Arctic Animal Excavations, Gak, a Pots and Pans Band, and More!

The holidays have past and the children are back into full swing at school. So, it is time to keep up with the post-holiday energy by adding some great new activities to the Outdoor Classroom.

Arctic Animal Excavation (Science, Sensory, Fine Motor) -

In the spirit of winter, we provided an "Arctic Animal Excavation" station. I placed a few arctic animals in 3 separate bowls and put them in the freezer overnight.

Each morning, I popped out the frozen animals and placed them in the sensory bins. I then added a few new animals to the bowls, refilled with water, and set them into the freezer for the next day.

Armed with goggles (this is a must due to flying ice!), child-sized hammers, and golf tees "nails", the children excavated the animals from their ice bergs.

The older children really took a fancy to this activity and they pounded the ice with great gusto (hence the goggles!). Once the animals were excavated, the ice melted throughout the morning and made a nice arctic animal mini-world play area.

Since I haven't blogged in oh-so-long, here are a few other things going on this week.

Gak -
This is a super sensory experience as Gak is very similar to the gooey slime that you can purchase in stores. I used 1 part white school glue to 1 part liquid starch. I also added a touch of liquid water color.

Simply mix with a spoon (or your hands!) until the mixture is combined. Mine started out a bit like stringy spaghetti, but after sitting for a bit, it all came together perfectly.

By the way, do you know that you can blow bubbles by sticking the end of a straw into the Gak??? Fun!

For a translucent effect, use clear glue and liquid water color. This mixture has a slightly softer texture. For those of you with a bit of potty humor, put the mix in a cup and squish it down...oh the sounds it does make! ;-) heehee!

Home-made Drum Band-
This was a super-simple, but oh-so-pleasing activity for the kids. The music area in our playground sits within 100 feet of one of our upper elementary buildings, so we are always cautious not to make too much noise. However, while the elementary students were on break, we take advantage of our right to make some noise!

And what better noise than a Pots N' Pans band? We set out pots, pans, oatmeal containers, buckets, wooden spoons and drums sticks.

The students, and even a few enthusiastic teachers, had a great time making "music."

 A few girls put the materials to another use...they were making "soup" instead of music :-).


Snowy Easel -
Another super-easy, but oh-so-pleasing sensory activity...shaving cream on the easel!

Colored Tape Art-
Several weeks ago, the children worked with black electrical tape to create works of art inspired by Piet  Mondrian. This week, I stumbled upon this TERRIFIC colored tape dispenser filled with rolls of colored masking tape. I set out paper and the tape and the children created art filled with unique lines and designs.

Snowball Targets! SNOOOOOW FUN!

We don't get snow in Southern California, and so if we want to have the experience of throwing snowballs, we have to make it ourself. We were a little concerned with letting the children go all out with an unbridled snowball fight, so with a bit of prep, we created the most exciting dramatic play thus far - SNOWBALL TARGET PRACTICE!

With the help of some coworkers, we strung several lines of string from the school wall to our patio overhang. I then hung targets from the strings. I varied the heights and the depths of the string for added challenge. We draped a sheet at the back to catch the flying snowballs and prevent them from smashing into the Art and Language table. A flat wall would work, too, but I was pretty sure that my director would not have appreciated the thump, thump, thump of careening "snowballs" hitting her office window!

To create a defined space, we laid tires along the edge of the space. We put chairs behind the chairs to create a viewing and waiting area. Of course, we provided winter wear such as scarves, mittens and fluffy hats to get into the winter mood!

We provided a large crate filled with "snowballs" (see below) and allowed 2 children at a time to stand on the bales of hay and launch their snowballs at the targets. We allowed each set to empty the crate. The children all cheered for each other when someone hit a target and all of the children helped in the cleanup each time the crate was emptied.

The enthusiasm for this activity was so high and all of the children (and many of the parents!) wanted a turn. I even saw a few teachers practicing their aim with the targets. We did have one teacher stationed at the center to keep everyone in a "festive" mood and to regulate the queue.

The snowballs are Ziplock bags filled with packing peanuts. I used strong clear packing tape to seal each bag into the shape of a ball. The targets are simply laminated construction paper. We had a snowman die-cut, so I added the snowmen for extra appeal and told the children that the goal was to hit the snowman.

This is by far one of the most exciting events we have set up on the yard (there are many exciting things that arise on the yard, but this one was intentional). It was a hit with the children, parents and teachers! The snowballs could also be used for a controlled snowball toss, or even a {monitored} snowball fight.

And so, WINTER has officially arrived in SoCal! Yippee!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Puffy Snow Paint

Prior to the major storm this week, our sensory/art project on the patio was Puffy Snow Paint (see recipe below). I mixed up a batch (it looked a LOT like Cool Whip), provided spoons for scooping, and offered the children the opportunity to make a snowy picture. I also added small jars of glitter to add some glitz to the project. This group is fairly active, and so I imagined a full sensory experience of using hands and fingers to spread the soft "paint" around. Funny enough, there was only one little girl who dove into the gooey mix with full gusto!

The boys diligently scooped and patted the paint with their spoons, ever so careful not to get any on their hands! One boy did give it a little taste, but discovered quite quickly that it doesn't taste nearly as good as it looks! 

The glitter was a HUGE hit with the boys and they did shake those little bottles with enthusiasm!

I don't think they started with an idea in mind, but they all decided that their pictures looked very much like mountains and volcanoes. And they did!

I hung their pictures up on our display line on Wednesday. That night, a massive storm (click to read that post) hit our city and cluttered our yard with over 30 garbage bags of debris! Our 3 sided easel was ruined, the patio was a MESS, trees were toppled outside the gates, and our "loose parts" were found everywhere around the yard. Lamp posts and traffic lights were snapped in half, but those little pictures were still hanging on the line the next day! Sparkly volcanoes and mountains survived! ;-)

RECIPE:

Mix 1 part school glue to 4 parts shaving cream. 

*Dries exactly as it is put on the paper! Looks fluffy, feels soft and dry.