Using Ice for Pre-Writing Skills

I am always amazed how the simplest things can keep children engaged for so long.  The kids in my care love, love, love to use the pipettes (or those little medicine droppers).  It is so great for strengthening those little muscles needed for writing, cutting and all those other fine motor skills they will use so much in Kindergarten.  All I did was put out some ice trays, colored water, and a tub of ice cubes.  They mixed colors, learned about volume, cause and effect, sharing, and loads of language!  So simple and so many skills being used!

 



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Yummy Play Dough

Have you seen these Duncan Hines frosting flavors?  You can add them to frosting to create your own flavor of icing.  Well, I had picked up a couple different flavors (they are .99 at our local grocery store).  While making play dough for class one morning, I remember them sitting unused in the pantry and I imagined the yummy scent they would add to it.   Simply mix into your favorite play dough recipe.  It was a huge hit.  Use any flavor you wish, I didn't even add coloring to this batch.  

 

 

Here is my absolute favorite recipe....

 

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

4 tsp cream of tartar

Duncan Hines Frosting Creations packet

2 tsp cooking oil

1 1/2 cups of boiling water

a few drops of glycerin

 

 

Mix all the dry ingredients, then add the boiling water and oil

Mix it all until it forms a ball, you may need to add flour or more water as needed.

When it is all mixed, add a few drops of glycerin (you can find it in the medicine aisle at the grocery store, makes a huge difference in your play dough!  I highly recommend using it)

 

This play dough will last a long time.  Keep it in an airtight container, I use a zip lock bag!



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Painting With Pumpkins

Want a fun way to use up those pumpkins?  Use them for painting!  After we used ours for hammering golf tees, cut them open, examined the innards, roasted the seeds, I cut the pumpkin into small chunks.  Then I cut off a little of the inside to make them flat-ish, stuck a craft stick into the top, added some orange paint and voila....a new sensory/art/pre-writing experience!  

 

 

 

 

the top of the pumpkin has a nice built in handle, this was the favorite piece for the kids



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Golf Ball Paintings

This is a different version of the tried and true "marble painting".  We used golf balls.  The kids had a "ball"!  We used a deep tub, placed a piece of paper in, let the kids squirt in their colors, toss in the balls and roll away!  Great for cause and effect, problem solving, color mixing, creativity and large motor coordinations

 

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Target Practice with Wet Sponges

We had so much fun with this activity.  First we soaked a couple sponges in a tub of water.  The kids drew their own targets on the fence with chalk.  Then, they took aim and threw the wet sponges at their target.  They problem solved the best angle to throw the sponge so it would stick to the fence.  This is great for hand/eye coordination, problem solving, fine motor skills, large motor skills, not to mention, a fun way to stay cool on a hot day (it didn't take long before the kids were using each other for targets).  All in good fun, of course! 



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Paint with Fizz

We are always experimenting with baking soda and vinegar.  We made FIZZ, we used it to blow up a balloon, made sidewalk paint with it, and of course, the good 'ol Volcano.  I thought it would be fun to make some paint with baking soda and see if we could make some fizzing paintings.  I mixed baking soda with watercolors (you can use food coloring too) until it became a paint consistency. I put vinegar in jars with droppers.  The kids painted their pictures and then drip dropped the vinegar onto their paintings to fizz them up!  Super fun and easy!  The pictures do not do this experience justice AT ALL!  Go ahead and try it, you and your kids will love it!



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Painting with Pineapple Leaves

Did you know that you can paint with pineapple leaves?  I actually have never thought about it, but my kiddos sure did.  While cutting up our pineapple, my daughter pulled each and every leaf out of the top of it.  Then asked for some paint.  Why not?  We got out the paint (yellow and green for pineapple colors, of course) and some paper.  That's all it took to set these little artists up!  It is always fun to paint with unexpected materials.  Keeps the creativity fresh and challenges those developing minds to think outside of the box.  Pineapple leaves will no longer be seen the same in this house!



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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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Stringing Eggs

I saw this idea on Pinterest.  I was thinking this would be a fabulously fun, fine motor and math activity for my snake happy son.  We used plastic eggs and a pipe cleaner for ours, but you can see the original idea HERE.  I made a small knot at the end of the pipe cleaner so the egg ends wouldn't slip through.

I was thinking they looked a little like caterpillars, but Tayler saw his as a cobra snake.  So he stuck one of the eggs on the opposite way to create it's "hood".  Then he added eyes and left the pipe cleaner sticking out for the tongue.  Pretty dang cute cobra to me!

Another great fine motor skill.  You could incorporate patterning and counting into this as well.

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Get Crackin'

My kids love to crack the eggs when we are cooking.  So, it gave me this idea. I poured a small amount of (watered down) paint into plastic eggs..  I didn't match the color of paint to the egg just to add to the element of surprise, but you could certainly do so.  I put paper in a box lid just to contain the paint.  Then I handed them over to the kiddos!  This was a blast and I couldn't fill up the eggs with paint fast enough.  A fun way to strengthen those muscles needed for writing along with some great creativity. 

Deborah over at Teach Preschool  had this same exact idea.  Her kids extended this a bit with some rolling and dabbing.    Such a great process.  Hop on over and check out their work too!

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Fluffy Stuff

After seeing Lisa Murphy do THIS I had to try it.  All you need is a bottle of shaving cream and a box of corn starch.  This was enough for two tubs of this wonderful, fluffy stuff!  We poured about half the box of corn starch in each tub and then just squirted the shaving cream into them.  We used the entire bottle between the two tubs.  The incredible thing about this is that after a bit, it's moldable!  The kids LOVED it.  Now to replenish my shaving cream supply.  Next time we will try adding some color too.  So fun and a great fine motor and sensory experience!



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