St. Patty's Day Fun

Here are a few things that we have been doing in honor of St. Patrick's Day.

I made Alex a green St. Patrick themed sensory bin.

I had everything on hand. A lot of it is left over from last years bin So what's inside?
Dried green split peas
Some snakes
Some craft foam rainbow colored strips
craft foam shamrocks
yellow jewels
some painted gold stones 
A green funky gift bow
Lacing beads and string
Green spoons
Green and yellow interlocking stars

I also made him some rainbow play dough. I used the recipe I found via Counting Coconuts' blog. It's so easy and turns out great every time!!I found these perfect containers at the Dollar Tree for storing the play dough, a package of 6 for $1!

We will be traveling on St. Patrick's day so I made Alex a early St. Patrick's themed lunch.

Its a PB&J sandwich cut into a circle for the leprechaun's face, the eyes are marshmallow and mini m&m's, the rosy cheeks are a freeze dried yogurt bites. His beard is cheddar cheese and his hat is a green apple. I also included a small amount of Lucky Charms cereal, 3 gold chocolate coins and a glass of green milk. I was inspired by Meet the Dubiens lunch although hers was healthier.

Alex made a some fun St. Patty's themed things at preschool too.  A silly shamrock guy.

And a shamrock crown.

Of course have been reading a few fun themed books too.

Valentine Sensory Bin

We were long over due for a new sensory bin. Since Valentine's Day is coming up I decided to create a Valentine/heart themed one.

I had everything on hand, some left over from last year's Valentine sensory bin. Inside the bin there is:

• Red, pink and purple pom poms (thanks to craftprojectideas.com)
• Cotton balls
• Red and purple sparkly pipe cleaners (thanks to craftprojectideas.com)
• Small heart boxes
• Some hearts cut out of craft foam
• A small mailbox
• Some last years Buzz Lightyear Valentines

It was a hit and Alex is having a great time exploring and playing mail man, delivering Valentine's.

I've Got My Eye on You

 
This week we are focusing on the letter "E". So with Halloween coming up I thought it would be fun to do a eye theme. We started out by talking about everyone's eye color. I took some close up photos of Alex's gorgeous eyes so he could look at them closely.

 

 I couldn't find any eye themed printables so I created my own. I made a tracing page get the eye to the glasses and practicing writing E's, I drew a giant eye that Alex wanted to color with Do A Dots, and we practiced counting googly eyes. 

We made some crazy eyed hand and foot  print monsters. I was inspired by Little Learners Lounge's Math Monsters.

But Alex's absolute favorite thing we did was an "Eyeball" sensory bin. I saw this on I Can Teach My Child and I knew we had to try it. To make this I used water beads and googly eyes. I found hydrated ones at the Dollar Tree about a month ago and have been saving them. You can buy them hydrated or dehydrated. Water beads are water absorbent polymers that are non-toxic and biodegradable, they come in a variety of colors and are usually used for floral arrangements. You just want to make sure little ones don't put them in their mouths.

They really are so fun to squish and play with. Alex has been loving them. I'm not sure how long they will last, but they still look good a day later.

For dessert I made Alex some eyeball cookies. Yum!

They are a half of a Golden Oreo, a blue M&M and some red food coloring for the veins. The idea was from Craftberry Bush.

The Eye books we read:

Halloween Sensory Bin

Alex is so interested in Halloween this year. So I couldn't wait to make him a sensory bin! He loved it!

Everything I used, I already had on hand. All the Halloween goodies are from last year and the base is corn and black beans that I mixed together. I had them both left over from previous sensory bins. So what's inside?

• Corn
• Black beans
• Halloween themed erasers
• Plastic pumpkin baskets
• pumpkin ice tray
• little fabric bag with pumpkins on it
• Orange cup
• Tongs
• plastic spoon
• plastic Halloween toys (bats, spiders, snakes, skeleton, scorpion)
• stretchy rats and spiders
• orange and purple pompoms
• Eyeball

Alex is having a great time playing/ pretending with it. The bat is swooping out of the air catching pom poms and rats. LOL

He's been filling the pumpkin baskets and bag with corn and beans, and passing it around saying its candy. He's also filled the pumpkin ice tray with the corn and beans and baked cupcakes in his toy oven.

So far this has been very popular. I am interested to see what other pretend play will come from it.

Sandy Sensory Bins

I've been slacking on making sensory bins this summer, but this afternoon I made two, A Dino Box and a Beach box. They are both made using sand as a base because Daddy ordered too much sand for the new horseshoe pits and Alex's new sandbox. Hmmm? What other sand activities can I do. : /

After our much anticipated trip to Prehistoric World in Ontario Canada, Alex has been very interested in playing with his dinosaurs. I decided to make him a playscape/sensory box for his dinosaurs.

In this box is sand, a shallow dish with water, a couple of twigs with leaves still on them, a small log, a package of plastic dinosaurs and rocks.

The second box I made I decided to make some DIY Moon Sand. I found the recipe I loosely followed on Pinterest, the original post was here.

My Moon Sand Recipe

6 cups of sand

3 cups of corn starch

1 and a half cups of water (more or less for desired consistency)

Mix all ingredients thoroughly and play.

The homemade moon sand is very close to the store bought moons sands consistency and a lot cheaper. I think it would be identical if I had finer sand. When the sand seems to dry out, you can add a little bit more water and it should be restored.

Once I made the Moon Sand, I added some shells we collected from the local beaches, small blue sea glass, some red gems,  a small shovel, a couple small sand molds and a sea turtle and that completed our Beach Sensory Bin.

Garden Sensory Bin

Time for a new sensory box. Since spring is in the air, I decided I would make Alex a garden box.

The "dirt" in the box is some old coffee and espresso beans that my Mom was going to throw away.
I purchased the spade, rake, magnifying glass and butterflies at the Dollar Tree for $3. We already had the other insects, play veggies, terra cotta plant pot and flowers (really textured paint brushes).

I added a piece of styrofoam under the coffee grounds so that the flowers and butterfly would stand up. Plus Alex can move and "plant" them. 

I printed a template for the seed packet from here. I took some of the espresso beans and painted them to make "seeds."

This box will be a jumping off point for some seed, plant, vegetable/food, and insect lessons. Also some sorting games. Plus it is just fun to dig in and explore.

Easter Sensory Bin

So here is our Easter themed sensory bin.

So what's inside?
Blue and Orange colored rice. To dye the rice I used food coloring and white vinegar. I purchased a 5 pound bag of white rice, split it in half in 2 large plastic zip lock baggies. I put in about 1 tsp of food coloring (more or less for desired color) and 1/4 cup of vinegar. I mixed up the bag till all the rice was coated and then spread it on cookies sheets to dry overnight.

Alex had a lot of fun mixing the two colors of rice together.

Some plastic Easter eggs for last year. I put a little craft foam sticker inside each one for a little surprise.

A little basket and some felt flowers, I had on hand.

Sorting felt flowers by colors

A Easter Tic Tac Toe game,  from Micheal's.  I quickly painted the bottoms of the bunnies and chicks and the "bunny" board with corresponding colors to make a color matching game. I hid the bunnies and chicks in the rice and as Alex found them I would ask what color it was and have him put it on the correct color circle.

Some little moonstone gems (clearance shelf at Michael's) and spiky egg shaped balls (Target dollar spot) and some wooden tongs I already had on hand.

This box has lots of fun learning opportunities and fine motor skill practice. I think this box will get a lot of use, Alex seems to really enjoy it. Total cost of box was about $6 and we will reuse many of the items for other boxes or projects.

He is still loving his Moon Sand too.  I think the Easter bunny may bring some more, and a bigger box to play with it in.

St. Patty's Day Sensory Bin

So I finally got around to making Alex a new sensory bin. I've been thinking about it for weeks. It was very inexpensive. I only had to purchase 3 bags of green split peas and the rest was things I had around the house or made.

Whats Inside:
3 bags of Green Split Peas
Yellow and green cups (used for dying eggs)
Small funnel
2 green spoons (leftover from a b-day party)
5 Green snakes (leftover from Halloween)
some yellow gems (leftover from fall bin)
A handful of gold stones (these were from his construction bin and I painted them with some gold acrylic paint and added some glitter)
A few green felt flowers
Stripes of craft foam in rainbow colors to create a rainbow
Rainbow foam letters to spell out ALEXANDER
2 paper leprechauns that I printed out and covered in contact paper.
4 shamrocks cut out of green craft foam

Linking to:
Show and Tell @ ABC and 123
Fun For Kids Fridays

Valentine Fun

Today was -20 degrees with the wind chill (no exaggeration) so we stayed in and did some St. Valentine's Day activities.

I finally got around to making Alex a Valentine Sensory Box. It was a big hit, especially the mini mailbox.

It has cotton balls. red pom poms, some small red and pink heart containers from Target dollar section, mini mailbox from Target dollar section, and some little heart links from the party section at the Dollar Tree. I also made a little envelope with a pink craft foam heart inside to fit in the mailbox. Total cost to make $3. 

We did a crayon resist Valentine painting. I drew a few hearts on a piece of pink construction paper with a white crayon and let Alex paint them with some watered down red paint.

And we did a Valentine heart sorting printable from Musings of Me.