Books
We borrowed two volcano books for our letter V day. I could tell that both kids were absolutely engrossed in each of these! An Island Grows was a wonderful book with simple text for preschoolers to comprehend. I had my doubts about whether or not the true story of Pompeii would be appropriate for them. But in the end I decided they could handle it. We discussed ahead of time that this is history, a true story that happened a long, long time ago. Honey Pot asked many questions throughout the book and at the end actually said, "That's amazing...but horrible." So I knew she understood. And I put her fears to rest by reiterating how far science and technology have come since then, in detecting active volcanoes. So glad we read both of these books!
Letter Recognition Activity - Scissor Skills
I've been trying to give them a different letter recognition activity each day. Today I drew straight and curved lines on the letter V for some scissor practice. Both kids did a great job.
Science - Creating a Volcano
We did the classic baking soda + vinegar experiment today! We had done it during Honey Pot's letter V unit as well, and it is always such a hit with the kids. We took the playdough we recently made for our duck pond small world, and turned it brown. Then the kids wrapped it around a mason jar. We filled the mason jar with warm water, 2 TBSP of baking powder and a couple drops of dish soap. We also added some orange food coloring for the lava that was about to pour out of it!
This was a great exercise in turn-taking for the kids. Little M&M poured the vinegar and we saw the first explosion!
Then Honey Pot had a turn. Note they had already grabbed a couple of dinosaur toys to play with.
They made the volcano erupt again...and again...and again...
I loved watching how much they enjoyed this!
When we had run out either vinegar or baking soda (I can't remember which) they decided to make a sensory bin out of it. They started by reaching their hands into the volcano...
then pouring out its contents and squishing the wet playdough around.
The play when on still for quite a while, but I put my camera away when things got messy!
