Over the past two weeks J and I have been doing quite a few different Autumnal activities which have either consisted of things we have done previously, or have been similar to things that we have done previously. I like to try new things with the children, and generally they enjoy doing new activities too, so with that in mind I decided that we would have a go at making wax crayon sun catchers.
J and I chose some crayons in Autumnal colours and then after a brief explanation as to why we have to be careful, J set about grating the crayons onto a sheet of greaseproof paper. This took a while!
Once we had enough grated wax I put a second sheet of greaseproof paper over the wax and with the iron on the lowest setting (and with J removed from the very immediate vicinity) I ironed the wax gratings until they melted. J was amazed at the blob that we created! I however wasn't - I had hoped for something pretty, but we had used far too much dark coloured wax and it just looked horrid! So we tried again with much brighter colours which produced a much nicer melted blob!
We covered the wax to clear contact paper on both sides, I punched two holes and J helped me to thread a ribbon through the holes so that he could hang his sun catcher up - all we need now is some sun!
After a day spent getting very wet at the park, and then marvelling at the clear blue sky and sunshine, I decided it would be apt to make rainbows! I provided the children with a piece of white card, strips of coloured paper, PVA glue and spreaders. I explained to the children that they need to put blobs of glue at the end of each strip of paper then hold them in place and count to 10 in order to make the glue stick. There was lots of counting to 10 during this activity!
The finished pictures were lovely - I didn't tell the children that they had to put their paper in a particular order.
J is becoming more aware of colours, when we are out and about he tells me the colours of wagons and cars. Sometimes he gets the colour correct, sometimes not.
I set up an activity to help with colour recognition and matching. I drew 6 lines on a piece of white card, and using different coloured pens I wrote the colour name in each row.
I then got 6 pieces of different coloured paper corresponding to the colours I had written on the card, and cut out squares.
I explained to J that he should glue the coloured paper along the same coloured row.
Throughout the activity J sometimes got the name of the colour muddled up, however he was always able to match the colour and glue it in the correct place.
M joined in with the activity by glueing his coloured squares randomly!
I am loving watercolour paints at the moment, I think that the effect they give are really pretty!
The children created some beautiful stained glass effect paintings using white card, masking tape and watercolour paints.
Here is the one that I made to show the children in advance what it would look like, they were very excited to get going...
Aren't they pretty!
I gave the children some big blocks of ice straight out of the freezer, I asked them what they felt like - "cold", "slippery", "slimy", "smooth", "funny", "disgusting"!
We spent a few minutes feeling and talking about the ice.
Then the children poured some salt into bowls, I added liquid watercolours and we mixed them up. The children put a spoon of salt onto the ice blocks, immediately the ice popped and cracked, we listened very carefully to the noises it made. We could see the ice melting, and crevices were formed. The colour in the salt helped us to see where the ice was melting.
The children added more and more salt, until it had all been added. We felt the ice again, it wasn't smooth any more, it was "bumpy" and "rough". The children also thought the the ice was "pretty'.
The children left the ice after a while to play elsewhere, however they kept coming back to the ice periodically to see how it had changed..
This was a fabulous (and very easy!) experiment for us to observe, I will definitely be on the look out for more for us to do!
