The Very Lonely Firefly

For our study on "Investigating Light," one of the books we read was The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle. 

After reading the book, we made fingerprint fireflies. Using yellow paint, we made fingerprints on black construction paper. Then, after it dried, we drew in the details. Here is an example of the one I made.

We also took a piece of cardboard and poked holes in it. Then, we turned off the lights and shined a flashlight through the holes to make it look like fireflies lighting up.

The kids really enjoyed this unit, especially when we turned off the lights to make shadows and paint with glow in the dark paint!

Bulletin Board Ideas

Here are a couple of the bulletin boards we have up outside the classroom. The first one focuses on our transportation unit. There is some of the children's work posted. It was a project where they had to tell how they come to school, by bus, car, truck, etc. and then cut out that vehicle and glue it on the paper. I also added some strips of paper that have objectives listed that relate to what the children learned and on the outside, I posted some photos from our wrap-up celebration of our study when parents were invited to come and race remote control vehicles with their children. 

These are our patterns we made using different color light bulb cutouts for our "Investigating Light" study. As you can see at the bottom center the one that is all blue, one friend got creative and decided to cut out and glue on his own light bulb. Although he didn't create a color pattern with it, I felt that it was worth displaying as he took it upon himself to extend the activity.

I like how both of these turned out with the bright colors. I felt that they really stand out!

Playing with Light and Color Patterns

Snugglepuppy and I have been playing with different apps that allow you to create with light. I will list the ones we have found that we like that are free.

Android:

1. KidsDoodle

This app is lots of fun. You can draw or write with many different brushes including the ones shown in the pic above. You can change the background color, undo and redo brush strokes and the really fun part is you can watch a video of how you made your creation!

2. RotoDoodle

This app is a digital version of a spirograph. It is fun to play with. You can choose the size, color, and pattern. We decided to look for an app like this after buying a spirograph from the dollar store for Snuggle Puppy's prize box and then realizing that it requires a lot of hand strength and hand eye coordination. He's not quite ready for it yet, but this one is much easier to work with.

3.Magic Brush Box (Kaleidoo)

This one is similar to the last spirograph type app. The difference is you can control more of the factors on this one. You can change the type of brush you use and you can draw your own pattern instead of choosing a pattern that will just keep repeating. This app is by the same people as KidsDoodle and you can do the video of how your created your drawing on this one as well.

4. Glow Spin Art

This app is so fun to play with. It spins and you put your finger or stylus on the screen to make spirals out from the center. You can change the speed at which it spins, the size, color, and shape. You can also stop the spinning to take a closer look at it.

Ipad or Iphone

1. Art of Glow

This app is kinda like fireworks. Wherever you touch the screen, shapes explode out everywhere. You can control the shape, color, amount of shapes, size, length of time they last, speed, blink speed, and whether they will renew or burn out. Kids love this one. You can stare at it for hours!

2. Forge of Neon

This is by far my favorite one. You can make patterns in symmetry of 2,4,8,16, or 32. The picture shown above is with 16. Then you can also choose your shape and color. The best part about it, is your pattern is 3-dimensional. You can pinch and zoom, use 2 fingers to move the image on the screen, or use 3 fingers to rotate the image around. It is very interesting to play with.

Hope you found some apps you will try that can be great for teaching math concepts to your kids!

Thinky Linky Thursday: Are you afraid of the dark?

I have been letting the baby play with flashlights and tonight, we were in his playroom and I turned off the lights and realized we could have a little fun as most of his toys light up. He thought it was pretty funny. Anyways, there are so many activities you can do with children in the dark using flashlights and other things that light up. For example, for younger children, even babies, they may not understand that they are controlling the light beam coming from the flashlight. Allowing them to explore and make shadows is a great way to help them understand what light is and how it works. Using different color lights or laser pointers can also be fun and help them identify colors.

You can even talk about prisms and how light splits apart for older kids. Have a campout in a homemade tent to start your adventure and let the discovery begin! And for some gross motor, you might want to add in a game of flashlight tag.

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