I was really excited when I found the website for Kiwi Crate. It's a great website where you can sign up to receive a box full of ready-to-go, hands-on projects to use with children. At first I was hesitant to order a crate because they are designed for one to two children only and I have 8 students in my classroom. After looking at the contents of the crate, I realized the projects could be completed as a group so I ordered the crate "Colorful Inspiration" and figured I'd give it a try. It tied perfectly into our science unit and I loved that all the materials I needed were in the box. Since we don't have a science curriculum here at school I feel like I spend a lot of time and money trying to create hands-on activities for my kids because I know that's how they learn best.
To begin the lesson, we looked at how colors mixed together can create a new color. We used the spinning tops and when we mixed two colors and spun them we found that they really did look like the new color. The kids loved guessing which color we would see when we mixed red/yellow, blue/yellow, red/white, etc. They were really excited when they saw the final color as the top spun. Next, we created stained glass windows. Since the crate included 3 stained glass window kits I hate the students work in pairs to create each window. We layered different colors on top of each other to create new colors and reinforce the idea that when colors mix together they can create a new color. Finally, we did the same thing with layering tissue papers on a canvas bag. When we added water on top of the tissue paper using a dropper (great fine motor task!) we were able to watch the colors blend together onto the canvas. I made the canvas bag with the students' ideas and then gave them each a sheet of construction paper and let them try it on their own. Again, this wasn't exactly how the crate was intended but it worked well to take the concept and make it hands-on for each child.
The lesson ended up being a lot of fun for the kids but more importantly I loved that there were three different ways to reinforce our objective about mixing colors. The Kiwi Crate made it really easy to teach the objective since all the materials came in the box and it ended up saving me a lot of time in gathering materials. I'd love for Kiwi Crate to come up with a class crate but until then I will just stay creative with how I use the materials for a group. If you'd like to check out Kiwi Crate and see if they are a good fit for any lessons coming up, I've provided a link in the image below.
-Anna
To begin the lesson, we looked at how colors mixed together can create a new color. We used the spinning tops and when we mixed two colors and spun them we found that they really did look like the new color. The kids loved guessing which color we would see when we mixed red/yellow, blue/yellow, red/white, etc. They were really excited when they saw the final color as the top spun. Next, we created stained glass windows. Since the crate included 3 stained glass window kits I hate the students work in pairs to create each window. We layered different colors on top of each other to create new colors and reinforce the idea that when colors mix together they can create a new color. Finally, we did the same thing with layering tissue papers on a canvas bag. When we added water on top of the tissue paper using a dropper (great fine motor task!) we were able to watch the colors blend together onto the canvas. I made the canvas bag with the students' ideas and then gave them each a sheet of construction paper and let them try it on their own. Again, this wasn't exactly how the crate was intended but it worked well to take the concept and make it hands-on for each child.
The lesson ended up being a lot of fun for the kids but more importantly I loved that there were three different ways to reinforce our objective about mixing colors. The Kiwi Crate made it really easy to teach the objective since all the materials came in the box and it ended up saving me a lot of time in gathering materials. I'd love for Kiwi Crate to come up with a class crate but until then I will just stay creative with how I use the materials for a group. If you'd like to check out Kiwi Crate and see if they are a good fit for any lessons coming up, I've provided a link in the image below.
-Anna
