Every Day is a Chance to Learn: April 2016

The world around us is beautiful. If we slow down our footsteps and take a moment to enjoy the beauty around us, we will realize that there are wonderful colours in our surroundings. The different shades of green in the leaves of the trees, the vibrant red and yellow ixora flowers commonly found in our neighbourhoods, the vivid blue skies on a clear day and if we are lucky enough, we may even witness the beauty of a real rainbow! Inspired by the fascinating colours of nature, here are a few things C and I have done that involve rainbows!

Prism Experiment

This experiment is a great way to understand how rainbows are formed. Basically light travels in straight lines. However, when it passes through a denser medium like glass, it can be bent. When white light passes through a clear glass prism at a certain angle, it can be dispersed into colours of the spectrum from the longest to shortest wavelength -> red, orange, yellow, green blue, indigo and violet.

A similar scenario occurs when a rainbow is seen. When sunlight passes through raindrops at certain angles, the light from the sun is dispersed into the various colours of the spectrum.

Here, I have used an old lighting cover that is made of glass. Technically, we will need to use a glass prism like this. However, when experimenting around with the glass cover, we realized that if the light from the torch is shone at the correct angle, we were able to disperse the light into the different colours and achieve a tiny rainbow (as shown in the images below). C was thrilled to observe this and can now comprehend how a rainbow is formed!

A tiny rainbow!

Rainbow Cake

The other day was C's uncle's birthday, and she wanted to make a birthday cake for him. After some discussion, we decided to go with a fun rainbow cake! We used a really simple recipe that we had learnt at C's baking class, and it's pretty foolproof. Here are the ingredients:

- 75g flour

- 75g sugar

- 9g ovalette (it's a cake emulsifier)

- 3 whole eggs

- 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

- 68g melted butter

- food colouring

Step 1. Place the flour, sugar, ovalette, eggs and vanilla into a mixing bowl.

Step 2. Mix on medium speed and once all the ingredients are mixed relatively well, bump up the speed to the maximum your mixer can go. Mix on high speed till the mixture is light yellow in colour with a thick consistency. Remove bowl from mixer.

Step 3. Gently fold in the melted butter with a spatula.

Step 4. Measure out cake mixture into 6 equal batches and place in separate bowls.

Step 5. Add food colouring to each bowl to get red, yellow, orange, green, blue and purple. You can mix the colours to achieve the secondary colours. E.g. Red + Yellow = Orange, Yellow + Blue = Green, Red + Blue = Purple

Step 6. Pour cake batter into baking pans and bake at 180 deg Celsius for 15-20 minutes.

Step 7. Remove from oven and let cool before frosting the cake.

C was thrilled to help mix the colours into the
cake mixture!

We used Wilton Cake Pan Set for easy layers!

Rainbow Birthday Cake done!
C was a great help with the sprinkles!

Rainbow Craft and Activity Worksheet

Download writing worksheet here.

Download here.

Make Your Own Rainbow!

This is a fun activity to learn the colours and sequence of the rainbow! Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet! C had fun cutting out the coloured arches and applying glue to create her own rainbow! The focus is always on the process rather than the result.

C happy with her rainbow!

Writing Worksheet

Some writing practice.

Density Experiment with Colours!

This experiment explores the different densities of water and oil, while utilising colours to show the movement of the salt, water and oil. You will need:

- Clear container or glass

- Water to fill at least half of the container

- Oil

- Salt

- Food Colouring

Step 1. Pour water into the clear container.

C helping to set up the experiment.
1st step, pouring water into the bottle.

Step 2. Pour oil into the container. Observe that the oil floats on water as it is less dense.

2nd step, C pouring the oil into the bottle.

Oil settles on top of the water as it is less dense.

Step 3. Drop food colouring into the container.

C adding the food colouring.

The food colouring settles together with the oil
on top of the water as well.

C adds more colours in. Almost all the colours of the
rainbow: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Purple.

Step 4. Sprinkle salt into the container. Observe the salt as it carries the food colouring into the water. It falls into the water and brings some oil in together. As the salt dissolves into the water, the oil floats back up.

C sprinkles salt into the bottle. The salt
falls in, and carries the food colouring and a bit of the oil
down into the water as salt is heavier.

When the salt dissolves into the water, the oil that
was carried down floats back up to the top of the water.
This movement moves the coloured water around.

Appreciating the movement of the oil and water
via the colours!

It's like watching a beautiful rainbow dance
as the salt, oil and coloured water move around
within the bottle!

Recommended Books about Rainbows!

Meanwhile, here's a list of C's favourite books that talk about the colours of the rainbow!

What Makes a Rainbow? by Betty Schwartz
A cute story about a little rabbit discovering the colours of the rainbow. As you flip through the pages of the book, ribbons of colours appear!

Let's Look for Colors - Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
A lift-the-flap book where Mickey and his friends look for things of different colours of the rainbow to bring to a picnic!

Esther's Rainbow by Kim Kane & Sara Acton
A book about a little girl named Esther who sees a rainbow one day. After it disappears, she starts searching for it through the days of the week.

I hope you all enjoy the rainbow fun activities above, and let us all appreciate our beautiful and colourful world! :)

C is big into learning new words every day, and she loves counting! Today, she requested that we do some art and craft, and we came up with a Math and Word Felt Board. Here are the details:

Math and Word Felt Board

There are four components to this felt board:

1. How Many Ducks Are Hiding?

2. Count the Apples on the Tree.

3. Make a Ladybug.

4. Match the Words.

I've made a printable for the words that can be matched to the various items on the board. The printable also includes the ducks, ladybug, tree and apples as a guideline for you to trace onto felt.

1. How Many Ducks Are Hiding?

Here, we started out with 6 ducks, and C counted them all. While C closed her eyes, I placed a green piece of felt over 3 ducks to hide them, and asked C how many ducks were still visible. After she had answered, she had to decide how many ducks were actually hidden. This was a visual way of showing her how subtraction can be done, and she grasped the idea pretty well. We switched around with the number of ducks visible and hidden, and it was a fun way for C to learn math!

Using green felt as grass, I hid a few ducks
and had C count how many were hiding.

Switched the number of ducks hidden.

2. Count the Apples on the Tree.

We started out with 5 apples on the tree, and since they are made of felt, they can be moved around on the board easily. We pretended that some of the apples fell to the ground, and C had to count how many apples were left on the tree, and how many had fallen. Another fun way to do math!

One apple had fallen here.

Counting the apples!

3. Create a Ladybug

C wanted to create a ladybug from felt. So we drew the outline on felt and cut it out, while she helped with the black spots and the googly eyes. We then decided to make the legs using pipecleaners. C remembers that insects have 6 legs, and she counted them as she attached them on.

6 pipecleaners as legs for the ladybug.

C attaching the legs on the ladybug.

From our previous animal classification activity, C remembers that a ladybug is classified as an insect, with 2 antennae, wings and 6 legs. Amazingly, she also recalls that it is an invertebrate! Kids really have an awesome memory! :)

4. Match the Words

You can download the printable, laminate and cut out the words. Attach a small piece of felt behind each word, so your child can read and match the word to the correct part of the board.

Matching the Words!

Meanwhile, here are a few other word games we have played:

Boggle Junior (for ages 3+)

This is a great game for our preschoolers to learn spelling. C had loads of fun playing this, while learning at the same time!

C even had fun stacking the letter dice!

Find the Animal and Unscramble the Words!

Here's a fun activity that is a little like a treasure hunt, but instead of looking for treasure, we are looking for animals! I've made a printable with various animal footprints, and the animal words that can be cut out and scrambled. The game is to hide the animals, and place the matching animal footprints around the house leading to where they can be found. Your child is then asked to unscramble the letters and form the correct animal word.