Making a Pinata

We've been working all week to get ready for O's birthday party. One of our projects was making a pinata. It was easy and fun, and O thoroughly enjoyed herself. We'll definitely do this again!

1st we mixed 2 cups of flour with 3 cups of water
Then we dipped strips of torn newspapers into the mixture
We squeezed some of the excess water out
We then smoothed the pieces of newspaper out onto the balloon. After we covered the entire balloon, we let it dry. Then we put a second layer of paper mache on the balloon.
After the balloon was dry, we painted it green (O's choice). Then she and Guh-guh painted different colored polka dots on it. I added strings and a cup last night to make it into a hot air balloon. Its simple and not that pretty, but the kids LOVED it!

Making Foam Maker

The idea and directions for this project came from this blog. All you need is a bottle with the end cut off, a washcloth, and a rubber band. Super simple and fun! Once you construct the foam maker, all you have to do is dip it in a flat dish of bubble solution and then blow. You'll have lots of fun foam! Unfortunately, this is not the greatest activity for a toddler. O helped make the foam maker by stretching the rubberband over the washcloth, but then it was time to make foam. Here's my advice to you...don't let your toddler blow on the bottle because if they suck back in, they will get a mouthful of soapy foam. Not fun! Poor little O. She was foaming at the mouth :( She handled it well, but she wasn't willing to try again.


Here's my foam maker.
O REALLY enjoyed playing with the foam, so this was definitely an activity worth doing.

A Gift for Guh-guh

O made a special birthday present for my mom today. They share a birthday (which is on Wednesday), and we wanted to make Guh-guh (aka Duggie) something original. So... Duggie, DON'T look!! O had fun painting the canvas green. She said she was "done" before covering the canvas, so we painted the rest of it together. She liked me holding her hand and helping her finish which surprised me. After the canvas was covered with paint, she held her hands up and I pressed them onto the canvas. O was super excited when she saw her hands on the painting, and she wanted to make more. I told her that we'd make another one soon (because I want one for my wall!). The idea for this project came from here.

Homemade Bathtub Crayons

I thought it would be fun for O and I to make bathtub crayons a few days ago. I was right...it was fun, but the crayons were a dismal failure :( I can't find the recipe that I used, but its similar to this one. I think I should have grated my soap finer, and I added in extra water when the soap hardened too soon. Don't do that if you make these crayons! The crayons with the extra water were mushy and crumbly. O enjoyed helping grate the soap
and mixing in the warm water
and mixing in the washable paint.
Here they are. Aren't they lovely? I didn't have any candy molds or cookie cutters, so we tried to shape them like these cool rock crayons. Didn't turn out so well :( The good news is that O had a terrific time playing with the bathtub crayons in the shower tonight. She colored a little bit, but then she made a delicious soapy soup in her upside down water drum. We'll try this again soon, and hopefully it will turn out a little better :)

Sponge and Straw Boats

O and I made sponge and straw boats this morning. It was easy, fast, and fun! To make a boat you need a sponge, a straw, and a triangle of craft foam for the sail. See Make and Takes for more detailed instructions.
O helped put the straws in the sponges.
Putting the boats in the water.
"Tiny O" is going for a ride!

Goodnight Moon Lapbook

Thanks to Sako for this wonderful Goodnight Moon lapbook! If you haven't checked out her blog, One Little, Two Little, you need to do it right now! I love this lapbook, and her most recent one which is about the human body is great, too (I can't wait to make it!). I've wanted to make a lapbook for O for a while, but I was a little intimidated by the process. However, all I had to do was download the files, print, cut, laminate, and glue :) Thanks, Sako, for sharing the wonderful materials you made!!! I especially love the pockets on the lapbook, and O does, too. I laminated the mini books, but I probably shouldn't have because now the pages are difficult to turn. O loves the clock, but I think coloring the balloons was her favorite part so far.
Its so great to have so many different activities in a small, organized space, and I love that O's 1st lapbook is based on one of our all time favorite books!

Writing Names

Amazingly Simple, Yet Soooo Entertaining

Can you guess what O's doing? She's pulling a tape measure out, then I'd count, and she'd let it go. This was VERY entertaining :)

Peanut Butter Playdough

O and I made peanut butter playdough this afternoon. It was fun and very messy! There are lots of recipes on the internet, so I finally chose one and modified it a bit.

I used 1 cup of peanut butter (at the last minute I decided not to waste my yummy, organic peanut butter and used the cheap stuff that we used for the pine cone bird feeders a few months ago), 1 cup of dry milk, and a tablespoon of honey. Next time I will add more honey because our playdough was quite crumbly, and honey should help it to stick better.
O helped mix the peanut butter and honey. She tasted the honey and wasn't terribly impressed. We talked about the concepts of sweet and sour. She said the honey was sour, so we'll have to work on those concepts more :)
We mixed in the dry milk 1/4 of a cup at a time
She's having fun with the playdough! We had a bowl of cheerios and a bowl of raisins to use for decoration. She ate the raisins like they were candy (not that she ever eats candy!). I think I'll have to give her raisins more often! We also had a bowl of playdough accessories. I made a bear and a snake, and O just had fun mashing it all around and sneaking bites while saying "O tastes." I put the pb playdough in the refrigerator to use again soon, and we'll definitely add more honey before we play with it again.

More Color Mixing

Thanks to Jo at A Bit of This and That for this super fun activity!!! O loved it! I set out 5 glasses and put a few drops of food coloring in each one. I had O guess which color each would hold before she poured in the water. She did a great job pouring, but I did have to remind her to pour slowly and carefully and to support the measuring cup with her left hand. She did a good job guessing what the colors would be, except that she guessed that the blue would be white :)
She used her drum stick to make music briefly.
Then she was ready to mix! I couldn't find the dropper, so we tried a turkey baster which did not work well. Its a concept that she has not mastered yet. I quickly got out a bowl and let her pour the colored water into it. She LOVED doing this, and it made an icky greenish, brown color! Thanks again, Jo, for this wonderful activity!!!

We're Going on a Color Hunt!

O and I went on a color hunt today! We had lots of fun! I bought these bags at Hobby Lobby (40% off!) and filled them with objects of the same color. O and I took turns hiding the objects. She covered her eyes while I hid the objects, and then she carried the bag around while she found the objects (we only did one color at a time). She was so excited when she found each object :) Then it was her turn to hide the objects. She put them all in the same place, and then immediately squealed in excitement and showed me where they were when I uncovered my eyes!
Finding her 1st purple item!

Painting the Glass Doors

O and I made paint for the sliding glass door a few days ago, and we finally found time to use it today! The idea and recipe for this activity came from this blog. To make the paint you need dishwashing soap, cornstarch, and food coloring. I poured about a tablespoon (maybe 2, I didn't measure it) of soap into each dish. Then O put a tablespoon of cornstarch in each bowl and mixed it around. She then added a few drops of food coloring to each bowl.

Mixing was fun!
Time to paint!

Here's our masterpiece! I painted the shapes at the top, and O made some abstract art on the bottom :) Then we had fun washing it off with a water hose. I think her finger paint would have worked just as well, but part of the fun was making the paint :)

Digging for Treasures in the Ice

I've been seeing this activity on blogs for weeks, so we finally decided to try it! I put several small toys, rocks, and shells in a bowl of water and froze it. Then Elliott and O had a great time trying to get the toys out of the ice. They used a spray bottle, salt, a fork, etc. O was very determined to get the ladybug and butterflies out of the ice, and they had lots of fun!

Making Homemade Ice-Cream

I bought Elliott an ice-cream ball for his birthday last year, which has been unopened in the cabinet until yesterday. Shannon at Teaching Tiny Tots post about making ice cream in a bag reminded me of it, and we thought it would be a fun July 4th activity.
Helping daddy pour the ice and rock salt into the ball.
Pouring the mixture of cream, sugar, and vanilla into the ice cream chamber
Rolling the ball around. O had lots of fun for the 1st 5 minutes, then she was ready to EAT! Unfortunately, we had to shake it for 10 minutes, check it, and shake it for 10 more minutes.
Can you tell that she LOVED the ice cream? It was delicious!!! We added fresh peaches, and it was the best ice cream we've ever had!

Transferring Plastic Ice Cubes

Yesterday O wanted to "cook with ice," but when I opened the freezer to get the ice, I saw that we didn't have any :( Luckily, I remembered an activity that I saw on Montessori Mama's blog a few months ago, and I had all of the materials I needed to give it a try. For this activity, you need 2 bowls, water, plastic ice cubes, and a strainer or slotted spoon. I put all of the plastic ice cubes (we usually use them for a color sorting activity) in the bowl of water, and showed O how to scoop them using the mesh strainer and then drop them into the empty bowl. She LOVED this and was very focused. I gave her a slotted spoon, a mesh strainer, and another type of spoon, and she liked the mesh strainer the best. This was a great activity for a hot afternoon!

Color Fishing

O and I went fishing today...color fishing! Thanks to Shannon at Teaching Tiny Tots for this great idea! To make this activity you need craft foam sheets, paper clips, a pen, a wooden dowel, yarn, and sticky magnets. This activity was especially easy and quick for me to make because I was able to use the fishing pole that came with a Melissa and Doug puzzle instead of making one. I cut about 10 fish out of craft foam and drew faces on them with a sharpie. I only had 4 paper clips, so I slid the paper clips onto the fish. I planned to use blue craft foam for the water, but then I decided to use blue felt. While I was looking for the felt, I saw O's blue playsilk and realized that it would be perfect for the water! We had a lot of fun with this activity, and there are so many ways to expand on it. I plan on eventually writing letters and numbers on the fish. I think it would be fun to have O catch her name. With the number fish, we could put the numbers in order and eventually add them together. Since the fish are made out of foam, you could even put them in a bowl of water (or the bathtub) to make the game more challenging! The possiblities are endless!

O was very excited that she caught 2 fish at once. She said she caught "both!"

Mixing Colors and a Making a Bowling Game

To make this bowling game you need 6 water bottles filled with water and food coloring. O squeezed the coloring into the bottles, and we watch the color spread through the water. Then she shook the bottles. I showed her how to mix red and blue to make purple and red and yellow to make orange. She was a little squeeze happy with the blue, so our purple bottle is very dark. After we were satisfied with the colors of our water in each bottle, I tightly screwed each lid on (I'll glue them on later).
Then it was time to bowl! O likes to get right next to the bottles, and she drops the ball right on them.
We labeled the colors of the bottles that she knocked over. This is also a good counting activity since we counted the bottles that fell.
We were impressed with how pretty our paper towel (that we used to clean up our mess) was, so we hung it on the sliding glass door.