Christmas Tree Numbers (for the Light Table)

There's something about these dark days of December that instantly make us want to get out our light table to play. With the coming of Christmas we decided to do some holiday themed light table play and incorporated Christmas trees.

We've done some alphabet play with the light table before with our light table letter match activity, so it was fun to try a number activity. Lately Big Brother has been really interested in numbers, reading them everywhere we go and trying to count to 100. The "teen" numbers still trip him up just a little when he's reading and saying them, although he's usually pretty comfortable by the time he gets to the twenties. I decided to make this activity be focused on the numbers 1 through 20. 

Ghost Mud

Halloween is almost here, but we're still having some fun with different Halloween play ideas. Over the weekend we decided to get a little creative with some sensory play and experiment with a different take on cloud dough, which we're calling Ghost Mud.

Ghost Mud Sensory Play

We've made what is often called cloud dough in the past (you can see one example as Snow Dough here) which is made using flour and baby oil. We've also enjoyed making oobleck (corn starch and water) so we decided to try and mix up the two recipes by trying corn starch and baby oil together. 

5 Books to Read Before You Go to the Apple Orchard

If you're like our family, and live in the right region, around this time of year you're probably headed to a local apple orchard to pick apples. For our family it's an annual tradition. We have two different orchards we love to visit each year and often try to go with our extended family one weekend day a year for picking.  

This past weekend was the perfect day to go: warm, sunny, plenty of delicious apples, and lots of family fun.

Before going we often try to read some apple books as part of our lead up to the trip. It's a great way to get excited about going and to learn about the trees, an apple life cycle, and the orchard. Here are our top five picks to read before (or after) an apple picking adventure.  

Homemade Dinosaur Bones

We've definitely been feeling a little frazzled here between the hot and humid weather, a sick toddler, and several days cooped up in the house. Luckily, kicking off our dinosaur week is proving to be a great distraction.

Dinosaur books are something I've been collecting for a while now, so we officially kicked off the week by reading several different dinosaur books. Later this week we'll be creating a dinosaur bone excavation, and while I had planned on creating the bones, I realized it would be much more fun to get Big Brother involved.

Homemade Dinosaur Bones

These homemade dinosaur bones were easy to make and are proving to have more than one way to use them.

Alphabet Adventure: C is for Cow

As you can imagine, we'd hoped to do "C is for Camping," but the rain put an end to that plan. So we needed to change plans and go with another great "C' adventure: C is for Cow.

As we live in a rural area we know many people with cows and farms, but decided to make this adventure a little more official by traveling to  nearby Billings Farm & Museum. We've never visited as a family and had thought this would be a great place to go at some point this summer. After we planned the adventure, we were surprised with some complimentary tickets from a friend. Perfect timing.

The Adventure

We packed a picnic lunch, braved the gray clouds, and headed to the farm. Big Brother was excited as we pulled in because he could hear the cows as we arrived. Some were in the barns and some were in the pasture.

Ironically, once we were in the barn he didn't want to get to close to them. He even passed up the opportunity to try brushing one during a small talk on jersey cows. He felt a little better about being near them when we visited the cows in the pasture. 

A cow says "MOOO!"

Little Brother was more willing to get closer to the cows. 

We enjoyed other elements of our farm visit too, including the other animals: chickens, sheep, and draft horses. We also explored the stenciling craft project and the antique farm equipment and home life exhibits. Big Brother particularly enjoyed exploring the ice house. 

Along the way we found some more "C' words: chicken, cider, cheese, cookies and croissant ( both in our lunch.) Once we were back home we wrapped up the adventure with a great cow story, The Cow Loves Cookies by Karma Wilson.

The Project

The next day we created our "C" project: C is for crayon. 

We decided to take advantage of the sunny, warm weather and try a little experiment. Using our old, unwrapped crayons and a vegetable peeler we peeled curls off the crayons and left them in the sun on white card stock. 

We left them for a while, until they were warm and gooey. Then we placed another piece of white paper on top and pressed. I was hoping they would melt and press a little more than they did, leaving a melted look. Instead they kind of just mashed onto the paper. But Big Brother was pleased with the big chunks of crayon now stuck to his paper. 

Another great alphabet adventure and project! 

Other C adventure ideas: camping (of course), canoeing, cupcake store, candle factory, and a carousel ride. 

Sink or Float Fun

With the hot and humid temps this week we've been looking for some ways to stay cool and have fun. This quick and easy water play project was perfect the other morning.

First I sent Big Brother around the house to gather a collection of everyday items. While he did that I created this recording sheet on the computer.

Float Sink Doc by kitchenfloorcrafts

t
Then we headed out onto the deck to do some "experiments." First we filled a large tub with water and set up some towels (for sitting) on the damp deck.

We had our basket of everyday items that Big Brother had collected. Using the recording sheet I wrote down what the object was (in the far left hand column) and whether he guessed if it would sink or float in the "Guess?" column. It was hard for him to restrain himself and make the guess first, but I felt it was important for him to start practicing this skill and this way we could do it in a fun environment. This type of guessing activity not only builds science skills but also preplanning and thinking skills that can be used in multiple ways. 

After he made the guess he would toss it in the bucket and I would record what it did on the sheet by checking he correct column. We'd talk about whether his guess had been correct or not. 

We went through the whole basket and then collected some new items. 

He continued to play "sink or float" for a while by himself afterwards. He stopped guessing and would just toss the item in and shout out what it was doing. (By that point we had practiced the pre-guessing quite a bit.) He completely soaked himself in the end, but of course that was part of the point. Get wet, cool down, have fun, and fit in a little learning too. 

** Safety note: As always, all young children should be supervised when playing with water. You know your own child best and know how hands on you need to be in the supervision, but always be mindful when creating these kinds of opportunities for kids.**

Virtual Book Club: Seed Exploration with Gail Gibbons

This month the Virtual Book Club author was Gail Gibbons. We read several of her books including "Dogs," and "Fire! Fire!" But the book we chose to do an activity around was From Seed to Plant. 

It felt like a natural connection to the family garden we planted last month and the other Gail Gibbons' book we had read during that time, The Vegetables We Eat.

Creating and Using an Observation Journal

So several weeks ago we posted the exciting news of discovering a robin's nest with an egg just below our deck. (See Rockin' Robin Footprints). Over the following few days two more eggs appeared in the nest. We've been eagerly keeping an eye on the nest and we're excited to discover the eggs had hatched late last week. A quick google search helped me figure out it should be about two weeks before these little hatchlings grow enough to leave the nest.

Developing observation skills in children helps them learn to pay attention to detail in a variety of realms and encourages them to use different senses. Observation is a fundamental building stone to other scientific skills. It involves collecting and organizing information and leads to creating questions. Children learn to use a variety of strategies to answer these questions, such as inferencing and more observations. The baby robins under our deck are a perfect opportunity to purposefully practice observing how something grows and changes. (I say purposeful because most parents innately are building these skills every day with their child. Just think about how long a walk can take with a preschooler, how many things they notice as you walk, and how many questions you answer.)

In order to capture his observations I decided to create Big Brother a journal to use for the next few weeks. I used our word processing program and some free clip art I downloaded off of the internet. I know he won't want to draw in his journal every day for two weeks, so I made pages for 8 days of observations.

I printed the pages onto card stock, hole punched them, and then bound the pages together with binder rings. I added a set of colored pencils and put both into a ziploc bag to create a science kit. 

On the first page Big Brother drew what the nest looked like before the eggs had hatched. Younger children, like Big Brother, may need help observing by an adult prompting them with questions. I prompted him to think about the shape of the nest. He found brown and blue pencils. I had thought I might need to prompt him but he was already thinking about the colors on his own.

He then went back to the nest to check on the baby birds. I prompted him with the question "What do you notice?" He told me there were three, they were light brown, and they had "pricklies" on their heads. I also asked him to tell me what body parts they had. He informed me they had beaks and no wings. (Just in case you're wondering, they do have wings, they just don't look like wings to him yet.)

He drew three circles and some lines coming off as his "pricklies." (The pricklies are the beginnings of feathers.) I dated the page and wrote his observation at the top of the page.

Although he is looking at the birds multiple times a day we are not drawing them every day. He's attempting to capture the changes with his drawings and making some great observations orally. Although we're unique in being able to have a nest of baby robin's to observe, a journal like this could be used in a variety of contexts. Spring is all about growth and change, from planting gardens to changing trees to weather changes on a daily basis. So spring can also be all about observation. 

Dandelion Exploration

Most of this week we're focusing on creating some projects which will become gifts for the grandmas and Big Brother's daycare teachers. (National childcare provider appreciation day is this coming Friday, May 10 and Mother's Day is Sunday, May 12.) I don't want to ruin the surprises, so I'll have to share about those projects this weekend. Until then we're still finding time for some other fun projects and explorations.

This week the grass on the lawn really took off and so did the dandelions. Yesterday Big Brother was having so much fun picking them I decided it would be great to set up an exploration focused on dandelions. I collected a handful of household tools and materials which he could use.

Materials included a plastic mat, safety scissors, a mason jar, a small magnifying box, tweezers, a pencil, paper, a sorting tray, an artist's palette, and black liquid watercolor paint. He added the small terra cotta pot to the pile. I wasn't really sure what he would want to do but wanted to put out a range of options. 

 He went out front to collect dandelions. He found most of them in the front garden beds. 

Right away he was drawn to the scissors and started to cut off the stems. 

 Then he tried cutting the petals off. 

He poured himself some of the liquid watercolor and tried dipping and stamping the flower heads. 

Cutting proved to be the most interesting activity. 

At another point all the cuttings went into the magnifying box, although not for looking, just storing. 

 An ant had journeyed in with the flowers and he decided to try and catch them with the tweezers. Talk about fine motor practice!

At the very end, with my encouragement, he tried dragging the dandelion across the paper to make yellow streaks. 

The exploration probably kept him engaged for about 25 minutes before wandering away to other things. I realized from watching him we should be trying some more things with scissors and also explain the magnifying box a little more. (We'd never used it before, but I put it out to see what he would do with it today.) I really like how he got to be in control of where this project went and the steps he wanted to take with it. 

We'll probably do it again, when the dandelions start to turn to seed, and add in a literature component. I've already got the perfect book in mind . . .