W is for Watermelon and Weather


~Malachi is 4 years 5 months ~

We had a wonderfully long time with the letter W! Malachi had Challenger Soccer camp one week. We spent a week making trips to wade in the water at the creek and bike ride. This past week we managed to squeeze in a few more activities!


Scripture Verse: From Sing the Word A-Z
Wait for the LORD, be strong and take heart, and wait for the LORD, says Psalm 27, 14.


Books:
Weather Words and What They Mean by Gail Gibbons
What Will the Weather Be? by Lynda Dewitt


Activities:


Wading in the Water


Anything that naturally reinforces what they learn is education at it's best. :-)


Watermelon Seed Spitting
{This was a lot of fun to watch!}


Window Finger Paint
Recipe:
1 cup baby shampoo or mild liquid soap
1/2 cup cornstarch
Food colors

Mix in a bowl and divide into smaller containers (I used an ice cube tray). Then let your little ones paint on the window! I just love Mali's car! {You can see Eliana's creation here!}


{Rinse off with the hose!}


Math:
Watermelon Seed Counting
I made this watermelon math game out of foam sheets and made 20 watermelon seeds for counting. Malachi is not that interested in counting or math right now, so I counted with him. Then I showed him how we can count by twos to twenty. And that 20 can be made into 4 groups of 5 and then we counted by 5's. He is not really ready for this, so this is only for "exposure." He still had fun "playing" the game!


Science:
Weather!

From Weather Words and What They Mean, by Gail Gibbons, we learned what makes up weather :
  • Temperature (hot warm, mild, chilly, cold)
  • Air Pressure (high and low pressure)
  • Moisture (humidity, dew, frost, evaporation, water vapor, water cycle, clouds, rain, rainbows, thunderstorms, lightening, snow, flurries, sleet, blizzard, hail)
  • Wind (gusty, breezy, windy, gale, hurricane, tornado, air mass, front)
I made Malachi a weather wheel. Each day, he puts the clothespin on the correct weather for the day.
One thing we learned is that truly the weather is hardly ever the same from day to day!

Water Cycle Activity

I gave Malachi a cotton ball and had him pretend he was holding a cloud as he told me how it felt (heavy or light, soft or hard). Then I had him place his cloud over the water as I explained that the water from the lake is evaporating and that the water vapor is traveling into the cloud and will turn into water. And as it filled up the cloud (he dipped it in the water), I asked him how it felt (heavy) and I told him that once it gets heavy, it will start to "rain" because the cloud is too heavy to hold all of the water. I did not post our Go for the Code Activities update because I can't find it!! I'm not even sure if he completed the W lesson. We took it camping one weekend and now it is no where to be found! (Update: I found it! Now to get caught up!)



Malachi also helped me can butter, and pit cherries to make cherry jam! To see more of our alphabet fun, click here and to see what others are doing for preschool, click here!

6 comments

  1. I always love your preschool corner. You guys get up to so much, I have no idea how you do it all!!

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  2. The window finger paint looks really fun.

    I like the watermelon math too--great idea!

    Your water cycle activity is super!! You've been up to lots in all areas lately:-).

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  3. I love it all!!! Great and fun stuff. I especially liked the window finger paint. How fun. Have a great *W*eek!!!

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  4. WOW! What a great week, the painting looks like you had a great time!

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  5. The weather wheel is exactly what I needed to see right now!! :) The clothespin idea would work great...except I already laminated all the pieces...hmmmm...

    LOVE the watermelon seed spitting! Too funny!

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  6. Great week - you managed to do so much, and it's simply amazing. You found a lot of activities with Z - the weather wheel is a great idea. Unlike your climate, ours is mostly sunny all day long :)

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