Earth Day History

Guilford County Schools ACES Program

Weekly Theme: Whimsical Water – Centers Activities

Art Center

Outdoor Water Painting On a hot summer day give your children outdoor paint brushes and buckets of water. Let them paint the sidewalk, walls, etc.

Sand and Sea Jar Fill a clear plastic bottle or jar with layers of rocks, shells, sand, and water. Encourage the children to shake the jar as you discuss how sand is formed over a long period of time from the grinding of rocks against other rocks and shells.

Swimming Octopus Art Heavy white paper, white tissue paper, black felt tip marker, glue and scissors. For each child draw a half circle on the white paper, let the children cut it out to make the bodies and use felt tip marker to draw on eyes. Then have the children cut eight thin strips out of white tissue paper and glue them on the back of the octopus body to make legs. Hang from the ceiling.

Starfish Draw a star fish on blue paper. Apply glue to the inside of the star fish shape and then sprinkle on dry oatmeal. Let dry and remove the excess.

Paper Plate Aquariums Give each child two paper plates with the center cut out of each. Have them glue blue plastic wrap to one of the plates, then glue sand, green construction paper strips (seaweed), small shells and small pictures of colored fish. Glue the second piece of plastic wrap over the top of this creation and glue the second paper plate on top of that. Punch a hole in the top of the two plates and string with fishing line to hang in front of a window or from the ceiling.

Handprint Crabs Paint the child's hand and place, right of center, on the paper with the thumb pointed straight up and the fingers to the right. Fold the paper in two at the base of the palm. When you open it up, it looks like a little crab with eyes and 8 legs!

Bubble Fish Cut out large fish shapes from white paper. In small containers add bubble solution with a small bit of food coloring, red, yellow, green, and blue. Have the children blow these colored bubbles onto the fish. Makes beautiful tropical fish.

Starfish 2 Using cardboard or card stock cut out starfish shapes. Then let the children glue Cheerios® on to simulate the receptacles.

Fingerpaint Octopus Let students put finger paint all over their hands (in any combination that they wish) then have them put a hand print on the paper. Next have them put another hand print overlapping the last but pointing in the opposite direction. The base of the hand creates the body of the octopus. The fingers make the tentacles.

July 2008 1 Activity ideas obtained from ACES staff and public domain materials Guilford County Schools ACES Program

Board Game Center

Go Fish – Kaplan, Bender, Edu-play Go Fish Maze –Bender Ocean Life Dominoes – Bender Addition Fish Game – Lakeshore Magnetic Fishing Set – Lakeshore 1, 2, 3 Fish! – Edu-Play

Building/Manipulatives Center

Under the Sea Have students create fish with their Lego® bricks.

Fish for Me Hide a small plastic sea animal in a tub of Lego® bricks. Time students to see who can find it the fastest!

Gears, Gears, Gears Under the Sea

Shimmering Water Rainbow Blocks

CATCH Kids® Games

Use your groups favorite CATCH Kids® Games this week. You can add a water theme to the games, such as change Dragon Tails to Octopus Arms.

Computer Center/Computer Lab

Beach Kids http://www.epa.gov/beaches/kids/index.html

Interactive Water Cycle http://www.epa.gov/safewater/kids/flash/flash_watercycle.html

Water Sense Game (like Pacman) http://www.epa.gov/watersense/kids/games.htm

Dramatic Play Center

Beach Scene Add towels, sunglasses, sand buckets, etc. to your home living center so that students can “play at the beach”!

Snorkeling Underneath the tables, tape the various pictures of ocean life. Drape blankets or sheets over the table. Children use bendable straws as snorkels and enter the water (crawl under the table) in small groups because you should never snorkel alone. Allow the group one minute in the "water". When they come out, ask questions about what they saw.

Seafood Restaurant In your dramatic play area set up a seafood restaurant complete with menus, plastic food, and play money. They can pretend to be waiters and waitresses.

Aquarium Stage Paint a box to look like an ocean scene (seaweed, coral, etc) Attach fish cutouts to strings. Have your children dangle these over the top of the box and act out different things.

Five Little Fish (flannel board finger play) Cut five fish shapes out of felt. Place the fish on your flannel board. As you read the rhyme below, let the children take turns "catching" the fish by removing them from the flannel board.

Five little fish swimming by the shore. One got caught, and then there were four. Four little fish swimming in the sea. One got caught, and then there were three. Three little fish swimming in the blue. One got caught, and then there were two. Two little fish swimming in the sun. Once got caught, and then there was one. One little fish swimming for home. Decided 'twas best to never roam.

Gross Motor Center

Fish, Fish, Shark This game is based on the game duck, duck, goose. The children are in a circle and one child walks around tapping the other children on the head saying fish each time until they say shark one time. This child then runs around the circle chasing the other child to see who gets back to the empty space first.

Sea Life Shuffle Sitting in a circle, give each child a picture of a starfish, jellyfish, seashell or crab. Call out the name of one of the symbols and the children have with that picture all have to run round the outside of the circle and back to their seats as quickly as possible. You can call out two names at once, or say the tide is turning to make them run the other way etc.

Sealife Limbo Have the children go under the limbo pole moving like different sea animals. (Example: walk like a crab, slide like an eel, etc.) Extension: As the pole gets lower have students figure out which sea animal would have the easiest time getting under, which is smaller, flatter, etc.

Fish Pokey Play just like the Hokey Pokey Put your left fin in, take your left fin out

You do the fishy pokey and you turn yourself around that's what its all about Put your right gill in, take your right gill out (etc.)

KidzLit ®

(K-3) Swimmy (3-5) Go Fish

Listening Center

A CD or tape of Whale Songs

Music Center

My Octopus Song - sung to "Three Blind Mice" Octopus, Octopus In the Sea, In the Sea To swim they use all 8 of their arms Their color changes to hide them from harm They live in the sea, not on a farm The Octopus

I'm a Big Whale - sung to "Clementine" I am swimming, I am swimming, I am swimming in the sea. I'm a big whale and I'm swimming, I am swimming in the sea. I am singing, I am singing, I am singing in the sea. I'm a big whale and I'm singing, I am singing in the sea. I am spouting, I am spouting, I am spouting in the sea. I'm a big whale and I'm spouting, I am spouting in the sea.

A Sailor Went to Sea A sailor went to sea, sea, sea To see what he could see, see, see But all that he could see, see, see Was the bottom of the deep blue sea, sea, sea!

My Starfish Song - sung to "Mary Had A Little Lamb" I'm a little brown starfish, Brown starfish, brown starfish I'm a little brown starfish Who lives under the sea.

Two Rainbow Fish – sung to “Three Blind Mice” Two rainbow fish, Two rainbow fish, See how they swim, See how they swim? Their tails go left and their tails go right, Their beautiful colors are quite a sight, Did you ever see such a sight so bright As two rainbow fish?

Reading Center

K-3 The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister One Fish, Two Fish by Dr. Seuss A Fish Out of Water by Helen Palmer and P. D. Eastman Ten Little Fish by Audrey Wood and Bruce Wood

3-5 Henry and Mudge and the Forever Sea by Cynthia Rylant The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor by Joanna Cole The Magic School Bus Wet All Over by Pat Relf The Fish in Room 11 by Heath Dyer and Peter Bailey

Riddles

What lives in winter, dies in summer, and grows with its root upward? An icicle

What three letters mean "stiff water"? Ice

What kind of bank needs no money? A riverbank

What runs and has no feet, roars but has no mouth? The ocean or sea

What runs but never gets tired? Water

Science and Nature Center

Diving Fish Take a clear two-liter bottle and draw sea shapes (seaweed, waves, etc) on the outside of it with a permanent marker. Fill the bottle mostly full with water. Next ADULT adds about a 1/4-cup of white vinegar and 1 Teaspoon of baking soda to the bottle. Drop a small handful of raisins into the bottle. And then watch. The raisins will collect bubbles all around them from the vinegar and

July 2008 5 Activity ideas obtained from ACES staff and public domain materials Guilford County Schools ACES Program baking soda chemical reaction this will cause them to float to the top. Once the reaction calms back down they will sink back down and then form more bubbles (causing them to rise again!) This will repeat for up to a half-hour.

Ocean in a Bottle For one "Ocean in a Bottle," you will need a clean, empty two-liter plastic bottle with a cap, clear vegetable oil, water, a funnel, blue food coloring, shells and sea creatures (available from craft stores- be sure to use lightweight items that float), one teaspoon of glitter, white craft glue and a hot glue gun (to be used ONLY by staff and supervised by staff at all times).

Fill bottle halfway with water. Add a few drops of blue food coloring and swirl around to mix. Add glitter and sea creatures/shells and then fill bottle the rest of the way with vegetable oil using a funnel. Make sure that cap and rim are dry--- and then apply white glue around the rim and seal cap. Use a layer of hot glue around the outside edge of the cap for additional protection from leakage.

Turn the bottle on its side to create a wave in this ocean habitat!

Sink or Swim? Sometimes detergents get into creeks or lakes. This could happen if people use too much soap to wash their cars. Then the water washes down the street into street drains and into a creek or lake. Once in the creek or lake, detergent could destroy the surface habitat. Materials  a clean bowl (free of detergent)  paper clip or sewing needle  fork or tweezers  liquid dish detergent Procedure 1. Fill the bowl with water. 2. Put a paper clip or needle on the tines of the fork, or hold it with the tweezers. Gently place the paper clip or needle on the surface of the water. Be patient and careful. You will be able to get the clip to sit on top of the water! Can you see the surface tension bend under the paper clip? 3. Add one or two drops of detergent to the water near (not on top of) the paper clip. What happens? How it Works: The paper clip was resting on top of the surface tension. This "skin" supported the clip and kept it from sinking. When you added detergent, the soap weakened the attraction the water molecules had for each other. This caused the surface film to disappear. Then the paper clip sank.

Make Water Water is a chemical. It’s made of two gases, hydrogen and oxygen. Water acts like a gas sometimes (when it evaporates) but we usually think of water as a liquid – something wet. You can make hydrogen and oxygen join to form water. Here’s how. You will need:

 a birthday candle

 a plate

 a clear drinking glass

 a match or lighter

 an adult to help you with the match or lighter

1. Set the birthday candle on the plate and light it (an adult does this). 2. Cover the burning candle with the clear glass (it should be large enough to cover the whole candle). 3. When the candle goes out, look closely at the inside of the glass. What do you see? The tiny drops of liquid inside the glass are water! The hydrogen in the candle joined with the oxygen in the air to form water. The candle flame went out when all of the oxygen in the air inside the glass was used up.

Salty Water Did you know that it is easier to float in the ocean than in the swimming pool? Do you know why? Salt. The Ocean is full of salt. Salt water can hold up more than plain water. That is why you can float in the ocean more easily. Try this experiment to see for yourselves......

Need: wide mouth plastic jar, warm water, salt, raw potato, measuring cup, spoon

Directions: Pour 1 1/2 cups warm water in the jar. Add 1/3 cup salt. Stir until all the salt is gone. Add another 1 1/2 cups of water. Pour it over the back of a spoon into the jar. Pour SLOWLY so the two liquids do not mix tog. Slowly put the potato into the jar. Do NOT drop it. Potato sinks -but stops halfway. Salt water is heavier than plain water, so it stays on the bottom. Plain water floats on top of salt water. You cannot see the difference though. The potato is heavier than plain water. But potato is lighter than the salt water. That is why it sank only half way. It is floating on top of the salt water.

July 2008 7 Activity ideas obtained from ACES staff and public domain materials