Turkeys, Pumpkins and Puzzles Oh My!

Our thanksgiving art activity. I wish I got some pictures of her making this but her hands were full of paint and she was ready to touch the walls, the cat, her friends. Anyway some days I need octopus arms to get anything done.

Here are my pumpkins that didn't turn out so well. Jada doesn't seem to mind though she still likes to look at them and use them as balls. The apple ones I made turned out really well. I will try to remember to take a picture of them soon.




Lately Jada has been showing interest in puzzles. When I try to help her at daycare she becomes preoccupied with all the noise and hustle and bustle of the other children. Very typical for her age group. Also she tries to take out all the puzzles at once (we have at least 20!)I took advantage of a rare quiet moment in the evening and we sat and worked on one puzzle away from the daycare and all the other stacks of puzzles.

This is where she becomes frustrated with the lack of speed it takes to do a puzzle. She gets about 3 to 4 pieces in and gets frustrated and dumps them all. She is really starting to get the hang of right side up and fitting the pieces in correctly. I focus my attention on giving her lots and lots of praise in hopes to keep her motivated and focused. I think based on her age she is doing very well. This will be an ongoing activity that apparently will not only practice hand eye coordination but patience as well.

A Homemade Christmas

I am pretty excited for Christmas this year so Jada can play with these:

100% recycled tree blocks made from the dead fall from hurricane Earl.

The bags I made to hold the blocks with a cute tree pattern. I made an extra set for my niece Eden. I hope the girls like them as much as I do. When I worked in a big daycare we had a set that cost a lot of money. It was a very small set and the children loved them so much they started to fall apart. To tell you the truth I forgot all about them until I saw this post. I got my hubby to cut these ones a bit thick for extra durability. I hope it works.
Are you wondering what's in the small bags yet????? I will keep you guessing for another few days :)

Some of the dead fall waiting to be recycled into play blocks

Hubby cutting the blocks in his way too over stuffed shed.

Thanks hunny!
So how do you make them? so simple
1. Find some dead fall
2. Mark your branches where you want them to be cut
3. Cut with saw along marked lines
4. Sand any rough edges to prevent any splinters during play
And you're done! Easy peasy lemon squeezy

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)

Is Anyone Listening?

A question I ask myself ALL.OF. THE. TIME........Boy oh boy it's been a hard day at the office. Jada Roo is a cranky girl today and does the exact opposite of what I ask her to do. Yesterday she fell and gave herself a fat lip so today's pictures didn't go so well, between the fat lip and the attitude she is giving me and all her friends. Today's pictures are from a very small period of time that she was "playing nice".

LACING BUTTONS ACTIVITY



She just about has it

See the fat lip?


She was so proud of herself for figuring it out after Mommy showed her how to do it.

And Herman the donkey needs to find a new home. He sat in the Daycare for the past 3 years unused collecting dust. I think he may make an appearance at a birthday party for a very special little boy this weekend. That's if Jada doesn't break him first!

An Apple A Day Keeps The Doctor Away

So what does 3 apples keep away? boredom that's what!

I got this activity from HERE It's a great site for all sorts of activities that can go along with your themes. Best of all it's free!



I should probably mention that today was P.J day:)

A few post ago I talked about how you can use Picnic on Facebook to make printable personalized pictures. I got them laminated and guess what Jada couldn't have cared less! Oh well we will try again soon in the future.

Open ,Close, Scoop and Pour

Nesting dolls were a bit hard for Jada. She got the idea that they opened and closed but didn't put them inside of each other. Maybe she just didn't want to?



I told her to try and find the baby that was hiding inside. She is all about babies these days so it kept her interest.

In all it was a good activity that we will definitely be trying again.



The Epsom salt scooping was a huge hit. However, very, very messy! and when it hits the floor it bounces and hides under the furniture. Also the funnel was too small for the salt so you had to jiggle the funnel to get the salt to pour down into the glass bottle, something Jada has no patience for! At one point I just took the funnel away and she was way more comfortable just scooping right into the bottle. There was a few spills but she was o.k. with that.



This was where I took the funnel away. You can see how careful she was trying to be