Color mixing with goggles

Ok so I just had to share.  J put on these blue goggles from the dress-up bin and was walking around with them.  Because they were blue they tinted everything he saw.  Well to his amazment everything was changing colors.  "Mom, look my bike is green!"  "Yes, it's because your goggles are blue."  "Oh, look blue and yellow makes green!"  He then went around the house noticing all the color changes from looking thru his goggles!  "Mom, Mom, Red and Blue makes purple!"  "Blue and blue is blue."  Who knew putting on a pair of goggles would result in a science lesson!

Sometimes it's the simple things

Orginally I had bought this nest to be used as a center piece on my table.  I had planned to add some decorative eggs or something and have it sit untouched solely as a decorative piece.  Yeah Right!  What was I thinking!  As soon as my kiddos saw this nest it was an immediate play object.  Throughout the last couple of weeks they have added foam eggs, birds, little chicks, worms (pipecleaners) and even a dinosaur!  The eggs started brand new, but over time some of them have been "eaten by dinosaurs" or started hatching (thus the foam pieces all over the floor)  I was very happy to see that even the simplest of materials could create so much imaginative play.  Watching them play with the nest made me think of all the sensory bins I see so many bloggers create.  I have never made a bin for my kiddos but I can only imagine the fun they would have.  With only a couple of objects my kiddos were very engaged and played for long periods of time.  I can only imagine what fun they would have if they had a bin full of things.  That got me thinking about making a spring sensory bin?  Looking around I found a few great ones to inspire me.  You've got to check these out:

Growing a Jeweled Rose posted a bunch of spring sensory stations which I'm sure resulted in a ton of imaginative play.  She has pictures of a digging in dirt station, a frog pond station, a barnyard station and more!!

Nurture Store posted about their spring adventures with playdough.  Lots of fun playdough activities here.

Small Potatoes has a post about a wonderfully creative spring sensory activity that any kid in the room would be drawn to.

The Good Long Road has a post about an Earth Day Scent-sory bin.  I can smell spring by just looking at her photos!

The Imagination Tree has a ton of sensory play ideas.  You've got to check these out, there is pulling, and stretching, and squishing, and pouring, and mixing, and digging, and painting and much more.

famiglia&Seoul posted about a spring playdough garden that they made.  They planted seeds and let the imagination grow!

Glittering Muffins posted about making a weather sensory tub.  The soft fluffy clouds look so inviting and fun!

Make, do & friend posted about a springtime tub that they created using all kinds of textures and materials.  I don't know how a kid would be able to resist digging in!  Or an adult for that matter!



Well I don't know about you but i'm convinced.  I NEED to make a spring sensory bin!

Weekly kids co-op #11

So many links, so many great ideas!  Since it has been raining so much around here, I figured I would have to share this post over at freshly planted as one of my favorites this week.

Painting with rain!  Do I need to say more?  Make sure to check it out!

Now it's your turn.  Make sure you link up below!

Learning our beginning letter sounds with animals

A while back I found this Alphabet poster at the dollarstore!  I wasn't sure at the time what I would use it for so I just tucked it away behind the bookshelf for someday when I would become inspired.  Well today C found the poster dragged it out and laid it on the floor.  Both C and J were very excited about the poster and they sang the ABC song, talked about all the animals on it and started hopping from animal to animal.  It was then (fearing for my poster) that I suggested they bring out their animals and make matches to the poster.  The kiddos jumped on that idea and dug thru their basket of animals, saying the animal names and then placing the animal on its corresponding beginning letter sound.  It was great practice and the kiddos were very engaged.  It was great to see them making connections like "both cow and cat start with C" and "puppy starts with a P but dog starts with a D".

Where is Spring??

So I have been so jealous of all the fabulous blog posts out there right now showing all of the fun things everyone has been up to outside enjoying nature and the warm spring days. We have been waiting and waiting but today we could wait no longer. I told the kiddos get your boots and let's go outside! Eventhough it was pouring rain and defineately on the cool side we all had a great time. The kids got soaking wet jumping in puddles, picking up bugs, and writing their names in mud. Who needs warm weather to enjoy spring! Unfortunately though about 3 hours after I took these photos it snowed about 1ft of snow and caused crazy traffic around the city! Sigh...

Weekly Kids Co-op #10

The link ups have been getting better and better each week!  It was really hard to choose my favorite this week but I have to say this post by Mama Nature has got me so inspired!  Have a look!  I don't have a willow tree and I'm racking my mind to think of a tree or plant in my yard I could use.  Maybe I could use some sort of wind catcher/mobile that I could attach markers to.....hmmm I love when a photo gets my creative juices flowing!!

Now it's your turn.  What has inspired you??  Make sure to link up below!



Weekly kids co-op #9

Oooohhh we had a great list of link ups last week in the weekly kids co-op.  I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone has been up to this week.  Keep the great ideas coming!  My favorite this week has got to be from B.Inspired, Mama

She made the cutest little butterscotch nests with candied chocolate eggs on top!  Need I say more!  MMMMmmmm yum!  They look oh so good and really easy to make.  Make sure you head over and try the recipe!

Now it's your turn.  What have you been up to this week.  Make sure you link up below!

Egg Carton Challenge!

Ok, so now that you have dyed your eggs and ate your turkey what in the world are you going to do with all those egg cartons?? Well Rachelle at Tinkerlab challenged us to get our creative juices flowing and create something out of an egg carton. "The purpose of the challenge is to help children learn to trust their own ideas, build creative confidence, and envision new purposes for common objects".  So I took this challenge and tried to have the kids direct their own learning/idea. They created a dinosaur and a parrot. Using a Reggio approach to the activity I documented our craft below.

To begin the activity, I brought out 2 egg cartons, some paint, tape, glue, foam shapes, stickers, paper, and some feathers and set them in front of the kiddos. I asked them: "What do you think we could make"
J: "I don't know, what do we do?"
Me: "What would you like to make?"
J: " A dinosaur, ROOAAARRR!"
Me: "Ok, sure you can do that, here is your stuff, go ahead and make it"
J: "But how?"
Me:"Well where is his head?",(J points), "Where is his teeth?" (J opens it up, and points)"Where is his eyes?"
J: "I don't know, he needs eyes"
Me:"Ok, so can you cut out some eyes?"
J: "Yeah!"
So J cut out some eyes and then painted and added foam shapes to make his dinosaur! 

So once J got started I asked C "What do you want to make?"
C: "I want to make a parrot"
Me: "Ok go ahead"
And then off she went.  She started cutting and announced what each part was as she cut it out.  "This is the eyes", "This is his nose", etc. She laid it all out on the table.  And then I asked her " So how are we going to put this together?"
C:"I need paper"
Me:"ok here is some paper, how are you going to put it together?"
She tries to stand up the paper but it wouldn't stand up, she tries to bend the paper but soon starts to get frustrated.  So I suggested that we turn the paper into a tube and see if that works.  She likes that and continues on.
C: "I can do it, mom" (her favorite phrase right now!)
She then continues on and cuts "feathers" from paper and then glues them on, adds some real feathers and then pretty much finishes the rest independently (she needed a little help taping the eyes on as they would stick)

C:"Look mom, it's like blue bird"
Me:"Oh, it's like the bird in RIO"
C:"Yeah it's RIO" (We've been watching the movie RIO, it's one of their favorites right now.)

And there you have it a parrot and a dinosaur (which both have tails, lol).  I'm so glad I let them guide the activity, as it was much more meaningful to them then if I would have come to them with a preconceived outcome and process.  They both saw the egg carton differently.  J saw it as a whole object (a dinosaur) that was missing parts, and C saw the egg carton solely as parts or pieces that she could deconstruct to make something with.  By allowing them to create their own plan for their craft I allowed them to trust and build confidence in their own ideas instead of just learning how to follow directions.  Man, they are getting so creative!!

Here the dinosaur is trying to eat the parrot...yikes!

So are you up for the challenge??  What can YOU make with egg cartons?
Link up below.

Other participating bloggers:
Inspiration Laboratories,Kitchen Counter Chronicles,Living At The Whiteheads Zoo,Make, Do & Friend,Mama Mia's heart2heart,
Messy Kids,NurtureStore,PlayDrMom,Rainy Day Mum,Red Ted Art,Sun Hats & Wellie Boots,Teach Preschool,The Chocolate Muffin Tree ,The Educators' Spin On It ,The Golden Gleam,The Imagination Tree,Toddler Approved,Reading Confetti,Kindergarten & Preschool for Parents & Teachers,The Outlaw Mom Blog, HappyLittleMesses, RainbowsWithinReach,Mommy Labs,Child Central Station,Green Owl Art,
Reusecrafts,Experimenting-Mom,Duck Duck Octopus,PaintCutPaste,Train Up a Child,Growing A Jeweled Rose ,Coffee Cups and Crayons,Ready. Set. Read!,Scribble Doodle and Draw,Carrots Are Orange,JDaniel4's Mom, Quirky Momma,A Mom With A Lesson Plan,Good Long Road,Two2Read

Weekly kids co-op #8

Last week the weekly kids co-op had a whopping 227 link ups!  Wowsers!  It is great to see so many great ideas.  Keep them coming!  This week I have to say my favourite comes from Creative Connections for kids.

They made beautiful Easter eggs using hot glue...Gorgeous!

Now it's your turn.

14 Ways to use Plastic Eggs with kids

Every year I pull out bags and bags of those plastic eggs around Easter time.  And every year I add more and more activities to our list of things to do with all of these eggs.  So this year I decided to comply a list to share with you all.   Some of these activities I use with my own kiddos (preschool age group) and others I use with my kindergarteners.

1. Match Upper and Lowercase letters.

Write on plastic eggs with a sharpie marker or use stickers to put uppercase letters on one half and lowercase letters on the other half.  Have kids match the two halves and put them together.

2. Review Beginning Letter sounds.

Fill the plastic eggs with objects or animals.  Have kids open the egg, say the name of the object and match it's beginning sound with a magnet letter or letter card.

3. Spell CVC words

Fill the plastic eggs with pictures of CVC words and letter tiles.  Have the kids open the egg, look at the picture and try to spell it using the letter tiles. 

4. Spell your name and your friends' names.

Fill the plastic eggs with a picture of your child or student and the letter tiles needed to spell their name.  Have students open the eggs and spell the name of the person in the picture. EXTENSION: Have kids glue the letters and pictures down on a recording sheet or write the names with special markers after they build the names with the letters tiles.

5. Review word families.

Write on plastic eggs with a sharpie marker or use stickers to write word endings on one half of an egg and consonants on the other half.  Have kids turn one half of the egg reading the new words that they make.  EXTENSION:  Have students record the new words that they make.  They could also make a list of real words and nonsense(silly) words that they make.

6. Match Rhyming words.

Write on plastic eggs with a sharpie marker or use stickers to write rhyming word pairs on the top and bottom halves of eggs.  Break all the eggs apart and have kids match the words that rhyme and connect the two pieces back together.

7. Make compound words.

Write on plastic eggs with a sharpie marker or use stickers to write compound words.  Break all the eggs apart and have kids make compound words by putting two halves together to make a new word.  EXTENSION:  Have kids write out their new words.

8. Practice counting seeds.

Fill 12 eggs with popcorn seeds (chicken feed).  Have children open each egg and count the seeds inside and then store them in the corresponding egg cup in the egg carton.

9. Read number words and symbols

Write number words or use dots on one half of an egg and have children find the matching number symbol and put the egg back together.

10. Make patterns.

Have children use 1/2 of the plastic egg and create patterns with them.  EXTENSION:  Have children represent the patterns they create on paper.  Build a pattern and have children extend your pattern.  Give children instructions like build me a AB pattern and have them create it. 

11. Build Fine motor skills

Take 2 baskets and fill one basket with plastic eggs and have child sit directly in the middle of the two baskets.  Using tongs have child reach across their midline and pick up an egg and transfer it to the other basket.  Once children get really good at this move the baskets a fair distance apart and have them run back and forth to fill the baskets.

12. Build Gross motor skills

Have egg and spoon races.  Challenge children by adding obstacles that they have to step over or crawl under.

Have egg races using your nose or other parts of your body (elbow, knee, shoulder, etc.)

13. Make an ice mold

Use plastic eggs as a mold.  Hide small objects or animals in the plastic eggs and fill them with water and then freeze to make ice.  The kids will have a blast trying to release their objects from the ice.

14. Hide eggs and go on a Egg Hunt.

So that's it for this year!  What do you do with your eggs?

Linked up here:

Unconventional use of an iPad

So for Christmas this year my hubby bought me and iPad.  I love I just wish I got to use it!  As soon as I take it out, within a matter of minutes I have two little bodies touching it and asking if they can have a turn!  And at night when the kiddos are in bed the hubby takes it over!  What's a mommy to do, right?  But that's ok I've learned to share and I love watching the kiddos scroll around and find the apps they want.  They are almost better than me on the iPad!  But one day I looked over at C and she was sitting at the table working on the iPad and then writing something on a scrap piece of paper.  I went over to see and I saw this:

She was typing in letters on the notepad app and then copying them onto the paper.  Not the most conventional use of an iPad but hey she was practicing her writing!  (And she was quiet and busy while I made dinner)  Double Plus!