Small Friends School News: Crystals and Snowflakes in the OC!

Learning about snowflakes and crystals made for a another fun super wintry week. Wait until you see the awesome crystal gardens we made!

With the help of a parent, the kids contributed all the right ingredients to make crystals grow. They scrunched up paper towels, sprayed them with water, and added color before a special salt solution was poured over the top.

As the liquid evaporated from the mixture, crystals literally began to "bloom."

By Friday, they looked like this! When we come back on Monday, they will be even bigger so be sure and come in to take a look.

The kids loved looking at them and made some really cool observations about what they saw.

Later in the week, we began creating a different kind of crystal and we are looking forward to how beautiful they will turn out. The kids chose a pipe cleaner and formed a spiral shape. Then they mixed a solution of hot water and borax. The pipe cleaner was suspended in the solution and crystals will quickly begin to form on it.

Over at the light table, there was more fun with crystals. The kids pushed crystal snowflakes into blue slime. The kids stretched, globbed, mushed, and smushed the slimy slime.

There were several other highlights around the room and the ball run might be the favorite! We rigged a series of gutters onto the loft and the kids loved dropping the balls in at the top watching them roll, roll, roll to the bottom where something or somebody caught them. So fun!

At the building table, pairs of mittens were scattered about and a clothesline was hung. The kids loved making mitten matches and using the clothespins to hang them.

We added film canisters to the water tub along with bears and letters. The kids loved filling up the little containers and fitting the canister lids on. We also discovered that not only do foam letters stick to the sides of the tub, but they stick on our faces as well!

Speaking of letters, we got in some more alphabet practice with lower case letters by playing the game Polar ABC. The kids chose a word and then fished for letters with a little fishing pole. After identifying the letter, they had to determine if that letter was part of their word.

At story time, the children listened to a story called Snip Snip Snow and then learned to create their own snowflakes. They folded coffee filters and snipped away at them. It's such a magical reveal when they open up the snowflake and see it! They are adorning our windows now.

We learned a new scarf song about a walrus doing his laundry and continued trying some slow and quiet yoga.

We turned the lights off to enjoy the book, Owl Moon, about a boy taking a special evening walk with his father. This led us into an awesome Friendship Circle where the kids shared something special they like to do with someone they love. We heard about walks after dinner, going to the zoo, going to Pump it Up and more. Whatever they shared, you could tell it meant something to them and it was very sweet to hear.