding the hose and creating this wonderful effect. (Just remember to put your back to the sun and tell the kids to spray over their shadows for the best results.
When I was a kid, I never got tired of making rainbows in the hose. And every rainbow seemed like magic to me. But don’t leave it at that for the kids in your care… be sure to teach them some of the science behind rainbows.
Other ways to have fun with rainbows:

Put prisms in [...]

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Square foot gardening

admin — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 20:07:18 +0000

mamarati wrote an interesting post today on
Here’s a quick excerpt
I’ve been reading a lot about square foot gardening lately. I think that this really makes sense and would be a great way to start a garden in a child care setting where you may not be able to “give up” much of your playground space.
I would advise that you make the boxes 4×2 however, to allow the small arms of children to reach their own squares.
If you buy the book, be sure and get the newer version. They’re both about the same price, so that’s not an issue… but the author has made some advances in the technique that are particularly welcome. For instance, in the past, he recommended that you dig down into your existing soil where the box is going to be. In the new version, this step is not necessary.
There’s a Yahoo! Group for this that I’ve been following, and almost nobody [...]

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