Growing Soap / Painting a Cloud

Have you ever heard of the experiment where you out a bar of Ivory soap in the microwave? We did it today. It. Was. Awesome. 

I have been wanting to try it out for a long time but whenever I read about it, I always felt like it would be such a short activity. A few minutes in the microwave and then it's over. So when I saw the idea to colour the soap afterwards, I had no more excuses and I knew it was time. 

I got the idea here: http://www.two-daloo.com/sensory-art-play-puffy-rainbow-clouds/

Step 1: Growing Soap

Supplies: paper plate, bar of Ivory soap, microwave 

First of all, while researching, I read on every single website that the soap has to be Ivory. Other brands won't work because they are made the same way. To keep it super simple, air is added during manufacturing and that's what makes the soap expand with the heat of the microwave, similar to what happens to popcorn. Again, Ivory soap only!

I decided to cut my soap in half so that we could do it twice, and I'm glad I did, because it meant we got to see the amazing-ness twice but also because the soap grew more than I expected and I did have to wipe down the microwave afterwards. 

We out the half bar of soap on a paper plate (a monkey one left over from Monkey's birthday!) and put it in the microwave. 

We put the timer on for 2 minutes. Monkey loved pressing the buttons as he's never done that before. 

Then we watched. It didn't take long for the soap to start growing and it looked so cool. You need to stop the microwave as soon as you notice that the soap isn't growing anymore. We found it took about a minute, maybe a bit longer. 

And this is what it looked like:

I'll admit I was probably a bit more excited about what happened than Monkey was. He liked watching it grow but I was really amazed by what happened. 

I transferred the soap to a tin tray for the next part of the activity. 

After some encouragement, I convinced Monkey to touch it, too. Some kids would jump right in with both hands but my boy doesn't love to be messy so he bravely touched it with two fingers..

Step 2: Painting on a Cloud 

Supplies: small cups, water, food colouring, droppers

Monkey helped me mix up the food colouring into the small cups of water. 

Then Monkey used the droppers to colour the soap/cloud. 

I just love how it turned out. 

We ended up doing the other half of the bar of soap after Monkey's dad got home later that night. This one was too neat not to share with him, too! 

Also, our house smelled amazingly clean all day and night :)

Mar 

Lego Bath

Tonight we did another crazy bath for the boys. I saw the idea on the @busytoddler page on Instagram. 

Supplies: water safe blocks

All you need to do is get the bath ready and dump them in. 

Monkey thought this was brilliant. They actually made a really cool sound, I think from being hollow/open, and whenever the boys moved it was fun to listen to. 

As you can see, Peabut just wanted to chew on them (surprise, surprise) but Monkey made an extensive animal collection. 

Here is his giraffe: 

We ended up having to refill the hot water in the bath because he was in there for so long. Success!!

Mar

Playing with a Magnet

Today was a bit of a lazy day so we did a really easy to set up activity. I bought this magnet months ago but had forgotten about it. I found it while doing some organizing of my activity supplies and I knew Monkey would love it. 

Supplies: magnet, various magnetic and non-magnetic objects 

For the most part, I filled out bin with objects that Monkey would be familiar with. This was easy to do for items that would not be magnetic but a lot trickier for items that would be! So I had to throw in some things that he hasn't had much experience with. 

I set Monkey up with the magnet and the bin of objects. I asked him if he knew what the magnet was and he did, which surprised me because I'm not sure where he learned that! Regardless, I'm glad he knew, and we talked about what a magnet does in very simple terms. 

Then he got started with all the items. 

If an object was magnetic, or "stuck" to the magnet, he would put it in one pile, and if it wasn't magnetic, he would put it in a different pile. 

Here are the two piles of magnetic / non-magnetic objects. We didn't talk about why certain things are magnetic and other not, because I don't think he's quite ready for that. I kept this activity simple for his introduction to magnets. 

After examining all the items I had chosen for him, Monkey still wanted to play with the magnet. I told him to walk around the house and see what he could find that was magnetic. 

He found magnetic and non-magnetic things. 

We kept the bin and the magnet out on the counter for him all weekend and he's used it a lot, sorting through the objects again as well as walking around the house testing out different materials. 

This was a hit! 

Mar 

Bubble Foam

This morning we had a play date with Monkey's new and very best friend from preschool. He was so excited and asked me every five minutes from the minute he woke up, "Is it time yet?" 

We looked through some ideas for an art, science, or sensory activity that he and his friend could do together and this is the one Monkey chose. 

We found the idea here: http://www.two-daloo.com/soapy-sea-foam-sensory-play/

Supplies: electric mixer, large bowl, measuring cup and spoon, food colouring, baby soap, corn starch, various water toys

I had the boys help me make the foam. It is really easy, low effort with big results!! 

The instructions I followed called for dish soap but I used baby soap instead based on the comments and my own experience. We made this about a year ago using dish soap and I found that after a few minutes of playing my hands started to feel a bit strange. It worked exactly the same with baby soap which is much gentler on skin, especially in such a  concentrated mixture. 

First, I mixed 1/3 cup of baby soap with 1/3 cup of water. Then the boys took turns dropping in the food colouring. We used three drops and the colours were very bright. Pour the mixture into the bowl you will use with your electric mixer. Finally, add one tablespoon of corn starch into the bowl. 

Now mix it. This is where the boys really loved helping!! 

It took about 30-40 seconds of mixing to make the bubble foam fill the bowl. 

We made four batches, each a different colour. After mixing, I dumped the bubble foam into a shallow, big container we had set up on the floor with a tablecloth and towels. 

So pretty!!

The boys dove right in. They didn't love the animals and measuring cups and spoons I had laid out for them so I grabbed some plastic trucks and it was exactly what they needed. They are boys after all!

This would also be fun (and easier to clean up) in the bathtub!

Mar

ABC Sticker Wall

I am so excited about the alphabet activity we did today!!

Monkey just loves letters. He knows his alphabet really well now but still wants to practice and work with the letters. I'm trying to get him interested in beginning to write them, but I don't think he's quite ready yet. He's never been super into colouring so he doesn't have a lot of experience with holding and controlling a writing instrument. When I found this idea for working with the alphabet I knew I would be able to get him to use his markers!

I found the idea here: http://www.toddlerapproved.com/2015/07/giant-alphabet-sticker-connect-dots-game.html?m=1

Supplies: alphabet stickers, paper roll, markers

I found the alphabet stickers at the dollar store. I purposely got all different kinds of letters to make it a little more challenging for Monkey because he knows his letters well. To simplify this, you could get a few packages of the same letters.

I rolled out a long piece of the paper roll and taped it to the floor. Then Monkey and I put four sets of alphabet stickers on. 

He loves stickers and was super helpful. I tried to make sure he didn't put the stickers too close together. For the second half of this activity there needs to be room between the letters. 

You could also do this activity without stickers, by printing the letters yourself using different colour markers. 

Now that all the stickers were on, it was time to really get started. We moved the paper from the floor to the wall. Since Monkey would be moving around a lot using the markers, it made more sense for him to do so on his feet instead of his knees. 

Then I told Monkey we were going to use a marker to draw a line to connect the letters that were the same. 

I made sure he found two 'A's before he started drawing any lines. Then he connected them together before finding the remaining two 'A's and doing the same for them. 

He really enjoyed drawing the lines. After he had done the first few, he started to get a little silly and make his lines more squiggly and crazy. 

We did the letters A-E to start with, each one in a different colour. The page is already pretty covered so I know it's going to look great once he's done all the letters! 

I like this activity because it's lasted a long time so far. We did the stickers one day, then the first five letter connections the next day. The rest we can do over the next few days. There was minimal set up and a lot of valuable time spent doing the activity. 

Mar 

Drinking Straw Sensory Bin

Today's sensory activity is a bin full of drinking straws. It's clean and fun. 

I got the idea here: http://www.icanteachmychild.com/drinking-straw-sensory-tub/

I got the straws from Ikea. It was a package of 100 for less than $2. I thought that one package would be enough but now I wish I had picked up two bags. At least now I have an excuse to go back to Ikea!! 

Supplies: bucket, straws, measuring cups, tongs, spoon, strings

First I cut up all the straws. It took a little longer than I thought, maybe it was a good thing I only had 100!

Then I let Monkey explore. At first he was just touching all the straws with his hands. They make a pretty neat noise when you run your fingers through them. 

Then he started using the tongs. They are one of his favourite tools. 

 

Next he was scooping and dumping with the measuring cups. 

I wasn't sure if he would be interested in stringing the straws onto the rope. We've never done any sort of beading together and I'm not sure if he's had any experience with it at daycare or preschool. He knew what to do though. 

I really like how clean this sensory activity was and the fact that now I can pack the straws into a bag and we can use them again later. I've already got plans to use them for some art and for a patterning activity as well. 

Mar 

Rain in a Jar

Today we did a really neat science experiment. It didn't turn out exactly the way I thought it would based on the pictures and instructions we followed, but it looked super cool and Moneky loved it!

I found the idea here: http://www.growingajeweledrose.com/2014/02/rain-clouds-in-jar-experiment.html?m=1

This is a great blog for all sorts of activities but I especially love the sensory ideas.

Supplies: shaving cream, glass jar, food colouring, droppers, plastic containers

First we made the cloud. I filled the jar 3/4 of the way with water, then topped it off with the shaving cream. 

Next we got the water ready to fill up the cloud. We had four small plastic dishes which I filled with water. Monkey added s few drops of food colouring to each one. 

Now we were all ready to go. We used the droppers to fill the cloud with the coloured water. 

We had to stick the droppers right into the shaving cream, otherwise it mostly just ran down the sides. 

You can kind of see in the pictures that the food colouring was sinking down through the cloud and into the water. It took some time to get enough into the cloud for this to happen, just like real clouds filling up with water before they rain. 

It looked awesome!

Once we were done with the cloud, Monkey was itching to get his hands into the shaving cream. So I transferred everything to our sensory bin and told him to go nuts!!

I can handle a contained mess :)

So this activity turned from a science experiment into a sensory activity. No complaints here!

Mar