Foam Christmas Tree and Snowmen

 

Our early December has brought quite a few chilly, rainy days, so I was very thankful when I came across this post from Fun at Home with Kids.

All you need for this incredible, reusable activity is "special glue" (water), foam pieces, and a window (or mirror). When I find things like this online, I always have the same thoughts:

1. This is GENIUS! Which is always followed by...
2. WHY have I never thought of this?!?!

We decided to go with Christmas tree decorating and save the snowman fun for January. I started by cutting out small, medium, and large trees with corresponding stars. I'm so grateful for the large random bag of multicolored shapes I saved from my teaching days. They worked perfectly as ornaments for the trees!

Gabriella helped right alongside me, cutting her happy little heart away. (Cutting foam is really rather soothing. Well, at least Gabriella and I think so :)) I loved when she realized some of the scraps from her cutting were squares and rectangles that would serve perfectly as presents under the trees! She also did an incredible job cutting out three different-sized candy canes for decorating. It was challenging, but she was rewarded with pure joy when she accomplished it.

When it was time to play, I laid out two white tubs—one to hold the pieces and the other to hold a small amount of "special glue" (water) for sticking the foam to the window.

My littles would pick up a piece, dip it in the glue, and place it on the window. So easy, so fun! I did place a towel under the play area for two reasons: the floor was cold from the weather outside, and I have a two-year-old, haha! Even if it was only a 1/4 cup of water, I didn't expect any of it to remain once Mikey got a hold of it. :)

We also experimented with using paint brushes to paint the "glue" on the window. I think we all liked that a bit better than the water tub. There's just something about holding a paintbrush in your hand that makes you feel like you're doing something extra special.

I really loved all the learning I got to sneak in with this activity while they played.

We talked about the size of the trees and the relationship between them.

We also worked on following verbal directions like,

• "Place a yellow circle on the largest tree"
• "Place two presents under the medium size tree"

We even got a chance to reinforce directional terms like,

• "Place the star on top of the tree"
• "Place the ornament under, beside, to the right, to the left"

We used the trees to help sort shapes as we talked about their attributes.

A few days into playing with this activity that I realized we could utilize the window clings on my window. So we did. :) With a little color sorting and graphing...

Then with number representation and counting...

We really have enjoyed decorating our foam trees. I think what I love most about this activity is that I can pack them up and save them for next Christmas. Definitely a win!

& Look how sweet our little snowmen turned out!

 

Gabriella had such a great time helping me with them. We decided to work on them while the boys napped and surprisingly, we finished before they woke AND had a little time to play! Yay!

We followed the same structure we had with our foam Christmas trees; one small, one medium and one large. I decided to number the three circle body parts of each snowman to make it a bit easier when putting them together. I used a pencil to write the number 1 on each of the "large" snowman's body parts, 2 on the "medium" snowman's body parts, and 3s on the "small." I also used a black permanent marker to draw the coal smile onto each snowman's face.

The boys had a great time playing with them too!

 

Oh Josiah! He always goes straight for the unattended cup with "special glue!" He gets such a kick out of playing with the very small amount of water in there!

Our Thankful Tree

Gratitude. What a tremendously important lesson to teach little ones. 

This is only the second year we've made our "thankful tree," but I hope to make it a lasting tradition.

We like to take a trip to the park and hunt for the perfect twigs for our tree, and this year it was as though they were just waiting for us! I can't get over how beautiful they are. As for the leaves, last year I hand-cut them from yellow, red, and orange construction paper (not so much fun), but this year I came across the prettiest bag of them at the dollar store. Whoo-hoo for a time-saver! I am so thankful for the Dollar Tree! :)

We usually add a few leaves to the tree each morning during our breakfast and devotion time, but recently Gabriella will randomly ask me throughout the day to add things:

...while walking through the house humming, she'll excitedly say, "Mommy, I have something we can add to our tree—MUSIC!!!"

...after waving to our neighbors across the street, she'll come close and whisper, "Let's add our neighbors to our tree, Mommy." (They really are wonderful neighbors; we are so thankful.)

...or my favorite—just the other night after dinner, Gabriella says, "Oh, Mommy, Mommy! I have something to add to our thankful tree! I'm thankful for Jesus of the Christ." Yes, Jesus of the Christ. I had to ask her twice too. Haha! It was just as precious as it sounds! That would be the fourth time we've added Jesus to our tree, but really, could we ever be thankful enough for Him? {big sigh}

And I can’t leave out Mikey. Although he may not understand completely, every time we talk about what we are thankful for, he blurts out, "And Mommy, and Daddy, and Gabby, and Mikey, and Siah (Josiah)." Oh, how I love his adorable two-year-old self!

So I think Gabriella’s got it... I think she’s found her heart of gratitude, and Mikey is well on his way... and for that, I am so thankful.

Although there has been a lot of talk in our home recently about being thankful, I don’t think our "tree" or our talks are the most efficient way to teach it. I do hope that the deliberate discussion and the act of writing down what we're thankful for is helpful, but what I really long for is that my little loves catch ME "teaching them" gratitude. Teaching them daily as they hear me say grace, thank a stranger for holding a door open, thank Josiah for his sweet cuddles, Mikey for his tender kisses, and Gabriella for her companionship.

I pray they catch me thanking God for patience, for the birds singing, and the sun shining. I pray they hear gratitude during bedtime prayers as we thank God for the day's blessings and thank Him for carrying us through. I pray they soak up God's favor and thank Him for every special gift. I pray they learn to be truly grateful... knowing that if it weren’t for HIM, we’d have NOTHING. My prayer is that I lead by example. Let it be I who set gratitude into action.

Discover Jars

 

This is one of those things I’ve been SUPER excited about putting together! It’s the kind of excitement where you can’t stop thinking about it until the project is complete—and then you just want to sit and stare at it for hours once it is. Not only do these jars provide hours of fun, but they’re incredibly beautiful too! I’ve been trying really hard to be patient until I could find or collect the right “bottles” to make it work for us. I started saving our plastic peanut butter jars, but even with the kiddos’ intense love for peanut butter-only sandwiches, it was taking much longer than I anticipated.

Then, I found the jars you see in the picture above at the Dollar Tree, and that, of course, made them even more perfect! Because I hesitated on the size, I regretfully only bought two at first and then spent DAYS searching Dollar Tree stores for more!

In a perfect world, I’d love to say we took the time to find each item for the jars together, but it would have taken forever. So, I did the searching and then placed everything in a bin for us to sort into jars by color together. The sorting gave them a sense of ownership and pride in our Discovery Jars. And, of course, anytime they find something new to add, we most definitely do! :)

I love that we call these our "Discovery Jars." Every single time we play with them, we discover a new way to explore the items—and learning takes place in the process. THAT could not possibly make this momma’s heart any happier. One of the reasons I love the size of these jars is because the items inside are big enough for us to take out and explore on a regular basis. I even tried to stay away from including super tiny items that our littlest one wouldn’t be able to resist putting in his mouth. The jars sit on a beautiful bookshelf that we were blessed with (thank you, Father God, for always knowing the desires of my heart). I keep a large bin on that shelf, so whenever the kiddos want, they can grab a jar—or two, or ALL of them, as my two-year-old prefers—and just play, play, play!

Here’s some of the fun we’ve had while discovering our Discovery Jars.

Open-ended play: This will never get old! I hope and pray that my little ones never cease to use their imagination and creativity while playing. Between all that's in these jars they should never run out of silly things to create. They also love just stacking jars (castles) before they come tumbling down!

Number Identification and 1:1 Counting: The kids discovered a die while playing with the contents of our green jar, and suddenly, we found ourselves playing a game! The jar’s lid was the perfect size to both roll the die in and contain its roll. We all took turns rolling, identifying the numeral, and choosing that number of objects from the bin. Wow, this turned out to be a surprisingly fun, easy, and exciting game! They were so patient with each other while taking turns and were excited to choose their own objects.

You could easily play until you’ve emptied the items from the bin, or, if you want to make it competitive, you could establish a “winner” based on the most or least items retrieved. You could also pull out a few ice trays or egg cartons and have them place their collected items in. The first to fill up all their spots is the winner! Whoo-hoo, so much FUN!

I admit, at first I hesitated to place ALL of our cute colored dice in the Discovery Jars. I didn’t want them to be taken out of their “very special” labeled place on the “very special” shelf. Well, that quickly went out the window, and I grabbed every color die I could find to place in the remaining jars. Every time we pull out a jar to play with, I can only hope we’ll get the chance to play this game again! There is no time like NOW. Learning is happening, and that is far more important than anything “looking nice” on a shelf.

Memory Games: My hubby and I love any opportunity we get to play memory games with the kids. Besides the fact that they’re FUN, they’re also so good for their little brains! I was always really intrigued by the memory lessons in my Developmental Psychology class in college. I have to admit, though, I was never very good at the exercises. I tried REALLY hard but always disappointed myself with how few I could remember. It excites me to start memory training really early with the kids by playing games like these.

We started nice and easy by strategically placing just a few objects neatly in the bin. We took turns closing our eyes, and whoever was “it” would remove one object to hide behind their back. Then we’d open our eyes, take a look at the items, and try to remember which one was missing.

My two-year-old didn’t quite understand the concept of the game, but he was so funny when it was his turn to be “it.” As soon as we were ready to guess which item was removed, he’d yell out the answer. Oh! We really enjoyed that! We chuckled and chuckled and chuckled! He is seriously too cute!

Exploring with sense of touch: I give my two-year-old all the credit for engaging us in this activity. He started stuffing a ball into a sock that was supposed to be on his foot, haha! (Don’t worry, it was pretty clean ;)) A little light bulb went off in my head, and we took off with his idea.

So, we took turns choosing an object while everyone else closed their eyes, then placed it into the sock (no pEEking!). It was then everyone else’s job to hold the sock, feel around, and try to guess what object was inside. We were having WAY too much fun to stop and search for a more appropriate “bag.” Oh no, there was none more appropriate than my son’s precious sock at that very moment. <3

For the record, we’ve played this game since then, and we did use a larger cloth bag with a drawstring top. This gave us the chance to place our hands in the bag and feel around while guessing. It provided a completely different sensory experience. We loved it!

I should mention that it’s easier for little ones to cheat when using a bag, haha! I will never forget my sweet princess’s face. She tried soooo hard to keep her eyes from peeking into the bag as she slid her hand in. Oh, goodness! I do have to say she gets it honestly... It’s soooo hard not to peek!

Reading, Identifying, and Classifying: I’ve really been longing for a way to incorporate literacy into our Discovery Jar playtime. I started by using a whiteboard and writing the label of an item in the bin. My daughter would then do her best to sound out the word and find it. Yay, it was a success!

I was inspired to create this for my Gabby to access whenever she desired. I cut up little pieces of construction paper and wrote labels for many (but not all) of the items in each jar. I hot-glued a magnet to the lid, used a metal clip to hold the labels, and secured them right to the magnet! Oh, how I felt like Tinker Bell in that moment—tinkering with lost things to create something truly wonderful!

I also tried to prepare for the inevitable lid mix-up when my two-year-old dumps multiple jars out to play with at once by writing the color name on the back of each card. This has been VERY helpful!

Ahh, I just love all the learning that's going on with these jars!!! The magnet on the lid also serves for another incredible purpose as we can use it to help us classify objects as magnetic or non-magnetic! Magnets are ALWAYS so much fun to play with! Here's my sweet princess showing me that the small washer on the sea turtle is magnetic.

WOW to the endless possibilities for sorting and classifying with these items! The pictures above show just a few groups we came up with. I'm SO excited that we can continue to classify based on attributes like:

• Texture
• Color
• Size
• Weight
• Shape (3-D)
• Phonics
• Magnetic and Non-Magnetic

And FINALLY...

Beginning Sounds: For this activity we worked together on isolating beginning sounds and placed them on the carpet where they belonged. We quickly noticed many letters had no friends and few letters had many. What a great way to get some mathematics vocabulary in by asking which letter has the most, fewest, more than, less than, equal to and so on! We laughed about the fact that the majority of the items in the B..b..blue jar began with the letter B!

Tree Leaf Collage

A visit to our favorite park in town turned out to be the perfect opportunity to collect materials for some beautiful fall crafts.

It just so happens that the kiddos’ favorite playground is surrounded by the most stunning trees. In fact, the largest tree provides shade to nearly all the play equipment as its beautiful, mature branches stretch right overhead. {sigh!} Have I mentioned how much I love fall? :) Anytime we're near that playground, the kiddos don't have to ask more than once to go! It’s most definitely one of our "happy places."

We spent the latter part of our park visit crawling all over the leaf-covered ground, picking up what felt like hundreds of leaves and acorns. Every time the wind would gust, it felt as though we were being showered with autumn's raindrops... what a memory!

I can’t get over how beautiful our Tree Leaf Collage turned out. I know the vibrant reds, yellows, and oranges won’t last for long, but they’re breathtaking while they do. My little one and I even had a great discussion about the lifespan of a leaf once it has fallen to the ground. We talked about the difference between the crunchy brown leaves and the soft, bendable, colorful ones. She decided the darkest brown leaf should be glued to the "ground" of our collage.

It turned out perfectly—I couldn’t love it more!

Golf Tee Pumpkin Fun

 

I was WAY more excited about this activity than my kiddos were. This is true more times than not, but I'm hoping it will level out here in the near future. ;)

I came across a golf tee pumpkin hammering activity from one of the blogs I follow on Facebook and immediately placed it on my mental "we must do this as soon as possible" list. As soon as I found golf tees it was ON, and BOY was it FUN!

We started with a couple hammers, small pumpkins, and golf tees. What a great way to use those cute lil' pumpkins we got from visiting the pumpkin patch! I think anytime you put a hammer in the hands of a child it equates to loads of fun in their eyes.

The kiddos were super excited about hammering and got to work right away. They seemed to know exactly what to do and didn't even care to listen to directions or watch me model first, they just took off!

I just love the picture of my lil guy holding the tee and hammering away. It took him a bit of time to figure out exactly how to hold it just right but he figured it out and it was such a joy to watch him.

The kiddos even spent a good amount of time pulling all of the tees out and replacing them again without the hammer.

Every bit of this activity was tons of fun in and of itself, but I'm so excited to share some awesome extension activities with you as well.

I quickly followed up with making sure there were 26 tees in one of the small pumpkins then used a marker to write a single letter of the alphabet on each tee. I then cut and tied some yarn to the stem of the pumpkin (even though I didn't do so, a bit of hot glue here would be helpful) and we had our very own connect the dots activity! It was such a huge hit!

I wondered if holding the yarn snug, wrapping each tee once, and slowing releasing yarn between the finger and thumb would be too much for my little ones to handle but after a bit of practice and some help, they were successful at doing it on their own. 

I repeated the same concept with numbers 1-20 on the next pumpkin.

 

If your little ones get really good at this and have even got to where they've memorized the route of the ABC or number "maze" you could simply pull the tees out and rearrange them, giving the maze a brand new feel and experience. You could even try giving them the responsibility of rearranging! They'd love that!

The 3rd pumpkin had the fewest tees so I decided to use them for color matching. I used permanent markers to color a pair of tees the same color. I looked through a bag of colored rubber bands to make sure I had a band that matched the colors I chose for the tees. It was so much fun watching my 2 year old use his itty bitty fingers to sssstretch those rubber bands over the matching pairs of colored tees.

There are SO many ways to differentiate this activity! Here's a few I've thought of, using rubber bands to match or pair items:

• upper and lower case letters
• shapes
• shapes paired with their number of sides or angles

You could even create a key that indicated which colored rubber bands are to be used for different outcomes or answers:

• yellow band around 2 numbers whose sum is 7 (e.g. 4 and 3 or 2 and 5)
• green band around 2 numbers whose difference is 3 (e.g. 8 and 5 or 6 and 3)

You could also use the yarn "maze" for skip counting practice. The possibilities are truly endless! In fact, I have 3 large pumpkins sitting outside on the porch who I think like are begging me to involve them in our learning experiences. If I get the chance to grab another bag of tees they most definitely will. 

Countdowns

I am convinced that visual countdowns for toddlers and preschoolers are magical!! My sweet-as-sugar 4 year old little girl is a planner much like myself and I love that BUT lots and lots and lots of questions about days' events are asked because of it. On the RARE occasion I tell her about an exciting event weeks or even days in advance... it's like an extremely long car ride with endless "are we there yets! Like most moms, I've quickly learned to only share exciting plans hours or even minutes before they take place. ;) & if I do share great news weeks before hand, I now lean on our countdown chains to keep track of all the "are we there yets for me. I'm telling you, they are magic!

Here's one we used to keep track of the days left to visit family in Alabama. My teacher-heart absolutely LOVES all of the hidden opportunities the chain provides to expose my little ones to number sense. We had some great discussion about subtraction, totals, remainders, and lots of great practice with good ol' plain counting!

For our Thanksgiving countdown we decided to go a different route. My Gabby and I pulled out these awesome links we picked up at the dollar store a few weeks ago. She picked the perfect colors - we decided, together, they were the most appropriate for the season. We worked together to use the colors and shapes to make a pattern. Everytime we take a link off our Thanksgiving chain we have the opportunity to work on colors, shapes, and patterns. I can't wait to see where our future countdowns will take us.

Red Light, Green Light - Fall Edition

 

Fall is my absolute FAVORITE season for so many reason, one being the stunning colors of the leaves on all the beautiful trees. I love trees!

The kiddos and I were outside enjoying a game of “Red Light, Green Light” when I glanced at the red leaf my sweet 7 month old was exploring…perfect...RED leaf, green leaf!

I explained the game plan and we grabbed the leaves! It was a super easy way to switch up the game and use our sense of sight rather than hearing.

 

Even my 2 year old had a blast switching the leaves, one at a time, from behind his back. Gosh he’s such a cutie!

If you give it a try let me know how it goes!! You could even add a “slow down” yellow light/leaf! We may have to try that next time.

Bubbles, Bubbles Everywhere

 

It was a just-because-bubble-playing-kinda day. I’ve been wanting to get some materials together for some fun with bubbles all summer and finally pushed myself to do it before the season was officially over. It was a great tribute to a fantastic summer!

There are so many recipes out there for homemade bubble solution. Many recipes called for glycerin which would have required a special trip to a special store, and with my three lil-ones, I really just didn't have the time. So I crossed my fingers and went with the recipe that called for light corn syrup. It was much easier for me to just grab while grocery shopping and it turned out PERFECT! 

Here’s what we did and here's what you’ll need if you give it a try:

• 5 gallons of water (I used regular ol’ tap water)
• 8 cups of dish detergent (I used a mix of dawn and dollar store brand)
• 2 cups of light corn syrup

That’s it!!! How easy right?!?! I combined the solution outside since it was going straight into the small play pool. I went with the water first and then added the 8 cups of dish detergent and 2 cups light corn syrup. I used my hands to gently rub the bottom of the pool in efforts to incorporate the ingredients without creating suds. Many sites suggested letting the solution sit overnight for the best results however I put the solution together about 2 hours before we begun our play and I have to say, after playing with it all day, for three days straight, it was perfect from the start. Thank God!

I purchased the majority of our bubble tools the dollar store; pipe cleaners, large bubble wands, individual bubbles, and nets (for butterfly catching). Some of the things we already had were the small play pool, hula-hoop, step stool, drinking straws, yarn, water bottles, rubber bands, and an old pillow case.

Before we ventured outside I let the kids use the pipe cleaners to make different-shaped bubble wands. They really enjoyed that! Even though there was an abundance of tools to choose from they still really enjoyed using the small pipe-cleaner-wands they created. <3

The nets were TONS of fun! I’m so glad I decided to grab them. They initially used them to run around chasing and catching bubbles of all shapes and sizes until day 2 of playing with the solution when they discovered suds! They used their nets to scoop up the suds from the pool and swing them around and around…it was love at first sight…tiny suds floating through the air and landing everywhere. It looked like snow! Really, it was beautiful!

If I had to choose my favorite experience with the bubbles it would have to be watching the kiddos use the most inexpensive tool of them all…the yarn and straw tool.  Check out brother and sister enclosing each other in HUGE bubbles! It was SO awesome!

Using the hula-hoop to create large wonky looking bubbles and trapping each other in them comes in at a very close second! These things made the most incredible bubbles! Four out of five of the kids that were playing were five years of age and under, and these tools were super easy to manipulate and created jaw-dropping bubble results!

We also made some sudsy-snake-makers by cutting a water bottle in half and wrapping it with parts of a cut up pillow case. I gathered the fabric at the bottom, cut side of the water bottle and secured it by wrapping a rubber band around it. With everything else to choose from, these weren't as big of a hit but did come in handy when the kiddos needed more suds to scoop up with the nets. Beware, they more than likely will get suds very close, if not in, their mouths when using this one.

I really enjoy watching them explore and learn through play. It was more fun than I could have ever hoped for!

Rainbow Rice

We finally took the time to dye our rice and make sensory rice! We have been experimenting lately with color mixing (which has been TONS of fun) so this fell right in line. I searched online for the easiest way to accomplish this and come across a hand sanitizer version opposed to using vinegar - it was super simple! I prepped everything and experimented with the first batch after the kiddos were in bed. I have to say, it was really hard for me not finish ALL of the colors. I just knew how beautiful they would all turn out and really wanted to see the final product. I'm glad I didn't, though, because upon waking, the kiddos were very excited to see what was in store for them.

Here’s what we did and what you’ll need:

• Food coloring (We used the gel food coloring. I also have the neon liquid food coloring and I was curious to find out how vibrant those colors turned out. Next time we’ll try those. I’m sure any liquid food coloring would work. I couldn't tell you exactly how much gel coloring I used, I just squirted a bit till I felt it was enough. If I had to guess I’d say it was about a teaspoon. I do think I could have used more.)
• Hand Sanitizer (2 pumps per batch/color)
• Jars (We used an old plastic peanut butter jar and a plastic tuberware container. Glass jars or even bowls, if you prefer stirring over shaking, would work as well. I’m glad we went with plastic because there was a bit of banging on the counters that was needed to get everything mixed together)
• Rice (I used about 2 cups of rice for each color)
• Foil, wax, parchment, or even just paper towels for laying out the rice to dry.

Process: I chose to keeping the food coloring and hand sanitizer squirting to myself but let the kiddos use a measuring cup to scoop one cup of rice at a time into a funnel sitting in the jar. The rice poured right on top of the sanitizer and food coloring then we popped the lid on and did lots of shaking and banging. It did take quite some work to make sure the color was dispersed but it was well worth it. Once the kids decided the color was perfect they poured it into sheets of foil to dry. That was it! It was a super easy, kid friendly project that has provided for hours of fun!

They were so excited about playing with the colored rice they made. 

A few notes: 

• It doesn't take long at all to dry, especially if you spread it out well. Ours dried within 30 minutes. (I did find 1-2 small clumps of gooey rice and food coloring clusters that I just tossed.)
• I followed ROY G BIV when laying them in the large bin.
• Whether we play inside or out with our sensory rice (or any other sensory material) I always lay a large sheet down to catch the mess. I’ve learned the hard way, that sensory play is much more fun when we’re (ok…when I'm) not worried about the huge mess it’s going to leave behind. :)
• My favorite thing about this beautiful sensory rice is that we can reuse it! I can use it for future discover bottles, I spy bottles, Carisa's ABC Find It!, artwork and whatever else our little hearts see fit for it. I promise you, too, will find it well worth your time. Have fun!

Sequencing Numbers

Today, we worked on letter K activities that we didn't quite finish last week. Regardless, I’d say it was a success, especially because we had FUN while learning!

The kids traced the letter K using paint and q-tips, and we cut, glued, and made a bit of a mess (which, in my book, is a sign of success!). We also played in a rice sensory bin, searching for items that begin with the letter K.

While I worked with Mikey on the vocabulary words “big” and “little,” big sister cut out number cards from 1 to 20. We took those cards to our glass coffee table and placed them under the glass tiles. The kids were intrigued as they looked through the glass to find and pick the next number.

We then arranged the numbers in order on top of the glass surface. It was a fun and unique activity, and I’ll definitely be using this strategy again. Both the kids and I really enjoyed it—felt like we were shopping for numbers!