Deirdre, Author at JDaniel4s Mom

Deirdre Smith writes/owns JDaniel4’s Mom. After twenty years as a elementary school and technology resource teacher in Northern Virginia, she became a stay at home mom in upstate South Carolina. Her blog features ways she and her 5 year old are exploring learning, crafting, creating healthy meals and living life to its fullest. Deirdre can also be found on twitter as @jdaniel4smom and on her blog's FB page. You can also check her out on Google+.

Sight Word Christmas Tree

November 29, 2013 By Deirdre

Sight Word Christmas Tree

Being able to build a sight word what you have learned to read is important to building an understanding of the word’s sounds and letters. Recently JDaniel and I sat down to build a sight word Christmas tree.

We started by cutting out the trunk and four tiered levels of green for the Christmas tree with green and brown paper. The tree was then glued to a piece of black construction paper.

I had gone through JDaniel’s current list of sight words and created Christmas tree balls with the letters to build several of the words. I didn’t try to create letters for just the number of words needed to fill the tree. Letter balls were created that would build many of the words on his list. JDaniel would get to select what words he wanted on the tree. Each group of lettered Christmas balls was placed in its own silicone cup so, he would be able to locate the letters he wanted easily.

Sight Word Christmas Tree

When all the letters were laid out, JDaniel started building. It was really hard to decide if A or I should go on the top of the tree. He suggested I make a start for the tree featuring the one letter word not selected later on.

Honestly selecting what words to display was harder than trying to spell the words. He can read so many sight words now. The list seems to get longer and longer each week.

We didn’t end up using all the lettered Christmas balls. It looks like we will need to do this activity again. I am totally open to filling the front of the refrigerator with sight word trees. What fun it would be to see all the words JDaniel can read. He is so excited about reading and learning new words. Did I tell you that he has read several books all by himself? He is thrilled when he comes across one of his sight words in a book. It is like finding an old friend.

If you have an emerging or early reader, I think they would love to create a sight word tree too. You might also like the activities pinned on my Learning to Read board on Pinterest

Thankfulness and Joy

November 27, 2013 By Deirdre

When the Indians taught the Pilgrims how to grow maize and live the new land they had moved to, I believe the Pilgrims were filled with thankfulness and joy. Recently JDaniel and I went to Roper Mountain Science Center’s colonial garden. The weather was warm and sunny probably nothing like the November the Pilgrims had. The master gardeners were getting the garden ready for winter and JDaniel happily helped them out.

He spent 30 minutes or more plucking seeds out the wheat grass pods. The master gardeners praised his willingness to work so hard for so long and suggested in consider being a junior master gardener. JDaniel’s chest welled up with pride. He loved hearing that he was good at seed removal. One the gardener decided he needed a reward for all his work. She showed him where slugs are hiding in the drains around the garden. JDaniel helped her gather them with such joy. Slimy creeping creatures may not be something everyone likes to deal with. Sticking his fingers in the the drains to grab a slug or two at a time filled my son will such joy!

The slugs were placed in a can and JDanel was guided to the chicken coop. He pushed the slugs through the fence and the chicken rushed over with thankfulness and joy. It was like they were having their own Thanksgiving feast a few weeks earlier. Some of the other children gathered around the pen wanted to know what he had done to get the opportunity to give the chickens slugs.

After feeding the chickens, we moved on to an area where feed corn was set out for people to take the ears off the cobs. Just has he had with the wheat grass seeds JDaniel start in on the corn with vigor. We both noted that there were various techniques for taking the corn kernels off the cob. There was the twist the cob to get a row of kernels off at a time. There was the flick off one kernel at a time. Finally there were the push it off one row at time.

We had the best time at the farm. There were lots of smiles, giggles, proud moments. I am not sure the Pilgrims or Indians giggled during their Thanksgiving feast. This Thanksgiving I am am giggling as I remember those moments of pride, our joyful smiles and the chickens clutching slugs in their beaks like they were the best food in the world.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This post is linked to Mama’s Losin’ It and Mrs. Matlock.

Science Kids- Exploring Turkey Basters

November 24, 2013 By Deirdre

Playing with kitchen tools and water has been a favorite activity at my house for years. JDaniel used to play with a tub of water while I made dinner when he was little. Now that he has started school there hasn’t been as much time for it. Science is something we can talk and learn about while playing with water. Just last week JDaniel said he had some great ideas for exploring a turkey baster in a roasting pan filled with water. All I need to do was take pictures and listen to his ideas. “This would make a great blog post,” he told me. I decided he was right. I think your science kids will love exploring with turkey basters too.

There are many ways to press on the bulb and make water squirt out I was told. You can press your fist into the bulb with all your might and water will rocket out of the baster.

The bulb can be placed under your chin and squirt the water into the turkey baster. I tried this and found that I didn’t have strong neck muscles. (There must be some exercises I do to get better at this.) It was fun to try though.

This next exploration was fine for our house, but won’t work in a classroom. JDaniel put the tube of the baster in his mouth and blew through it. He was able to create tiny bubbles in the bulb.

When you fill the bulb with water and then squeeze, water will squirt wildly out of it. We found that pressing on the bulb with your thumbs causes the water to fire out the fastest. I also learned to stand back a little.

This was the most innovative turkey baster exploration. JDaniel stuck his thumb up into the bulb to see if water would still flow out of it.If you give your children the opportunity to explore water and fun tools to explore it with, they will come up with fun and innovative way to explore. My science kid loved exploring turkey basters.

You will find more science experiments for your science kids on my Early Learning- Science board on Pinterest. If you are looking for another Thanksgiving science activity, I think you will like our Thanksgiving Science Sink or Float activity.

Science Kids: Dyeing Corn Experiment

November 22, 2013 By Deirdre

We wondered if we dyed popcorn on the outside if the popcorn would be the same color as the outside of the kernel was or would it be white? We also wondered if the dye would seep into the inside of the kernel. These seemed like great questions to find answers to right before Thanksgiving. The pilgrims and Indians are said to have had corn at the first Thanksgiving. Popcorn is made from corn right?

Popcorn was placed into three bowls that already contained a little bit of vegetable oil. JDaniel used a measuring cup to add popcorn kernels to the bowl. Then he used a spoon to stir up the mixture and coat the corn.

When the kernels looked very well coated, JDaniel added food coloring to each cup. We were running low of the red food coloring so, that bowl didn’t get the same amount dye as the others. The mixture in each bowl was then stirred up.

The directions I had read for dyeing popcorn said to add white vinegar to the mixture. We added only a dash to each bowl. Neither of us had any idea what it would make the popped popcorn kernels smell like. We did know that the bowls smelled a little stinky. Maybe it would have been better to put the mixtures into a plastic zipper bag. The bag would have sealed the smell in.

The bowls were set aside overnight in a closed cabinet so, the smell would be contained. We ended up being busy the next day. The mixtures ended up sitting for twenty four hours before we took them out of the cabinet. When we took them out we noticed that the outsides of most of the popcorn kernel were tinted the color of the dye that had been soaking in.

We should have set the kernel onto a paper towel and patted them dry. We didn’t do that. Instead JDaniel scooped up the kernels with a slotted spoon. Most of the liquid dripped off of the kernels, but enough was left on them to make the bag a little bit drippy and messy.

When the kernel had been fully loaded into the paper bag, we folded the top over twice and placed the bag into the microwave. The microwave was set for two minutes and thirty seconds. We watched and listened to bag of corn kernels as they rotated around in the bag.

After the buzzer on the microwave went off, I took out the bag. I thought it would be too hot for JDaniel. There was a slight pink tint on the walls of the microwave. I guess the red corn kernels decided to share their color with the walls. The wall cleaned up quickly with a wet sponge!
Popcorn Dyeing Experiment

The warm bag was placed into a bowl that JDaniel carried to the table. We were both excited to see what the contents of the bag would look like. Would the popcorn be red, green and blue?

I dumped the contents of the bag into the bowl. The puffy section of each kernel was white. The area the white puffs curl around in the center of the puff was still the color we had dyed it.

This led us into a wonderful discussion on surface area. We talked about how the surface area (the outside) of the popcorn pops open and the inside of the kernel becomes the outside. It was fun to see how this happens. Being able to see the remnants of the outer surfaces dyed color really helped JDaniel see that.

It also gave us a yummy afternoon snack tinged of vinegar flavor on it. We added melted margarine and some salt to cover that flavor a little bit.

Dyeing Popcorn turned about to be a wonderful pre-Thanksgiving science experiment. It would be fun to do any time of year I bet.

What book did we read before exploring this science kids dyeing corn experiment?

The Life and Times of Corn. Actually, we read and reread this book. JDaniel was fascinated by corn facts shared in the book.

The Life and Times of Corn cover everything you might want to know about corn. There is a diagram of the plant and all is sections. Different types and colors of corn from about the world. (Who knew there is pink corn!) Ways it was popped through out the years along with ways it is served around the world.

There are so many interesting facts and illustrations it is no wonder that we had to read it several times.

I have decided to ask you to link your posts to the Read.Explore.Learn. Facebook page instead of running a link up. I hope you will stop by and share your children’s book related activities there

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Advent Calendar Ideas – 25 Blessings

November 20, 2013 By Deirdre

25 Blessings Advent Countdown Activities for Kids

Every year my sister Shell sends my son an Advent calendar with chocolate pieces tuck behind its tiny doors. He loves it. JDaniel looks forward to hearing scripture verse behind each door while he is enjoying a piece of milk chocolate every morning. Why not come up with something special for us to do in the evening each night during Advent I thought when the box delivering this year’s Advent calendar arrived. That is when the seed of thought for the Advent activity 25 Blessings started to grow.

I had to think through what I wanted our family to do for our 25 blessings and if it needed to be something beyond offering prayers of Thanksgiving. After thinking about it for awhile, I decided that I would offer up an area or person for us to be thankful for and a list of ways we could show our thanks for that area or person in our lives.

My family has been blessed in so many ways this year along with having many challenges. This year my husband lost his job and went back to school. I searched and searched for a job and found one at a wonderful school in early November. JDaniel started kindergarten and found going to school five days a week full time wasn’t something to dread.

We have been blessed with an amazing family, friends and church that has supported us with prayers, listening ears, and emotional support through the challenges we have encountered with all those changes. They have truly helped us is make it through this year.

There have been troubles with an aging house and cars. Thankfully our immediate family is aging well. (My husband did back issues earlier this year, but it is much better.) Both our mom’s had health scares early in year and seem to be much better now. JDaniel’s fall allergies seem to have disappeared and only his spring ones remain.

Why did I tell you all this before sharing my list? I thought it might help some of the things on my list make more sense.

Advent is truly I time for us remember those blessings and be thankful.

Here is the list of advent calendar ideas or blessings and the day we will be rejoicing and remembering them:

Grandparents health
Births in our family and our church
Family returning from job assignments overseas
Good doctors and healthcare
Wonderful teachers at school
Learning to read
Wonderful coaches in soccer class
Our home
Clean Clothes
Kind neighbors
Friends to play with
Good food to eat
Cars that get us where we need to go
Awesome resources available at the library
Police and firemen that keep us safe.
Clean water to drink
Being able to freely worship
Allergies that seem to be lessening
Opportunity for my husband to learn a new SQL Server Database and Programming
Job for Mom (me)
Wonderful parks to explore and play in
People who remember our family in prayer
Words of encouragement and lessons from the Bible
Amazing friends
Memories of loving and laughing as a family

Here is my list of ways we can celebrate our advent calendar ideas or blessings:

Make a baked good to take to a person on the list we are thankful for.
Draw picture to send to a person on the list we are thankful for.
Send a prayer of thanks
Donate some toys in their name to Miracle Hill
Donate books in their name to the local library
Take food to the food bank
Call a person on the list and give them thanks
Invite a person on our list to do something with our family
Look for someone during the day to do something kind for just as we had kind things done for us
Send a card or e-mail to family remember sharing something we are thankful or to give them thanks
Read a bible verse that talks about that area of thanks
List five things that make that area or person special
Share a special memory about that area or person
State a lesson you have learned from that person or event

You could easily adapt this to your family. Simply sit down and make a list of things you are thankful for or have blessed you. You will have 2 areas or people in no time at all. I tried to include things in the following areas:

Immediate family
Extended family
Health
Neighbors
Community helpers
Church members
Events that happened this year
Ways our basic needs have been met

Then all you need to do is come up with ways you want to rejoice in those blessings or advent calendar ideas. You are more than welcome to use our list of ways.

I printed out our blessings and ways to celebrate onto an envelope and index cards. They could have simply been written out.

Will you join me in this Advent activity of counting down 25 blessing?

{Five Little Turkeys} Stick Puppets and Rhyme

November 18, 2013 By Deirdre

Five Little Turkeys Stick Puppets and Song

Have you ever sung the song the Five Little Turkeys with hand print turkey puppets? If you haven’t you, really should. It really is a lot of fun. We did it recently at our house. We put this activity together, because JDaniel loves the Halloween book Five Little Pumpkins .When I clear out the stuffed animals on his bed, I usually find the Five Little Pumpkins under one of them. Finding a Thanksgiving song that was similar and making puppets became a mission of me.

On a pretty day last week, JDaniel and I made turkey hand prints on our deck. I had to be careful not to tickle him as I applied the paint. After a few JDaniel sized turkey had been created, it was mine turn to make a couple. I think he did a better job of pressing his hand down to make a print then I did. I made a few extra turkeys so we could decide which of mine were the best five little turkeys.

We were so fortunate to have warm day. The turkey dried quickly. I think the fact we used washable paint on white drawing paper helped too. Construction paper and acrylic paint seems to take longer to dry. When they hand prints were dry, we added beaks and feet.

Then they were ready to cut out. We also cut out twelve by eight pieces of cardboard from cardboard boxes in our recycling box. The cardboard would be used to make the turkeys a little bit stiffer. A colored popsicle stick was threaded through two horizontal slits I made in the cardboard.(I didn’t think the popsicle stick glued between the hand print turkey and the cardboard would stay in place.

The hand print turkeys were glued onto the cardboard pieces and then cut out. It was a little tricky cutting through the cardboard even though it wasn’t that thick.

When all five little hand print turkey puppets were done. We worked on the rhyme. It was easy to learn its words. Holding the turkey was a challenge. We found that JDaniel needed to hold some and I need to hold others or we needed a tool to help us. The tool we found that worked the best was a chip clip. Two or three turkey could be attached to chip clips and the clips’ handles could easily be held by two hands.

The side of the kitchen table with a white sheet over the back door was a wonderful stage for the five little turkeys to bob up and down and say their rhyme from. We also found the end of the end of a bed and the railing of the deck worked too.

After singing the son a few times, JDaniel took the Thanksgiving decorations of our living room mantle and create a play with the five little turkeys. It was truly amazing.

Here is the Five Little Turkeys rhyme we used:

Five little turkeys standing at the door,
One waddled off, and then there were four.

Four little turkeys sitting near a tree,
One waddled off, and then there were three.

Three little turkeys with nothing to do,
One waddled off, and then there were two.

Two little turkeys in the morning sun,
One waddled off, and then there was one.

One little turkey better run away,
For soon it will be Thanksgiving Day.

If you have the opportunity to make hand print turkey puppets, you may want to think about having them say a Thanksgiving rhyme. Five little turkeys on stick puppets and a Thanksgiving theme rhyme are just plain Thanksgiving fun!

12 Wonderful Building Toys For Kids

November 16, 2013 By Deirdre

There is something wonderful about a pile of building materials being transformed into a building, tower, track, or bridge that a child has imagined in their mind and then created. When JDaniel was really little I started scouring yard sales and consignment sales for building toys. I wanted him to have wide toys to create, build, and display creations he pictured in his mind. My sister handed down several building toys to us that JDaniel loves. Those that I still wanted for him and didn’t buy used or inherit I bought new. Having a variety of materials that could be used on their own or combined was something I wanted him to have.

When I was little, a had a wide selection of building toys. Many of them I have pictured below. I didn’t build quite the same things JDaniel does now, but I had a great time playing with them. There was something magical about the building. There were a lot of homes, towers, and palaces created at my house. JDaniel loves to build water parks, fortresses, and walls. I love to work beside him and add to his structures or create some of my own. I still love to build towers.

If you have a little builder or would like to encourage a child in your life to build, you will want to look at the various building toys below.

Mega Bloks First Builders Big Building Bag with Big Building Blocks, Building Toys for Toddlers (80 Pieces) – Blue Bag are big and easy to handle cousins to Legos. We were given a set of them by a lady from church. While they are great for stacking. The fact that they can swivel a little has been great for building bridges.

Melissa & Doug 100-Piece Wood Blocks Set is another favorite from my childhood. We had a big set of wooden blocks. JDaniel has a smaller set than I had. Standard blocks require a little more planning than the Mega Bloks and Bristle Blocks. They don’t have the ability to stick or clamp onto other blocks. Building the standard wooden blocks means thinking about balance and position. This is one of those toys for kids that will also work on science skills.

Marble Genius Marble Run Super Set – 150 Complete Pieces + Free Instruction App & Full Color Instruction Manual was on JDaniel’s Christmas list last year. He loved playing with a marble run that children of some friends of ours had. Aunt Kate asked him what he wanted for Christmas and this is what he asked for. I love the planning that needs to be done as the run is being built. If you want the marbles to make it down each path on the run, you have to make sure each path feeds into another that leads to the bottom.

PlanToys Plan Preschool Creative Blocks, 35 has wonderful bolts, and screws that hold the building, vehicle, or totally new creation in place. Children have to use fine motor skills to put their ideas together.

Magna-Tiles 32-Piece Clear Colors Set, The Original, Award-Winning Magnetic Building Tiles for Kids, Creativity and Educational Building Toys for Children, STEM Approved allows children to build with magnets. Magnets fascinate my son. He loves the power they have to hold things in place. These wonderful tiles not only create wonderful structures they also allow children’s creations to glimmer in the sun due to their transparent surfaces.

LINCOLN LOGS-Collector’s Edition Village-327 Pieces-Real Wood Logs-Ages 3+ – Best Retro Building Gift Set for Boys/Girls-Creative Construction Engineering–Top Blocks Game Kit – Preschool Education Toy are one the toys my mom bought for her grandchildren to play with at her house. JDaniel loves to try to replicate the houses on the outside of the can. Honestly, I find them a little challenging, but he sticks with them until they are done.

TINKERTOY 30 Model 200 Piece Super Building Set – Preschool Learning Educational Toy for Girls and Boys 3+ (Amazon Exclusive) is another toy I had when I was little that I wanted to JDaniel to have. I love the fine motor work that is down while you place the sticks in two wooden disks. They create wonderfully transparent buildings and towers.

LEGO Classic Medium Creative Brick Box 10696 Building Toys for Creative Play; Kids Creative Kit (484 Pieces) blocks are my nephews’ favorite toy. They have many large kits and zillions of blocks. We have a small collection. It is just big enough to build small creations with.

Meccano Erector Super Construction 25-in-1 Building Set, 638 Parts, for Ages 10+, STEAM Education Toy has been around for years. I think my dad may have even had a set. JDaniel noticed these lately and would love to try them out. They are for older children, but he loves the types of things he has seen that you can build with them.

Innovation First Hexbug Hive Playset is on JDaniel’s wish list for his birthday or Christmas. He has a Hexbug Habitat already and a number of Hexbugs. He loves to create and recreate the areas the Hexbugs roam in.

There are many different building toys for kids on the market. You simply Google building toys and dozens come up. I have tried to narrow down the list of construction toys to ones that we have had first-hand experiences with. We have loved or are playing to love playing with each and every one of them.

Do you have a favorite building toy or do your children?

Turkey Craft and a Thanksgiving Book

November 15, 2013 By Deirdre

We have a large supply of magazines at our house to look through and search for pictures in. Recently we searched through the food related magazines for pictures we could use to create a food full turkey. It was a little challenging to find large pictures of food. Why large pictures? I had created feather templates out of an old cereal box that was the size we were going to need to make the turkey’s feathers for our turkey craft and they were pretty large.

Putting Together Our Thanksgiving Craft

Turkey Craft and a Thanksgiving Book - Cutting Pictures

We flipped through a number of magazines to find large pictures. Thankfully I had picked up several cooking magazines from the laundry room in my mother in-law’s apartment complex last time we visited her. They are filled with pictures the size we needed. (I had fun just looking through them.)

Once a collection of pictures had been torn from the magazines, the cardboard feather template was placed on the pictures one at a time. JDaniel traced the outline of the cardboard feather onto the picture and then cut the food picture feather out.

Turkey Craft and a Thanksgiving Book - Feathers

With a pile of feathers ready to glue, the turkey body, and its elements were cut out. The eyes, beak, and waddle were glued down onto the turkey’s triangular body. Once JDaniel had finished getting the body together, he added the feathers. A little glue from a glue stick was placed on the bottom of the food side of each feather. Then it was placed on the back of the turkey’s body with most of the feather sticking up past the turkey’s body at an angle.

Turkey Craft and a Thanksgiving Book - Adding a Face

When all the feathers were in place, the turkey was glued onto a large piece of construction paper and declared done.

When people see the food filled turkey, they will probably notice how pretty he is. They won’t know how many wonderful skills JDaniel used to put it together. He had to search for large pictures, trace feathers and cut them out. He had to determine how much of the feather should be glued to the back of the turkey and how much to have displayed. Deciding how to arrange the feathers also needed to be done. A food full turkey craft provided the opportunity to work on a variety of skills.

What would be a good book to go with this craft?

The link below is an affiliate link.

Turkey Craft and a Thanksgiving Book - Silly Tilly's Thanksgiving Dinner

Silly Tilly’s Thanksgiving Dinner is a really wonderful Thanksgiving story. Silly Tilly passes out what she thinks are invitations to her Thanksgiving dinner. They really are her food recipes. Boy, is she thankful when she finds that her friends have all decided to bring food of their own to share?

We love books with happy endings at my house. This book had us a little worried as we read through it. A sigh of relief was almost audible when we discovered that the book had a happy ending.

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I Am Grateful for Family {21 Days of Gratitude Challenge}

November 13, 2013 By Deirdre

I am participating in the 21 Day of Gratitude Challenge Hop hosted by Inspired by Famila. Today’s theme or focus is gratitude for family. I am truly fortunate to have a loving and supportive family. When someone is in need or needs support, my family rallies around them. I saw that happen when my brother-in-law was sent to Afghanistan last year.

Charles headed to Afghanistan right after Thanksgiving last year leaving my sister Catherine and their two children behind. We send cards and care packages to my brother-in-law as well as gifts for my sister and the kids. It was so important to remember them and show them they were important.

I Am Grateful for Family {21 Days of Gratitude Challenge} - Carrying Flags

We held my sister, brother-in-law and their kids in our prayers. I didn’t always know the specifics of what to pray for, but we handed over prayers knowing that God would hear them and send the answers that were needed.

A couple of weeks ago JDaniel and I went to our local veterans memorial to help plant flags in the ground. There was a number of local newspaper and television reporters present. Each went around asking the various groups present as to why they decided to come to the memorial to help to plant flags. I told them what I had told JDaniel on our way over to the memorial. We came to remember those who served our country by getting their memorial ready for Veterans Day and that we have two veterans that recently fought for our country overseas.

I Am Grateful for Family {21 Days of Gratitude Challenge} - Field of Flags

The event organizers were so impressed with all the work JDaniel did that day. He helped plant flags when we first got there. Then he moved on to distributing flags to those who were using stakes create holes to place the flags in. Finally, he helped me by holding my collection of flags to be planted so they won’t touch the ground. JDaniel worked for over two hours.

I Am Grateful for Family {21 Days of Gratitude Challenge} - Veteran's Day Quote

When we left that day, we both felt like we had done something special. It was truly special to look back and see the field filled with flags knowing that we had planted some of them as a tribute to those in our family who have served.

The Gratitude Challenge runs from November 1st- 21st. Each day one or two bloggers will be sharing an encouraging quote focused on being thankful, grateful, kindness… They will also share an activity or share their 21 Gratitude moment. Stop by and visit their website on the date listed below to read their Contagious Gratitude story or activity.

Here are the lovely bloggers and each day they have posted:

Nov 1st. – Mari at Inspired by Familia – Day One Girlfriends are necessary…
3rd Devany at Still Playing School Day Three- In Memory of Violet (Hold your little ones a little longer)
6th – Kim at The Educators’ Spin On It Day Six – I Am Thankful For You Chocolate Bar Wrappers & Craft (free printable)
7th Kristina at Toddler Approved! Day Seven – Parenting Challenges: I am Grateful for the kids who are the hardest to love.
8th – Amy at The Connection We Share Day Eight – Before I Tuck Him In – Teaching Gratitude
& Bits of Positivity – Gratitude for New Adventures… In Parenting
9th – Jane at Mama Pea Pod – Day Nine –How the Magic of My Kids Kept Me Alive
10th Jen at Mum in the Madhouse – Choose Happiness
& The Eyes of a Boy Remembering the Loss, Thankful for the Present
11th Melissa at Mama Miss Thankful FREE Print & Thankful Jar
12th Jen at Plain Vanilla Mom
13th Annette at Tips from a Typical Mom
14th Natalie at Learning with Mouse
15th Carla at Preschool Powol Packets
16th Giselle at Kids Yoga Stories
19th Ariadne at Positive Parenting Connection

20th Jen Farr at Kitchen Counter Chronicles
21st Jen Fischer at The Good Long Road

Thanksgiving Science Activity – Sink or Float

November 12, 2013 By Deirdre

There are so many fun objects associated with Thanksgiving. JDaniel and I took some outside to explore in his water table on a beautiful fall day last week. The focus of this Thanksgiving science activity was sink or float. “Which of these objects associated with Thanksgiving are going to float and which of them will sink?” I asked him.

What objects did we use for this science activity?

Turkey cookie cutter
wire whisk
pumpkin shaped silicone cup
plastic napkin rings
metal measuring cup
small squash
plastic measuring spoon

Thanksgiving Science Activity- Sink or Float

It was interesting to see what sank and what floated. One type of plastic napkin ring sank and one floated. The silicone cup without water in it floated. When it was filled with water, it sank. Several things we thought were the heaviest and would sink did. The metal measuring cup and squash sank right away as did the wire whisk.

He played for awhile and I just enjoyed watching him test out objects and enjoy water play.After giving JDaniel time to play with objects in the water, we talked more about his findings.

I asked him the following questions:

Did the color of the object matter?
Does material the object made off matter?
Did having a hole in an object help it float or sink?
Does it matter if the object is solid?
Will an object that allows water to follow through it sink or float?

Doing This Science Activity in Other Settings

While JDaniel and I were together for this experiment, I think that leaving the objects out at the water table as an invitation to learn would have been fun too. In a classroom setting I think children would talk amongst themselves about what they were finding. Exploring sinking and floating would be wonderful in a variety of settings.

My Insights

I love talking through science experiment outcomes with JDaniel. It helps him understand what he is understanding about science and his thoughts on what we are doing in general. There is just something wonderful that happens when we are together exploring concepts. This Thanksgiving science activity on sinking and floating allowed for that.