3D Shapes in Playdough

Dec. 10, 2013

A fun and simple way to help reinforce 3D shapes.

All I had to do was give Seth some playdough and access to pictures of 3D shapes (we have posters hanging on the wall above the table). Then I just sat next to him and helped him get the shapes right: 

It was a bit difficult for him to shape the playdough correctly, but I was there to help. It was a good way to help him physically feel the different shapes and how they were the same and different. 

Color Wheels, Air Pressure and 3D Shapes

November 7th, 2013

I decided to let Seth have a little more control over some of the things we did at school, and, of course, he picked some of the fun science experiments! First up was a color wheel using colored water and paper towels (blame Blogger for the crooked picture). We set it up and let it sit for a few hours to see what would happen: 

A few hours later the empty cups were full and we had some new colors on our wheel! Seth recorded the new colors and wrote down his favorite colors (pink and purple). 

We also did a fun experiment with air pressure. The kids LOVED watching the bottle spray water all over the place as the balloon deflated.  

We also started learning about 3D shapes. After introducing the shapes to Seth, we had a good time making some 3D shapes out of toothpicks and marshmallows. Then we went on a shape hunt around our house! This was a great way to reinforce that a circle is not a sphere and a square is not a cube (which is really confusing at first): 

This was a lot of fun, but it sure was hard to find anything pyramid-shaped in our house!