Water Beads

We filled the sensory tub after a long drout of sensory activities.  I figure that my kids provide most of their own sensory experiences over the summer with all of their dirt and water play.  It was obvious today that the sensory tub has been deeply missed.  I will have to make more of an effort to keep it filled with interesting items.  We tried water beads for the first time.  They are epic.  It feels like a giant tub of eyeballs or fish eggs and we all love it except for Two Fish who hates it vehemently. It has been funny to see all of the neighbor kids crowd around the tub with absolute fascination.

More Dinosaur Museum

Playing in the tinkerlabon potter's wheels with sand.

 We spent yesterday playing in the tinkerlab and roaming the dinosaur musuem.  We hadn't been in a couple of months and the kids had a great time playing and running and laughing.  It's getting so easy to take them places now.  It's a big difference from when we first started going to the dinosaur museum.  It's easy now, even when other kids come with us. Motherhood of preschool and kindergarteners is so different and so fun.  I loved them as babies and toddlers and it's fun to watch them turn into little people and I know this time will be fleeting.  I'm trying hard to soak up this time we have where they aren't gone all day yet and they are so easy to please.  Plus they like being with me, that may not always be the case.  We've been playing a lot of games, reading for hours and chasing fun of all kinds.  I've also noticed that they are not very excited about entertaining themselves lately so I've been gently nudging (begging, encoraging, demanding) that they spend more time playing and entertaining themselves.  We have been on a multi-week detox from tv and most electronics.

Busy Day Of Creativity

The kids have been spending time outside every day and my drying rack full of snowy clothes is always out.  Today they went sledding down a neighbor's driveway but they don't last long outside because it is so cold.  I think I had better come up with a whole bunch of indoor activities to have stocked over the winter.  Luckily, the kids have no problem coming up with some activities of their own.  Today the creativity started with cutting out dozens of paper snowflakes.  Red Fish has been a fan of making snow flakes for years and New Fish is finally deft enough with the scissors to make them with little frustration.

 We now have garlands hung all over the house.

 Then we got out some paint to make hand print trees which turned into a finger painting/sensory activity instead. (Notice Red Fish's decorative hat.  It is pretty on par around here for the kids to be wearing a homemade accessory of one kind or another.)

Red Fish

New Fish

 Then Buddy B came over for puzzles, games and blocks and the kids decided to make sculptures out of wood bits and a box of broken ornaments from my grandparent's house.

New Fish

Red Fish

Leaf Pile

Art Group Day 4- Jackson Pollock Day

 Jackson Pollock day is always a favorite with the kids.  I always show them a painting and we talk about abstract vs. realistic.  I show them how to flick the paint.  One of these years I need to get a video of their faces when I first splatter the paint down.  It gets all over my arms and the kids always look so shocked.  They start out flicking the paint onto the murals and then they get less inhibited and start going crazy with the paint.  It is always so fun to watch them go a little crazy.

 Getting good and messy at least once a summer if not twice has become a bit of a tradition in our family.  Every kids should get a chance to get nice and covered in paint every once in awhile.

 The park by our house cooperated nicely by putting on the sprinklers for the kids to romp through.

w is for western

 For Western week the kids decorated paperbag cowboy vests.  Buddy B was pretty convinced his would go better with his sponge bob underpants but I convinced him that cowboys wear their shorts.  (Teaching preschool to these two has been hysterical.)  I borrowed stick horses and drew chalk numbers on the sidewalk.  They had to gallop their horses to the right number 1-20.  Buddy B fell once and his gum fell out of his mouth.  New Fish started screaming: "His skin!  It just fell off!  The horror!"  Hilarious.

 I also drew chalk letters on the driveway and we played several alphabet games.  The kids are starting to remember alphabetic order pretty well.

 We made cowboy stick puppets and the kids put on a puppet show.

 We matched cowboys with lowercase letters on them to their hats with upper case letters on them.

 We made a big batch of moon sand (flour and baby oil) and the kids had a blast playing in it.  They buried their feet over and over.

 The kids used scissors to cut up little pieces of pipe cleaners as a fine motor skill. It was difficult.  Then we filled waterbottles with the bits and moved them around with a magnet.  We did several cutting exercises as well as mazes and prewriting worksheets.  Then the kids played with horses and pretended to be in the wild wild west.  They also played sheriffs and outlaws.  Blue Fish, our dog played the part of outlaw.

 

 

 

 

 

f is for feelings

 We talked about the letter "f" and feelings today in preschool.  The kids colored and cut out their letters and did some prewriting worksheets and games.  Their fine motor skills are getting really good.  We did our calendar and music time.  We do a lot of dancing and parading around during music times these days.  We always use the parachute.  We did some matching games and talked about feelings.  We read several little story books that highlight emotions and the kids thought this weeks nursey rhyme, fee fie fo fum, was hilarious.  They walked around pretending to be giants.

 For our math practice I put magnetic numbers on the fridge in series and they had to fill in the blanks.  They know their numbers really well now.  We went outside to paint with watercolors and ate snacks.

 The kids played in the magnetic sensory bin and after the older kids got out of school we invited them over for a new sensory experience.  I was inspired by this post.  I filled our sensory bin with baking soda and filled ice cube trays full of colored vinegar.  (I used liquid watercolor to dye it.) I gave each kid an eye dropped so they could drop the vinegar into the bin and watch it fizz.  The kids loved watching it fizz and kept working together to create bigger "explosions."

 There was a lot of color mixing with the vinegar as well.  They kept trying to create new colors in the baking soda.

 Next the hands went into the bin.

 Next we decided to add corn starch and make a goo for the kids to ply in.  We added increasing amounts of water until they decided the texture was right. 

 Eventually we got out some tools for them to dig with.  They were filthy by the time they finished with the bin so I hosed them down and they ended up running through the sprinklers.  The warmer weather has been incredible.