Feeling bubbly,
Dan DeMarco
Today the Anglerfish got hands-on with a fun new craft: handmade bubble blowers! The premise was simple: take an old water bottle, rubber band an old sock to the end, then soak the sock in soapy water! The idea was to blow through the bottle to make a whole bunch of bubbles! The kids wanted to try this immediately. We prepared our bottles, then rushed outside to make our bubbles. Instead of sending a bunch of bubbles flying everywhere, the blowers created a snake-like mass of microscopic bubbles. This was a fun experiment with an unexpected result! We'll be sure to tweak this project further when we revisit it in the future!
Feeling bubbly, Dan DeMarco
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This Wednesday, as we hid from the Book Fair, we decided to start up our new weekly activity: yoga! Our amazing yoga instructor, who is also a new recruit for preschool ASP, has been wonderful enough to agree to teach yoga to the Anglerfish every Wednesday! Hopefully the ASP-ers will embrace the inner peace and tranquility our new programming will afford. Namaste!
Dan DeMarco Today saw yet another Thursday baking project with today's seasonal snack: pumpkin muffins! Pumpkin is still seasonal, right? The Anglerfish got to work making our batter and frosting. Some chose to color their frosting while others left it a classic white. We were able to experiment a little to see which food coloring work best with our frosting. The results were tasty. We're getting good at this!
Pumpkin'ed up, Dan DeMarco Today the Anglerfish led a science experiment: the creation of lemon volcanoes! We cut a bunch of lemons into cups and added baking soda and food coloring for an explosive result. The baking soda and citric acid from the lemons created a frothy and colorful eruption. Luckily we had paper plates to contain the mess. This was a fun project that got a bit zanier than we had prepared for! But it turns out the Anglerfish love to make lemons explode. Who knew?
Blasting off, Dan DeMarco We had a surplus of cantaloupe in the kitchen this week, so today Alex led the Anglerfish in the creation of a frosty homemade treat: melon ice cream! We blended up the cantaloupe for the kids and let them add berries and food coloring. The result: a gooey concoction that resembled a smoothie more than ice cream. But we rolled with it! We experimented by putting one mixture in a plastic bowl, and another mixture in a hollowed out cantaloupe rind. Then we popped them in the freezer overnight. The next day, we took the frozen goop and shaved it into bowls to create an icy, fruity treat! There wasn't a noticeable difference in taste between the red stuff and the blue stuff. But it was a fun experiment nonetheless! And it was great to see one of our sixth graders come up with and lead an ASP project. Seeing the Anglerfish come into their own as leaders and makers is what this job is all about!
What a great day! Dan DeMarco We took advantage of our indoor recess today and made puppets out of pipe cleaners! The idea was to create little pets for your fingers out of craft supplies, but the project soon took on a life of its own as the Anglerfish applied their usual blend of creativity and ingenuity to it! Using a limited resource palette consisting of pipe cleaners, pom poms, and googly eyes, the Anglerfish made all kinds of creatures! Watching this project evolve to include cats, snakes, and ghosts was awesome to witness! I'd definitely call this a success!
Feeling good about this week, Dan DeMarco Today the Anglerfish took part in an ASP science project! We used glue, food coloring, cornmeal, and Borax to create homemade bouncy balls. We converted the kitchen into a makeshift lab and mixed our ingredients to concoct a colorful, slimy goo. Alex was quick to point out that using corn starch instead of cornmeal would have made the stuff less bumpy. Mental note for next time! Once the goo had been drained (ick) and molded into balls, we wrapped them in plastic to retain their shape and threw them into the fridge to congeal (yuck). The result: bouncy balls! Some kids experimented with the amount of cornmeal or Borax that they used. Some tried to blend different colors together to make multicolored balls. This activity definitely let the Anglerfish use their gifts of experimentation and creativity to create something that they can play with! Success!
Feeling bouncy, Dan DeMarco And we're back! The Anglerfish wasted no time in getting reacquainted with Willowwind, and we had a day full of sledding, snow angels, and snowmen! The cold weather has done nothing to stifle the spirits of the makers at ASP. These kids are indomitable!
Feeling frosty, Dan DeMarco Today the ASP kids cooked up another sweet treat! This time, a batch of chocolate cookies with Hershey Hugs! We divided into two teams: Team Cookie Dough and Team Hershey Hugs. The cookie dough team started work immediately on assembling the dough. After the dough chilled for an hour, we were able to make or cookies and place a Hershey Hug on top of each one. The result was a batch of chewy chocolatey cookies with a gooey cookies-and-cream center. Delicious! The Anglerfish happily devoured their project. We made enough to give the rest of the staff at Willowwind a cookie as well. Everybody wins! And just like that, winter break is upon us! It's been an amazing experience creating with the Anglerfish this year. Already they've poured so much of themselves into this program through their wacky spirits and creative energy. I can't wait to see what these kids bring to ASP in 2016!
Happy holidays! Dan DeMarco |
AuthorDan DeMarco is the K-6 ASP Coordinator at Willowwind School. He graduated from the University of Iowa in 2014 with a BA in English. This is his second year at Willowwind. Archives
February 2016
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