Feeding the Fish

This morning we did an activity we called Feeding the Fish. I pulled out an ice cube tray from IKEA, some toast tongs and some pom-poms, and we had fun "Feeding the Fish".
We then did a little scissor work. The Punk cut between the stickers, and then we played with the "cards" he made for a while. Easy to make - they are free stickers I get in some Movie Club advertisements (I am cheap like that) and the Punk knows the characters, so it makes for good patterning and Memory type games. Then we moved on to the bowl of Buttons. I had these ready for him - 3 of each color, but all different shapes. He sorted them, then used his chopsticks to place them back in the bowl.

He's getting so much better with his chopsticks! We have a second pair we take with us to eat sushi, and he feels pretty confident when he picks up food from his plate and it makes the entire trip to his mouth! Practical life, indeed.

This post was linked to: Tot School

Frugal Learning

I picked up a few educational things at the Target Dollar Spot a couple of months ago, and decided to bring some out and give them a whirl this morning. We started with a worksheet from a workbook called Pre-K Colors & Shapes. Even though the Punk is excellent at naming all of the basic and most of the more complicated shapes, he doesn't have the drawing skills mastered yet. In fact, he draws very lightly. You can hardly tell that he has outlined the heart and rectangle on this page. We will keep working on it, and see if we can come up with a way to learn to press harder (without snapping the crayons in two!).

The Punk and I went over the concept of rhyming today. We have talked about it some, and I think he "gets" it, but this game presented too many words at once, and I think he felt a bit of pressure to make sure he did it just right.

Next time I bring this out I think I will pre-sort a few cards so we have some matches right away, and not have to "draw another card" so many times to get the game started.

All in all, not bad for $2.00!

I Greater than Three this Craft!

The Punk and I made hearts for Valentine's Day today. This craft took me to a happy place. Melty plastic, bright colors, hearts... love! They are called Perler Beads at most craft sores, but I (of course) bought ours from IKEA. We also bought the shapes set that goes with the beads. I sat up late last night and picked out only red, white and pink beads and sorted them on one of the Punk's crafting trays. We got started right away, and we both had a lot of fun picking out each bead to go in each spot. This is a GREAT way to work on fine motor skills, and it's fairly difficult (even for me) I was proud of him for having the patience to stick with it.

After we set our beads in place I melted them. The Punk was safely in the living room playing Hotwheels, and I went at it. Parchment paper, iron and a washcloth was all I needed (The IKEA directions just show a stick figure and an iron, so I Googled some better instructions).

Paper under, paper over, press with a hot iron.

Voila!

We ended up making 3 hearts today. I am thinking about gluing some magnets to the back so they can have a bit more purpose.

We talked about patterns, colors, heat, all kinds of interesting stuff. And while he's not able to do the magical-amazing-melting part of the activity, I can still see it being something we work with again and again.

Frozen Fun

I've seen this on a few blogs/websites/random places, so I don't know who to properly link to, but I decided to try it with the Punk today. Icy Fun! I froze mini-muffin cups full of food-colored water, and let him have at it in a casserole dish. Stacking, skating, blending colors, swimming, building, stirring, I can't list all the things he did with these little cold gems! This activity will be repeated a number of times, I am sure.

If you give a Punk a fish...

I love reading other Mommy/Teaching/Preschool/Home School blogs. And one of my favorites is Counting Coconuts. She uses the Montessori Method a lot, and makes some really interesting school tools. I have copied a couple of her ideas already. The most recent one I decided to make was a felt fishing "game".

I cut the fish from felt (freehand - they are all a little different). I sewed them shut with a bit of stuffing and a hardware nut (borrowed from the husband's garage) in the mouth of each.

A dowel, yarn, magnet and some hot glue later - we have a fishing pole! Each of the fish are numbered (1-10) on one side, and have dots to count on the other. So far we have played a game (numbers side up) where I ask him to fish for number ___ and he finds it, and another (dots side up) where he catches a random fish and we count the dots before revealing the numbers on the other side. I plan on using some flash cards or playing cards to add more interest to the game as we go on.

Rice Box

It's too cold to play outside. Well, it can be too cold. It's the South - it can be 30 or 70 depending on the day. The Punk loves to go outside and dig, so I needed to come up with an indoor option. After a little web surfing I found a recipe for coloring rice, and decided to go for it!
Cheesy Punk smile, and our baggies of colored rice. We made blue, red, green, yellow, and a sorta-kinda-purple color. It was a mix of red and blue food coloring, and some look more red, some more blue, and some gray.

It was really interesting to see how the food coloring took to the rice. Some grains are vibrant, and others are soft and pastel looking. We set them on paper towels and let them dry (overnight).

Trucks, spoons, cups, small bowls - even just your fingers. Playing in rice is fun, and such an inexpensive way for the Punk to have a good time digging indoors.