Wet Sand vs. Dry Sand!

Today we started the day with the Touch and Feel Pool full of sand.  There was lots of exploring and digging for hidden treasures and animals.....and it wasn't nearly as messy as we imagined.  We talk about how one tiny a piece of sand is.....a grain....and how many pieces of sand there much be at the beach.  Millions and millions!  Probably a number bigger than all the other numbers we know!

Ms. Michelle was here today.  We started with the parachute to help get the wiggles out.  The kids had to listen to directions on how to move the parachute....slow or fast, up or down.  Then they walked in circles, while holding the parachute and moving it.  The last, and easily the favorite, was to take turns running under the parachute while our friends held it up.  Finger fun was a bunch of stations for the kids to rotate through.  There was picking up small bananas using tongs and feeding them to the monkey.  There was Fundanoodle pounding, and patterning, and sorting bugs using tongs, and matching colored pegs.....and individual letter writing in flour with Ms. Michelle.  Lots of fun things to choose from and the kids did a great job rotating and sharing!

Today's book was All You Need For A Beach by Alice Schertle.  There's nothing quite like a day at the beach.....and this book gives the perfect recipe for fun in the sun!  Plant a yellow umbrella in the sand, roll out a beach towel, and pour a glass of lemonade.  But wait....what's the most important part of a fun beach day?  You....of course!

We did some fun sand science today instead of art!  The kids all seemed to know how to build a sandcastle and the things that you would need to make it great.....but could we use just any kind of sand.  They all predicted yes.....until our experiment.  Sand that is dry doesn't stick together, so you can't use it to build.....and sand that is only wet on the bottom, or the top, also doesn't make a good sandcastle because only part of it sticks.  You need wet sand.....to get it to stick together enough to make a sandcastle.  After our experiment, we let the kids use tiny cups as buckets and build their own castles.  They had the most fun....and this was WAY more messy than we predicted!  But....totally worth it!