Apple Tree

I started doing a Joy School with some ladies in my neighborhood for our three-year-olds. We started with the letter 'A' so we of course had to do some fun apple activities. For their art project, after seeing this post about cinnamon sticks and buttons and this post about circle painting, I combined the two to make this apple tree painting.

Supplies: white cardstock, green washable paint, red and green buttons, cinnamon sticks, hot glue gun, lids/bottles/toilet paper rolls/paper cups (whatever you want to use for the circle painting)

1. Have your child dip the toilet paper roll in the green paint then stamp circles onto the white paper to make a tree.

2. Have your child put the cinnamon sticks and buttons where they want them to be.

3. Since these are harder materials to glue with Elmer's or glue sticks, I opted to hot glue. After the kids placed the objects where they wanted them to be, I glued them on.

The picture above is what I envisioned for the project, the picture below is the actual results!!

*The cinnamon sticks were such a fun object to use on their art project. We were able to smell the sticks and guess what the smell was. You could expand this and do a whole unit on the sense of smell: grab some other fall scents out of your pantry (nutmeg, pumpkin, etc.) and let their little noses get to work!

We of course had to read a book during our project. This is the apple book I picked: 

10 Activities to do with a ROLL OF MASKING TAPE

As cold weather is approaching I am trying to arm myself with some fun indoor activities to keep the kiddos busy. I like cheap and easy activities so I am in LOVE with all the fun ideas of what to do with a roll of masking tape! Here are ten of my faves!

Hopscotch

Source:"When Tara Met Blog"

*On days that I don't want to tape out the entire hopscotch, I've just put lines of tape a foot or two apart and had the kids hop from one line to the next. They love it! 

ABC Floor Circle

Source: Totally Tots

LOVE doing an ABC circle! There are so many things to do with this activity.
Some ideas from 'Totally Tots' post:
-Have your child run around the circle then call out a letter and the child stops on that letter.
-Use ABC bean bags and match letters (could try with upper and lower case matching).
-Have your child sit, stomp on, or point to a particular letter.

Some things we have done with the ABC floor circle:
-I will put out 26 different object that all start with a different letter in the alphabet (ie: banana, comb, dog stuffed animal, Kool-aid packet, zucchini, etc.) and my son will take the object and put it on the letter it starts with.
-My son will run around to different letters then he will say words that begin with each letter. And vice versa- I call out a word and he runs to the letter it starts with. 

Masking Tape and Cars

Source: Welcome Baby

TicTacToe

Source: What to Expect-A Student at Mama University

Giant Shape Sort

Source: I Can Teach My Child

Number Squares

Source: Dream Gym

Call out a number and have your child hop to the correct number. 

*For older children, you could call out a math problem and have them jump to the correct answer 

(ie: Call out "2+2" and your child jumps on the 4.)

Tape Shapes

Source: ICanTeachMyChild- Gratefully Growing in Grace

Tape different shapes on the ground then have your child figure out the number of sides the shape has. 

Masking Tape Maze

Source: Ourscribbledwalls

3D Masking Tape Maze

Source: Starfish Therapies

Have your child crawl through the maze without breaking the tape

Teach Basketball and Math

Source: My Husband

My son is really into numbers and math right now and my husband is into basketball. So my husband mixed the two together, added some masking tape and... Viola!
My husband labeled the tape with the name of the shot and points (dunk 2, free throw 1, top of the arc 3) but you can just do the numbers. If you want to focus more on math than on teaching the basketball scoring system you can put lines all over the floor with different numbers (7, 11, 4, etc.) then have your child keep score by adding as they play basketball. For even older kids you can subtract, multiply, etc!

I hope you have fun trying out some of these masking tape activities!

*FYI: From comments on these activities, some moms were using the colored masking tape and didn't take it off right after the activity then it was ruining their floor. So use regular masking tape or take off the colored tape quickly! 

Pinterest PASS or FAIL: Kid Activities

With SO MUCH on Pinterest, it's hard to know what works and what doesn't. This summer we tried out some kid activities we found through Pinterest with a 4, 5, and 6-year old boy and they let us know what activities PASSED and which ones FAILED!

Bike Wash

Source: Instructables

Connect PVC, drill holes, insert water misters and hook up to hose. Worked like a champ until the little ones turned the water up and the pressure blew out the misting posts. D'oh! Pass anyway. The boys LOVED it!

 Permanent Marker Dishes

FAIL.

Color dish with permanent marker. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Wash by hand.

I skipped the last step and went straight to the dishwasher and all their art washed away. Oops. Should have seen their sad faces when I opened the dishwasher.

*Make sure to WASH BY HAND

* Use a porcelain 150 pen instead of permanent marker

 Snack names

Write your name on a paper. Trace name with glue. Glue snacks on to your name.

PASS!

 Symmetry experiment with faces
Source: Dee Construction

The 5 and 6 year old passed but the 4 year old needs intervention!

Painter tape web game

Fail. 

Except the boys loved tearing it down.

 Marshmallow Launcher
Source: The Giggling Green Bean

PASS.

This was a cinch to make and the little people loved it. Instructions suggested that we launch mini marshmallows, but we found smarties left a nice welt on our moving targets!

 Tornado in a Jar

FAIL. Fill jar with water, add a drop of soap and swirl. 

Luckily the ice cream truck drove by just then and the kids could stop shaking the jars of disappointment.

 Jello Worms
Source: all over Pinterest!

Pass!

If you haven't tried these Jello worms, your boys are missing out on part of their childhood. 

Watermelon on a stick

Source: A Pretty Life in the Suburbs

PASS for kids

FAIL for mom (trying to stab a dull stick into an inch of rind is not the easiest thing!)

Outside water bed

Source: Utah County Mom

Duck tape tarps together. Fill with water. Add kids. Enjoy!

It was incredible to watch the boys find countless ways to enjoy this waterbed. Hours of fun!! 

Back to School Pencil Poppers

I got this idea from the Confetti Popper Rockets on Alphamom. But instead of Fourth of July, I made them look like pencils so we could have one last BANG before back to school! You could really use this concept for every holiday if you want! This activity definitely takes some prep work but your kids will LOVE it! And if you have older kids, you can put them to work on the assembly.

 Supplies: paper towel or toilet paper tubes, colored paper (I used yellow and pink scrapbook paper but plain paper works just as great), cardstock (for the bottom of the rockets & 'tip'), tissue paper (I used pink to match the 'eraser' part of the rocket but any color would work!), confetti (I used what was in the paper shredder but you can punch out holes or have your kids tear up a bunch of paper... whatever you want to clean up later), string, tape, glue, beads, ribbon, stapler, scissors, needle, hole puncher



1. Make the bottom of the rocket. Cut a 3"x 3" square of tissue paper. Cut a small circle out of the cardstock that will just fit within the radius of the tube. Glue the circle to the center of the tissue paper. Let dry. Thread 2'-3' of string onto needle (this will be your fuse so you can cut it to the desired length when you are done). Tie a bead on the end. Push needle through the center of the paper circle that is attached to the tissue paper.


2.Glue the tissue paper/cardstock/bead trapdoor to the bottom of your tubes by putting glue around the outside of the tubes. Make sure that the bead and cardstock are inside the tube and the string is on the outside like a  fuse. You can add a pull tag to your fuse or leave it as is!  





3. Time to decorate it! Cut your paper the height of your tubes. (To make the 'pencils' I taped a little strip of pink paper to the bottom of the yellow paper). Attach ribbons (optional) by taping to the inside of the paper. Roll the paper around the tubes and attach to tubes by stapling the top and taping down the side.















4. Now that they are all decorated, it's time to fill them with confetti!







5. For the top of the 'pencil popper': Punch two holes on opposite sides of the top of your poppers. Thread a string through the holes then thread the string through a bead to keep the popper centered while hanging.


6. Now it's time to make the 'tip' of the pencil. This part if optional unless you really want to make it look like pencil poppers! Cut a circle out of brown cardstock 3.25 inches wide. Cut one snip to the center of the circle. Slide the cut onto the string above the bead. Take the edges of your cut and pull them together to make a cone then staple at the base.

Here is the diagram that ALPHAMOM used to explain the construction of this project!

READY... SET... POP!!!

Happy Back to School!




Here's some back to school book recommendations:
(click on the images for details and reviews)

Halloween Sensory Box

I love sensory boxes! They are so good for little hands and minds and so fun to switch around for every holiday/season. There's three main things you need when assembling a sensory box:
1. A container. I use a plastic tote with a lid a foot and a half by two feet wide.
2. The base of your sensory box: beans, rice, sand, easter plastic grass, pom poms, etc.
3. All the little knick-knacks for your sensory box. I find these at the dollar store or Walmart. The more textures and shapes the better!

*Make sure to always supervise while your child is playing with a sensory box because of all the little pieces that could end up in little mouths...and all over the floor!

Colorful Halloween Potions

What a better way to explore colors around Halloween time then with Potions!

There's not really a how-to for this activity, just some ideas...and free printables!

*You can use water and food coloring- be sure to mix some colors (ie: instead of using the green food coloring, mix blue and yellow and watch it turn green, etc). Have your kids drink one of the potions with their dinner. Bwah ha ha!!

*Instead of just using water, you could use Invisible Kool-Aid to give your potions more of a punch!

*You could also make little Jello's for snack time and use these fun printables to make the jello look like potion!

*If your kids are in the color-learning stage have them match the potion label to the correct color of potion. 

*If your kids can read, have them read the labels then match to the correct color.

*If you really want some potion-making fun- mix your food coloring into vinegar instead of water. Then pour in some baking soda and watch it fizzle away!

POTION LABELS: Right click and save or copy. (Then paste or insert into Word and print away!)