Playdough letters

When we were doing playdough this week I showed Q how to roll "snakes" and turn them into letters. She named letters and then we worked together to create them. I have a set of "playdough letter cards" that I need to round up for her! Basically I took photos of the playdough letters, laminated them, and put them out with the playdough for my students to recreate the letters.

This is a great way to teach letters by appealing to the tactile nature of young children. Rolling and shaping the letters in dough helps build the concept of the various letter forms in their hand muscles and brains.

Dough recipe HERE

Her collage

Here's a collage she created from the college work I put out last week. She is getting the concept of putting down glue, pouring glitter or whatever substance on the glue, and then shifting the paper back and forth to get all of the medium to stick in the glue. Then she knows that we pour off whatever didn't stick to the glue. A necessary skill for budding artists, of course!

Stampy Snowman

I had a candle in a jar with a glass lid. The candle was gone so I was getting ready to throw it all away, but I wanted to find some use for the lid. It had a plastic insert in it, and then the glass handle part (imagine a candle from Yankee Candle). I put out some paint and Q had fun stamping out a snowman with it. Then we threw it away. :)

After the snowman dried, she choose some items to add--pine needle arms, bean eyes and nose, felt mouth, and popcorn buttons.

We've been doing a lot of snowman crafts lately, but Quinn is really enjoying the concept and becoming more and more independent at creating the snow creatures!

You could use any round object--jar lid, etc. Paint stamping is so much fun and oh so easy!!

Playgym

The past couple of weeks Beck's playgym has been decorated in some play jewelery (inherited from Quinn's grandmothers...). Quinn had fun hanging some necklaces and a bell and a medal for Beck to play with. Of course these items aren't intended for babies, so we supervise him very closely when he is using the playgym. I actually hung some of the jewelery that I didn't want in his mouth higher so it would be something he could bat at or that would jiggle when he kicks against the sides of the playgym.

We have fun "shopping the house" to find toys for Beck that will encourage him to reach and roll and explore!

A little dot-art-heart

I really love these dot art stampers. Quinn got this set with a bit of her Christmas money--we bought them at Lakeshore. I've seen people get them at the dollar store as bingo stampers, as well. Guessing Hobby Lobby would also have them. They are great tooks for emergent writers--I used them a lot when I taught preschool to have my students trace letters with the dots. Quinn wanted to make a heart, so I drew one lightly with a pencil and she outlined it with all the colors of dots. A great fine-motor activity!
The stampers are also great for toddlers--they can just stamp on a blank paper. A wonderful first "writing tool" and the chubby grip works well for their hands.

Snow Play

For Christmas my grandma sent Quinn a little tube of fake snow. You just add water to it and it's kinda like shaved up styrofoam or something. Not cold, but white and fluffy and lots of fun. We put it out for Quinn's sensory tub and she has been really enjoying pouring, scooping, measuring, etc. with it!

You could use one of those big bags of economically priced powdered laundry detergent, soap shavings, baking or washing soda, dishwasher detergent powder......any of those items would make great "snow" for those of us frozen-precipitation-challenged southerners.

Snow Painting

We've been reading SNOWBALLS by Lois Ehlert like crazy. It's the BEST winter book. So much fun and would be usable for ages infant through preschool. It has many different elements (such as objects you can find on the pages) to make it a great book for such a wide age span.

To go with our reading we decided to do a snowman project. We stretched it out over several days since all the steps involved drying time.

I made "Snow Paint" using:
*equal parts salt and flour (I used 1/2 c. each)
*and half as much water as you used for the salt (1/4 c. in my case)

Quinn LOVED painting and spreading it using a pastry brush and a popsicle stick.

I had provided her with the parts of a snowman cut out of construction paper.
This paint is HEAVY, so you might even want to use cardstock or cardboard.
It dries thick and shimmery and looks like snow! It's soooo cool and easy!

Then once it had dried we raided our pantry to find items to make our snowman. He had coffee bean eyes, a peanut nose and a cinnamon stick mouth. Instead of buttons we made a popcorn heart and found sticks outside for his arms. He turned out so cute!!!