Today we practiced our fine motor and cutting skills with a fun fall tree craft project.  First, we gathered some construction paper in fall colors - red, orange, yellow, brown - and set to work cutting!  Once the kids had cut all of their "leaves" they got to take turns having their forearm and hand painted brown so they could stamp them down onto their paper for the trunk and branches of their tree.  After we were all washed up :) , we tried out a simple new technique... instead of having the kids glue on each of their leaves, they just sprinkled them onto their paper, and we placed a piece of clear contact paper over the top.  Glue is lots of fun, too, but this was fun for a quick result.  A fun way to focus on the changing season!

Our science lesson for today was called "Walking Water" and the kids got to see how water could move from one cup to another without us pouring it out.  We started with two different cups at the top, one cup filled with blue water (just for fun) and the other with plain, clear, tap water.  Then, we added a strip of paper towel in each cup, leading to an empty cup below.  For the blue water cup, that was it, we just had to stand back and watch a while.  For the clear water cup, we added a few drops of food coloring on the paper towel to see what would happen.

We discovered that since the paper towels absorb the water, they help move it throughout the towel.  And we also found out that the water moving through the paper towel "carried" the food coloring with it as it traveled.  We even got to see the colors mix and blend as they traveled to the lower cup.

And, it took a couple of days, but eventually we got to see the whole cupful of water "walk" itself down into the lower cups.  Pretty cool! :)