Teacher Thank You Cards

Later this week, Monkey has his last day of preschool. He has really, really enjoyed going, which has been such a nice thing to see as a mother. And hopefully it's a good sign of what will come when he starts Kindergarten in September! 

We wanted to make special cards for his teachers for the last day. They are handprint flower bouquets. 

Supplies: construction paper, paint, paint brushes, markets 

The first thing to do is the handprints. We did three handprints on each card to make the bouquets. 

 

Then we added stems to the flowers, and left the paint to dry. 

Finally, I added some writing to the top, a ribbon around the stems of the flowers, and Monkey signed his name at the bottom. 

These turned out so cute!! They are relatively easy to make... We do handprints often so Monkey knows he routine and I don't need extra hands when doing them. If your child is younger, I recommend another set of hands to contain the mess. 

Mar 

Frozen Water Beads

We've had a batch of water beads going for a few weeks now. Since it's not an activity that we always have, but rather more of an every once in a while one, I try to use them as many ways as possible while I can. 

I saw this idea on Instagram, @busytoddler, a fantastic follow if you have young kids. 

Supplies: frozen water beads, toy hammer, squeeze bottle, various kitchen utensils 

We out the water beads in the freezer in the morning and they were completely frozen by mid-afternoon. I'm sure they freeze quite quickly. 

I filled the squeeze bottle with hot (but safe for Monkey) water. Then he was ready to play!

Monkey is loving the squeeze bottles right now - we've been using them a lot lately. So he grabbed that first and started covering the beads with hot water. 

He noticed that they started to change colour a little bit. They had been all frosty white from being in the freezer and the water took the white away and turned them back to orange and green. 

Next Monkey grabbed his hammer to try breaking them apart. 

He didn't have much luck getting them apart with the hammer so he moved onto the spoon. 

After a little bit of trying to pry the beads apart with the spoon, Monkey was able to get the whole frozen chunk out of the bowl. 

Then he used all the tools again as the beads started to separate in the bucket  

Once the beads had a chance to warm up a little bit, Monkey was able to break and squish them. I think we had them in the freezer for a little bit too long, they were almost too frozen! If I did this again, I would put them in for less than an hour and then check and see what they felt like. 

Mar  

Painting with a Drill

Way back in October I saw this fantastic process painting inspiration. I completely forgot about it until I was going through pictures on my phone and came across the screen shot I had taken. I can't believe it's taken me this long to do this activity with Monkey!! 

I found the idea on Instagram, @learnwithplayathome. When I showed the picture to Monkey, he immediately had a huge smile on his face, and as we were collecting our materials and setting everything up he must have said, "I'm so excited!" about a hundred times. 

Supplies: toy drill, butcher paper, duct tape, paint containers, paint brush, paint 

The first step to get set up is to make the drill into a painting tool. I attached the paint brush by removing the drill bit, replacing it with the paint brush, and then taping it securely on. 

Next, Monkey helped me get the paint squeezed into the paint containers. 

Finally, I taped a large piece of butcher paper to our shed, and Monkey was ready to go!

Right away it was clear this was a home run. I knew Monkey would love painting with the drill, and he really, really did. 

I love the fact that he was doing art outside, and that he was standing up while doing it. It takes different muscle groups to paint standing as opposed to sitting. 

Sometimes I had to remind him that he could spin the drill because he was just painting regularly, and he would get a huge smile on his face all over again. 

I think one of the highlights of this activity for Monkey was the fact that he got to mix all the paint colours into each other. Usually we are very careful not to mix brushes or colours, but obviously with the paint brush taped to the drill that just wasn't going to happen. He spent a lot of time spinning the drill in the paint containers, mixing the paint up while grabbing it to use on the paper. 

Painting with a drill was everything we hoped for! I definitely recommend it. 

Mar 

Stop Motion Movies

I have always been a big fan of stop motion movies. I love how they are such a unique combination of pictures and a movie together. My husband and I have a pretty neat one of us doing a puzzle together, and we've also done one of Christmas dinner. I was curious to see if Monkey would be interested in making one with me.

Supplies: Stop Motion Studio app (or any that will work for you), toys, puzzles, whatever you want to use for your movie

Using the app, making a stop motion movie is really easy. Basically, you just need to take a whole bunch of pictures. In between each picture, slightly move or change whatever objects are in the movie. Do this over and over again, and then let the program turn it into a movie. 

We started by doing a movie with Monkey's cars. He moved the cars and took all the pictures. I held the camera in place.

He wasn't completely thrilled with the process or result of this, even doing it with his racers. So I gave it a rest for a few hours and then tried a different sort of video.

I sat up on a stool and took the pictures while Monkey worked on the puzzle. This ended up working much better than with his cars. He was more excited about the whole process.

I think I will revisit stop motion with Monkey when he is a little bit older and is in a stage where he can independently make up a story with his toys. Despite his initial lack of enthusiasm, I still think these movies were a success!

Mar

Water Bead Sensory Bag

Back in May, Monkey and I made up a new batch of water beads. He used them for about a week with his marble run before we put them away. I saw this activity that uses water beads for younger children and I figured I would give it a try with Peanut. The water beads had been sitting for a few weeks, so I added some water to the bin and let them sit for an hour before getting this activity ready. 

I found the idea here: http://parentingchaos.com/water-beads-sensory-window-bag/

Supplies: ziploc bag, tape, water beads 

I filled the ziploc bag with water beads and then sealed it and taped over the seal. Obviously these beads are far too small for Peanut to actually get his hands on! 

I tried to tape the bag to the window but that turned out to be a complete disaster, so I taped it down to the floor instead. 

Then I brought Peanut over and sat him down next to the bag. 

He started moving the beads all around and smacking them. 

He kept trying to pick them up, too, which didn't work of course, but he was able to break them through the bag. 

Monkey had to get in on the action, too. 

This activity didn't hold Peanut's attention for very long, and after his initial exploration of he bag, he didn't return to it, even though I left it on the floor for the rest of the day. Luckily, I didn't go out of my way with the materials and it only took a few minutes to set up. I've moved the bag from the floor to the counter, and I'll try it again with Peanut another day. 

Mar 

Colour Mixing (Part 2)

Monkey and I have done almost 150 activities together in the past year and a half. I know I say this a lot but this one is my favourite! Okay, top three for sure :)

We're continuing with colour mixing activities that we stared last week. Today's activity is much more interactive than the frozen paint cubes we did on Friday. 

Supplies: water, food colouring, plastic containers, squeeze bottles, droppers, measuring spoons (...or anything else you have that your child can use to transfer water)

To set up, I filled the three largest plastic containers and three squeeze bottles  with water. Then Monkey helped drop in the yellow, blue, and red food colouring. 

We laid everything out on the table. 

What kid wouldn't want to jump right in?! I know I say this all the time, but you can't go wrong with water play. 

I didn't want to give Monkey any rules about how to play, but I did guide him a little. I wanted him to mix the primary colours correctly to make all the secondary colours, at least at the beginning. 

He started wth blue and yellow, using the droppers. 

Lots of great fine motor practice going on here at the same time as the colour mixing exploration. 

Next he moved onto mixing yellow and red, this time using a measuring spoon. 

He did red and blue with the spoons as well. Then, of course, he had to know what happened when he put all three  primary colours together. 

After he had done all the appropriate combinations, I stepped back from the activity and let Monkey have complete control over the mixing. 

He absolutely loved mixing the colours together. To my surprise, for the most part, he kept on mixing only two colours together to make the secondary colours. He did make a few more brown mixtures, too. 

Every so often he would call out to me, asking how to make a certain colour. But instead of telling him, I always had him think about it and give a guess first. He got it right more often than not. 

I had originally given him ten small plastic containers to mix in, and after filling them all he asked for more. We refilled the bottles twice and the bigger plastic containers once. 

Monkey played with this for over an hour. That's a long time for a four year old to be 100% engaged! If you have a preschooler, try this, I'm sure you won't be disappointed. 

Mar 

Colour Mixing (Part 1)

For the last few days Monkey has been asking me what happens when colours get mixed together. So curious! I love it. I've lined up some colour mixing activities so that he can find out for himself how to mix the primary colours (red, yellow, blue) to make the secondary colours (orange, purple, green). 

Today's activity does require some very easy prep the night before you want to do it. 

Supplies: paint tray, paint, water

First, here's the part you need to prep the night before. You need to make two frozen paint cubes of each colour. I used about half paint and half water to make each cube. That way they would be a vibrant colour, but also freeze and thaw a little faster. 

I used a toothpick to mix the paint and water together, then put the tray in the freezer overnight. 

The next morning Monkey pulled the tray out of the freezer and we were ready to let the colours mix. 

I had these white disposable cups leftover from a party, so I made Monkey a little colour code of how to mix the cubes together. 

He quickly dropped the paint cubes into the cups. Even holding them for a few seconds, he got paint all over his fingers!

We left the paint to melt for a few hours. Once the cubes were totally melted, Monkey used a wooden stick to mix the colours together. 

As he mixed, I asked him which colours he was mixing and what colour they were making. 

They may not be perfect (i.e. purple) but I think they gave Monkey the idea!

Mar 

Suncatchers

Today we did a really neat art activity. It used materials we already had at home and ended up being a wonderful process and product art piece at the same time. 

I got the instructions here: http://babbledabbledo.com/art-for-kids-cosmic-suncatchers/?m

Supplies: white glue, food colouring, plastic lid, toothpicks

The first thing you need to do is fill the plastic lid with glue. We used an old yogurt lid. 

Monkey needed my help to really squeeze the glue out. Make sure you cover the entire lid, pretty thick too. 

Once the lid is covered, grab your food colouring. Monkey did 3-4 drops of each colour (which may have been too much). I encouraged him to spread the colours all over the glue. 

Once you are happy with how much food colouring there is, get a toothpick. Drag the toothpick through the glue and food colouring to mix it all together. 

Monkey and I both really loved the way it looked when the colours got pulled around in the glue. I ended up grabbing a toothpick too, I had to!

Once you are happy with how your art looks, you have to leave it to dry. 

It took about two days for the glue to feel completely dry. Once it is, you can peel the glue right out of the plastic lid. 

You can see that the colours blurred together as the glue was drying. We still think it looks lovely!! It may turn out differently with fewer drops of food colouring. 

The last step is to punch a hole in the glue and tie the suncatcher to a string so that you can hang it in the window. 

I really love how this turned out. It is so bright in our window!!

Mar