White Christmas

To kick off the first week in December, why not talk about SNOW! Adapt this to the age of your child. With my four year old, we talked about how no two snowflakes are the same and that when magnified they make beautiful patterns. If your child can use scissors he will love cutting away making snowflakes.

We kept things light and simple by reading snowman related books. After which we made a picture of a snow man glittered with salt.

Variation: If your child is too young for scissors you can make the paper snowflake, cover with a thin coat of glue, and have your child sprinkle it with salt. Using a cardboard box top can help contain the mess.

Rice Crispy Turkeys

To make these cute edible turkeys, mix up a batch of chocolate Rice Krispy treats. Grease your hands with vegetable spray and form the the Krispies into balls. Using the end of a spoon, make holes for the candy to be placed in the body. For the snood (the red thing on the turkey's beak) try a red Mike & Ike cut in half or even cut a gum drop in half. Candy corn for the beak is a fun choice-perfect size and color.Then add the feathers. Tons of possibilities for this! Try toothpicks, marshmallows, cereal, gumdrops, etc. and then use mini M&M's for the eyes. These sweet turkeys could even be saved for a fun table decoration on Thanksgiving day to be eaten as part of dessert-so fun!

Courtesy of www.alphamom.com

Leaf Art

Spend the day talking about seasons and leaves!! Start out by reading I Am A Leaf by Jean Marzollo. This is a great little book that takes you on the journey of a leaf through four seasons. (Note: it does talk about chlorophyll but when we read that part my 3 year old didn't ask, so I didn't worry about it). Then show pictures trees in all four seasons, and discuss how each season is different and how it affects the trees.

Finally, take your little one(s) outside and collect leaves of different shapes and colors. You can do green leaves for summer, colored leaves for fall, and blossoms and green leaves for spring. Winter is tricky.... :)

Take your leaves inside and flatten them with a heavy object. Then arrange the leaves onto white or colored paper and glue them on. You can also do leaf rubbings with crayons!

Get Creative with Leaves!

Paper Bag Costumes

Next time you are checking out at the
grocery store say paper instead of plastic!

So I KNOW Halloween is over but it is still fun to dress up any time of the year!

We talked about the first Thanksgiving today and made some Native American costumes out of brown paper grocery sacks. I cut a hole at the top for the neck and two arm holes on the side to create a "tunic" for my son to decorate with crayons. I am sure you could get more elaborate with painting it and gluing embellishments on it but we went for simple today. I then used another paper sack to make a head band. I drew feathers on colored construction paper and had my son practice fine motor skills by cutting the feathers out. We taped them to the head band and then taped it around his head. This could easily be done as a pilgrim costume instead.

I am sure you could use this paper sack costume for a multitude of different costumes so get creative and comment on our activity corner blog when this activity gets posted on there in two weeks. We would love to see what you have come up with!

Sensory Bottles

LAVA BOTTLES
Materials:
clean, empty plastic bottle (water or soda)
water
food coloring
baby oil

Directions:
a. Fill the bottle halfway with water.
b. Add as many drops of food coloring as desired.
c. Fill the remainder of the bottle with baby oil.
d. Fill the lid with hot glue and twist it back onto the bottle. Give glue time to dry.
e. Tilt the bottle for a colorful homemade lava lamp!

DISCOVERY BOTTLES
Materials:
clean, empty plastic bottle (water or soda)
rice
small objects like dice, tiny toys, beads, paper clips...

Directions:
a. Place the small objects in the bottle. It should fill about a quarter of the bottle or less.
b. Add rice, leaving a few inches empty at the top of the bottle.
c. Fill the lid with hot glue and twist it back onto the bottle. Give glue time to dry.
e. As you move the bottle around, the rice will shift to reveal the different surprises inside!

SNOW GLOBES
Materials:
clean, empty plastic bottle (water or soda)
water
corn syrup
glitter or small beads

Directions:
a. Fill the bottle halfway with water.
b. Fill the remainder of the bottle with corn syrup.
c. Add glitter.
d. Fill the lid with hot glue and twist it back onto the bottle. Give glue time to dry.
e. Shake the bottle. The corn syrup will make the glitter fall slowly for a fun effect.

source: stepbystepcc.com

Egg Carton Pumpkins

Recycle your cardboard or paper egg cartons to make these bright and cheerful pumpkins.

What You Need:

cardboard egg carton
orange craft paint (or orange marker)
black or yellow craft paint (or black marker)
green twist tie or piece of chenille stem
newspaper
scissors
craft glue
rice, beans, or candy to place inside the pumpkin

optional: green silk sleeves, or leaves cut from felt or construction paper

Craft Project Instructions:

1. Cut two cups from the bottom of an egg carton, then trim around the top edge of each cup to make it even and tidy.

2. Spread newspaper on your work surface, then turn the two cups upside down on the newspaper. Paint the cups orange and let dry.

3. Turn the cups over and partially fill one with a little rice, beans or something similar to add weight and stability to the pumpkin.

4. Apply glue to the rim of the bottom cup and put the top cup in place. If necessary, touch up the orange paint around the center line.

5. Use the tip of the scissors, or a pencil point, to poke a small hole in the top of the pumpkin.

6. Cut a length of chenille stem, or a twist tie, to use as the pumpkin's stem. Dip the end of the stem in a little glue, then insert into the hole at the top of the pumpkin.

7. Paint a face on the pumpkin to look like a Halloween jack o'lantern.

Variation:

If you wish, replace the rice or beans with a few candies to use the pumpkin as a party favor, place setting, or Halloween treat

Idea from: www.allfreecrafts.com

Fall is here!

Make HOMEMADE Applesauce!

Peel and dice apples...

cover in water in saucepan and boil until soft...

add some sugar and cinnamon...

mash...

enjoy!

Stained Glass

Materials needed: yellow, green & red tissue paper cut in 1" squares; clear contact paper; an apple pattern ran off on construction paper; green construction paper;

Procedure: Cut out the middle of an apple from red, yellow or green construction paper and lay it on a piece of clear contact paper. Have your child lay down pieces of the red, yellow and/or green tissue paper squares on to the contact paper. Magically it sticks! :) Add a stem and a leaf from green construction paper if you wish. Hang in your window.

P.S. Back in my teaching days, it was a fun idea to celebrate Johnny Appleseed's bday (Sep 26th) and have an apple party. It was the perfect way to kick-off fall! :) Due to our lack of storage, my teaching files are tucked away in my SIL's crawl space, but I do remember some fun apple activities involving math, science, art, music etc. If you are interested feel free to send me an email at kellygirl562@gmail.com

Glurch, Glop, Goop

This is a classic concoction from the play dough family. It is neither a solid nor a liquid...but a colloid.

You just mix one cup cornstarch with 1/2 cup of water. You mess with the ratio until the glop feels just right.

I did this with my 4 year old son. Before playing with the glop, we talked about liquids, solids and gases and found examples of each in our kitchen. Then we played with the glop, glurch...whatever you choose to call it, and about it's properties that are like a liquid and others that qualify it as a solid.

Have fuN!

Photo Finish

Items Needed: photo, paper, crayons, markers, or colored pencils

Find a picture of your child or cut one out of a magazine. Take the picture and glue it in the middle of a large piece of paper. Continue drawing an extension of the photo. Make your extension realistic or make believe!

Jello Finger Paints

This activity can be fun in all kinds of ways. Take the chance to practice letters, shapes, numbers...or just have fun with the texture.

Materials: gelatin powder, water, paper, and fingers :)

Mix a small amount of the powder with water to form a thin paste, about the consistency of white school glue. Using their fingers, help your child paint a picture with the Jello paint! Best part: the paint is edible. No worries about them licking their fingers between colors.

One note:

This activity can get messy, but it's easy to clean up with a warm washcloth. Just be careful that there aren't any fabrics nearby that you don't want tie-dyed.

Toothpick Pictures

Last week while my husband was gone my daugther and I made him a "family picture" to welcome him home. It was quick and easy and really fun.

Materials Needed:
Large cardstock, cardboard, or sturdy paper
ToothpicksCottonballs or craft puff balls
Glitter Glue (optional)




Create a picture on your paper using the toothpicks - use colored puff balls to embelish. You could make a picture of most anything (people are pretty easy though). Let your child decide who or what is in the picture. After the picture is all set up use Elmer's glue to put everything down on paper. You can let your child help by having him/her put the puff balls onto the glue. When you are finished you can write in a message or put more details with glitter glue.

Wet Chalk Art

Sometimes the most simple activities will produce the greatest results and biggest smiles. Here an easy art activity that my little one has loved:

Get a wet piece of dark paper and draw on it with chalk. Children really enjoyed dumping water on the paper. If you want to do this activity, I recommend putting the paper in a cookie sheet to keep the clean up minimal.

How easy and fun is that? :)

Pet Rocks

My son is obsessed with collecting rocks. So here is our activity this week...

Materials Needed:
Smooth Rocks (find your own or get some from a craft store or craft section of a store), Acrylic Paint, Craft glue, Paint brush, Q-tips great for making spots, Various decorations (wiggly eyes, feathers, felt, foam, sequins)

How to Do it: Paint your rock. Let it dry. Glue on accessories!You could even find a clear container (empty snack container) and use it for a cage!

Build around a story.

Today, in our "preschool time" with my four year old son we built our activities around a book. We read the Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. We have some magnetic letters and a magnet tray. We used those materials to spell out "tree" and "boy." If you don't have magnetic refrigerator letters, you can just spell them on a piece of paper. I then read the book to him. Every time "tree" or "boy" showed up in the story I would point to the words we had spelled and had him recite them.

When we were done reading the book we colored a picture of the boy and the tree. We used torn pieces of green contruction paper for the leaves and glued them on. It took no prior preparation on my part because he could do all the tearing.

Try it out and use your child's favorite book to build around. You can make a food that is mentioned in the book, sculpt the characters out of playdough...the possibilities are endless! Have FUN!

Welcome to the Activity Corner

We had a request from a reader to save all the crafts, snacks, and other exciting ideas from our activity corner. Up to now we have just been deleting the posts as we do a new one, but from now on we will transfer the activity corner posts to this blog. That way if you miss one you can always check here! Since we have deleted all our past activity corners we do not have them posted here. :( However, if time (and memory) permits, we will try to remember the activity corners from the past and post them. Thanks so much and keep reading!

White Mud

Finally, your child can play with toilet paper with your approval! :) This concoction is fun to explore and play with! I would recommend taking it outside in an empty kiddy pool or playing with it inside a large container inside. Toddlers love mashing it like mud; and with the help of soft-sided cups and other molds, older kids can shape it into towers, castles, and more.

Step 1: Ask your child to help you unravel about 1 1/2 rolls of two-ply toilet paper, then tear it into 2- to 3-square pieces. Put all of the pieces in a plastic tub.

Step 2: Grate half of a 3.1-ounce bar of Ivory soap into the tub.

Step 3: Slowly add about 6 cups of warm water, 1 cup at a time, while you and your child blend the mixture together by hand. It'll take about 15 minutes to mix it all up -- hang in there, it's worth the wait! Stop adding water when your mixture feels creamy and saturated. (You can always add more TP if yours gets too runny.)

Step 4: Help your child mold the mud into mountains, towers, and other shapes.


Step 5: Store the mud at room temperature in a covered container; it'll last for several weeks. (Dispose of it in the trash.)

Teaching Tiny Tots

Thank you to Sharon for sharing her website. It is a great resource, full of great ideas, to help us teach our small children. To visit the site just click on the crayon button on the sidebar.

Click here to see one of my (Delia) favorite activities from her blog:

Hungry Caterpillar Book