Hilary's Home Daycare & Preschool - Hilary's Home Daycare & Preschool

Tapioca Sensory Play!

2/15/2016

We are exploring dyed tapioca pearls in our sensory table today! A completely edible version of water beads although, would you believe, not even ONE of the kids tried putting these in their mouth this morning?! After finding an extremely wide variety of cooking instructions, I decided to just be completely random and I cooked 3/4 cup of pearls in 2 cups of dyed water for each color. It seemed to work out perfectly! We added a bit of water to the tub for play, and it took away all of the stickiness and made for a fantastic sensory play experience! Aren't they just beautiful?!

Hilary's Home Daycare & Preschool -- Tapioca Sensory Play

Pouring Station

1/21/2016

We set up a pouring station today and had so much fun with it. Great practice for an important life skill and a fun way to exercise critical thinking skills, eye-hand coordination, self-regulation, and spacial awareness too!

Cotton Ball Sensory Science

1/14/2016

The kids really loved this sensory exploration this morning. SO simple to set up, too! Just a tub of water, and some trays of colored water with cotton balls in them. I added tweezers at the last minute as an after thought, and it was a definite hit! Whether using the tweezers or their fingers, it was a great fine motor activity, with scientific aspects (absorption, displacement - when they made big splashes, which brought big giggles, too!), and a great opportunity for expanding vocabulary (I heard words like darker, lighter, full, empty, splash, and lots of color words, too).

Vinegar & Baking Soda on Ice

1/7/2016

We are trying out a new twist on an old favorite around here today: colored vinegar and baking soda in ice! The kids love the chemical reaction, as usual, and the ice gives it all added depth and texture.

Hilary's Home Daycare & Preschool -- Vinegar & Baking Soda on Ice

Science of Sound

1/6/2016

We are experimenting with sound this morning! Scooping and pouring dry noodles into containers made of different materials. We are having fun noticing the differences between the glass, plastic, ceramic, and metal containers of differing sizes and shapes.

Gourd Volcanoes!

10/21/2015

Excited to see how the kids explore this mini pumpkin/gourd volcano setup this afternoon! Gourds, seeds, baking soda, and colored vinegar...should be fun!

Sensory Experience - Oats

9/15/2015

Need a safe sensory material for a group of toddlers who still like to explore new things with their mouths? OATS are a great option! We have been enjoying scooping, dumping, pouring, piling, sprinkling, pinching, sifting, and measuring oats this morning!

Outdoor Fun with Cornstarch & Water

8/10/2015

Hilary's Home Daycare & Preschool - Fun with Cornstarch & water

We had some big messy fun with cornstarch & water outside this morning! A great sensory activity, and science lesson, too, since the mixture creates a "non-newtonian fluid" which has properties of both liquid and solid.

Hilary's Home Daycare & Preschool - Fun with Cornstarch & water

Hilary's Home Daycare & Preschool - Fun with Cornstarch & water

Hilary's Home Daycare & Preschool - Fun with Cornstarch & water

We are going to enjoy every last bit of summer weather!

Ice in the Water Table

8/6/2015

We added ICE to our water table yesterday...a whole new batch of discoveries!

Bubbles

5/8/2015

Hilary's Home Daycare - Catching bubbles hand/eye coordination, visual tracking, relational mathematics terms, surface tension science

One of my favorite hand-eye coordination/visual tracking exercises: BUBBLES!!! Also great for relational mathematics vocabulary like smallest & biggest, and of course the science of surface tension! Plus, isn't there just something so magical about bubbles?! :)