Goop

What is better than goop? How about dinosaur goop?

Jada not sure what to think of this strange stuff.

Goop is a solid when you pick it up but quickly turns to liquid and oozes through your fingers.

The boys really liked this activity and quickly learned how to make the ooze last longer by picking up larger handfuls of goop.

To make your own goop you put 1 cup to 2 cups of corn starch in a container and add 1.5 cups of water. I just kept adding water until I got the consistency that I wanted. Cheap and easy fun!

Volcano Fun

I made some clear gelatin and put it in a yogurt container. When it was set I gently squeezed it out. This is supposed to look like a volcano? anyway she injects the food coloring into the gelatin to look like lava.
WARNING: THIS IS NOT AN ACTIVITY YOU WANT TO TRY IF YOU ARE NOT O.K. WITH MESS!!!
The result of red food coloring is red hands! We did this yesterday and her hands are still pinkish.

Her determined face

She thought this was a lot of fun. However, the activity didn't last long as Jada is not the most gentle toddler and ripped the top off the volcano.

This is an activity I will do again when she is a bit older. I think the gelatin would be so cool to have in a sensory bin. Especially for toddlers who love to squish their fingers into messy stuff. Summer activity for sure!

Dino Excavation and shadow fun

It finally stopped raining long enough for us to do our Dino excavation activity. 2 long weeks of straight rain was enough for me! I don't know what the children liked better, getting outside or digging for bones. Either way it was a fun afternoon! And a bit warm too!


Carefully brushing the sand away from the bones

Jada found a bone but quickly decided she wanted to bury it again. She liked having her own little cup to bury her bone so she could have it all to herself lol

The children really worked as a team on this one. Lots of excitement, shouts and smiles.

Shadow Fun!

One of the older children said she was stepping on my Shadow and then they all started stepping on each others shadows. We decided it would be cool to take our picture in Shadow form

November Sensory Bin And Play Dough

I am up WAY too early for a Sunday! Jada must have decided it was time to get an early start on the Halloween festivities. Right now she is sporting her skeleton P.J's and watching a show on PBS while giving the cat hugs and kisses. I love that kid!!! Anyway I thought I would show you what we are doing for November in regards to our theme.


This Months Sensory bin matches our Dino theme. Here is what is inside:
Various different kinds of rocks, plastic Dino's, plastic trees, cinnamon sticks (logs), and plastic eggs with Dino babies inside. I might add a container of water for the corner later, for the Dino's to swim or get a drink. I got the Idea for this sensory Bin from HERE.

I found this place mat at walmart for $2.00 I hope it will be a good conversation piece.


This months Play dough is to represent dirt. I got this idea after I googled play dough for dinosaurs. I can't find the link now but trust me it's out there. Anyway the site I found suggested to add peanut butter to the dough to make it look like dirt or use cocoa. I went with cocoa because I have some little ones in my care that haven't had peanut butter yet. It smells so delicious! this has proved problematic with Jada. Since it's homemade I try not to worry so much about it. The worst that can happen is she gets really thirsty from the salt.
If you want to see an awesome dinosaur play dough masterpiece click HERE

Sensory Bin And Hard Lessons

The sensory bin was well received today in the land of tots. Maybe a little too well received......












See what I mean? The lip came out and the tears poured. It breaks my heart to see her cry but really she needs to learn that you can't snatch toys from our friends. I ended up adding a few more scoops and pumpkin buckets to keep everyone happy. Something I should have done from the beginning. I think the bin is plenty big enough for 2 children. We just really need to work on the sharing part of cooperative play.

OCTOBER PLAY DOUGH & SENSORY BIN

I love Halloween! It's probably one of my favorite holidays. We have already started decorating the house with plastic pumpkins,ghosts and Indian corn. We also have Thanksgiving to celebrate next weekend. In the next few weeks I will incorporate both holidays into our activities.

The Play dough was made by using my favorite play dough recipe found on my scroll bar on the right. I added gel food coloring to give the dough a more vibrant color. I made the play dough a few days ago in preparation for today and I still have food coloring all over my right hand. In the future I will wear gloves. I just hope the color doesn't get all over the kids hands!Lets hope that by now the color is all soaked into the dough and will stay put. I will be back with an update.....

Whats inside:
-black beans (bought at the bulk barn)
-skeletons (3)(dollar store)
-foam shapes (dollar store)
-plastic pumpkin (dollar store)
-wood scoop (etsy)
-plastic suction cup spiders, rat and bat (dollar store)
-plastic mini light covers (candy bags and candy corn)(bought who knows where! I had them for a very long time now)

Jada Roo at Tot school

So after Reading lots and lots of inspirational blogs I finally got some materials together to start doing activities with Jada and her little friends. Here is just some of the things we have been doing in the past 2 weeks

Cotton ball (pom-pom)transfer

Look at that hand control! Jada is 25 months old

She loved this activity so much she didn't want to share with her friends. I am happy that she is so excited about the activities but we need to work on her sharing skills.

Tong transfer. I collected the cones from our last trip to Alberta. Jada loved this activity and sat for at least 20 min!!
I will try my very best to start doing a play dough and activity tray that will go with our themes, seasons and holidays.



Look at how happy she is:)



Art activity: Apple prints

Well i'm stunned

I am so happy to report that little old me got featured on someday crafts. you can check it out here
This reminds me that I forgot to update with this months Sensory Bin. We are talking about gargening and how things grow.
What's inside?
-Watering can
-Bowl of seeds
-Black earth
-Shovel
-Flowers

Texture Play Made Easy Peasy

So simple a monkey could do it. Seriously!

Take any noodle uncooked and put into a sand bucket or any other container that you don't mind getting stained. Add a few drops of food coloring and mix well until all your noodles are coated.

Then spread mixture onto an old towel. You may want to double your towel as my mixture leaked through and stained my counter top. Let dry about 2 hours and voila easy texture play


Kids love to play with new textures and colors. This could also be done with rice. Jada and her little friends played with this for a good hour before finding other things to play with.