Mama’s week in review – letter W

We. Wet (lots of rain this week). Well. Water. Wash. Wish. Want. Wail. Wonder. Wipe. Wild. Wind (very windy, lost some siding on our house). Wiggle. Wagon. Went. Walk (some beautiful warm days). Words. Weather. Window (opened!). Workout.

Bible Story – Jesus heals the paralytic. Cutie Pie was intrigued by this Bible story and thought it was so neat that the paralytic’s friends would carry him and drop him through a roof to meet Jesus. I don’t think he understood the whole healing part, but it gave me the opportunity to talk to him about wheelchair-bound people as We’ve seen several people lately who are bound to Wheelchairs. We did talk about the faith the friends had and what it must have been like for the man to get up and Walk after not having Walked before.

Play Science- The boys Were really into their Hot Wheels cars this Week and one day I found them pulling out their Boomwhackers to use with them. They started out just leaning the Boomwhackers up against a basket next to one another and sending their cars down the ‘tunnels’ and seeing whose car won. Since the Boomwhackers Were different lengths the cars never came out at the same time. Cutie asked why and we talked about how the lengths were different and how that affected the incline. He remembered us doing a bunch of things With inclines before and Was excited about this answer! By the end the kiddos had lined up the ‘tunnels’ With one inclined and one setting on the floor but with their ends meeting and they were experimenting to see which car would go the farthest out of the tunnel! (fine motor, grasp and release, imagination, science)

Science Experiment – We actually did three Wet experiments, two involving balloons.

Experiment #1 – We did a Wet experiment with a balloon, vinegar and baking soda. We took a dry 20-oz plastic bottle and placed about 1/2 cup of vinegar into it. In the balloon we placed about 1 tablespoon of baking soda. We then placed the balloon carefully onto the bottle, so as not to spill the baking soda into it yet. With Cutie Pie holding the bottle, Sweet Pea then raised the balloon and gently shook it to make the baking soda fall into the bottle and We Watched the balloon inflate. The kiddos loved this so We did it several times! What happens? The vinegar and baking soda combine and give off carbon dioxide, which takes up more space than air and fills up the balloon! Please be careful if you do this experiment as the balloon could pop! (observe, contrast, compare) I found this experiment on Amazing Preschool Activities although we didn’t let the rocket fly like in the experiment.

Experiment #2 – We cleaned the bottle and placed another balloon on it. We then placed the balloon into a bowl of hot Water and the balloon inflated (although slightly). Then We placed the bottle into a bowl full of ice cubes and the balloon deflated. We talked about hot air taking up more space than cold air. Of course, my kiddos love playing with ice cubes and Water, so this led immediately to our next experiment…(observe, contrast, compare) I’ve seen this and experiment #3 on several blogs and science websites lately, although I neglected to write any of them down. When I find them I will update this with links.

Experiment #3 – Which is heavier? Water or Ice? Simply dump the ice into the water from the above experiment. Does the ice float? We expanded on this simple experiment and talked about what happened to both the ice and the water. Did the water get colder? Did the ice get warmer? Did the hot water make the ice hot? Of course, we had to do this experiment several times, too!

Throughout the rest of the week we did lots of wet things like washing our toys with water, water coloring, spraying colored water onto paper (that’s how we made our letter of the week! I just used food washable paint watered down and put it into spray bottles and let them go at it.)

The beginning of the week was beautiful so we opened our Windows and played outside with bubbles and after it rained We splashed in Water puddles. We Went swimming in the Warm Water at the Y. At the end of the Week we had a lot of Wet rain and lots of Wind. A good week for W!