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Nature Scavenger Hunt and Contact Paper Collage

Nature Scavenger Hunt and Contact Paper Collage

Posted by on Sep 19, 2012 in Camping, Contact Paper Art, Outdoor Activities, Science Activities, Spring Crafts and Activities | 0 comments

I haven’t added a new post to my blog in literally months! Summer is such a busy time for everyone, and it always seems to just zoom by. My family and I do a LOT of camping in the summer. Between my siblings and I we have five boys (ages 7-1) and one sweet baby girl, which means it’s a good idea to have some activities planned when we’re all camping together. Some of the things the boys enjoy doing are painting rocks, playing with cars and trucks outside, exploring the paths, riding their bikes and simply just running around. This time I thought it might be fun to organize a little nature scavenger hunt that was challenging enough for the 7 year old, but not too difficult for the 3 year olds.

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DIY Sensory/ Water-Table

DIY Sensory/ Water-Table

Posted by on Aug 2, 2012 in Outdoor Activities, Sensory Bins, Water Play | 8 comments

I’d been looking into purchasing a water-table for M, but I really didn’t want to buy a cumbersome, plastic play table that’s difficult to store and would eventually end up in the landfill when M and B have outgrown it; so instead I convinced my awesome husband to make one out of PVC pipe and a couple of clear plastic tubs. I know what you’re thinking, ‘that’s still plastic!’ True, but you can always reuse plastic tubs for storage, and when you put it away for the winter, it’s easy to dismantle and it hardly takes up any space. It’s also a super inexpensive way to have sensory tables in your classroom for your students to experiment with different textures and measurements.

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Mmm, Cookies!

Mmm, Cookies!

Posted by on Jul 18, 2012 in Math Activities, Picture Book Activities | 0 comments

So far M has chosen Mmm, Cookies! by Robert Munsch as one of his bedtime stories every night this week. I figured M would enjoy making his own play clay cookies like in the book, but I also thought it might be fun to use ‘cookies’ as a way for M to work on developing his number sense. At the beginning of the book, Munsch provides a recipe so the kids can create their own play clay cookies. I used a slightly different salt dough recipe due to the fact that I wanted M’s cookies to dry so we could paint them and use them as Math manipulatives. The recipe I used is intended for drying the salt dough in the microwave, which you can find here. 

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C is for Clouds!

C is for Clouds!

Posted by on Jun 21, 2012 in Painting, Picture Book Activities, Preschool Letter Activities, Tactile Alphabet | 0 comments

This past week M and I practiced the letter/sound correlation of the letter C. M has a tendency to pronounce the /c/ sound as /t/, so we focused on enunciating words that had /c/ as its initial, middle, or end sound. One of the many words we practiced was the word ‘cloud’, so I thought it would be fun to do some activities around clouds using two great books: Little Cloud, by Eric Carle, and It Looked Like Spilt Milk, by Charles G. Shaw.

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Popcorn Pops for the Sweet Pop(s) in Your LIfe

Popcorn Pops for the Sweet Pop(s) in Your LIfe

Posted by on Jun 16, 2012 in Father's Day, Gift Ideas | 0 comments

I wanted to make something sweet for the wonderful dads/Granddads in our life for Father’s Day, so when I found this recipe for popcorn cake, I knew I had to make it, with a few twists of my own of course. The very idea of buttery popcorn, marshmallows, chocolate, and gummies molded into individual pops is enough to make my head explode (in a good way), and I’m pretty positive the dads we’re gifting these to will share my love for these sweet, salty, gooey treats! I had to make these when the boys were down for their naps, because otherwise M would just keep shovelling the candy into his mouth…. he has an even bigger sweet tooth than me! I made sure to pop some extra popcorn for him as a healthy snack when he woke up.

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