Painting with Wind Up Toys

Do you have any of these cute little wind up toys?  What do you do with them, really?  We painted with them!  I got out our handy, dandy box lid, put some paper in it, let the kids squirt some paint, wound them up and let them go.  Serious giggles!  It was super fun to watch them waddle around in the paint.  The kids did lots of problem solving when the toys would get stuck in the paint.  Great fine motor skills involved as well. So fun!

Our end result! 



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Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree

One of the kids favorite books is "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" by Bill Martin Jr.  For those of you who aren't familiar with the book, the little alphabet letters climb up the coconut tree and then fall down it.  All the capital letters (mommas and pappas) come and help.  So cute and a fun rhyming text as well.  So this morning I drew a coconut tree on the nonstick side of contact paper. The kids were super excited and helped color in the tree.  Then I took off the backing and taped it to the wall, sticky side up.  We have a bunch of foam letters that stuck just right to the contact paper.  We read the story, many times, and the kids helped the letters up to the top.  T, of course, got busy making a "spaceship" out of the letters and insisted that I spell out the words "spaceship".  He spelled "zoom" with my help.  They have been playing with this all day.  Easy and great fun!  Letter recognition, pre-reading, games, spelling are all involved with this activity. 

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Soup's On

What is better on a cold, blustery, rainy day than soup?  We put a little water in some pots and the kids added foam letters.  They stirred and stirred, "careful, it's hot" and then tasted.  It needed a little bit more spice.  Then they served it up.  It was amazing how the N's tasted nutty, the T's were tangy and tasty, and the Z's tasted just like zucchini.  This was a great letter recognition and sound game, as well as, fun imaginative play.  All you need is a pot, some water, spoons and some plastic or foam letters.  You could even write letters on bottle top lids if you wanted.  Delicious!

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Ceramic Play Dough

Another great play dough recipe.  I use this one when we are making stuff that we want to keep.  It hardens really well and does not crack.  No baking or anything special.  If it is wet or cold out, it may take a couple days to dry out completely.  I turned the letters and hand prints every once in a while to let it dry evenly.  My favorite thing to do is to make imprints of the kids hands or feet.  Such a great memento of their size at whatever age they are at. I had some buttons and the kids choose which ones they wanted and pressed them into the form before it dried.  I used a straw to put a hole in the top so I could add a ribbon later.

 Okay, so here it the recipe.

1 1/2 cup salt

3/4 cup of corn starch

1 cup of water

Mix it all in a pot and cook over a low heat, stirring frequently.  Dough will start to form a ball.  Take out and begin to knead...(let it cool a bit) 

This dough can be colored as you cook (I add the color to the water) or it can be painted after it hardens. 

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Meet "Leaf"

I really wish I would have taken pictures of T creating this little guy.  We were having so much fun.  We went to the park and were noticing all the leaves changing colors.  Well, my little collector had to gather up some of those colorful leaves.  I did not want to vacuum up crumbled leaves all afternoon so I got out the contact paper and asked him if he could make a friend.  We discussed what his "friend" would need....a head, feet, arms, etc.  I kid you not, I did not help him make this leaf man.  It is purely his design.  When T was finished, I covered the leaf man with another sheet of contact paper and cut him out.  Then T glued on eyes and a mouth.  I just love the way it came out.  He named him "Leaf" and put him on the refrigerator.Pin It

I Spy Bottles

I have been stock piling these little Gatorade bottles knowing that I would find some use for them eventually.  I was looking through a kid's toy catalog and saw those really cool "I Spy" bottle games with the items hidden in beads or something like that.  I saw that and the light bulb went off. 

I was thinking that I could make one for each letter of the alphabet, (yes, I had that many).  So I made a couple but then my son wanted one with just vehicles in it.  So I began doing some theme based bottles as well.  We love spinning and shaking these bottles.  So much fun. 

Here is how I did it---

First I washed and dried the bottles and took off the labels.  Then I poured white rice into zip lock bags and added a few drops of food coloring.  Then shake, shake, shake your booty...until all the rice is one color.  I did this with several different colors.  The kids had fun with this part too!  Then I poured a little of each color into the bottles.  I added items like those little shaped erasers, beads in the shape of different items, whatever you can find that will fit through the top is doable.  Next, I just taped the lid on so that every once in a while I can change out the items inside to keep them fresh. 

Shake away!!

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