Measuring and Sorting in Water (Part 1)...

For the next five days our Mother Goose lesson will be focused around water.  I decided to make Wednesday a water day, so the kids did a few experiments while they explored in the water and played.  On Thursday we will do more activities inside around these topics...

 First the kids worked on a lesson of sorting in water.  I told the kids to pick pieces of nature to add to the pool to make it look more like a lake or a pond...

 Then we threw in our foam shape manipulatives that Mother Goose provided for us this month.  We pretended the foam shapes were bits of trash.  We discussed the importance of not littering in a lake or any part of nature for that matter. 

  Next, Mother Goose provided each child with their own pair of tweezers...

I also set out different sized strainers and a net...

 I asked the kids to sort the trash from the pieces of nature they collected.  They felt empowered knowing that could help animals if they pitched in a little to help wherever need be.

 Next, Mother Goose provided us with a white string and washer for measuring the depth of different sized containers.  I set these containers out near the pool along with a few plastic rulers.

 I asked the kids to first predict which container they thought would be the deepest.  Most of the kids guessed right regardless of the width of the white container.

 Our final experiment was with ice cubes!  I dumped a huge container of ice cubes in the yard and asked the kids to guess what they thought would happen to the pool water if we added all the ice cubes.  A few of the kids thought the pool water would freeze, but most of the kids guessed the ice cubes would melt.  The kids LOVED this!  They got so excited!

 The kids thought it was crazy when the ice cubes stuck to their fingers!

 When the ice cubes started to melt they called them their "babies."

 I thought this was so interesting.  I watched as N added ice cubes to the sides of our teeter totter airplane.  He wanted to see if he could balance two ice cubes on each side.  He wondered which side would melt first, and if both sides would still be balanced after they melted.

 This was our book for the day...

 Here are some fun random photos...