In the Kitchen for Preschoolers - Part 1

Ever since they were little, both my kids were, like most kids, very attracted to the kitchen. They stacked bowls, nested measuring spoons, banged on pots and pans and whisked air. This week, I thought I'd bring Adrian back into this world for an entire unit on foods and culinary items. The topic was broad, so broad it could easily have been broken up into several mini-units but hey...we had plenty to talk about to say the least! ;)

Density of Liquids with Kitchen Items

Who likes science experiments? Adrian sure does. This one involved a funnel, a whisk, food coloring, measuring cups, various liquids and lots of muscle strength. It was perfect for our "in the kitchen" theme but it would be perfect for a "rainbow" theme too! Anyone needing St.Patrick's Day science experiments? ;) 

To make this beautiful yellow, green, blue, purple, yellow, orange and red glass, you will need:

yellow dish soap

blue food coloring

water

canola oil

red food coloring

rubbing alcohol

The step-by-step "recipe" for this amazing density of liquid experiment can be found at birdandlittlebird. This is where I originally saw the idea and simply had Adrian follow their directions to make our glass above.  At 4.5 years old, whisking, pouring down a funnel, measuring and such is easy enough. The hardest part was trying to pour slowly down the funnel so as to not disturb the layers. The layers moved a bit as he poured but they stabilized later as the picture above shows! :)

Sandpaper Letters & Beginning Letters of Food items

A basket of foods and sandpaper letters...Now being that it was later during the week, I didn't have food to cover all the letters but you could easily cover them all. Date, eggplant, orange, strawberry, etc. Even play food could be used in lieu of the real thing. I just preferred Adrian feeling the real produce.

Printmaking with celery

So far this year, we've made prints with various stamps but also with apples during "Apple Week". It's always been a hit. This week, I brought out a celery foot after seeing a similar picture to the one above on Punchestown Montessori's Facebook page. This beautiful rose was just something too good to pass, especially with Valentine's Day approaching! :) Being that it was done with a celery, I felt I could fit this art in our "kitchen" theme. Now, our rose prints would have looked better if my husband wouldn't have broken off a "petal" prior to our stamping but oh well... ;)

Adrian's printmaking results - I would totally wear that if it were a pair of white jeggings!

Matching Sounds with Water Glasses

This idea came about after I realized I would never, ever, buy the matching bells for Adrian or Zahavah because they are just so costly for the amount of work we'd do with them. I started thinking I needed to replace this work with something else to get Adrian to handle sound discrimination and immediately thought of musical glasses. Our theme being "in the kitchen" this week, it was just perfect timing. This first time around, I put out only 3 glasses (with their twin) filled with very different amount of water in. I made sure they each made a distinct sound by using the wood pencil. The tray was then covered up and prior to presentation, I explained to Adrian that he would be blindfolded and told him how we would proceed with the pencil tap and the matching. He did great and matched all glasses correctly. He felt so proud when I removed the blindfold seeing all glasses matched perfectly.

Counting Chocolate Chips

Don't these look yummy? I made these out of beige and dark brown felt last year. When I finished them, my son actually thought they were real cookies (how sweet is that?). This year is the first year I actually put them out as a school material though. Adrian had to count the chocolate chips (from no chip to 10 chips) and put them all in a row. Towards the end, it gets difficult as the chips are close together but he managed just fine. I saw this very tasty idea on Counting Coconuts's blog. Although Marianne does not blog anyone, it is still worth a visit; she has/had the greatest ideas and inspired/inspires my units greatly.

Baby Chef Adrian back in 2008 -  Enjoying a Kitchen Themed Day was "slightly" different than today



Today, I'm linking up to:

and No Time for Flashcards