Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Earth Day Craft

Materials needed:
  • 2 Coffee Filters
  • 2 Cups of water
  • Blue and Green food coloring
  • Dropper 
  • Black and white construction paper
  • Glue stick


Take the coffee filters and lay them flat , then alternate dropping blue and green colored water on the filters trying to make the image of the earth. Then allow to dry after its dry glue the two filters together then glue to the black paper. We added stars with a white crayon and added the saying at the top that reads " God has the whole world in his hands" and followed the craft by singing the song!


 

Easy and fun puppet frogs

This is a very simple craft I got the idea from a website and kids love playing with them.

Materials Needed:
  • Paper Plate 
  • Green Paint  
  • Green ,Red and White Construction Paper
  •  Pair of Scissors
  • Glue Stick 
  • And your choice of a marker
  • A Pencil to trace the body parts 



So first we took our paper plates and flipped it over to the bottom and painted it green.




                                                 
                               While they dry make the cutouts for the arms, legs, tongue and eyes.







After the painted plate is dry have the child fold it in half and start to glue the body parts. Glue the top of the legs(or thigh area) to the back of the plate , the end of the arms near the inside crease of the plate and the end of the tongue to the bottom rim of the plate. The bend a small amount of the bottom of the eyes to the top of the plate and then you'll have your Frog Puppet!




                         We later made is creams for our frogs because they were "hungry" !

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Corbins Alphabet Book

So I decided to help Corbin to learn to write he needed to start trying to write letters from the alphabet, however I have tried those tracing books where you follow the dotted line then you have to write the letters repeatedly on the next line and those may work for some kids but all people learn differently. Since I know Corbin learns by example I made him an alphabet book with bigger letters and alternating colors which are in a pattern. The book is made from a photo album I bought at hobby lobby the chipboard letters are from there as well and I simply colored the letters and glued them front and back of the white inserted pages. Later I got him a dry erase marker with an eraser on the end and asked him if he could trace the letter "A". Which is the same day he started recognizing "A"  and the sound that "A" makes for some reason he only remembered certain letters before but this has helped a lot.

After a minute he got use to it and did more and he was great at it!









Then once I noticed how comfortable he was getting with it I drew and "F" for him (the one at the top) and asked him to write one too which he did right underneath mine!




Lastly I left a blank page and wrote his name and asked if he could try to write the letters that I did.
Which I couldn't be more proud of him since it was his first time writing his name all by himself!


I know a lot of my friends have already asked for details on how to make it and have loved it but I just wanted to share in case anyone needed a refresher.

Swirling Colors

So we did another fun science experiment and Corbin along with my kids from the daycare loved it.

Materials you'll need :
  • A bowl/dish
  •  Whole Milk
  • 2 or more different colors of food coloring 
  • 1/2 cotton swabs
  • dish soap
So for this experiment pour the milk in the bowl/dish and I like to see whats brewing in Corbin's mind so I asked him what he thought would would happen when we dropped the colors in. After we took turns putting a drop or two of each color into the milk. 




Next you take the cotton swab and put a dot or two of dish soap on it so the cotton part is mostly covered then insert it into the middle of the dish (do not twirl it or swish it around just hold it steady in the middle of the dish. I again wanted to know what Corbin was observing about it and he was so excited and just kept talking on and on about things he saw.


 Now just watch what happens and if you want to you can take the other cotton swab add a bit more soap and do it again. Hope you all enjoy it!






Our Liquid Layer Experiment

This was our first little science experiment and I have to say Corbin loved it. I also tried it on my 4 and 5 year olds at work since they had never done any science explorations either and they loved it as well. Its very simple to do and you probably already have the materials at home to do it.
Materials you'll need are : 
  • A clear jar (old pickle jar, mayo, mason jar something with a lid)
  • 3 cups
  • Colored dish soap 
  • Water(with your choice of food coloring added works better if it is a different color then the dish soap)
  • Vegetable Oil 
I asked Corbin and the 17 kids I had at work to gather around a table and allowed them to spell all the liquids in the cups before pouring them. I then explained that I was going to pour in the (blue) water, then add the (green) dish soap, then add in vegetable oil and asked them to predict what they thought would happen which Corbin and the other kids all pretty much agreed it would mix and make dark water. After adding the liquids of course they were freaking out in excitement so I gave each one , and Corbin to observe what happened to the mixture. Then asked them if their guesses were right or not. Then I allowed each one after I sealed the lid tight to give it a good shake to see what would happen. It was followed by a very easy clean up just dump it out add soap and wash the jar and cups out. If you end up trying this activity I hope you and your children enjoy it as much as we did and if not thanks for reading!