buggy pea soup

More spring time sensory play. This time with two bags of dried split peas, and an assortment of insects, reptiles, and amphibians (which all escaped the pea bin and made their way to the sand box..of course!)

what can we do with earrings?

A friend of mine gave me a large bag of jewelry. I took it to school and immediately took apart all the beaded bits and put them in a bead bowl. The rings, bracelets, and necklaces that were not beaded went into our classroom jewelry box for the kiddos to play with. But what to do with all the earrings?

One of the kiddos knew just what to do. This basket would be perfect. Look at that fine motor work!

Isn't it pretty? After all the earrings were snuggled onto the basket, he promptly put it in his head as hat! Ta-da!

spring water transfer

spicy activites in the house!

Last week in the classroom we read Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett. Along with the usual suspects,we set out additional fine motor, math, and craft activities with a little extra spice added, like our story basket complete with a gingerbread baby, gingerbread house, and animal masks printed from Jan Brett's website. I found the gingerbread baby and house at Michael's on clearance a few years ago. They have similar items this year.

These adorable gingerbread men cookies came from Homeschool Creations. I printed them out, laminated them, then backed them with felt. I placed five ofthem on our cookie sheet, along with a spatula and set them on top of a shelf with no explanation. The children took the cookie sheet to the floor and practiced scooping them up with the spatula. All day long I was offered cookies, and at clean up I found them in the play kitchen. The cookie sheet is from an Ikea set and I only had to re-glue one felt back (so far). 

These kooky silicone dealios came from a Japanese Dollar store. I'm not even sure what they are for as they are not sturdy enough for cookie dough or rice. Either way, I pulled out coordinating pompoms and set this up to see what the kiddos would do. They very carefully filled in each gingerbread baby with matching pompoms AND they cleaned it up when they we finished. This photo is from last year, this year, I put the pompoms in a small lidded basket and the element of reveal was really fun to watch. I loved this activity! 

Oh how I love these! I got this happy set from etsy seller how we learn at home, the bowl came with a separate set from another seller. 

So simple and so cool! The mancala board was a thriftstore find and the bells came from the dollar store four years ago. The ladle came from a set of kitchen utensils I found at Tuesday Morning. Setting out the ladle and spatula (above) allowed for an introduction to new tools and vocabulary.

Another fun one from Homeschool Creations. These we for scissors practuce but I laminated them and added Dry Erase markers for line tracing. Again, I had this set up at a table with no explanation and the kiddos sat down on their own and traced the lines! Then they wiped off their lines, turned the sheets over to the blank side and drew pictures. 

I made these felt pieces two years and they are still going strong. On the tray are assorted shapes cut from felt and pieces of yarn and rik-rak. 

This is a retro candy themed matching game from eeboo. The children sort out matches, line up the squares, carry around the pieces, and pass them out as if they were real candy. I love this! 

Last, we have this wooden bead stringing activity that I found last week at Home Goods! Serendipitous! The children love this and again, the pieces end up being used in so many different ways.

classroom activities for: The Quilt

One of our favorite books that we revisit every year is The Quilt by Anne Jonas. I've had a lot of fun over the years coming up with different activities that focus on squares and/or sewing. Some are a hit and some are a miss. Last year we did a month-long study on the Women of Gee's Bend and I am kicking myself over the photos I did not take! They may be there but I cannot find them at this time. We just finished up our week of The Quilt and so while it was on my mind, I thought I would share some of the activities we have done over the years.

small quilt tiles on a grid

paper quilt at the art table

Learning Resources Parquetry Blocks

cubed desk set

paper shapes and frame

sewing notion Discovery Bottle

tiny spools of thread and laces

felt and fabric for our felt board

shape tiles and picture frame

Guidecraft Nesting Cubes

Buttons and sorting mat

Laminated Stained Glass Coloring Pages for the Light Table

CP Toys Bristle Building Cubes

how about them apples?

napkins and napkin rings

apple scented play dough and apple leaves

small acrylic apple gems and an apple ice tray

apple scented rice

wee apples and tongs

play apple pie with cinnamon scented cotton balls

we call it the fine motor easel

Sometimes it is the sticky easel and others...the fine motor. For our week of We're Going on a Bear Hunt, I put out a basket (one of those wicker paper plate holder dealios found at the thrift for pennies) of leaves scavenged from my garden and a handful of clothespins. The next day, the kiddos brought in more leaves. I never spied anyone clipping the leaves to the pins but every time I glanced over, another leaf was added to the mix. I love when that happens.

valentine classroom set up

play dough fun

strawberry cloud dough aka cake mix

color matching and sorting

valentine clothesline

pink and red sorting

spin art hearts

sink or float fun

connectors

fizzy heart experiments

heart shape button snake

Many of these made an appearance last year, thanks to being productive and me actually making them and not simply putting them on a TO DO list. This year I added sink or float fun, fizzy science, spin art hearts, the matching hearts, and clothesline fun (our classroom tree was a bit too exciting for some of the children). Not pictured is the mail center. It was pounced upon and played in immediately upon arrival and I never got it cleaned up enough for photos.

press here: 6 ideas for play

Here are some of the fun things we had set up in our classroom for our week of Press Here.

*color sorting pom poms into polka dot containers

*pom pom, buttons, and circle picks in playdough. 

*making pom pom slime in the classroom

*Press Here inspired dot collage

*pom pom magnet play

*painting with primary colors on the easel

diy halloween fine motor bank

 

If you have the materials on hand you can whip this easy peasy bank up in about two minutes! For reals! All you need is an empty can (I found mine at Target's Dollar Spot) and a balloon (also from Target)...plus a pair of scissors.

 

The inspiration for this little bit of happy came from a bag of Halloween chocolates that I spotted at Target (yup, Dollar Spot). I thought they were poker chips or plastic coins and thought how fun would it be to make a bank then I spotted the can and it was the only one and I snatched it up. When I got home I noticed that the chips were actually chocolates. Good thing I picked up two bags! You can also use an empty soup or bean can that has been painted or covered in paper.

For this project you will need a regular sized balloon (whatever that is) not a water balloon. Use a pair of scissors to snip off the open end and stretch over the top of the can. Use a sharp pair of scissor to snip a small incision that you then open a bit more with your scissors. I began with dull scissors which mucked it up a smidge but it still works!

 

If you do not have chocolates you can use erasers, coins, or maybe the pieces from your homemade matching game? Have fun, enjoy, and remember to always supervise your kiddo when there are small pieces and balloon bits involved. Happy Halloween!