Turkey Name Plate

With Thanksgiving Day quickly approaching the last few weeks have brought some opportunities to play with turkeys.

This Turkey Name Plate activity proved to be a fun way for Little Brother to practice spelling his name while getting in the seasonal mood.

Peas 'n Carrots Sensory Bin

A few weeks ago we used dried peas in our Leprechaun's Letters Sensory Tub, and they proved to be a great sensory tub filler. So while we still had them out, I decided to tweak the bin a little to reflect the next upcoming holiday: Easter.

Last year I picked up these cute little carrot containers at The Dollar Tree (I saw others for sale this year as well) and I've been looking for a great way to use them. What goes better with carrots than peas?

Graphing with Easter Candy

One of our favorite things to do with seasonal candy is use it as a math manipulative. In the past we've used candy hearts for math games, counted with pumpkins, and done math play with jelly beans.

So when I saw these SweetTart Easter Candies at the grocery store I knew they would be perfect for math play.

Since the candies were both colorful and different shapes, we decided to graph them! I made up two graphs: a color graph and an animal graph. We want you to be able to play too, so at the end of the post you'll find the link for the graphs!

Heart Play on the Light Table

Valentine's Day is coming, which means it's a great time to create and play with hearts. A few years ago I bought these fun plastic hearts at The Dollar Tree. We've used them in other sensory play ideas before, like this Valentine's Day Sensory Bin.

But the other day I was inspired to try them on the light table. 

Little Brother and I were home on a pretty dreary and rainy afternoon, looking for some ways to brighten up the rest of the afternoon when we got out the Valentine's supplies and remembered these colorful hearts. 

Indian Corn Sensory Play

Last week we explored Indian Corn. This material has proven to be great for exploring different types of sensory play. The textures and colors have been just one way we've been able to get into our explorations.

First we painted with the corn cobs, which gave us colorful, textured prints. Later, after the cobs had dried, we created a different type of exploration: Indian Corn Sensory Play.

In getting ready for this play experience, I started reading a little about indian corn, also called flint corn. There is a great article over at the History Channel which gives a little more information about the story behind the corn. 

To set up for our play experience we put the ears of corn into a our large, plastic tub. With it the ears we added a miniature muffin tin, large tweezers, and a magnifying glass. 

Beading With 5 Household Objects

We enjoy beading here. I've loved it since I was a kid, and enjoyed passing on the activity to Big Brother. But not only can we create "beautiful" necklaces and bracelets, it's also a great way to develop fine motor skills.

I've mentioned fine motor skills before; they are small movements made by the smaller muscles in our bodies (like those you find in fingers and toes for example.) Helping kids to develop fine motor skills are important because they need to be able to use these muscles for important everyday activities (like zipping a coat) and academic skills (like writing with a pencil or cutting out a picture.) 

Beading is a great way to work on developing fine motor skills, as it's using repetitive small muscles, it's fun, and you create a finished product (which kids always love.) But you don't always have to use beads, there's plenty of household objects you can use. 

Switching up the object adds variety and interest for kids, but also means they're learning how to hold onto different types of objects. Here are 5 of our favorite household objects you can use below.

Simple Straw Drop for Toddlers

I know I've already shared several drop activities for babies and toddlers, but Little Brother has been enjoying this activity for over a week, so I couldn't resist sharing. It was so easy to put together and such a great way to work on fine motor skills.

He loves putting small things into other containers, which inspired me to put together this one afternoon. I used regular drinking straws, a cardboard coffee can, and a hole punch to create this simple activity. 

Pound A Pumpkin

A few weeks ago Big Brother participated in this activity at preschool, and loved it so much we had to recreate it at home. We've used it as a way to get out some extra energy now that the afternoons are cooler and shorter, and it's a little harder to get outside. It's perfect for using up any pumpkins left over from Halloween.

The materials are simple a pumpkin, golf tees, and toy hammers. Ahead of time a grown-up could poke holes into the pumpkin although we found it pretty easy to pound the tees in without preset holes. 

Big Brother would get the tee started by twisting it in and then use the hammer to pound the tee further in. 

Older kids could work on designing patterns but Big Brother just enjoyed getting the tees into the pumpkin. He even pounded one into the stem. We did find we could pretty easily use our fingers to pull them back out if we wanted to. Using the tee and the hammer both promote fine and gross motor skills. 

Not an idea we can take credit for, but it definitely got a lot of play time in our house. 

This post may also have been shared at some of these terrific link parties. 

Alphabet Adventures: H is for Hike

Last week became pretty busy as we tried to enjoy the end of our summer days with several social outings and events. We did manage to fit in one of our Alphabet Adventures over the weekend. H is for Hike! Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate as much as we would have hoped. But we didn't let it "dampen" our spirits and luckily, we all have a great sense of humor.

Big Brother opening the clue bag (he already had a sense of what we were doing) and using the binoculars from the clue. 

The Adventure

We had known from the beginning we wanted to do a hike for the letter H. We live an area where there  are lots of different hikes to choose from, so we had been debating where we would go for a few weeks. I have to admit, in the end our deciding factor was a yard sale which had been advertised south of us that sounded too good to pass up. So we settled on a hike that meant we could do both.

We packed a picnic, filled some water bottles, and loaded our backpacks. Little Brother rode for the first time in the frame pack. This was a more comfortable fit for this adventure than the front pack we tend to use. We were excited to try this as we really haven't hiked on this type of trail as a family yet.

Although the weather looked beautiful as we headed out, and the forecast had been promising, the sky became darker and there were a few sprinkles as we climbed further up the mountain. From the beginning, this wasn't our smoothest adventure. We had forgotten sweatshirts and rain jackets, and it was pretty cool with the sprinkles. (Luckily I had a few of mine in the car, including one that could fit Big Brother and one in the diaper bag for Little Brother.) Little Brother needed to nurse shortly after getting onto the trail and everyone was ready for lunch much earlier than expected. But we stayed positive, stopped when we needed to, and tried to keep moving upwards. Big Brother stuck with the bumpy trail, loved exploring some of the trees and rocks on the side, and scaling the rockier part near the top. The trail proved to be a great one for little feet to do primarily on their own.

Unfortunately, as we reached the summit and we were admiring the view we could see a true rainstorm rolling in. Pretty quickly it started dropping giant, fat raindrops on our heads.

We found a small cluster of trees which provided good coverage from the rain and started our picnic. 

And then we heard the loud thunder claps . . . a definite no-go for our hike. We packed everything back up, and headed as quickly and safely as we could down the mountain. 

We made great time as we moved down the mountain, and even had time to find some more "H" words: help, home, hand, hop, and hurry. Once off the summit we were sheltered from the rain by the trees and the thunder started to move away from us. Of course, shortly before reaching the bottom the rain stopped completely. We were able to slow down and enjoy the end of the hike. 

Once home we extended our hike by reading Henry Hikes to Fitchburg by D.B. Johnson. We liked how Henry had time to enjoy his hike by connecting to nature and relaxing. 

The Project

It took a few days this time but we did follow up with an "H" project as well: H is for heart. For this project I cut out a heart for Big Brother from orange card stock. I collected three heart shaped paper punches, a glue stick, and scraps of colored card stock.  

He used the punches to cut out smaller hearts and the glue stick to add them to the larger heart. Although the punches took some effort from him, punches are a great way for building hand and forearm strength. These muscles are important for a variety of skills including (but not limited to) writing with a pencil, dressing with buttons and zippers, and doing projects with small parts. 

With some guidance and tips he was able to punch quite a few hearts. He added them to the big heart which will go into our family book.  

So although it was a slightly more bumpy Alphabet Adventure, it was definitely a memorable one filled with humor, helping hands, and of course, heart. 

This post may also have been shared at some of these terrific link parties.