Math Catapults

Mini catapults made from a wooden clothespin, wooden block and elastic are so much fun! They take practise and perseverance to learn to manipulate and can easily be used as tools in games. 

We used the catapults with a grid today to encourage number writing and adding. 

The children used the catapults to fire a foam circle at the scoreboard, record their points, and then add them together to see who had the most. 

The children were highly motivated to try and get their foam circle to land on high numbers; they knew the person with the most points won the game. 

Later on in the day the children wanted a more challenging game board. They wanted some areas to be worth zero points and one special spot to be worth a lot. The largest number we could brainstorm was ten million! 

What a fun game! We are going to try using an alphabet grid next. 

Exploring Chemical Reactions

The children have been very interested in dropping coloured water and making their own mixtures and potions. Today we offered white vinegar coloured with food colouring and trays of baking soda. The children used the droppers to drop vinegar onto the baking soda. 

They were surprised to notice an immediate chemical reaction as the two substances interacted. They observed the changes with their eyes, smelled the reaction with their noses, and heard the bubbling and fizzing with their ears. We discussed how scientists can make observations in many different ways and by using all their senses. 

As more colour was dropped the baking soda bubbled and fizzed together mixing the colours into interesting swirls and shades. 

Any activity using droppers also strengthens fine motor control and perseverance as the droppers take practice to manipulate. 

We look forward to trying this again with the primary colours!

Fine Motor Perseverance

The children practised their fine motor skills today by manipulating pompoms using chopsticks. This is a tricky skill; many children have never experienced chopsticks before and using them successfully requires patience, practice, and perseverance! These are the skills we have been discussing with the children in order to help develop their growth mindset. 

Math naturally emerged as many children sorted the pompoms in the trays!