We LOVE Shel Silverstein!

We have been reading and reading and reading Shel Silverstein books for the last month or so, and Runny Babbit is our FAVORITE! O laughs and laughs more than I have ever seen her laugh while reading a book. It is truly a classic that I'm sure we'll be reading and enjoying for years. We also really love The Missing Piece, The Missing Piece Meets the Big O, and Where The Sidewalk Ends. If you haven't read these books, you should rush to your library to check them out!

Texture Collage

O has had a great time working on her texture collage for the last 3 days! The idea for this activity came from Montessori Mama (I think).

I collected lots of different objects of different textures, including foam shapes, cotton balls, bits of sandpaper, beads, toothpicks, rubber bands, aluminum foil, googly eyes, pipe cleaners, etc., and put them in this container for O.

 
Then I taped a piece of contact paper sticky side out on the glass door. O has had a great time sticking different objects on the contact paper. She especially loves the foam shapes and cotton balls. She thought it was "cool" that she put the cotton balls on the paper, and some of it stayed when she pulled the cotton ball off the paper. She also stuck a couple of balloons on the collage. I intended for her to put use deflated balloons, but she insisted that I blow them up. I was surprised that they stuck to the collage, but she didn't leave them up for long :)

 
O has enjoyed working on this texture collage so much that I've left it up on the door. I think I may switch it out for new contact paper once a week, so it can be her ongoing art project :) Next time I think I'll give her a selection of construction paper cut into various shapes or tissue paper to tear into bits (we have tons since I save it from all birthday parties. Yes, most people think I'm crazy, but I don't mind.)

 

Arranging Flowers

O and M LOVE to pick and arrange flowers at Guh-guh and Grandpa's house! This will keep them occupied for hours :)

Bird Puppet Kit

A friend gave O 2 Martha Stewart Puppet Kits for Christmas, and we put the bird puppet together today. This was a fun and very quick activity, and O really enjoyed herself. I bought several of these kits (holiday themed) after Halloween and Christmas (for 1 dollar each), so I'm glad she enjoyed herself so much! It was nice to do a project that required no preparation on my part :)



 

I'm glad I waited a little while to do this project. O is really into puppets right now, so this was the perfect time. I love how she talks to the puppets like they are real. So cute!

I've added a search widget!

Just in case you haven't noticed (or, like me, don't usually click over to blogs from google reader), I've added a search engine for my blog! Readers are often asking me where specific posts are on the blog, and this will make it easy to find whatever you need :)

Marbilizing Paper

This fun and easy art activity comes from A Bit of This and That. Thanks for the great idea, Jo!
For this activity we mixed about a tsp of cooking oil with several drops of food coloring.



We stirred it with a fork. It settled quickly, so we had to keep stirring as we made our art.



Then we dropped the mixture onto a cookie sheet using the dropper. We also flung the mixture onto the cookie sheet with forks.



O placed a sheet of paper on the drops of color, and we watched as the color appeared on the back of the paper as it was absorbed.



Ta-ta! (as O says anytime she has something to show you!) Here are our masterpieces!

Loving the Rice Pit

 
O was THRILLED to play in her rice pit today! She hasn't played in it in a while since we've had rainy weather lately. She took all of the tools from her lentil tray to the rice pit and played independently for a long time. If you have a screened porch, I highly recommend having a rice pit for hours and hours of fun! Just make sure to keep it covered when it rains because you do NOT want your rice to get wet...it turns into a mess of mildew and yuckiness!

Rainbow Blocks

O's grandparents gave her this set of Rainbow Blocks for Christmas, and we were very excited about all of the creative building opportunities they would provide. The set consist of 24 blocks- 8 sand blocks, 8 bead blocks, and 8 rainbow blocks.

When I opened the box, I immediately noticed that 2 of the rainbow blocks were cracked in the middle. Soon after this discovery, O was playing with the blocks when one of them dropped...it broke. I was VERY surprised since it didn't drop far. A couple of days later, another block broke (the wooden frame broke off of the plastic middle. I think it can easily be fixed with a little wood glue.) We told O not to include these blocks when she builds her tall towers as they will surely break when she knocks the towers over.

I emailed the company about the flaws in the blocks requesting a full refund or replacement blocks. I was surprised when they emailed me back within 2 hours promising a full refund. In the email the customer service representative stated that my blocks must have come from a faulty batch, and the blocks were usually more durable and without flaws. They sent the refund immediately after I emailed my address.

We've had a great time playing with these blocks, and they work well with O's traditional set of unit blocks. However, I doubt I would buy them again knowing what I know about their quality and durability. I guess I shouldn't complain since they sent us a full refund. They definitely have great customer service!

Miniature Clothes & Clothes Line

After seeing the miniature clothes lines and clothes here and here, I knew I HAD to make one for O! O was very excited about this activity. The mini clothes pins were a little heavy, so the clothes flipped when we clipped them to the line. O thought it was hilarious!






   

She LOVES Tape!

O is VERY interested in tape lately. She loves to pull out long strips of tape, cut them with her scissors, and then arrange them on her paper. I thought about buying tape in different colors, but she's so absorbed by the clear tape that I decided not to rock the boat :)