Magnetic Goo with Morah Cree

Magnetic Goo

 Morah Cree noticed how much the children enjoy building with Magna-Tiles. She found a recipe for Magnetic Goo and offered it to the children.

The children mixed iron filings, laundry starch, and school glue together. The goo was pretty messy, so Morah Cree put it in plastic bags.

To show the strength of the Magnetic Goo, Morah Cree challenged the children to see if they could remove a super strong magnet from the bag of Goo.

Morah Cree showed the children how to use the super strong magnet to make the Magnetic Goo move.

We put out the bags of Magnetic Goo with a variety of magnets. The children tried out different magnets on the goo, connecting and building with them. This offering became a popular choice in the classroom.

Thank you so much for introducing this to our class, Morah Cree!

Kitah Alef and their Ladybugs

Springtime announces the arrival of green leaves, blooming flowers and crawling insects. Our class received a shipment of ladybugs! Keeping live insects provides an up-close and hands-on learning experience with nature and science. 

The ladybugs are teaching us about their unique life cycle. When they arrived, we noticed that they did not look like the rounded, red and black ladybugs we know and love. They were longer and black and yellow striped. This is the first stage.

Every day at circle time we brought out the ladybug house to observe changes. We also gave them a few drop of water with a pipette. The children are learning about the needs of living things as well as a timeline for their growth.

Soon after arrival, our ladybugs began their metamorphosis by sleeping in little balls, similar to the way butterflies make a chrysalis. When they emerged, they had grown to be red with black spots!

Finally, the ladybugs were ready to be set free! We brought them to the playground and looked for a safe place for them - somewhere they could crawl around with plants to eat and where they would be in danger of getting stepped on. We settled on Morah Ruth's garden, where plenty there is plenty of green growth and protective sides. 

Bye, bye, ladybugs!

Art with Oil in Kitah Gimmel

The miracle of oil allows us to shine our candles bright throughout the days of Chanukah. The students at IJP were so lucky to dive deeper into the properties of oil by experiencing an Olive Oil Factory.

So captivated by the expert!

We can fry dough in oil to make doughnuts!

We love science! It allows us to explore, ask questions, learn cause and effect, and try some new things out. We also explored the properties of oil by mixing it with food coloring and water. But, did the oil actually mix with the water? What about the colors, do they mix up too? 

The oil floated to the top!

"So many colors!" - Elliot

"Oil will start a fire. It looks like a jelly fish!" -Parker
"It's turning into fire!" -Leora

"Yellow and blue make green, I love green!" - Asher

"I can squeeze just a little drop!" -Erez

"Will it stay in the oil?" - Orli

Total focus.

"It looks like a falling bush, beautiful" -Mason

"I like all the colors!" -Yonah

Now it's time for some science plus art!  Using a the simple components: a pan, cardstock paper, oil, and food coloring, we made colorful oil prints. First we added drops of color to oil using pipettes

The End Result: Colorful and beautiful

Stunt Pilot in KDH

A while back Emmett came in and told us that his grandparents were coming to town. He continued, telling us that his grandfather flies a plane. That certainly piqued our interest. Airplanes are always an interest in preschool. We spoke to Emmett's mom, Dania and set a date for Emmett's Ama and Daiday to visit us on their next visit, the day after our Thanksgiving Feast.

Daiday and Ama came in with a large bag that was full. With what?? We sat down, looked and listened. Daiday told us that he is a stunt pilot. He performs all sorts of unusual moves with his plane. First we were shown pictures of the plane with Emmett and his cousin sitting in it. We saw the gear that Daiday wears when he flies. Then Daiday showed us videos of the stunts he performs. Daiday held up a toy airplane. He explained how the different parts affect the ability to do the stunts. Blowing across a piece of paper we watched how lower air pressure caused the paper to rise - the Bernoulli principle used in flying. 

Finally Daiday and Ama gave each of us our very own plane to use outside AND another one to take home!

So that's why they had so much to carry into our classroom.

We went outside and flew our planes!!!

Thank you to Ama and Daiday for your interesting, well planned and generous visit!!!

Class Thank You card

Morah Ruth