Finger Painting with Chocolate Pudding

Hillary when she was three years old!

February 23rd

Happy Thursday! Today is a day to embrace your child's messy side! So pull out the old clothes or smocks, lay down some newspapers, and have fun with your little ones!

Theme: Finger paint

Materials Needed: chocolate pudding, wax paper or cookie sheet

Developmental Skills: fine motor skills, creativity, language, senses (taste, smell, tactile)

Activity: Painting with Pudding

Make a box of instant chocolate pudding according to the directions. If your children are of the age where they can help you in the kitchen, have them assist you with making the pudding. Lay down newspaper or other materials to protect your work space. (This is a fun outside activity on a beautiful, sunny day or a great inside activity on a rainy day.) Allow your children the freedom to just play with the pudding! They will love squishing it between their fingers, making funny pictures, practicing writing their numbers, letters and name in the pudding. We have used wax paper or just a simple cookie sheet with sides on it for them to play with the pudding.

Extension Activities: If your child doesn't like chocolate, you can try other flavors of pudding.

- Have your child describe the taste, feel and smell of the pudding.

- Discuss different pictures your child can make with the pudding.

- Use cookie cutters, q-tips, and other objects to make pictures in the pudding.

- If your child is old enough to use regular finger paint let them paint a picture using different colors. Framing your child's artwork is a great way to celebrate their creativity!

Teacher's Tip: Allowing children to be creative and messy helps them develop the ability to think outside the box and not be focused on making mistakes.

Let's Make Homemade Play Dough!

February 16th

Happy Thursday, Blogging Moms! Today, we want to encourage you to just have fun with your children. Making homemade play dough is easy, creative and helps to develop fine motor skills. There are many different recipes on the internet, but this is the one we used in our first grade classroom and found it to be the best.

Theme: Play Dough

Materials Needed:

recipe for homemade play dough (see below)

clean table or work space

cookie cutters, rolling pins, etc.

ziploc bags

Developmental Skills: fine motor skills

Fine motor skills involve the small muscles of the body that enable such functions as writing, grasping small objects, and fastening clothing. They involve strength, fine motor control and dexterity.

Activity:

Play Dough

2 cups of flour

1 cup of salt

4 tsp. of cream of tartar

2 Tbsp. of cooking oil

2 cups of water

food coloring (dark colors work the best)

Mix all the ingredients over medium heat, stir until the play dough pulls away from the pan and forms a dough ball. Remove it from the heat and knead it for a few minutes. Store in a plastic bag or container in the refrigerator for up to three months.

Extension Activities:

To make "magic" play dough insert drops of food coloring into the center of a ball of white play dough with out your children knowing. As they begin to knead the play dough, the color will magically begin to show through. We used to do this on the first day of school and always told our students that if the play dough began to change color, that meant they were going to have a great year in First Grade. They were so excited when it started to change. As parents, you could use this idea to encourage your child that they were going to have a good day, a good trip to the dentist/doctor, etc. It is a good idea to put a small amount of play dough into a ziploc bag to knead it at first. In the beginning, the color will stain small hands.

Add unsweetened Kool-Aid for color and scent.

Add glitter for sparkly play dough.

Teacher's Tip:

It is essential for children to work on their fine motor skills. This will help them hold a pencil, handle scissors, and tie their shoes.

Valentine's Day Mice

February 9th

Happy Thursday, Blogging Moms!

Today we want to extend our Valentine activities. This art project is cute to accompany some of our favorite Valentine/mice books.

Theme: Valentine's Day and Mice

Materials Needed:

Construction paper (white or grey)

Scissors

Glue

Yarn

Crayons

**If you saved the hearts from the marble painting activity, you could use those. If not, cut out some other pink or red hearts.

Developmental Skills: cutting, gluing, listening and following directions

Activity: Heart Mouse

Read books about Valentine's Day mice to your child.

Cut out a large heart out of white or grey construction paper.

Fold it in half for the body and glue it closed (leave a small opening for yarn tail).

Take a medium sized heart and fold it over to make his ears.

Add details of eyes, nose and whiskers.

Attach yarn for the tail to the inside of the body.

Glue two small hearts together at the end of the tail.

Extension Activities:

Make different sized mice--large, medium, small.

Act out the stories you read using the mice you make.

Teacher's Tip:

As teachers, one of the areas we found many children struggled with was keeping their desk and area clean. Have your child help you clean up the scraps and put away materials right after the project. At this age, they love to help you clean and it helps them to develop responisiblity for their personal belongings in the classroom.

Happy Valentine's Day!

February 7th

Hello Blogging Moms~

This week we are focusing on friendship and Valentine's Day. We are introducing one of our favorite art projects that is fun to do with all ages. Marble painting is easy and requires very little preparation. Get out your tempera paints and let your little ones be creative!

Theme: Valentine's Day

Materials Needed:

Construction paper

Tempera paint (pink, red, and white)

Two or three marbles per color

Shallow box or box lid

Scissors

Glue

Markers/Crayons

Plastic cups for the paint

Developmental Skills: creative thinking, cutting, gluing, folding paper, listening and following directions

Activity: Marble Painting Hearts

Place the different colored paints in plastic cups and a piece of construction paper in the shallow box or box lid. Depending on the age of your child, you can let them place several marbles in each cup of paint. With a plastic spoon, place the marbles on the paper and allow your child to gently tilt the box to roll the marbles on the paper. Depending on the amount of paint desired, you can repeat this process until the paint has covered the construction paper. Allow paint to dry.

After the paint has dried, help your child cut out different size hearts. Demonstrate how to fold the paper in half and cut the hearts on the fold. You may need to trace the hearts for your child to practice cutting them out. Remember not to make them too small, as it is difficult for young children to handle scissors and you do not want them to become frustrated.

Next, you can arrange the hearts on a large piece of construction paper for a Valentine's Day placemat or picture. Your child can make a Valentine's Day card for a loved one or attach them to a plate of heart shaped cookies and deliver them to a neighbor or friend. The possibilities are endless!

The most important part of this activity is to have fun and allow your child the freedom to be creative.

** We will be doing another activity on Thursday using hearts so you may want to save a few you made today.

Extension Activities:

Feel free to use other materials such as glitter, stickers, etc.

Play Hide-n-Seek with the hearts.

Attach them to green pipe cleaners and place them in a small flower pot for a centerpiece.

Make a Valentine hat.

Decorate a shoebox with the hearts and have family members exchange Valentines.

Thursday's Thought

"The mother-child relationship is paradoxical and, in a sense, tragic. It requires the most intense love on the mother's side, yet this very love must help the child grow away from the mother, and to become fully independent."
~ Erich Fromm


"Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder."
~E.B. White

"We have eyes, and we're looking at stuff all the time, all day long. And I just think that whatever our eyes touch should be beautiful, tasteful, appealing, and important."
Eric Carle

“I remember I used to half believe and wholly play with fairies when I was a child. What heaven can be more real than to retain the spirit-world of childhood, tempered and balanced by knowledge and common-sense.”
― Beatrix Potter, The Complete Tales

"Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity."
~Kay Redfield Jamison

"If you haven't time to respond to a tug at your pants leg, your schedule is too crowded."
~ Robert Brault


"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you will go."
~Dr. Seuss


"You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing. What! Is it nothing to be happy? Nothing to skip, play, and run around all day long? Never in his life will he be so busy again."
~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, 1762

"We simply have to show our kids what true greatness looks like with our lives."
 ~Dr. Tim Kimmel


"The best gift and investment you can give your child is your time."
 ~Kevin Heath

"Kids spell love T-I-M-E."
 ~John Crudele

Ground Hog Day!

February 2

Good morning, blogging moms! We are excited to launch our first blog for you and your child. We look forward to giving you fun activities that will not only help your child develop the necessary skills needed for school, but will also foster mommy and me time.

Theme: Groundhog Day

Developmental Skills: cutting, coloring, gluing, listening and following directions

Groundhog day is celebrated on February 2^nd. Phil the groundhog lives in Punxsutawney, PA. On this day each year, he comes out of his burrow after a long winter’s hibernation. If he sees his shadow, he goes back into his warm burrow and there will be 6 more weeks of cold winter. If he doesn’t see his shadow (i.e. it is a cloudy day), then Spring will come early this year.

Activity: Groundhog Puppet

Materials Needed:

Download a groundhog picture to color

Crayons

Safety Scissors

Glue/Glue stick

Styrofoam Cup

Popsicle Stick

Have your child color the groundhog and the cup.

Cut out the groundhog and glue it to the popsicle stick.

Poke the stick through the bottom of the cup so the groundhog can pop out.

Extension Activities:

Go outside and see if you can find your own shadows. Measure your shadows and talk about are they bigger or smaller than yourself.

Play shadow tag.

See our recommended books on Groundhog day. Another great book is the story of Peter Pan.

Groundhog Day! by Gail Gibbons (2007)

Ten Grouchy Groundhogs by Kathryn Heling and Deborah Hembrook (2009)

Go to Sleep, Groundhog! (Rookie Read-About Holidays) by Michelle Aki Becker (2003)

coming soon!