New ways for using chalk....

Just plain ole drawing with chalk is old news around here.  Lately the kiddos have been getting creative with their chalk usage.  One day last week they smashed up some chalk pieces (him with his hammer and her with a rock) and then added water to make chalky paint.  

 It took her a bit to get the right consistency of chalk and water (yeehaw--great science skills!) and he was mostly interested in the smashing and not so much the painting, but lots of fun was had and learning was done in the process! 

Three sticks, a piece of string, a couple blankets=an outside play tipi that they go CRAZY over!

She played out here for hours...and for several days.  Until it rained and we had to take it down.  Maybe this week will bring more tipi-building!  The cat will be thrilled!  He thinks we built it for his naps.

Mudpie Kitchen is still going strong.....

 

 

The great OUTDOOR TOY CHALLENGE!

My good friend, E stepped up to my outdoor challenge and headed to "Sally's" (Salvation Army) to replenish her outdoor toys.  She says:
"$2.33, I'm super impressed!  The plastic spatula is because I didn't see any metal on this trip:)  Cheese knife, 3 wooden spoons, 1 metal spoon, 1 spatula, 1 tongs, 1 grater."
 

Five stars for her and these great finds!!  Who's next?  Email me your pics and I'll post em!

PS) Another great thing about these outdoor toys--they are wonderful vocabulary builders--tongs, grater, spatula....all words a child will learn as they play with these items!

Sand and mudpie kitchen toys....toys for outside play

I buy all our outside toys--for our sandbox, waterplay, and mudpie kitchen secondhand.  My favorite spots are Goodwills and Salvation Army, where you can get the greatest stuff at a killer price.

Here are some of the items I never pass up:
-metal bread pans
-metal sifter (this is actually my old broken one, but I see them there for a buck all the time!)
-metal teapots (I can NEVER pass one up....We have two inside, one outside and I give remainers as gifts to other outside-loving birthday kids...)
-tin dishes
-cheese grater (.49!)
-bamboo or wooden utensils (.29!)
-wooden dishes
-random utensils (.49!)
-cast iron pans
-cake pans
-muffin tins

 

All of these items are so much more appealing than the standard plastic items you buy at the dollar store  or big box stores--I know this for a fact, because we have some of the plastic stuff, and visiting kiddos ALWAYS choose the real, thrift-store purchased stuff over the plastic.  Plus buying used items means you don't create a market for MORE plastic consumption on this planet and your money spent at the thrift store goes to a good cause.  You can get the same amount of items (if not more!) for the same amount of money.  Try it!!  I dare ya! 

  

I do try to look for items that won't rust--so tin or stainless.  It's humid here in Houston and wet and so stuff rusts easily.  I do try and stay away from plastic, and I choose to incorporate a few pieces of breakable dishes...I believe it's important to teach children to handle items carefully...and for them to know how to respond if something DOES get broken.  So we do have some glass bottles, a glass coffee pot, etc.  

I also have a bunch of silverware in our mudpie kitchen--mine came from hand-me-downs, but you can get GREAT deals at the thrift store.  

 Also the "real stuff" typically has many more uses than plastic items and stands up to wear better.  Look at my girl lovin' her cheese grater to break up pieces of tree bark for some concoction she's cooking....

So this spring as you replenish your outside toys, I challenge you to decide on the amount you'd spend at the dollar store and head to a thrift store instead, and see what you can get for your $$$!

Beeswax candle rolling, a felted Snow Fairy, and our winter tablescape

Our dinner table is our spot to keep a seasonal nature round.  Ours is a piece of log with holes drilled in it for candles.  We decided this week to make some new candles and use the beeswax candle set we'd gotten for Christmas!  It's very simple to use--you cut the wick and roll up the wax sheets.  You can add embelishments if desired.  We went mostly simple this time--a few plain and a bit of decorating.  Q loved it, but I would say that it was on the edge of her ability level.  She's 4.5 and it was a little tricky for her to roll up the candle tightly and evenly, but she was able to do it with some help.  We both had so much fun making our candles!
 

Here's our table scape for winter:
-I felted the snow fairy out of a felted wool sweater, white roving, a snowflake cut from some scrap fabric, and metallic silver yarn for embelishment. 
-a small blue vase (that belonged to my Grandmommy) filled with white clovers we found in the field--because the Snow Fairy loves all things white.
-some clear "jewels"
-pipecleaner snowflakes
-"snow" (cotton)
-pinecones

 

-a little snowshoe hare I made from some playdough we were working with

-some leaf skeletons we found in the field where a pond had begun to dry up
-some moss and lichens on a piece of bark

 

 

We really enjoy having a space to keep and look at some seasonal treasures.  Q also found a couple tiny white stones and tiny snail shells that were white that she put on the table, as well!  We enjoy lighting the candles at dinnertime and looking at all our treasures anytime we're gathered around the table.  My kids love contributing to the collection and changing stuff out over the course of the seasons.  

Backyard Birds of Winter

We've been reading about winter backyard birds.  We've been watching them out our window, as well!
We learned from our book that birds like suet in the winter to give them protein since they aren't eating as many birds.  So we had a project this week of "winterizing" our bird feeding area!

We made a pole in the ground with a branch and hung our suet on it.  We tied another branch on to make a perch for birds to sit while they eat. 

We bought a new bag of seed and put some out!

We rinsed and refilled the birdbath.

And now we've been watching to see what types of birds come to our yard! 

Such a fun way to incorporate practical life, motor skills, science concepts, and literacy skills as we take care of our feathered friends!

Outside Projects

We've been enjoying some simple outside projects lately.  We'll head out to a field behind our house and spend some time soaking up the last of the afternoon sun and trying out some fun projects.  Sometimes my littlest the slightest bit interested in the task I brought out, and that's fine, too. 

Some we've done....oldies but goodies!  Leaf rubbings:
 

 

Gathering berries to decorate pinecones:

 

We've also threaded leaves on a string to make a garland, collected acorns to paint, smashed acorns......
This has become a fun way for us to wind down before dinner, spend time together, and enjoy fresh air!

Acorn Smashing

We have an abundance of acorns thanks to our oak trees, so we've been having fun using large rocks to smash up the acorns.  Q was interested to see what they'd look like on the inside.  We use the smashed acorn-ness in mudpies, of course!  They make great "sprinkles" for the tops!
At school they have a pecan tree, so they do the same thing with the pecans that they find on the ground. 
The smashing is great hand-eye coordination, practices muscle control, lends itself to imaginary play, and involves science exploration skills.  Who knew....just from smashing up a bunch of acorns! 
And the mommy benefit--it is a positive way to get some wiggles and energy and even aggression out of little ones!  If you don't have acorns or pecans there is probably some smash-able item out in your nature area--seed pods, etc.  Check it out!

 

Rocks!

At a friends' house a few weeks ago Q had a blast playing with a candle arrangement that had rocks all around it. Taking her lead, I decided to put out some rocks for her to explore. These were from a science kit I had when teaching 1st grade, but could be purchased at a craft store, or even good ole rocks found outside would work well, too! She loves to grab a handful and feel them pouring out of her hand, put them in things (tea cups, bowls, etc.), shake them, set them up in rows, and just expore them! In the meantime she is learning properties of matter, properties of rocks, fine motor skills, counting skills....

Infants can be given rocks large enough so they don't choke. If they're clean rocks it won't even hurt them to mouth them (once again, as long as they are big enough not to fit in their mouth!)

Flower Planting

We are casually studying flowers in our learning room this month. Here is Q's favorite activity right now--flower planting.

I had Matt make this shredded brown paper last year for her to use in her sensory area just for digging and touching. This year I repurposed it! Her job is to fill the two little pots with "dirt," choose one of the plant tags to stick into the dirt and them add the flowers. She loves perusing the plant tags and choosing the one she wants.

This is a sometimes messy activity, as that shredded paper seems to multiply on the floor, but our dustbuster sucks it up marveously!

This activity encourages following multi-step procedures, practical life, fine motor, sensory awareness, and science skills.

Infants and younger toddlers can be given a tub of the shredded paper to dig in (with hands or a shovel), can be encouraged to fill a large pail with the paper, or even to transfer from one container to another (under adult supervision, of course).

Birds in Our Yard

We've been casually "studying" the birds in our back yard. I decided to make a simple activity to go along with them. Our fridge was the perfect spot! The title says, "Birds in Our Yard." I included a title to begin teaching Q simple graphing skills--the first of which is that the title tells what the graph will be about. Then I used metal clips and put the name of each bird on a clip (typed them, printed them, mounted them on scrapbook paper, laminated them). I put 4 round magnets on the fridge and the metal clips stick to the magnets. Then I found pictures of our birds (most came from a set of greeting cards I already had, but a few I printed off the internet.) There are red-headed woodpeckers, bluejays, mockingbirds, and cardinals. There are a couple of each type of bird. Q can take them all off, sort them by type and clip them back up again! She just needs a little of my help to read the names of the birds!
This encourages sorting, classification, visual discrimination, nature skills, prereading skills, and graphing skills.
Daddy's also been reading her a little tiny bird book before bed that names several more birds that we don't have in our yard....but I got a hummer feeder for mother's day, so we may be adding hummers to our fridge soon!

The same thing could be done with butterflies, insects, mammals, etc.
For infants, you could just provide a basket of the laminated cards in a more general fashion--squirrel, bird, butterfly, spider, worm, etc., naming living things you have in your yard.