It has been a while since i last wrote as we have taken time out of the sand pit and traveled to Norway for some hands on winter experiences. It was a great trip. We chose Oslo of all places because it gave us the opportunity to visit interesting museums (which have superb activities for children and encourage practical learning) as well as it is surrounded by forest, which means we could explore cross country skiing, sledding, falling snow and connection with the nature, all in the distance of half an hour with the public transportation. It was a first time for my son to skate as well as to ski. He loved opening his mouth waiting for the snowflakes to fall in. He adored the 15′ track with the sled and was giggling with extreme joy when snowball fighting.
We are back now and following the calendar, it’s still winter, therefore until the end of February our daily activities will still be within the winter theme. Our latest sensory winter activity was painting on ice.
Couple of days ago, i added in a recipient water and coins of 1 Dhs and coins of 50 fills. Certainly you guessed, my intention was to touch on the maths concept of whole and half while combine it with vocabulary, sensory, science and art.
I presented my son with a trey of different paint colors, the ice recipient and invited him to play, as he wished. While he was paining on ice i asked him to remember how we first filled the recipient with water and put it in the freezer. As a result, we now have ice. We talked about how water changes from liquid to solid, introduced the concept of density, discussed at what temperature the water freezes and how the ice started melting. The ice was becoming liquid again and now, water mixes with the paint, gaining color. He learned water does not have,itself, a color. I got a separate glass of clean water. He compared the two.
As usual, he left the brush after a while and experienced the paint on ice with this hands. I took this opportunity to introduce the term “antonym”. The ice is cold. Cold is the antonym of hot. They are opposites. He seemed to easily grasp it.
Once he finished paining, we added some more water and froze it again for a future activity.
So much learning in such a simple and enjoyable activity!