Up up and away!

 

Snack time!!!  Cheese cut in the shapes of planets and a star.  I put them on a tortilla and then cut them to fit the shapes.  You can do this with anything.  I am happy to say this snack pleased my picky picky eater!

 

Up Up and Away!  Daphne wanted to ride in a space ship.  We had a plastic tub and a card board box.  So....she got a space ship!  Yes, she has a helmet on...lol.  Ok, ok...it was a drum that the top came off of to put other musical instruments in.  My little astronaut was a happy space traveler!

Is it Groundhog Day?

Everyone's groundhog activity!

This is an activity we did. We colored the bottom of a paper plate to look like grass, printed off a cloud, sun and groundhog. The groundhog was taped to a craft stick and put through a hole in the plate. We taped the clouds and sun on. Now the groundhog can go in and out of his den! Did he see the shadow?

A Groundhog Day book I made with activities at the end. If you would like a copy of the book, I will email it to you!

And for the grand finale!  Cupcakes with groundhogs peaking out of his den!

We are still alive! Now let's play with money!

I know most of you were starting to wonder if I was still alive.  Between the holidays, traveling, and everyone being sick, my computer got sick too.  But we are alive and kicking.  It's amazing how fast time flies.  Two weeks ago our story time theme was...money.  For fun (and of course educational purposes) I printed off money on the computer, glued the money to sheets of magnets (I got them at the $1 tree) and put hodge podge over them.  (I'll post pics tomorrow!)  We use the money to match the fronts and backs.  We also use it to decide which is worth more (or which number is bigger...lol).  Is the $5 bill worth more or less than the $10 bill?  How much is each coin worth?  (We get out our number magnets for that part)  Daphne has a blast with them.  Then again, anything with a magnet she finds beyond fun.

I can't wait to post pics of all of the different ornaments she made for her tree.  She had fun making them and rearranging them on her tree every chance she got.  Her favorite activity over the holiday was taking the ornaments off of the family tree and organizing them into groups.  All of the red shiny balls in one section of the tree, all the red matte balls in another section, all the pointy green ones over there...you get the point.

Mitten match

Simple felt mittens with a simple design on them (all different) make for a great activity.  I cut them out of felt and hot glued the designs on them.  Daphne has fun matching them up.  We are also working on sequences.

Rice ornaments

We got wooden shaped ornaments awhile back for 50 cents each.  The little metal tray is glue (so glad we got it for a penny a bottle before school started!).  She used a paint brush and painted glue on the ornaments.  Then she took rice from the bowls and sprinkled it on the ornaments.  Before I knew it she was mixing the rice all together and dumping it in the tray.  After the initial glue dried I then took them and painted over everything with a lot of glue.  I don't have hodge podge because it's so expensive.  I plan on making some when I get some containers to put it in.  Once the coating of glue dries I'll post a picture of the finished products!

Colored Rice! You can do it!

I googled a lot of different way to color rice trying to find an easy and quick way.  I was surprised to find a recipe that was what I needed (and worked with rice and pasta).  I used about 1 1/2-2 cups of rice per bag, two teaspoons of rubbing alcohol, and 10 drops of liquid food coloring.  The red was kinda pink but all of the colors were a softer color.  To make them more bold use extra food coloring.  I used the walmart brand food coloring so it came with red, blue, yellow and green.  To make orange I used 3 drops of red and 7 of yellow and to make purple I used 4 drops of blue and 6 of red.  With that said, I came to the conclusion I did things a bit backwards.  So let me tell you how I should have done it so you won't make the same mistake!

Steps:
1.  Get your supplies ready: food coloring, rice (I used regular long grain rice that was cheap), rubbing alcohol, teaspoon, measuring cup, zip lock bag (I used quart size).
2.  Place the 2 tsp of rubbing alcohol in each bag.
3.  Place drops of food coloring into each bag.
4.  Mix food coloring and alcohol together.
5.  Add rice.
6.  Seal the bag and shake/mix until it's all mixed well.
7.  In a well ventilated place lay rice out to dry.  (used aluminum foil but you can use cookie trays or anything else you want to...wax paper, etc)
8.  Once dry (I did it before bed and put it up in the morning) place it in your chosen containers.  I use canning jars but zip lock bags work too.

I did six colors and didn't ventilate what I did...my husband and I almost got high off the fumes.  So PLEASE make sure it's well ventilated!!!

The next day...we made ornaments as Christmas presents!  Once my phone is charged enough to post the pictures, I will show everyone how we did it.

Getting creative with random things

The other day Daphne found a game of pick up sticks.  Other than stab thing with the sticks I didn't know what to tell her to do with them so I made a game.  I took a cardboard basket I got from Target for $1 and used a nail to poke holes in it.  It became a favorite game instantly.  After having it a week or so she started using the sticks to count.  As she put one in a hole she counted, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.  Once she got to five she ran through the numbers all the way to 12.  This is a significant thing for her.  This is the first time she has initiated counting on her own and gone to 12 without help AND it's the first time she has associated counting objects and using numbers by herself.  Since there are different colored sticks we also use this as a color game.  Sometimes I let her lead play and sometimes I suggest things.  Can you find all of the yellow sticks?  How many red sticks do you see?

 

This was another impromptu game I made.  A styrofoam sphere, pipe cleaners, and straws.  I cut the sphere in half with a knife and cut the pipe cleaners in half as well.  Then I folded the pipe cleaners in half and twisted them together tightly.  Then I carefully pushed/twisted them into the styrofoam.  Afterwards I cut some straws up so she could thread them on the pipe cleaners.  I have to straighten them up sometimes but over all, this is another fun game she enjoys quite a bit as well.