Archive for March 2009
- Gather your materials. You will need a balloon, barely inflated, some brown yarn, scissors, a dish, white glue and some blue malt ball candies.
- Cut our yarn into 4 inch strands. In all I had about 25 strands.
- Dip into the glue
- Place it on the balloon. I like doing it on the tied end because when you are done you can clip it to a hanger by the tie to let it dry. You want it to be random and only part way up the balloon.
- Keep going. Criss cross all over, layer it, zig zag etc… Oh and yes this is very messy, but worth it.
- Let dry for at least 24 hours. You can hang it to dry by clipping it to a wire hanger, or you can also place it in a bowl or glass just be careful not to let the yarn touch the dish , it may stick to it.
- Pop the balloon and throw the balloon away- please please be careful with latex balloons and little kids , it’s terrifying what can happen when the two mix.
- Add your “eggs” and enjoy.
This is a challenging sensory activity for preschoolers but toddlers like my son will still enjoy it , they will likely just do what he did, which is scoop the sand and treasure into the 2nd bowl. Children have to use a steady hand to gently sift the sand to expose the treasure, this is definitely a great activity for working on patience.
- Gather your materials. You will need some sand ( I got mine in the home section of Walmart) , and small objects to hide in it. We are using pom poms and plastic coins. You will also need a small sieve and 2 bowls.
- Pour your sand into a bowl, and pop in the objects.
- Cover them with sand.
- GO OUTSIDE- I say this because we had a traumatic Dustbuster experience last time we did sand in the house, the Dustbuster sucked up the sand but shot it right back out and into my and my son’s eyes. Worst mama moment to date, we were both in tears.
- Start searching for treasure.
- Older children should take the time to sift out all the sand so the little bowl only has the treasure in it ,no sand.
- Younger ones can just explore and scoop, my son had plenty of fun doing this over and over.
Book!
” 1, 2, 3 To The ZOO” by Eric Carle is fun counting book perfect for toddlers. Actually as I type this my toddler is reading it. There are no words, just pictures and numbers and that makes it perfect for toddlers who are just learning both numbers and animals because parents can read it slowly counting , naming the animals and making the animal sounds, or more quickly just counting!
“This Jazz Man” by Karen Ehrhardt is my new favorite book. The book updates the classic children’s song “This Old Man” and inserts all different men in a jazz band, however at the end of the book it explains that each jazz man is actually a real person including Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie and more! I love the bios at the end of the book because I want to learn more about jazz too. Ok back to the book, the book itself is a counting book,and my son eats it up, he loves calling out the number and instrument as I read the rhyme. He has had me read it countless times today and I haven’t minded one bit,the pictures by R.G. Roth are adorable, and all in all I just love this book!
“Ten Little Rabbits” by Virginia Grossman is a really beautiful and cozy counting book. The reader follows Native American rabbits from1 who is traveling on the plain to 10 all asleep in their tee pees . My son loved the illustrations by Sylvia Long and after reading it wanted to play hide and seek just like the rabbits in the book.
” One Hungry Monster” by Susan Heyboer O’Keefe is a fun counting book that is great for all ages of young kids. My son will sit for the first 5-6 pages, even though the whole book is too long for him now. The book is a counting book and kids who are learning their numbers love these sorts of books, it also has a small lesson about manners since the monsters really lack any!
” Daddy Hugs” by Karen Katz is a cute little counting book for toddlers. I gave it to my husband last year for his first father’s day and my son hated it. However in the year since it’s become a favorite and nothing beats a board book for when toddlers get to that destructo stage.
“Zin Zin Zin ! A Violin” by Lloyd Moss is a big hit at our house and if you have a child into music or musical instruments this is a great book. You count the instruments as they come on stage for a performance and not only is this a great counting book, but it introduced musical instruments in it’s rhyming text and super fun pictures. I am biased though my little man is really really into instruments and loves this book. The day we bought it I had to sit in the back with him on the way home from the bookstore because he couldn’t wait to read it .
” Goodnight Moon- A Counting Book” by Margaret Wise Brown uses the familiar illustrations from the classic book by Margaret Wise Brown and turns it into a counting book. The page with 100 stars really has 100 stars on it, count and see!
” Five Wishing Stars” by Treesha Runnels is a great bedtime book, it countdowns from 5 to zero with a rhyming text and glow in the dark stars!
” Piggies” by Don and Audrey Wood is a great counting book for little guys. Toddlers love this book. You will probably notice your child touching their fingers as you read this delightful story about little piggies.
What is more Irish than potatoes and appropriate for those under 21 ? Nothing ! This is a perfect St.Patrick’s activity for young toddlers and those just starting out with art. I am using a stamp pad because we already painted a bunch this week but paint will work well too, just spread it thin on a plate . After this simple project my son begged for “gooey goop” so he added his own final step onto the easy peasy shamrock !
- Gather your materials. You will need a few new potatoes they fit perfectly in your child’s hand! Paper, a marker, scissors and a stamp pad.
- Draw a shamrock on the paper with the marker.
- Cut the potatoes in half, this can also be a fun way to learn about ovals, the cut potatoes make perfect little ovals!
- Start stamping !
- My son got very into it- and was slamming the potato into the paper, with the stamp pad this is okay but with paint this would result in a major mess.
- Cut out when dry.
- If you want you can grab whatever you have to embellish it, my son asked specifically for the glitter, so I wasn’t about to say no.
- This is the upgraded one after my son added his personal touch of green and gold “gooey goop” ( glitter glue).
Book!
- Gather your materials. You will need 3 pieces of construction paper, one for the base and 2 bright orange for the hair. Some yarn, scissors, a pencil, glue and a hole punch.
- Start by drawing a beard on the paper, I put it up to my face and measured from ear to ear.
- Cut out .
- For the hair you want to cut the orange construction paper into strips
- Roll them tightly around the pencil to make a curl.
- Glue them to the beard, starting at the bottom
- Keep going
- Let dry
- Punch holes for the yarn
- Add the yarn for the ties
- put it on !
