Ms. Amy's Blog @Child Central Station

  Eruptions are always a hit around here, so with the warmer weather we decided to spend some time melting some snow with our colorful snow volcanoes! First, we gathered some snow to created our volcanoes. Then while the children chose their squeeze bottle, I sprinkled baking soda on the snow...... The squeeze bottles were filled with vinegar, water, and a couple drops of food coloring.  The perfect combination of erupting fizz!!! (You can also add a bit of dish soap for a bubbly fizz). After the children melted their volcanoes, they decided to just add color to the bin of snow: Although the parking pad has melted, our yard is still full of piles of snow and we are expected to see more snow fall this weekend.  We sure did enjoy the thaw and the sunshine today though! If you enjoyed these eruptions, you might also enjoy some of our other explorations with vinegar and baking soda: Preschool Chemistry Giant Volcano More Than Just Volcanoes Blowing the Cork Have you been playing outsid...

We're up to it again! We finally had enough snow to put in the luge run for this year :).  Our design this time around is different from last time , but I think it is just as fun. Our son, Dane has been busy learning a bit about making movies and using technology to document his learning, so today, he compiled a few of the videos and photos from our first day on the luge- ENJOY!

I remember hearing at some point, at some training....  I think it may have been one presented by Dan Hodgins .... "Every child needs enough sand to dig to China" I'm here to tell you that children also need to be able to dig to  China, Antarctica, or EVEN AUSTRALIA, in the winter months too! Around here, our winter months provide more than enough snow for the children to dig. It is our job to continue to provide them with the tools to dig, dig, dig! So make sure to have your rakes, shovels, buckets, and "scoopers" ready in all seasons! If you'd like to see some of our summer fun with digging, you might want to check out these posts: More Sand Sandbox Pendulum Why Did You Move the Toys? AND... Don't forget!!!  We're participating in the Heart Project- A fundraiser for the American Heart Association: AND..... You still have a couple of weeks to link up your favorite painting activities on...

If you have been following this blog for a length of time, you know that we LOVE outdoor play, and one of our favorite outdoor activities is to cook in our mud pie kitchen! However, our wonderful mud pie kitchen as shown above, looks nothing like that photo today.....   Mud pies aren't really an option when the ground is frozen and most of the kitchen is covered in snow! That doesn't stop us from playing in our outdoor kitchen, you see.... Now we don't have a "mud" pie kitchen, but instead, we have a "snow cake" kitchen! Many of our tools for our kitchen are burried in the snow, but these lovely molds are PERFECT for snow cakes! The sun and warmer weather (almost 40 degrees Fahrenheit today!) have made our snow quite pliable and thus we have the perfect ingredients for snow cakes! The perfect snow cakes are packed with lots of snow!   The change in season and natural materials lend themselves nicely to expanding upon childre...

We had our third snow day of the year today! Unlike a few nights ago, when it was well below zero, today was much warmer. The snow that keeps falling is heavy and sticky! It is perfect for sculpting, rolling snow balls, and building forts. A question was posed on my Facebook wall today : "What "tools" do you make available for the children to use?" I'd love to give her more input, than just my own. What is your favorite thing to do in the snow?  Please join in on the discussion. You can: 1) Post a comment on my Facebook Wall 2) Post a Comment Here OR Join the Snow Day linky Party!!!! Do you have a GREAT idea of how to play in the snow?

It is midnight, and the temperature is negative 2 Fahrenheit. Most people are snuggled inside, many are sleeping. If you haven't figured it out yet, we aren't most people. Where are we? OUTSIDE OF COURSE!!!! The world around us is covered in snow, but we thought we would try to make some more.  Allan read or saw this idea a while back and we were waiting for just the right moment to give it a go... and well... tonight was the night! I apologize for my lack of ability when it comes to good night time videos! I hope you can still see how this works. You need to use extremely hot, boiling water. We brought a pitcher of it outside and poured a small amount into a glass. Then we sent the water flying high into the air... and POOF! It freezes and turns to snow in seconds! Now, I'm not a fan of extremely cold temperatures... but part of me CANNOT wait until we have temperatures this low during the day so that we can try this activity when the children are here! Another fun acti...

I'm still trying to regroup after our vacation and to de-clutter our home and classroom!   I'm sure I'll have new stuff to share soon, but until then... Here is one of my favorites from the archives!  I originally posted this last January. I'm sure we will soon have enough snow for our new and improved sled run!!! There have been some questions and discussion among some of my blogging/internet friends in regard to male involvement in early childhood settings. We have found, for the most part, the men in this field are far and few between. We have an amazing assistant caregiver here (and I'm not just saying that because he's my husband..... ) Mr. Allan. This past week has been nuts. Both Dane and I have been out sick for portions of it, and Mr. Allan has made sure to keep things on track for all of our little friends. In fact, this past weekend, while Dane and I were all snuggled up in bed reading books and watching movies he was outside shoveling the pi...

We've been busy. I try to share a glimpse of what is going on regularly, but sometimes it seems like there is just so much more to share! Tonight, I'm going to give you a few quick photo updates! We are still going full force with our fort building . The children have been working hard on their indoor forts, but have also begun to work on plans for some outdoor building. The prospect of spring being right around the corner does not look good. We have a five day forecast that includes wintry mixes and chances of snow. We had a lot of fun playing with our food again. We "painted" our waffles with a few drops of food coloring added to water. (Make sure to use new, clean paint brushes.)  Dane had a great time at the pinewood derby. His car "kept coming in fourth" (of four cars in the wolf division.) He was so excited to have a cool car and to receive a participation medal. He still isn't interested in making a car to win, he is much more interested in...

We had another beautiful, sunny day. The sun hit the sledding hill hard enough to render it unsafe for use, so we had to find other fun things to do in the yard. So, we decided to spend the afternoon exploring and creating art in the melting snow. We decided to bring out our cookie cutters to try them in the snow as suggested over at The Amazing Mess. The melting snow was a great medium to hold the shapes. We also brought out a bunch of  "snow paint" (Kool-Aid with water. Some people use food coloring, but we like to use the unsweetened Kool-Aid packages because they provide a brilliant color and wonderful scent.) I mixed each color in a separate large yogurt container. We also tried some more intricate snow painting as recommended by The Art Room Plant. We used some small pipettes, but also used large turkey basters. Both methods allowed for more control in the painting. Most of the children found the turkey basters to be much more intriguing than the sma...

A couple of weeks ago, Dane decided that every Friday would be fort day. Lately, every day has been "Friday" The children have been highly engaged in building and creating forts of all kinds... This week's warm weather melted the snow enough to make it sticky and fun to form. It was perfect for using our "brick makers" to build a fort outside! The unusually warm weather allowed us to stay outside for quite sometime, but also prompted a fresh set of clothes when we did come in! Melting Snow = Water! Of course, we couldn't come inside until we were happy with the progress of our fort. I anticipate that the children will continue to work on this project as the weather permits. However today we are expecting "FLASH FREEZING" which could put a damper on building for some time, but at least we were able to form our structure in plenty of time for dropping temperatures to firm it up for us! When "fort day" was declared, we first opted to cover...