paint mixing using contact paper

I got this idea from my son J's teacher, Ms. Katie (J attends the infant/toddler school at my center). 


It's genius!

All you do is sandwich paint between two layers of contact paper (sticky side down) and the children use their hands to slide the paint around until it's mixed. 

It is super easy to set up, and it's clean. Which is great for those times when you can't be directly supervising a messy activity. 

Chicago Skyscrapers

Here is a little bit of documentation from what is turning into our Chicago Skyscraper Project. It began with children building skyscrapers in the block area.

Later I brought out a bucket of wood pieces and set them on the table in invitation. The children began building their skyscrapers, but more, they began naming their buildings after skyscrapers specific to Chicago. After flipping through a coffee table book on the subject that I keep near the block area, the children began talking about other Chicago landmarks and attractions they had seen. So we painted the blocks and glued them together with our low-temp glue guns. 

The children (not all of them, some were content to just build towers) named their sky scrapers and we set them on a mirror. I offered some gems, rocks, and sea glass and they used these to create Lake Michigan, train tracks, and Lake Shore Drive.

Here are the "Corn Cobs" (Marina City), CNA Plaza, and the Metra train (It's not the "L", its a train on a bridge that goes to down town, the train that H's daddy takes)

Also labeled is the Willis Tower, Cloudgate, and the John Hancock. One child observed that the Willis Tower and John Hancock have two antennas, another informed us that it is antennae NOT antennas.

Their final configuration:

shape and shadow

I recently bought a few Petri dishes to display odds and ends in. I filled them up with various items the children are familiar with and placed them on the light table.

I so wish I had a better camera. The pictures came out so weird.

Items include buttons, a bubble wand, chain, wall hooks, bubble wrap, plastic rings, glass gems, keys, puzzle pieces, mosaic tiles, pine cones, sea shells, tile spacers, and Mardi Gras beads.