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Have you been dreaming of spring seedlings and summer gardens, looking through your seed catalogs? Spring can't come too soon in my part of the woods! I saw a Pinterest post a few months ago about making mini milk jug greenhouses and I thought I would give it a try. I have found it is a way to bring a little bit of spring into my house this winter.

My milk jug greenhouse had been in an east facing windowsill in January. If you have a south facing window, that will work well too. At this time of year you should try to get as much sun on the seedlings as possible. This will cut down in the legginess that winter plants sometimes get. You can also give it additional light with grow lights, but I'm trying the frugal way here!

After two weeks, the seedlings look fantastic. I'm planning on using these for harvesting Microgreens but you can use the same idea to start your seeds indoors and get a jump on the growing season.

Materials needed for a Milk Jug Greenhouse

1 gallon or 1/2 gallon plastic milk jug
Sharp knife
Scissors
Packing tape (inside use) or duct tape (outside use)
Potting Soil
Seeds

Instructions for making and using a Milk Jug Greenhouse indoors:

// Wash your milk jugs. Keep the lid.

// Cut around the jug about 3-4 inches from the bottom. leaving the back 1/4 attached (use it as a hinge). Be sure you leave the handle intact.

// Fill it with 2″ of potting soil. No need to cut holes in the bottom if you are growing these inside.

// Place your seeds inside. I soaked mine for 1 hour and placed them extra close together for Microgreens. You can also space them out for future transplanting. A half gallon jug can probably handle about 9 pea seeds.

// Tamp the seed down a bit.

// Cover your seeds with another shallow layer of potting soil. The bigger the seed the thicker the soil. Don't fill it higher than your cut sides.

// Water in your seeds but don't water them so much they are "swimming" in moisture. A good dampening will do.

// Close the top and put tape around the jug to keep the moisture in your milk jug greenhouse.

// Re-cap your mini greenhouse to keep in the moisture.

// Place your milk jug greenhouse in a south or east facing window and check it every few days. Spray water inside if needed. You are aiming for moist, but not soaking.

// After a few days you should see your seeds sprouting .

// Depending on the type of seed you are using, they should be ready for garden transplanting or Microgreens in 14 days.

I have had wonderful success with this method of seed starting and will continue to use it for microgreens and for getting an early jump on my garden starts. Next - outdoor seedling starts - I can't wait!

For More Information:

If you are thinking about starting seeds outside in your milk jug greenhouse, use this link for more information. The only difference really, is drilling holes in the bottom of the jugs before planting and leaving the top off so it can receive rain water. They seem to be pretty self sufficient, but I haven't personally tried it.

The Parsimonious Princess has also had success with outdoor milk jug greenhouses.

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Mini Greenhouses from Milk Jugs | PreparednessMama

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Have you been dreaming of spring seedlings and summer gardens, looking through your seed catalogs? Spring can't come too soon in my part of the woods! I saw a Pinterest post a few months ago about making mini milk jug greenhouses and I thought I would give it a try.

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Here's a super cool science experiment for kids that requires only a few common materials. In this experiment you'll create a chemical reaction using baking soda and vinegar that will make a baggie explode!

With school out for summer we've been busy doing all kinds of outdoor learning activities! One of our favorites is this baking soda and vinegar experiment~ Exploding Baggies! Not only is it the experiment itself really exciting, but the process is perfect for encouraging all kinds of predictions and theories. (This post contains affiliate links.)

Check out even more science activities in the video below!

Materials for Exploding Baggies

Directions for Exploding Baggies

1. Tear a paper towel into a square shape. (We ripped off one piece of a select-a-size roll and then tore that piece in half to make a square. It doesn't have to be perfect!)

2. Place 1 1/2 tablespoons of baking soda onto the center of your paper towel square.

3. Fold your paper towel up so you've created a little packet of baking soda and set it aside.

4. Place 1/2 cup of water and 1/4 cup of vinegar into your baggie. (Add some food coloring if you'd like!)

5. Head outside and find a spot to explode your baggie. Carefully and quickly drop the packet of baking soda into the baggie and seal it shut completely. Give it a little shake, set it down, move away, and watch what happens!

The baggie begins to fill up...

.... and fills up with even more carbon dioxide.

After a few seconds your baggie should explode with a loud "POP"!

Our first baggie didn't explode so we had to hypothesize as to why it didn't work. We think we let too much of the carbon dioxide out before we go the bag sealed.

After quite a few successful explosions, Lucy used our extra materials to try out other ideas. She wondered what would happen in you didn't use a paper towel or if you changed the amounts of the different ingredients. She was busy for quite a while testing out all her ideas!

What's Going On?

The mixing of the baking soda and vinegar are creating a chemical reaction! The two ingredients are creating carbon dioxide gas. The gas fills the baggie and then runs out of room causing the explosion- POP!

Want to Go Even Further?
Even more activities to inspire creativity and critical thinking for various ages.
1. Let your child experiment with baking soda and vinegar on his or her own (with supervision of course).

2. Try out another experiment that creates a chemical reaction with pennies.

3. Create a sand volcano!

Find more STEM activities in our ebook! Learn more about it here, or buy it now here!

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Baking Soda and Vinegar Science Experiment: Exploding Baggies - Buggy and Buddy

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Here's a super cool science experiment for kids that requires only a few common materials. In this experiment you'll create a chemical reaction using baking soda and vinegar that will make a baggie explode! With school out for summer we've been busy doing all kinds of outdoor learning activities!

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"The Kid Should See This" website (high quality science and inquiry videos)

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"The Kid Should See This" website (high quality science and inquiry videos)

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The Kid Should See This: Educational videos for curious kids of all ages, a free resource for parents & teachers. Science, art, nature, animals, & more.

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I love recipes that my kids can help make. Are your kids always clamoring to work in the kitchen? This Easy Garlic Bread Pizza is the perfect recipe for little hands help create, with adult supervision of course. With just four ingredients, and ten minutes of cook time, this Texas Toast Pizza will become a favorite in your house!

Easy Garlic Bread Pizza
Directions to make Easy Garlic Bread Pizza
The supermarket shortcut that makes this recipe so simple is Texas Toast garlic bread. You can find it in the freezer section at your grocery store. Starting with delicious Texas Toast gives this pizza a delightfully flavorful crust.

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees. You can also use a toaster oven for this recipe if you are making a smaller portion or don't feel like heating up the entire kitchen.

Place your garlic bread on a baking sheet and spread about 2-3 Tablespoons of pizza sauce on each piece of garlic bread.

Top the Texas Toast with shredded mozzarella cheese and pepperoni.

Bake the pizzas in an oven or toaster oven for 8-10 minutes or until the bottom is golden brown and the cheese is all melty and gooey.

Take out and Enjoy!!

Kids can have these for lunch or as a filling after school snack. But let's be serious, these Texas Toast pizzas aren't just for kids. Adults love them too. Though once you taste these, you may decide not to share.

You can serve these with some ranch or marinara sauce for dipping.

If your kids can't get enough of pizza be sure to try these simple English Muffin Pizzas from The Best Ideas for Kids. They'll love them!

Easy Garlic Bread Pizza
This nutritional information is approximate and was calculated using online calculators. Your nutritional information may vary depending on numerous factors.
DO YOUR KIDS LOVE COOKING?

I have long been a proponent of cooking with kids. There are so many things kids learn helping out in the kitchen. Math, reading, chemistry and cooperation and more are used while following a recipe.

​Raddish is a monthly subscription box for kids that is a cooking club, culinary lesson, and mealtime solution all-in-one. Young children get to work with an adult, while older kids and teens independently indulge their culinary curiosity! And it's perfect for picky eaters - kids who cook, eat!

​A new kit is delivered to your doorstep every month​!
Each kit features a new culinary theme! You'll also get a shopping list emailed to you prior to delivery so you will be ready to cook. These kits are a great way for kids to develop new cooking skills and confidence in the kitchen while the entire family builds memories together. Find out more here.

If you liked this easy garlic bread pizza recipe, you'll love:
Easy Pizza Rolls Recipe Pepperoni Pizza Crescents

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I love recipes that my kids can help make. Are your kids always clamoring to work in the kitchen? This Easy Garlic Bread Pizza is the perfect recipe for little hands help create, with adult supervision of course. With just four ingredients, and ten minutes of cook time, this Texas Toast Pizza will become a favorite in your house!

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Cool Science Experiment #10 (Plastic Milk)

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Have you ever tried making butter?

It seems far-fetched, doesn't it?

But, actually, it's not. It's all about science.

Once you know the science behind butter, you can make it any time. All you need are a few simple supplies to do this fun kitchen science project.
Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. Please see my Disclosure Page for more details.
My girls and I have been reading the Little House series every night at bedtime. I loved this series as a child, and I'm so happy to be passing along this series to my own kids. They love it too.

The many detailed descriptions of pioneer life in the books has inspired us to do a few science experiments.

We were struck by how many times the Ingalls family had to make something that we are used to buying in a store, especially some of the food products, like butter as described in Little House in the Big Woods.

Ma didn't know the science behind making butter when she taught Laura and Mary how to do it. But, science it was. You don't make butter by mixing together a few ingredients. You make butter by changing one ingredient, cream, into something else, butter.

Gather your supplies

You only need a few simple supplies for this project. The most important supplies are some heavy cream and a mason jar with lid.

You will also need a measuring cup and a strainer.

To add a bit of math and technology to the project, have a timer or a timer app on hand.

Make the butter

Use your measuring cup to measure 2/3 cup of your cream.

Pour the cream in the jar and put the lid on tight.

Now, it's time to shake and you've got to shake a lot. We passed it around between three of us, so no one got too tired from the shaking.

We used a time app on my phone to see how long it took us to make butter and it came in at a little over 8 minutes. That's a lot of shaking!

What does the shaking do?

While we were shaking, the molecules in the cream were moving around. The agitation caused the fat molecules to separate and join together.

We accomplished this by shaking a jar. Ma, Mary, and Laura accomplished this with a butter churn. The motion of the churn's stick moving up and down had the same effect as our jar shaking.

Our cream started out as a liquid and as we shook it started transforming. When we stopped hearing the liquid move around, we stopped to observe what was happening. We took a peek and found whipped cream.

When you hit the whipped cream stage, you've got to keep going. The shaking is harder to do, so shake as hard as you can. Suddenly, in a split second, everything changes. You'll hear a solid substance plopping about inside your jar.

Stop the timer, you've got butter. You've successfully rearranged the molecules in your cream.

Our conclusion

Once we had butter, we opened up the jar to see the butter sitting in a liquid.

We used our strainer to separate our butter from the buttermilk. (That's how buttermilk got it's name, it's the liquid left over from making butter.)

We took it one step further and used our measuring cup to see how much buttermilk we had. We measured 1/3 cup of measurement. So our 2/3 cup of cream split in two. One half was fat molecules which made our butter and the other half was the remaining buttermilk.

You've just made butter. Can you believe it?

This is one science experiment that results in a completely safe and edible product. So get out the bread and spread a little butter on it. You've got to taste your results.

Storybook Science

We did this project as part of the Storybook Science series from Inspiration Laboratories. Click the image below to see all the science projects inspired by favorite children's books.

If you enjoyed this post, the above photo is perfect for sharing on Facebook. Or, you can Pin the image below.

You may also like one of these fun science projects:

Erupting Mount Vesuvius: Combing History with Science at Creative Family Fun

Hot Chocolate Science at Creative Family Fun

Color Mixing Lab at Creative Family Fun

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Making Butter - Little House Inspired Science

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Have you ever tried making butter? It seems far-fetched, doesn't it? But, actually, it's not. It's all about science. Once you know the science behind butter, you can make it any time. All you need are a few simple supplies to do this fun kitchen science project.

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Let your child's imagination run wild as they create and explore play dough and pasta.

Through moulding and manipulating play dough and pasta together is a great play opportunity for kids to experiment with the materials in an unstructured activity.
What you will need?
You will need play dough and an assortment of dry pasta. Here we have used bows, shells, spaghetti, spiral and penne. Click here to download and print a recipe for making play dough.

Making and creating an array of weird and wonderful things: Using the different pasta shapes to create eyes, mouths, noses and other features on pasta play dough monster. Also making a pasta play dough cake, by using the different pasta shapes to create decorative patterns.

Let's Learn

I love the imagination: Decorating and making a pasta play dough pizza and creative flowers for their pasta play dough garden.

Spatial awareness - experimenting with shape and space

Creative Thinking and concentration skills

Oral language development - practising and experimenting with new words

Building up their fine motor skills and coordination

Encourages imagination and creativity

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Let your child's imagination run wild as they create and explore play dough and pasta. Through moulding and manipulating play dough and pasta together is a great play opportunity for kids to experiment with the materials in an unstructured activity. What you will need? You will need play dough and an assortment of dry pasta.

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Would you like to make a small world sensory bin for your preschool dinosaur theme? Make this oozy lava slime with just 3 ingredients (plus water). Your child will love squishing her fingers in the slime and using her imagination to rescue her dinosaur toys from the lava flow.

To make my lava slime, I followed this recipe from Little Bins For Little Hands. For one batch of slime, you will need:

½ cup Elmer's washable white glue

½ cup water

liquid watercolors or food coloring (red/orange/yellow)

¼ cup liquid starch, plus extra as needed (I used Stay-Flo)

To make your slime, you will whisk together the glue and water in a large bowl until well blended. Add the coloring of your choice. Keep adding food coloring or liquid watercolor until you get the depth of color you want.

Once the color is evenly distributed, you will pour in your liquid starch. Stir until most of the liquid is gone. This will happen very quickly. If you find that there is still liquid hanging around your bowl, you can add more liquid starch at this time. Your slime will look stringy and clumpy at this point. Knead the slime with your hands until it forms a smooth consistency.

Now you are ready to make your prehistoric lava slime dinosaur scene! When using a large container like I did, you will need three batches of slime to fully coat the bottom. I wanted a multi-colored swirly effect, so I made three separate batches of red, orange, and yellow. But this is not necessary! For simplicity, I recommend just using one orangey-red color. If you go with one solid color, just pour it in. If you want a swirly effect like mine, you should start by pouring in your red slime first, covering the entire bottom of the container.

Next, you will pick up clumps of orange and yellow slime with your fingers and place the blobs on top of the red slime in scattered locations. Use a fork to pull the colors through the red slime.

Try to make it look like flowing rivers of lava. This does NOT have to be perfect. As you will soon see, the colors will blend as time passes, so don't stress about making it look realistic now.

Once my lava slime was all set and swirled to my liking, I created the dinosaur scene. I used a combination of large and small dinosaurs, pairing up the "mamas" with their "babies". I placed some clean rocks around the bin and stood the "babies" atop the rocks.

Because I set up this sensory bin the night before, the colors had blended by the following morning while still maintaining a cool swirling effect.

As you can see, my children (ages 2, 4, and 5) loved making the slime stretch. They alternated between burying their dinosaurs in slime and then rescuing them from disaster.

Rawr!

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Lava Slime for your Preschool Dinosaur Theme

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Would you like to make a small world sensory bin for your preschool dinosaur theme? Make this oozy lava slime with just 3 ingredients (plus water). Your child will love squishing her fingers in the slime and using her imagination to rescue her dinosaur toys from the lava flow.

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Create a Number Line 1 to 20 is a fun hands-on number awareness activity that involves recognising and organising numerals 1 to 20. It is just the beginning of spring here and I thought it would be fun to make our number line into a fun flower garden theme.

The activity provides children with the opportunity to un-jumble the numbered pop stick flowers and arrange them in order from 1 to 20 into some play dough rolled out into a line. Children can also play games such as 'Fill in the Missing Number' counting forwards and backwards and guess the missing number.

What you will need?

You will need 20 craft sticks (pop sticks), play dough, miniature cupcake liners, large sticker dots, black marker pen, and glue. I used the hot glue gun to stick on the cupcake liners but PVA craft glue will work just as well once it has dried.

We numbered the sticker dots and placed them inside the cupcake liner to make them look more like flowers.

Some Ideas:

Talk about the shapes of the numbers such as number 9 has a circle and a line or number 8 has two circles. Children begin to associate shape and the name of the number. We have Number Rhyme Charts that could be used to assist with this activity <click here>

Use a number line chart if needed for guidance.

Read stories about numbers.

For younger children, complete this activity using only numbers 1 to 5 or 1 to 10 and add more as your child develops.

For older children this can be useful for skip counting by 2s or 5s.

Let's Learn

To extend the learning after the number line 1 to 20 was finished, we removed some of the numbers from the number line. The task involved counting along the line and to fill in the missing numbers.

We also played another fun game called "Guess the Missing Number". My daughter covered her eyes and I removed a number along the number line. When she opened her eyes again, she had to guess which number was missing. So much fun!!

Don't forget to count the numbers out loud!! Pointing at the numbers and counting out loud is beneficial for self-correction and consolidating number recognition. Children can practice counting forwards and backwards from 1 to 20 and 20 to 1. Smaller numbers for younger children 1 to 5 or 1 to 10 and backwards from 10 to 1.

Learning Opportunities

Fine Motor Development - manipulating objects.

Hand-eye Coordination and Control

Concentration

Language development - Counting our loud and pronunciation of numbers.

Mathematics - Number recognition and ordering numbers 1 to 20.

Take a look at our Dot-to-Dot Number Rhyming Charts. These are a fun way to learn how to write and recognise numbers by singing a catching rhyme.

Click here for more NUMBER activities & play ideas

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counting activities and number recognition

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Create a Number Line 1 to 20 is a fun hands-on number awareness activity that involves recognising and organising numerals 1 to 20. The activity provides children with the opportunity to unjumble the numbered pop stick flowers and arrange... #NumberLine1to20 #Countingactivitiesandnumberrecognition

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How to include socioemotional learning in everyday life

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How to include socioemotional learning in everyday life

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Using social-emotional development activities for toddlers is something you can begin at an early age.

There is so much on our parent to-do list that this is an area that is easy to neglect as often times we think that their social-emotional skills will just come about naturally.

However, like all areas of development we need to teach our little ones about emotions and how to respond to them as well, so they can develop healthy relationships with others as they grow older.

Social-emotional learning activities do not need to be complicated.
They can be easily worked into your everyday routines once you understand toddler development.

(This post contains affiliate links. To read our full disclosure policy click .)

What Are Social-Emotional Skills?

Social-emotional skills are the ones your child needs to interact with both adults and peers.

These skills start to form from birth (did you know crying is the first way a child communicates?)

Managing and regulating emotions is also part of this domain.

What Social Skills Can I expect from 12-36 Months?

Keep in mind that ALL children develop differently and social skills can look different in every child.

Here are a few of the skills that typically emerge between 12-36 months.

Make sure you download the printable toddler milestone checklist so that you can see what other skills to expect from your toddler.

Why is social and emotional development important for a child?

Interacting with others will be a HUGE part of your child's life.

When they enter school, daycare, or out in the community they will be around lots of other adults and children.

They will need to have skills in order to socialize and play with others.

They will need to understand how to follow rules and directions in order to stay safe.

All of these skills take lots of time and practice to learn.

Be patient and supportive when teaching your child and they will be successful!

Social Emotional Development Activities for Toddlers

Label Your Toddlers Emotions

When emotions happen, children need to know what they are.

If your little one is mad because it's time to go inside and they are not ready, let them know that the emotion they are feeling is anger.

Give him some tools to cope with anger such as taking deep breaths or slowly counting to 10.

Tell your child what emotions you are having throughout the day as you are their primary role model.

Examples of Emotions to Label:

Your child may not be able to say or label their own emotions for quite some time.

Telling them the names of them is a way for them to learn the vocabulary.
This is also a great way to support toddler language development!
Using simple pictures can be a great tool for children that don't have words but still need to express how they feel.

Having them point to a happy or sad face that is drawn on paper can be helpful.

Use Books to Teach Social Skills

If there is a picture of a happy baby, point out the smile and label the emotion.

You can then model it in real life and smile at your little one and see if you can get a smile back.

As your toddler gets older you can make statements such as "I wonder what makes that baby happy?"

Then discuss the reasons that he could be smiling. Maybe he just got a hug or is about to go outside and play.

There are also lots of books out their specifically designed to help teach social skills in young children.

Check your local library to see what is available.

Provide Opportunities for Your Child to Interact With Others

Schedule some play dates with friends or cousins to give your child the opportunity to interact with their peers or same and different ages.

social emotional development activities toddlers do not need to be complicated.

Keep it simple and they will learn!

Attending daycare or preschool is NOT required for your child to learn social skills.

Providing them play time with other people is all they need to learn to play with others.

When you are out in the community help them interact with unfamiliar adults and children.

Teach them how to say "hi" and approach new kids to play with.

Using simple emotion cards like these seen in the video can be a great way to help your little one learn the names of emotions.

By growing their emotional vocabulary they will be able to label and identify how they feel which is a crucial skill.

Feeling cards like this can be used as flashcards or a matching game if you print 2 sets.

If your child does not have the words to tell you how they feel they can use the "How I Feel" chart to point to what they are feeling.

You can print your own set of emotion flashcards for toddlers here.

Pretend Play Enhances Social Skills

Using dolls, teddy bears, or any of your child's favorite stuffed friends will work to teach emotions.

It can be very simple like modeling for your little one by giving the bear a hug and saying, "The bear is happy when I hug him."

As your child gets older you can expand on this by role-playing with them.

Maybe the bear takes a toy from the doll, how do they each feel in this situation?

What can they do to solve it?

It may surprise you just how quick your child is able to learn how to solve social problems.

They may even come up with solutions you would not have thought of!

Children learn and retain information through play so it is one of the BEST ways to teach a new social skill.

Social-Emotional Learning Activities for Toddlers: Model Emotions

If you are having emotions in front of your child...that is ok!

Take a minute and explain to your child why you are happy, sad, or mad.

As parents we often feel like we need to hide our emotions from our children.

By doing this you are missing out on an opportunity to teach them that it is ok to have emotions and model for them how to cope.

Use Peers to Set an Example

If your little one hears them too, take a second and explain to them that the other child is sad or upset.

You can brainstorm with them reasons that the child is upset such as they don't want to go home or they are not getting something they want.

By taking the time to teach your toddler emotions they will learn to regulate their own, identify feelings, and build healthy relationships with others!

Help Them Problem Solve

When toddlers are playing together some conflicts may arise.

Try to be there to support and help them figure out a healthy way to solve the problem.

If they are both fighting over the same toy see if they can find a similar one to play with.

Could they take turns with the toy or perhaps a trade could take place?

Could they play with the toy together?

All of these are great options. Talk through the problem with the children and see what works best to solve it.

Grab your FREE Milestone Guide HERE.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are social activities for toddlers

Social activities for toddlers include activities where the toddler has to interact with other children or adults.

This includes playing games, imaginary play with others, and social interaction through turn taking and talking.

What are some examples of emotional development?

Being able to label feelings that they are having or see others experiencing. Being able to express and show a wide range of emotions is also an example of emotional development.

social activities for toddlers

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Try this to encourage social emotional development!

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Using social-emotional development activities for toddlers is something you can begin at an early age. There is so much on our parent to-do list that this is an area that is easy to neglect as often times we think that their social-emotional skills will just come about naturally.

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We sure do love us some sensory play activities here! We've done DIY Kinetic Sand, Crunchy Foam Dough , Homemade Snow, and so much more!

This Sand Foam has such a smooth yet slimy and grainy texture that makes for a great sensory activity that kids love!

The best part is, it's very inexpensive AND easy to make! This activity cost us $5 max!
{Printable recipe below}
To make Sand Foam simply take three cups of sand and pour it either on to a tray or into a bowl. Hand your kiddo a can of shaving cream and let them spray the can until empty on to the sand. Then dig your hands in, mix, and play! Have fun playing around with different consistencies and textures by adding in more sand or more shaving cream!

If your child dislikes getting his hands messy {as does mine} provide them with various scoops, spoons, and toys to experiment with. We used kitchen utensils and dollar store dinosaurs!

Sand foam is a lot like playing in mud in that the sand holds it shape really well and it is wet to the touch. But, unlike mud ours wasn't too sticky, as in it was easy to brush off and crumbly. We had a blast exploring this unique texture while introducing dinosaurs!

Dinosaur Dirt! Fun with Sand Foam!

There's nothing better than quick and easy sensory play to bring out at any time! We hope your kids love this simple activity as much as ours did!

Keep Reading!

Looking for kid activity posts similar to this one? Then be sure to click through the below links or head over to our Facebook fan page to continue the discussion!

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We sure do love us some sensory play activities here! We've done DIY Kinetic Sand, Crunchy Foam Dough , Homemade Snow, and so much more! This Sand Foam has such a smooth yet slimy and grainy texture that makes for a great sensory activity that kids love!

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Finger strength - "The hungry tennis ball"

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Finger strength - "The hungry tennis ball"

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Happy Thursday! So glad you are here. I want to share with you a fun activity today that focuses on sorting and fine motor skills -it's called The Money Muncher. To create this activity, you will need to make a Money Muncher with a tennis ball and an exacto knife. Cut a slit across the ball like the picture below and please don't slice any fingers!

Then draw some eyes or glue on googley eyes. When you squeeze the ball the mouth will open!

I thought my 3 year old would be able to squeeze the ball just fine...but I was wrong. He couldn't at all. I'm sure as his hands gets stronger, he will be able to master this skill, but right now he cannot. So I decided to modify this activity a little bit. I helped him out and squeezed the ball. For starters, we filled him up with marbles. Troy practiced counting as he did this. He also had fun shaking the full tennis ball!

Then we moved on to the money part. He loves coins! Troy loves collecting coins and putting them in our coin jar. He thinks coins are way better than dollars...I'm sure his view on that will change someday. 🙂

He was excited when I got the coins out for this activity, since we rarely take them out of the jar! I had him sort them by coins. Now he doesn't know the names of each coin, so I also introduced that to him. He usually just calls everything either a penny or a quarter.

Next, we got out the Money Muncher. The Money Muncher (me) would say which coins he was hungry for and then Troy would fill his mouth with those coins. We went through each group of coins. This was also fun for imaginary/dramatic play. 🙂

He loved this activity and thought the Money Muncher was so much fun! I wished he could've squeezed the ball himself, but I'm sure he will be able to in the future. I loved that he was able to sort the coins and learn to identify them with this activity. I hope you'll try this out and let me know how it goes! To learn more about fine motor skills, see this post.

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Happy Thursday! So glad you are here. I want to share with you a fun activity today that focuses on sorting and fine motor skills -it's called The Money Muncher. To create this activity, you will need to make a Money Muncher with a tennis ball and an exacto knife.

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In the past we have made lots of slimes and lots of different oobleck recipes. Recently someone asked me about cornstarch slime. I thought they meant oobleck, but they assured me they meant a slime made with cornstarch. Our interest was peaked so we pulled out our bin of oobleck and slime making ingredients and set to work on making slime with cornstarch as many ways as we could possibly imagine. Here are our top 3 recipes for cornstarch slime after extensive testing and quality control by my kids.

Disclaimer: This article contains commission and affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Cornstarch is the most popular ingredient in Oobleck. We know when mixed with water or other liquids it forms a non-Newtonian Fluid. So the idea of mixing it with something else, like glue, set our scientific inquiry loving minds into high gear.

For this experiment we tested a number of different gloopy, gooey concoctions. Many of them were horrible failures (yes I have glued my fingers together!), but we did find 3 recipes that created some pretty nice slimes. The first one uses only 2 ingredients. The last one is crazy stretchy! So we have a cornstarch slime for everyone here.

The first recipe is super easy, simply mix cornstarch with glue. If you want your slime coloured you should add some food colouring first to your glue and mix it well.

Then start adding cornstarch. We found it required a ratio of about 1 to 3 for glue to cornstarch. So if you use 1/4 cup of glue, you will need about 3/4 of cornstarch. It is not exact. The kids I admit are not perfectionists when it comes to measurements but that should give you a pretty good guideline.

The key with this recipe is to really knead and work it all together. This will eventually reduce the stickiness until you end up with your slime. Now it is not the most slimey or stretch of slimes. In fact I would qualify this more as a stretchy play dough in my option. But the kids still had fun playing with it. And other than needing a LOT of kneading, it was very easy to make.

For our next attempt we decided we wanted something more slime like. By that I mean we wanted something with more stretch. The first recipe was OK, but when we are playing with slime we like really stretchy slime.

We tried a few different things but eventually found adding a tablespoon of glycerin helped to create a much stretchier cornstarch slime.

For this recipe we once again used 1/4 cup of glue that we coloured with some food colouring. Then we mixed in a tablespoon of glycerin. Once it was all mixed together we started adding cornstarch. We found it easiest to add 1/4 at a time, with lots of mixing in between (by this point we had made a lot of cornstarch slimes!). In total we once again used 3/4 cup of cornstarch, keeping to our ratio of 1:3.

The glycerin made a HUGE difference in the quality of the slime. It was much smoother and stretchier and behaved more like our regular slime. Not quite the same. There was still a bit of that thickness and stiffness of play dough, but it was much better. We had a lot of fun with this batch.

When we originally started making slime we got a LOT of questions from people that struggled with the recipe. I am honestly still not sure how people struggled with it, as it is so easy but they did. One of the biggest issues was not using the appropriate amount of contact lens solution. This resulted in either a slime that was too sticky or way too stiff. Now there are a few ways you can try to save failed batches but we had an idea... what if there was a way to make it easier to remove the sticky without risking adding too much contact lens solution?

With that our final cornstarch slime recipe success was born!

We started with our usual slime recipe. 1/4 cup of glue with a teaspoon of baking soda mixed in along with a bit of colour. Then we added 1 teaspoon of contact lens solution and mixed until it was pulling nicely into a sticky lump. Now normally at this point we would be adding more contact lens solution and mixing but this time we tried something different. We added 1/4 cup of cornstarch and started kneading it in.

Very soon all the sticky was gone and we had a wonderfully stretchy slime!

So in our opinion recipe number 2 wins as our favourite cornstarch slime recipe followed by number 3. The issue we have with number 3 is that if we are going to make our slime that way, we will just stick to our old recipe. But if someone is struggling with the old recipe this gives them a viable alternative.

Number 2 wins over the first recipe because it has way more stretch and a more slime like texture.

Next time we will be making it with potato starch! After discovering how much better our oobleck is with potato starch I am curious what it will do to this slime recipe. I'm sure it will be a silky, wonderful texture just like the potato oobleck.

#4 - A Glue Free Cornstarch Slime Alternative

During all of our testing and experimenting with all of our amazing sensory recipes we decided to try a new recipe. At first we thought it would be a playdough, but it has a lot of amazing slime properties (and even some Oobleck properties), which makes it a great fit for Cornstarch Slime.

This new recipe requires only Conditioner and Cornstarch. Yes, it is that easy, but check out the incredible results.

You can learn more about this 2 ingredient recipe that is ready in 1 minute by visiting our full recipe here. We called it playdough, but as you can see in the video it is very much a slime!

And if you love this playdough recipe you are going to love our Pudding Playdough recipe. It smells incredible and as you play with it, it will develop some great stretch and become very much like slime. So much fun!

These recipes actually came out of our research and testing to develop a DIY Starlite material. This material has incredible heat transfer protection properties that you need to see to believe. Our experiments with fire and Starlite make a fantastic middle grade science fair project or as a classroom demonstration to wow students. It's one of the most incredible experiments we have ever done with massive WOW factor.

I love how one experiment spins off into all sorts of new inquires and investigations!

Happy slime making!

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Make Cornstarch Slime with 3 Kid Approved Recipes

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In the past we have made lots of slimes and lots of different oobleck recipes. Recently someone asked me about cornstarch slime. I thought they meant oobleck, but they assured me they meant a slime made with cornstarch.

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You will need

* A clear drinking glass
* 1/4 cup vegetable oil
* 1 teaspoon salt
* Water
* Food coloring (optional)

What to do

Fill the glass about 3/4 full of water .
Add about 5 drops of food coloring - I like red for the lava look.
Slowly pour the vegetable oil into the glass. See how the oil floats on top - cool huh? It gets better.
Now the fun part: Sprinkle the salt on top of the oil.
Watch blobs of lava move up and down in your glass!
If you liked that, add another teaspoon of salt to keep the effect going.

How does it work?

So what's going on? Of course, it's not real lava but it does look a bit like a lava lamp your parents may have had. First of all, the oil floats on top of the water because it is lighter than the water. Since the salt is heavier than oil, it sinks down into the water and takes some oil with it, but then the salt dissolves and back up goes the oil! Pretty cool huh?

MAKE IT AN EXPERIMENT

The project above is a DEMONSTRATION. To make it a true experiment, you can try to answer these questions:

1. How long will the effect go on if you keep adding salt?

2. Do different kinds of food oil give different effects?

3. Will other substances (sand, sugar. etc.) work the same as salt?

4. Does the height or shape of the glass affect the experiment?

Science Bob

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You will need * A clear drinking glass * 1/4 cup vegetable oil * 1 teaspoon salt * Water * Food coloring (optional) What to do Fill the glass about 3/4 full of water . Add about 5 drops of food coloring - I like red for the lava look.

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WHY NOT TRY A FUN SCIENCE EXPERIMENT RIGHT NOW?

Here's list of great science experiments with instructions that you can do right at home or at school. In order for your science experiment to be safe and successful, be sure to:

Get your parent's or teacher's permission, and their help

Follow the directions as written

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Great collection of Science Experiments for home and school.

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Find lots of easy Science Experiments perfect for trying out home or at school!

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Elephant toothpaste (foamy fountain) experiment

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Elephant toothpaste (foamy fountain) experiment

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More science videos on Science Bob's YouTube Channel

You will need

A clean 16 ounce (473 ml) plastic soda bottle or a water bottle.

20-Volume hydrogen peroxide liquid (20-volume is a 6% solution that is stronger than what you find in most pharmacies. It is typically used for lightening hair and is found at many beauty supply stores. You can use the 3% hydrogen peroxide found in pharmacies, but the reaction will be a bit smaller)

1 Tablespoon (15ml - one packet) of dry yeast

3+ Tablespoons (15 ml) of warm water

Liquid dishwashing soap

Food coloring

Small cup

Funnel

Safety goggles

Adult help

NOTE: The foam could overflow from the bottle, so be sure to do this experiment on a washable surface, or place the bottle on a tray.

CAUTION: The unreacted hydrogen peroxide can irritate skin and eyes. Read the safety information on the hydrogen peroxide bottle and be sure to wear safety goggles.

What to do

1. Use a funnel to carefully pour 3/4 cup (180 ml) of the hydrogen peroxide liquid into the bottle

2. Add about 10 drops of your favorite food coloring into the bottle.

3. Add about 1 tablespoon (15ml) of liquid dish soap into the bottle and swish the bottle around a bit to mix it.

4. In a separate small cup, combine the warm water and the yeast together and mix for about 30 seconds. It should be about the consistency of melted ice cream - add a bit more warm water if needed.

5. Now the adventure starts! Use the funnel to pour the yeast-water mixture into the bottle and watch the foaminess begin!

Can I touch the foam?
The reaction typically breaks down the hydrogen peroxide so you are left with mostly just soapy water and yeast. There can, however, be un-reacted peroxide which could irritate skin and eyes. For that reason, it is recommended you do not touch the foam.

(If you use the 3% hydrogen peroxide found in most pharmacies, then the foam can be touched safely.)

How does it work?

Foam is awesome! The foam you made in this classic Elephant's Toothpaste reaction is extra-special because each tiny foam bubble is filled with oxygen. The yeast acted as a catalyst; a catalyst is used to speed up a reaction. It quickly broke apart the oxygen from the hydrogen peroxide. Because it did this very fast, it created lots and lots of bubbles. Did you notice the bottle got warm? Your experiment created a reaction called an Exothermic Reaction - that means it not only created foam, it created heat! The foam produced is just water, soap, and oxygen so you can clean it up with a sponge and pour any extra liquid left in the bottle down the drain.

This experiment is sometimes called "Elephant's Toothpaste" because it looks like toothpaste coming out of a tube, but don't get the foam in your mouth!

Make it an experiment:

The project above is a DEMONSTRATION. To make it a true experiment, you can try to answer these questions:

1. Does the amount of yeast change the amount of foam produced?

2. Will the experiment work as well if you add the dry yeast without mixing it with water?

3. Does the size of the bottle affect the amount of foam produced?

Science Bob

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More science videos on Science Bob's YouTube Channel A clean 16 ounce (473 ml) plastic soda bottle or a water bottle. 20-Volume hydrogen peroxide liquid (20-volume is a 6% solution that is stronger than what you find in most pharmacies. It is typically used for lightening hair and is found at many beauty supply stores.

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Resource: Promoting your children's emergent writing 

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Resource: Promoting your children's emergent writing 

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This resources is especially useful for families who are working on promoting your children's emergent writing skills.

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Emergent writing is young children's first attempts at the writing process. Children as young as 2 years old begin to imitate the act of writing by creating drawings and symbolic markings that represent their thoughts and ideas (Rowe & Neitzel 2010; Dennis & Votteler 2013). This is the beginning of a series of stages that children progress through as they learn to write (see "Stages of Emergent Writing"). Emergent writing skills, such as the development of namewriting proficiency, are important predictors of children's future reading and writing skills (National Center for Family & Literacy 2008; Puranik & Lonigan 2012).

Teachers play an important role in the development of 3- to 5-year-olds' emergent writing by encouraging children to communicate their thoughts and record their ideas (Hall et al. 2015). In some early childhood classrooms, however, emergent writing experiences are almost nonexistent. One recent study, which is in accord with earlier research, found that 4- and 5-year-olds (spread across 81 classrooms) averaged just two minutes a day either writing or being taught writing (Pelatti et al. 2014). This article shares a framework for understanding emergent writing and ties the framework to differentiating young children's emergent writing experiences.

Understanding emergent writing

Researchers and educators often use the term emergent literacy to define a broad set of language and literacy skills focused primarily on the development and significance of emergent reading skills. To better understand writing development-and to support teachers' work with young children-researchers have proposed a framework to explain emergent writing practices (Puranik & Lonigan 2014). The framework is composed of three domains: conceptual knowledge, procedural knowledge, and generative knowledge.

Conceptual knowledge includes learning the function of writing. In this domain, young children learn that writing has a purpose and that print is meaningful (i.e., it communicates ideas, stories, and facts). For example, young children become aware that the red street sign says Stop and the letters under the yellow arch spell McDonald's. They recognize that certain symbols, logos, and markings have specific meanings (Wu 2009).

Procedural knowledge is the mechanics of letter and word writing (e.g., name writing) and includes spelling and gaining alphabet knowledge. Learning the alphabetic code (including how to form letters and the sounds associated with each letter) is an essential component of gaining procedural knowledge. Children benefit from having multiple opportunities throughout the day to develop fine motor skills and finger dexterity using a variety of manipulatives (e.g., magnetic letters, pegboards) and writing implements.

Generative knowledge describes children's abilities to write phrases and sentences that convey meaning. It is the ability to translate thoughts into writing that goes beyond the word level (Puranik & Lonigan 2014). During early childhood, teachers are laying the foundation for generative knowledge as children learn to express themselves orally and experiment with different forms of written communication, such as composing a story, writing notes, creating lists, and taking messages. Children can dictate words, phrases, or sentences that an adult can record on paper, or they can share ideas for group writing.

Developing conceptual, procedural, and generative knowledge of writing

Children gain knowledge of and interest in writing as they are continually exposed to print and writing in their environment. There are multiple strategies teachers can use to scaffold children's writing, such as verbally reminding children to use writing in their classroom activities and providing appropriate writing instructions (Gerde, Bingham, & Wasik 2012). By being aware of children's current fine motor abilities and their progress in emergent writing, teachers can use a mix of strategies to foster growth in each child's zone of proximal development (Vygotsky 1978).

Practicing name writing

One of the first words children usually learn to write is their first name (Both-de Vries & Bus 2008). Name writing increases children's conceptual and procedural knowledge. Names are meaningful to children, and preschoolers typically are interested in learning to write the letters in their name, especially the first letter (Both-de Vries & Bus 2008). Namewriting proficiency provides a foundation for other literacy knowledge and skills; it is associated with alphabet knowledge, letter writing, print concepts, and spelling (Cabell et al. 2009; Drouin & Harmon 2009; Puranik & Lonigan 2012).

Preschoolers benefit from daily writing experiences, so it is helpful to embed writing in the daily routine, such as having children write (or attempt to write) their names at sign-in and during choice times. Be sensitive to preschoolers' varying levels of fine motor skills and promote the joy of experimenting with the art of writing, regardless of a child's current skill level. Encourage invented spelling (Ouellette & Sénéchal 2017) and attempts at writing letters or letter-like symbols.

As Ms. Han's preschoolers enter the classroom, they sign in, with parental support, by writing their names on a whiteboard at the classroom entrance. Children in Ms. Noel's classroom go to a special table and sign in as they enter the room. Ms. Patel instructs her preschoolers to answer the question of the day by writing their names under their chosen answers. Today, the children write their names to answer the question "What are your favorite small animals-piglets, ducklings, or kittens?" Juan and Maria help their friends read the question and write their names under the appropriate headings. Pedro writes Pdr under the piglets heading, Anthony writes his complete name under ducklings, and Tess writes the letter T under kittens. In Mr. Ryan's class, children write their names during different activities. Today, children sign in as they pretend to visit the doctor in one learning center and sign for a package delivery in another. Meanwhile, Tommy walks around the room asking other preschoolers to sign their names in the autograph book he created in the writing center.

Tips for teachers

Develop a sign-in or sign-out routine that allows children to write, or attempt to write, their names each day. In some classrooms, or for some children, the routine may begin with writing the first letter instead of the whole name or with scribbling letterlike symbols.

Use peer helpers to aid children with the name-writing process.

Model writing your name and promote name-writing activities in several centers through the day, such as having children sign their name as they write a prescription or when they complete a painting.

Learning from teacher modeling

Children benefit from teachers modeling writing and from opportunities to interact with others on writing projects. Teachers can connect writing to topics of interest, think aloud about the process of composing a message (Dennis & Votteler 2013), and explain how to plan what to write (e.g., choosing words and topics, along with the mechanics of writing, such as punctuation). Children struggling to attain early writing skills benefit from explicit teaching (Hall et al. 2015). Teach children that letters create words and words create sentences. Use environmental print (e.g., labels, charts, signs, toy packaging, clothing, and billboards) to help children realize that print is meaningful and functional (Neumann, Hood, & Ford 2013). These types of activities build both conceptual and procedural knowledge.

When Ms. Noel sits with the children during snack, she talks with them about the different foods they like to eat. Ben tells her he likes chicken. She writes on a small whiteboard, "Ben likes chicken." She asks Ben to read the phrase to a friend. Later, Ben writes the phrase himself.

Mr. Ryan conducts a sticky note poll. He creates a giant spiderweb and writes the question, "Are you afraid of spiders? Yes or no." He gives the children sticky notes so each can write either yes or no and then place it on the giant web. This activity is followed by a discussion of spiders.

Tips for teachers

Explicitly model writing by showing the writing process to children and thinking aloud while writing. Instead of writing the question of the day or the morning message before the children arrive, write it in front of them.

​Label specific items in the room, and draw children's attention to the written words. Write out functional phrases on signs related to routines, such as "Take three crackers" or "Wash hands before eating," then read and display the signs.

​Have the children paint large classroom signs related to themes being explored, such as the National Weather Station, Snack Bar, Public Library, or Entomology Center.

Writing throughout the day

Preschoolers enjoy experimenting with the writing process. Emergent writing experiences can include spontaneous writing during center time and teacherguided writing activities. Writing can become an important component of every learning center in the preschool classroom (Pool & Carter 2011), especially if teachers strategically place a variety of writing materials throughout the classroom and offer specific guidance on using the materials (Mayer 2007). (See "Learning Centers: Adding Meaningful Writing Materials and Literacy Props.")

Teachers can intentionally promote peer-to-peer scaffolding by having children participate in collaborative writing experiences. Read-alouds are also a wonderful means of promoting writing; there are a number of stories that feature characters in books writing letters, stories, messages, and lists (see "Books That Promote Writing"). Model writing stories, making lists, or labeling objects, and then encourage your preschoolers to write a response letter to a character in a story, create their own storybook, or write a wish list or a shopping list. Such a variety of writing experiences will also build their generative knowledge of writing.

Ms. Han has strategically placed a variety of writing materials throughout the classroom-a scientific journal in the discovery area so children can record their observations and ideas; a graph paper notebook in the block area for drafting blueprints with designs and words; and a receipt book, paper, and markers in the dramatic play area. Savannah sits at the discovery center looking at a classroom experiment. Ms. Han asks, "Savannah, could you write about your observations in our science journal?" Savannah begins writing in the journal.

Three boys are playing in the block area. Ms. Han asks, "What are you building?" Marcus replies, "We are going to build a rocket ship." Ms. Han says, "Could you create a blueprint of your rocket and then build it?" The boys eagerly begin drawing a plan. Several children in the dramatic play center are drawing different types of flowers for a flower market. Ms. Han says, "In a flower market, signs tell customers what is for sale and how much it costs. Would you like to create some signs?" The children readily agree and start to create signs.

Tips for teachers

Strategically place writing materials, such as sticky notes, small chalkboards, whiteboards, envelopes, clipboards, journals, stencils, golf pencils, markers, and various types, sizes, and colors of paper throughout the classroom.

Provide specific teacher guidance to scaffold children's writing. While some children may be off and running with an open-ended question, others might be better supported if the teacher helps write their ideas-at least to get them started.

Create writing opportunities connected to your current classroom themes or topics of interest. Involve the children in collaborative writing projects, such as creating a diorama after a farm visit and making labels for the different animals and the barn. With teacher support, the class could also develop a narrative to describe their farm visit.

Home-school connection

Both preschool writing instruction and home writing experiences are essential components of helping children develop writing skills. A major advantage of the home- school connection is that children see the value of what they learn in school when parents actively participate in the same type of activities at home. Teachers can encourage parents to display photos of their child engaged in writing activities at home and to share samples of their child's writing or drawings from home to inform instruction (Schickedanz & Casbergue 2009). To maximize parental involvement and support, teachers should be sensitive to the diversity of the families in their programs and be inclusive by promoting writing in children's home languages. These experiences can help promote children's conceptual, procedural, and generative knowledge.

Ms. Noel wants to strengthen home-school connections with the families in her program. She decides to introduce the children to Chester (a stuffed teddy bear). She tells the children that Chester wants to learn more about what the children do at home and to go on some weekend adventures. She says, "Each weekend, Chester will travel home with a child in our class. During the time Chester stays at your house, take pictures of the activities you do with Chester and write about them in the Chester Weekend Adventures journal. At the beginning of the week, bring Chester and the journal back to school to share what you did. We will put Chester and the journal in the classroom library when he is not on a visit, so everyone can see where he has been." The children are excited about taking Chester home and writing about their adventures.

Tips for teachers

Find writing opportunities that strengthen home-school connections. For example, encourage families to create books at home related to a particular theme or a specific topic. Invite children to share their books with the class and then add them to the library.

Invite families to share the types of writing activities their children engage in at home. Encourage parents to establish routines that include writing lists, messages, stories, and letters.

Give families postcards to mail to friends in other states and countries. Have them ask their friends to mail a reply to the preschool class. Create a display of the return messages and postcards.

Teachers play an important role in promoting emergent writing development by scaffolding writing activities that engage young children in building their conceptual, procedural, and generative knowledge. Writing can easily be embedded in daily routines as children write their names, engage in learning centers, practice writing for a purpose based on teacher and peer models, and contribute to group writing activities. Be intentional during interactions with children and incorporate best practices. Promote the development of emergent writing-and emergent literacy-by implementing purposeful strategies that encourage writing in the classroom and at home. Teachers who provide young children with a diverse array of early writing experiences lay the foundation for kindergarten readiness.

Authors' note: A special thanks to all of the teachers who participated in the Striving Readers Literacy Program and shared their literacy ideas. Thanks to Barbara Berrios for sharing the Chester Bear idea.

References

Both-de Vries, A.C., & A.G. Bus. 2008. "Name Writing: A First Step to Phonetic Writing? Does the Name Have a Special Role in Understanding the Symbolic Function of Writing?" Literacy Teaching and Learning 12 (2): 37-55.

Cabell, S.Q., L.M. Justice, T.A. Zucker, & A.S. McGinty. 2009. "Emergent Name-Writing Abilities of Preschool-Age Children with Language Impairment." Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 40 (1): 53-66.

Dennis, L.R., & N.K. Votteler. 2013. "Preschool Teachers and Children's Emergent Writing: Supporting Diverse Learners." Early Childhood Education Journal 41 (6): 439-46.

Drouin, M., & J. Harmon. 2009. "Name Writing and Letter Knowledge in Preschoolers: Incongruities in Skills and the Usefulness of Name Writing as a Developmental Indicator." Early Childhood Research Quarterly 24 (3): 263-70.

Gerde, H.K., G.E. Bingham, & B.A. Wasik. 2012. "Writing in Early Childhood Classrooms: Guidance for Best Practices." Early Childhood Education Journal 40 (6): 351-59.

Hall, A.H., A. Simpson, Y. Guo, & S. Wang. 2015. "Examining the Effects of Preschool Writing Instruction on Emergent Literacy Skills: A Systematic Review of the Literature." Literacy Research and Instruction 54 (2): 115-34.

Mayer, K. 2007. "Emerging Knowledge about Emergent Writing." Young Children 62 (1): 34-41.

National Center for Family Literacy. 2008. Developing Early Literacy: A Scientific Synthesis of Early Literacy Development and Implications for Intervention. Report of the National Early Literacy Panel. Washington, DC: National Institute for Literacy.

Neumann, M.M., M. Hood, & R.M. Ford. 2013. "Using Environmental Print to Enhance Emergent Literacy and Print Motivation." Reading and Writing 26 (5): 771-93.

Ouellette, G., & M. Sénéchal. 2017. "Invented Spelling in Kindergarten as a Predictor of Reading and Spelling in Grade 1: A New Pathway to Literacy, or Just the Same Road, Less Known?" Developmental Psychology 53 (1): 77-88.

Pelatti, C.Y., S.B. Piasta, L.M. Justice, & A. O'Connell. 2014. "Language- and Literacy-Learning Opportunities in Early Childhood Classrooms: Children's Typical Experiences and Within-Classroom Variability." Early Childhood Research Quarterly 29 (4): 445-56.

Pool, J.L., & D.R. Carter. 2011. "Creating Print-Rich Learning Centers." Teaching Young Children 4 (4): 18-20.

Puranik, C.S., & C.J. Lonigan. 2012. "Name-Writing Proficiency, Not Length of Name, Is Associated with Preschool Children's Emergent Literacy Skills." Early Childhood Research Quarterly 27 (2): 284-94.

Puranik, C.S., & C.J. Lonigan. 2014. "Emergent Writing in Preschoolers: Preliminary Evidence for a Theoretical Framework." Reading Research Quarterly 49 (4): 453-67.

Rowe, D.W., & C. Neitzel. 2010. "Interest and Agency in 2- and 3-Year-Olds' Participation in Emergent Writing." Reading Research Quarterly 45 (2): 169-95.

Schickedanz, J.A., & R.M. Casbergue. 2009. Writing in Preschool: Learning to Orchestrate Meaning and Marks. 2nd ed. Preschool Literacy Collection. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Vygotsky, L.S. 1978. Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Ed. & trans. M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E. Souberman. Rev. ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Wu, L.Y. 2009. "Children's Graphical Representations and Emergent Writing: Evidence from Children's Drawings." Early Child Development and Care 179 (1): 69-79.

Photographs: pp. 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, courtesy of the authors; p. 74, © iStock

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Emergent writing skills, such as the development of namewriting proficiency, are important predictors of children's future reading and writing skills.

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Books Alive! is another YouTube account that contains high-quality book-reading videos

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reading literacy best brilliant educational storytime fun "bedtime stories" storybook books kids "read aloud" "out loud" voices accents

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Popular children's stories brought to life with colour and imagination. Read aloud/read along with some fantastically fun and exciting new and classic kids b...

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Super simple weigh station using a hanger and two cups

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Super simple weigh station using a hanger and two cups

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Do you teach weight and measurement using non-standard units? Then you need to make this easy homemade weigh station for some hands-on exploration. It's a great center activity or way to model non-standard units for the whole class.

Here's What You Need

Hanger

3 small binder clips

3 large binder clips

2 clear plastic cups

Bulletin board paper

Thumbtacks

Marker

Level

Here's What to Do

1. Begin by placing the small binder clips on either end of the hanger. Remove the handles.

2. Place a large binder clip over the top of the small binder clips.

3. Attach cups.

4. Make a hook for the weigh station by placing another large binder clip over a small binder clip. Remove one of the large handles and one of the small handles.

5. Attach the hook to a paper-covered bulletin board by placing thumbtacks in the remaining small handle.

6. Hang the weigh station on your hook.

7. Draw a level line below the weigh station.

8. Use different non-standard weights to see what equals what...

9. ...or what weighs more or less.

Watch the video to get the complete how-to instructions for making the homemade weigh station:

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Teach Non-Standard Weights & Measurement With This DIY Weigh Station

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Do you teach weight and measurement using non-standard units? Then you need to make this easy homemade weigh station for some hands-on exploration. It's a great center activity or way to model non-standard units for the whole class.

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It's the end of the school year again and as usual my students did some kind of acrylic painting on canvas. This year we did three different types of paintings in the different classes.

The toddler class made a handprint painting. First, they were given foam brushes to paint however they liked on the canvas. Then I painted their hands with black paint and made an imprint onto their dried canvas painting. I did this before with another toddler group in a previous year.

For one of my prekindy class this year, I used masking tape to tape down random lines for the children to paint over. After the paintings were dried I then peeled off the masking tape to reveal straight white lines.

It was a nice abstract type of painting but there was something missing. I wanted it to be more personalised. So I thought what about if instead of random lines I taped down the children's initial instead? Yes! I actually like these much better.

How to paint a letter using masking tape:

1. Use masking tape to form the letter of your child's name.

2. Let child paint over the entire canvas using different coloured paints. I find that foam brushes are much better at blending the paints. Let dry.

3. Peel off the masking tapes and watch your child's surprise as the letter appears.

4. Hang up and admire your child's creativity.

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It's the end of the school year again and as usual my students did some kind of acrylic painting on canvas. This year we did three different types of paintings in the different classes. The toddler class made a handprint painting. First, they were given foam brushes to paint however they liked on the canvas.

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Sticky letters - creating letters from natural materials

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Sticky letters - creating letters from natural materials

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Creative STAR Learning | I'm a teacher, get me OUTSIDE here!

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This term I have been asked to undertake literacy activities with one class. This has provided an ideal opportunity to work on lots of ways of doing this outside. I've blogged about creating letters from natural materials previously. However, we're going back a couple of steps before getting to this stage.

Last term we spent the sessions acclimatising to being outside. Fred the Ted helped us all enormously and now we have a routine that's based around moving from place to place in the school grounds and undertaking short, sweet activities including songs or games at the different stopping points. This remains organic in that the stopping places can vary. It's the journey and the joy of discovery that counts. Usually we end up at the wildlife garden which is a popular spot with all the children.

So a couple of weeks ago, I decided that sticky letters would be a start. This involves cutting up a few pieces of cardboard and sticking double sided sticky tape onto them. We used the initial letter of each child's name.

I was a little worried in that when the yellow paper is removed, the children would not be able to see the outline of their letter. This did not seem to be a problem. It was a dry day so the material stuck to the cardboard quite nicely.

My other concern was whether the children would recognise a rough-and-ready letter rather than a beautifully drawn example. When I handed these out, it was a relief to see that most of the children did indeed recognise their letter.

When the children are playing in the wildlife garden, I'm interested that the books and clipboards remain an attraction. I think it provides a focus for a little quiet reflection and contemplation. But I'm not sure. Often a couple of boys will walk around the garden making notes and looking important.

For me, I'm just pleased that the children are enjoying and responding to literacy outdoors. I can't think of a more natural approach...

This post is part of the outdoor play party link up

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Outdoor Literacy Activity: Sticky Letters

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This term I have been asked to undertake literacy activities with one class. This has provided an ideal opportunity to work on lots of ways of doing this outside. I've blogged about creating letters from natural materials previously. However, we're going back a couple of steps before getting to this stage.

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Creative STAR Learning | I'm a teacher, get me OUTSIDE here!

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This week I've been presenting at the Aberdeenshire Council's Early Years Conference. The theme has been Outdoor Literacy and my workshop focused on the natural art of mark making outside.

I wanted a series of practical explorations for the participants. They had spent 45 minutes listening to me give the keynote, so getting active, messy and thinking about ways in which art can motivate and engage children to mark make and build up their fine motors skills were the principle aims.

Today, I decided that it would be interesting for everyone to be involved in a group project that resulted in a wee thank you gift to the Early Years team that organised the conference. Group activities can work well with young children if there has been an interest expressed that makes this a natural next step. For example, the children may have been playing with masking tape or been fascinated that some of their snack such as beetroot produces stains their fingers.

We began by taping the cotton sheet to the asphalt. Part of an old white, cream or light-coloured sheet works well. In order to make the lines stand out, we used yellow and green masking tape. This will bring about conversations about networks, pathways and the shapes created. From a pre-handwriting perspective, learning how to use masking tape, tear the paper, stick it down are all good skills to develop. I think there would also be play value in leaving the sheet in this state and seeing what happens when cars, dinosaurs or other small world toys are put nearby.

Next we added colour. We created the paints from a variety of different sources:

The remnants of two pieces of chalk I found in a nursery outdoor space yesterday. These can be crushed with water to create a chalky paint or used wet and damp... which is often what happens naturally when it's raining.

Outdated instant coffee (fair trade and organic)

Charcoal from a recent fire

Gathered green leaves from my garden and house plants (the conference was in a school that has little vegetation in its grounds so importing was needed)

Beetroot, raspberries and coriander. I confess to purchasing these but I wanted to use examples of plants that are easy to grow in a nursery, make for a range of snacks and so the leftovers after harvest can be used for artwork.

Clay. I was careful to use the sort that does not contain nylon so that it is more environmentally friendly.

Much of the colour was created by crushing the ingredients in pestle and mortars and then either rubbing or painting the colours onto the fabric.

The masking tape was then removed. We saved it in a bag... by squashing the masking tape into small lumps, it can be re-used by printing with it. Finally we hung our creation out to dry. Ta-dah!

I have been asked on several social media channels about how long such a piece of artwork will last. This depends upon where it is hung - shade is better rather than in sunlight. I didn't use any binders which help keep the colour. I also washed small pieces of fabric which had been used in the same way. About 50% of them came out clean enough to re-use. Those which aren't I could re-launder and see if this helps. However they are also good for making char cloth - similar to charcoal but it's material not wood.

For similar blog posts, have a look at this masking tape shape explorations blog post and a very berry harvest for others experiences connect to this one.

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This week I've been presenting at the Aberdeenshire Council's Early Years Conference. The theme has been Outdoor Literacy and my workshop focused on the natural art of mark making outside. I wanted a series of practical explorations for the participants.

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Have you ever noticed that some children can say the words from 1 to 10 but have trouble counting out 10 things? This is not unusual. In the early stages of counting, children often can memorize the words from 1 to 10 but not really understand what they mean and how to use them.

Children need to experience counting in practical situations to understand how to use numbers. "Purposeful" counting (the understanding that the number 2 represents 2 things) happens when you ask your child to count out 6 liners for the muffin tin or 2 cookies for each family member.Counting objects helps your child understand how numbers are used in everyday life.

Shared experiences in your kitchen preparing snacks and meals provide your child with many opportunities to count out ingredients, make estimations, and create number patterns. These are essential math skills that your child will use throughout his life, so why not start now right in your kitchen?

1-10 Salad
Counting is something adults often do without thinking about it. For example, you might silently count out the number of ingredients you need for a recipe. But your child needs lots of practice with counting - it's how he develops a concept of number. For this salad, invite him to count out loud with you all the ingredients you'll need. For fun and learning, line up the salad ingredients along the kitchen counter to create a veggie number line!

What you need:

1 cucumber, sliced

2 red or green peppers, sliced or chopped

3 carrots, grated

4 celery stalks, chopped

5 cherry tomatoes, halved

6 mushrooms, sliced

7 cubes of cheese (your child's choice)

8 pea pods, shelled

9 croutons

10 romaine lettuce leaves, torn

your family's favorite salad dressing

What to do:

1. Invite your child to help you count out the salad ingredients from 1 to 10. If you have the space, ask him to line them up from left to right across your table or countertop. Introduce numerals by writing the numbers 1-10 on paper scraps. He can place the appropriate number with each item in the salad number line.

2. Prepare the vegetables together, starting with the first item in the line. Your child can carefully help you peel the cucumber and slice it with a plastic serrated knife.

3. Follow the line with all the vegetables and other ingredients, inviting him to help wash, slice, or tear whenever possible.

4. Extend the math learning by asking him to estimate how many peas he thinks are inside the pea pods. Count together to see how accurate his guess is. Shelling peas is also great for small muscle building.

5. Challenge him to tear the lettuce into a particular number of pieces. You might say, "Can you rip this one leaf into three pieces?" Add your favorite dressing and serve.

1-2-3 Sandwich
Sandwich-making provides your child with counting and sequencing practice because she has to count out the pieces of bread, cheese, and meat, then stack them in a sequential order. As you well know, numbers follow in an order and sequence. Any practice your child has with numeric sequencing helps her begin to understand the pattern of numbers. Use this simple turkey sandwich to practice counting and sequencing.

What you need:

1 slice of cheese

2 slices of bread

3 slices of turkey breast

mayonnaise or mustard

What to do:

1. Ask your child to help you count out the ingredients for the sandwich. You might say, "Can you count out one slice of cheese, two slices of bread, and three slices of turkey?"

2. After she has collected the ingredients, you can say the pattern or sequence of the sandwich. Demonstrate how a sandwich pattern starts with one piece of bread, continues with the meat, cheese, or lettuce, and ends with the other piece of bread. You will be providing her with a visual model of the pattern to follow.

3. Ask her to try making her own sandwich following your sequential pattern.

4. You can even sing a song to reinforce the learning. Use the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell" to sing: "The meat on the bread, the meat on the bread, hi ho, the derry-o, the meat on the bread." Add a verse for each ingredient.

5. Don't forget the mustard or mayo!

Patterned Parfait
Provide more counting and sequencing practice by making a layered parfait for dessert. All you need is some vanilla yogurt, all-fruit jelly, and granola. Your child can count the layers as he creates a repeating striped pattern in pretty parfait glasses. Try to get at least two layers of each ingredient in each dish. This will show the repeating pattern. Invite your child to say the pattern ("yogurt, jelly, granola") as he makes it. You will be reinforcing his visual patterning skills with speaking skills.

Set the Table
Don't forget to include your child in the process of setting the table. She will be using an important mathematic matching skill called one-to-one correspondence as she matches the correct number of utensils and plates to the number of family members eating. Placemats help her count and match the items. For a fun project, ask her to draw a picture for each family member. Slip each picture in a plastic sheet protector (found with stationery and office supplies) and tape the open end shut with transparent tape. You now have some very distinctive (and reusable) family placemats your child will be proud of.

A Yummy Counting Game
Next time you are having snack together, try using small snack crackers or dried fruit pieces for a simple counting game.

Ask your child to put 4 pieces on his plate.

Invite him to eat 1 piece and ask him how many are on the plate now. Yes... 3!

Ask him what would happen if he put 2 more pieces on the plate. He can count and see how many he has now. Yes... 5!

Ask him to eat 3 pieces. Now how many are left?

Keep adding and subtracting (eating) pieces until the snack is finished. Not only will your child have fun counting, he also will be getting some important preliminary experience with adding and subtracting.

Read It and Eat
Share a food-related counting story and you will be showing your child the math in literature! Some favorites:

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Have you ever noticed that some children can say the words from 1 to 10 but have trouble counting out 10 things? This is not unusual. In the early stages of counting, children often can memorize the words from 1 to 10 but not really understand what they mean and how to use them.

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Hands-on learning is very effective way to turn playtime into learning time. This learning box activities takes only a few minutes to set up and will allow your children to learn number recognition, and learn to count while you teach numbers with Legos.

What preschooler wouldn't love to learn their numbers with these colorful Legos and using their hands to build at the same time.

How to Teach Numbers with Legos

Use Permanent Marker and Flash Cards

With a permanent marker, write the numbers on one color. On a second color write the number word and then on a third color add one dot for each number. If you make a mistake or want to recycle your Legos for other projects just use a Magic Eraser to remove the permanent marker easily.

Place a Few Options in View

Once you have the Legos marked and flash cards ready to teach the numbers, you will want to place a few options in view for the preschooler. My preschooler loves to sort by colors, so I position the Legos by colors. He likes to work with one color at a time, so we start with his favorite color... yellow! These are the numbers, so it works perfectly with the flash cards that we use for this learning bin.

Identify and Build Each Color

Once he has placed the number on each of the cards, he then works with the next colors that have the number words and number dots on them. As he identifies where each Lego goes, he then places them on the card and builds it with the Legos already there. He works on numbers 1-5 first and then numbers 6-10 to keep him from being overwhelmed by the options.

Store Legos and Flash Cards in a Plastic Bin

One way to make it easy to teach numbers with Legos is to keep them in a plastic bin when they are not being used. My preschooler loves to take his work apart and put them back in the bin for next time.

Recently, I share How to Teach the Alphabets with Legos and other ways to use Legos to teach homeschooling. In this post, I will share how I teach numbers with Legos.

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Hands-on learning is very effective way to turn playtime into learning time. This learning box activities takes only a few minutes to set up and will allow your children to learn number recognition, and learn to count while you teach numbers with Legos.

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Road sign cards and road safety car track/maze (printables)

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Road sign cards and road safety car track/maze (printables)

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Some of our children are developing their interests in road signs and signs in general. This is a fun way to let them learn about reading road signs and following them when driving!

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"Fizz inflator" balloon and bottle experiment

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"Fizz inflator" balloon and bottle experiment

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You will need

One small empty plastic soda or water bottle

1/2 cup of vinegar

Small balloon

Baking soda

Funnel or piece of paper

What to do

1. Carefully pour the vinegar into the bottle.

2. This is the tricky part: Loosen up the balloon by stretching it a few times and then use the funnel to fill it a bit more than half way with baking soda. If you don't have a funnel you can make one using the paper and some tape.

3. Now carefully put the neck of the balloon all the way over the neck of the bottle without letting any baking soda into the bottle.

4. Ready? Lift the balloon up so that the baking soda falls from the balloon into the bottle and mixes with the vinegar. Watch the fizz-inflator at work!

How does it work?

The baking soda and the vinegar create an ACID-BASE reaction and the two chemicals work together to create a gas, (carbon dioxide) Gasses need a lot of room to spread out and the carbon dioxide starts to fill the bottle, and then moves into the balloon to inflate it.

The project above is a DEMONSTRATION. To make it a true experiment, you can try to answer these questions:

1. Does water temperature affect how fast the balloon fills up.

2. Does the size of the bottle affect how much the balloon fills?

3. Can the amount the balloon fills-up be controlled by the amount of vinegar or baking soda?

Science Bob

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One small empty plastic soda or water bottle 1/2 cup of vinegar Small balloon Baking soda Funnel or piece of paper Carefully pour the vinegar into the bottle. This is the tricky part: Loosen up the balloon by stretching it a few times and then use the funnel to fill it a bit more than half way with baking soda.

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Experiment Library for Kids | Science Experiments | Steve Spangler Science

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For those of you who couldn't join us on Facebook this week (@spanglerscience), we've been working hard to provide fun and amazing at home experiences to those who have been impacted by the current events.

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Blowing pom poms along the coloured line activity

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Blowing pom poms along the coloured line activity

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You'll never guess how muchgross motor fun your kids will have with just simple lines of colored tape!

I finally got some colored tape (affiliate link)! I didn't even have plans for it, but I felt the need to have it for some fun tape activities!

And boy, did we ever have fun. All with just simple lines of colored tape, too!

Tons of Fun, Just Simple Lines of Colored Tape!

Honestly, even I was amazed at just how into these activities my boys got. The best part? Setup was practically non-existent!

To create your own simple lines of colored tape activity, you'll need:

Colored tape in different colors

Pom poms

Straws

Space to play

First, I taped some fun lines on the floor in three different colors: a blue zig-zag line, a red curvy line, and one straight green line.

We ended up with two tape activities with this one setup of colored tape.

1. Walk the line of colored tape.

2. Blow pom poms along the coordinating color line.

I forgot to snag a ton of pictures of our original go-round with our lines of tape activity. But it was a hit!

So much so that we recently redid this activity again with my preschooler, George.

Below are the latest images of George doing the tape activities mixed in with Henry doing the activities a couple of years ago.

Henry was 3 at the time when we first did this. George is 4 when we did it again with the new photos below.

Grab 25 more active learning activities with tape!

Walk the Lines of Colored Tape

Simple: just walk along the lines of tape. One foot in front of each other.

Following one of the colored lines. You could pick for your child - like follow the leader or "Simon Says" - or let them go around as they please.

The straight line is pretty easy. It's straight after all!

But the curved and zig-zag lines are harder. Kids will need to work on balance to stay on their color.

Make it harder by doing it backwards, or even sideways!

You could "challenge" toys to walk the lines of colored tape, too! Drive trucks or "walk" animal toys along the lines.

Add an extra challenge to your next walk the line activity - balance and transfer toys!

Kids love to have their special toys involved in their play and learning!

Blow Pom Poms Along the Lines of Colored Tape

This next challenge works on motor planning, color matching, and breath control. Plus, it's just plain fun while still being kind of hard for younger kids.

Ask your kids to blow pom poms along the lines, matching the pom pom color to the lines of tape.

Can your child hit the bullseye with pom pom target practice!

Blow the pom poms down the line with a straw. You could forgo the straw, but they make it really fun!

Set out a group of pom poms in various colors. Then ask your child to pick out the pom pom that matches their color line.

Or not - your call!

Then, set the challenge.
"Try your best keeping the pom pom on the line all the way to the end."
Older kids might respond to a penalty. Sometimes, having something, anything happen when they don't quite finish the challenge motivates them to keep going or try harder.

One "penalty" idea: start over at the beginning of the line each time your pom pom goes off. Or you could just have them start back at the last place their pom pom was on the line.

It's really harder than you think! Join them!

As you blow your pom poms along the line of colored tape, ask:

Does it work better if you are closer or farther away?

Do short, hard breath work better than longer, slower breaths?

Which line is hardest? Which is easiest?

Have pom pom races! I shared a pom pom racing activity over on PBS Parents using this same technique.

Ultimately: laugh. Joining in the fun will definitely make you laugh and make your kids' day!

What can you do with just a few lines of tape? We'd love to check out your ideas!

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Tons of Fun, Just Simple Lines of Colored Tape!

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You'll never guess how muchgross motor fun your kids will have with just simple lines of colored tape! I finally got some colored tape (affiliate link)! I didn't even have plans for it, but I felt the need to have it for some fun tape activities! And boy, did we ever have fun.

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Blow painting with straws is a simple but fun action art activity. Use a straw to blow liquid paint on paper, creating amazing designs!

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Print out our free rocket printable and have fun making some straw rockets! The kids loved designing their own rockets and then launching them using straws- such a great way for kids to explore science!
This post contains affiliate links.
This post was originally published on June 14, 2015 and has since been updated.
Here's an easy way to make straw rockets using just a few materials. This project makes a great addition to a unit on physics, space, the night sky, or things that fly and is also just fun to do on a rainy day!

A reader, Lisa, suggested a great children's book to go with this activity: The Darkest Dark by Chris Hadfield. Be sure to check it out!

The kids and I designed our own rockets and launched them using straws! This activity was definitely a hit with both Lucy (age 7) and Theo (age 3 1/2).

The kids loved seeing how far they could get their straw rockets to go and had fun trying them out at all different angles.

This activity makes a great science exploration and is perfect for the classroom. Kids can compare how different angles of the straw affect the distance the rocket travels or how adding fins or folding the rocket in different ways can affect its flight.

See the straw rockets in action!

Materials for Making Straw Rockets

Directions for Making Straw Rockets

1. Print out the free rocket template. Color the rockets and cut them out.

2. Cut the bottom off a plastic pipette and attach it to the back of a rocket using tape or glue dots. (We love having a stash of plastic pipettes at home. They're so fun to use with painting and often come in handy for various science activities- like with our color arrays. And they're super inexpensive!)

If you don't have any plastic pipettes handy, you can use a straw instead. (Just make sure this straw is wider than the other straw you'll be using for launching.) Cut the straw to fit the length of the rocket and tape one end shut so it's completely sealed. Attach it to your rocket with glue dots or tape.

3. Slip a straw into your pipette, and you're ready to launch!

4. Give your straw a big puff of air, and watch it take off!

Extending the Straw Rockets Science Activity

How does the angle you launch your rocket affect the distance it travels? Try out different angles and record the results.

Can you design your own rockets to attach to the pipette or straw? Which designs work better?

Try adding another fin to your rocket with tape. How does it affect the flight of your rocket?

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STEM for Kids: Straw Rockets (with Free Rocket Template) - Buggy and Buddy

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Print out our free rocket printable and have fun making some straw rockets! The kids loved designing their own rockets and then launching them using straws- such a great way for kids to explore science! This post contains affiliate links. This post was originally published on June 14, 2015 and has since been updated.

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Cold, windy, rainy weather.

Two bored children.

A whole heap of cardboard tubes.

What do you do with these three items???

Make a cool DIY cardboard tube construction toy!

This simple DIY construction set slots together to make all kinds of funky cardboard shapes and sculptures. You can build a one off piece of art to display on the shelf, or take it apart and build something new.
To make your cardboard tube construction set you'll need:

Cardboard tubes

Scissors

A ruler

Paint and brushes (optional)

We'd been collecting cardboard tubes for quite a while and had a whole heap. The more you can collect the more you can build, but it's easy to add extra pieces to the set as you collect more cardboard tubes.

Start by cutting the tubes into smaller pieces. We cut some of the tubes into pieces 5 cms long, and some into pieces 10 cms long. Try to be as accurate as you can when cutting the pieces, but don't worry too much. My nine year old cut our pieces and some of them are a bit wonky, but they still work fine.

Next you need to cut small slots into the top and bottom of each tube.

Use a ruler to make approximate marks on all four side of the tube and cut a narrow slot at each mark. Then turn it over and do the same on the bottom. The slots don't need to be very wide, just the width of the cardboard, and again, it doesn't matter too much if you are not perfect.

Now you can see how the pieces will slot together.

You can leave the tubes plain and just build with them as they are, or you can add some colour!

We used our favourite fluro water colour paints to add some colour to our construction set, because it's easy to use and dries really fast, and then we had a pile of brightly coloured pieces to build with!

Slot the tubes together to make towers, or scultptures, or whatever you can imagine!

The kids have had loads of fun building and rebuilding their cardboard tube constructions.

We've decided we need more pieces so we can build a really big sculpture, so we have started collecting tubes again!

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Make your own cardboard tube construction toy for loads of creativity and building fun!

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Purple cabbage pH experiment (very simple!)

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Purple cabbage pH experiment (very simple!)

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Purple cabbage juice is a pH indicator, or a substance that changes color when it's mixed with an acid or base. If you add an acid to the cabbage juice, it turns pinkish red. The more red the solution is, the more acidic that substance is. But if you add a base to the cabbage juice, the solution becomes greenish. Purple cabbage isn't the only plant with this magical, color-changing property. Beets, blueberries, and hibiscus are also pH indicators!

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cabbage chemistry ziploc science projects for kids chemistry ziploc

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Gifts for young scientists, artists and makers

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Color your world with cabbage and learn about chemistry! The terms acid and base describe chemical properties of many things we use everyday. An acid is a substance that donates hydrogen ions, and a baseis a substance that accepts hydrogen ions. Sometimes, you can tell if something is an acid or base by the way it tastes.

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Primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) are the source of all other colors. Secondary colors (green, purple, and orange) are created when two primary colors mix. If you freeze up colored ice cubes, you can experiment with color mixing as they melt. Combine cubes to make secondary colors, and if you're feeling really creative, see if you can make tertiary colors (yellow-orange, red-orange, red-violet, blue-violet, blue-green, and yellow-green)! Heads up: This project will dye your little ones' hands. We recommend using gloves or putting the colored ice cubes in plastic bags for mixing.

1. Pinterest

2. Email

Ages:

3 - 5

Est. Time:

<30 mins

How we did it:

1. 1 to 2 cups water

2. food coloring

3. ice cube tray

4. white plates, bowls, or plastic sandwich bags

1. Step 3

Add 1-2 drops of food coloring into each ice cube container. Place the ice cube tray in the freezer and let freeze for at least 1 hour.

2. Step 4

Take the ice cube tray out of the freezer. And separate the cubes by color onto your plates. Then mix and match different colors to see what new colors you create!

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Gifts for young scientists, artists and makers

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Primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) are the source of all other colors. Secondary colors (green, purple, and orange) are created when two primary colors mix. If you freeze up colored ice cubes, you can experiment with color mixing as they melt.

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Learn how to make a handful of grains hop and dance with this simple kitchen experiment! Add in a splash of food coloring to create a cup that is mesmerizing to watch and enjoy.

1. Pinterest

2. Email

Ages:

4 - 7

Est. Time:

<30 mins

1. grains - small, like Whole Grain Einkorn Wheat

2. food coloring

3. baking soda - 1 tsp

4. vinegar - 1/4 cup

5. glass

6. water - 3/4 cup

7. fork

1. Fill a glass with ¾ of a cup of water.

2. Stir in 1 teaspoon of baking soda.

3. Drop in a few of the grains; they should sink to the bottom of the cup. If they don't, head to the pantry and find something else to try. (We also got this to work with dry rice and small raisins.)

4. Slowly pour in the vinegar. The mixture will fizz and your grains will begin to float up!

Keep watching the grains. Notice how they repeatedly float to the surface and then sink back to the bottom.

(If the reaction doesn't happen right away, give your cup a quick stir. If that doesn't help, your grains may be too heavy to float. Try picking out the smallest ones, or look for a lighter grain.)

To see what's happening a little better, add a few drops of food coloring and watch how the color spreads through the mixture.

Eventually, the fizz will slow down and the grains will stop dancing. When this happens, you can add more baking soda and vinegar to the same cup, or dump it out and start with a fresh mixture.

You can keep experimenting by testing out other materials in your cup. What happens if you drop in popcorn kernels? Rice? Bits of angel hair pasta? See what you can find in your kitchen that works!
What's going on?
The lift that makes the grains dance comes from the reaction between baking soda and vinegar. As anyone who's made a baking soda volcano knows, mixing those two ingredients creates bubbles - carbon dioxide bubbles, to be precise. These bubbles stick to the grains in the glass, lifting them up to the surface of the water.

But when the bubbles reach the surface, they pop. Without the bubbles to hold them up any more, the grains sink back down to the bottom. Then the whole process repeats, giving you hopping grains in a cup!

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hopping grains 4th of july independence day

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Gifts for young scientists, artists and makers

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Learn how to make a handful of grains hop and dance with this simple kitchen experiment! Add in a splash of food coloring to create a cup that is mesmerizing to watch and enjoy. Pinterest Email Ages: 4 - 7 Est.

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Get the day of learning planned for you

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Goldilocks and the three dinosaurs storybook reading

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Goldilocks and the three dinosaurs storybook reading

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Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs | Dinosaurs for Kids READ ALOUD!

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The kinder children have been experimenting with colours and they have been engaging in a paper towel tie dye experience. This experience can be implemented at home as an extension of what we did at kinder! You can use either coffee filter or paper towels.

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These tie dye hearts are so easy and fun to make. They are perfect for Valentine's Day because they can be used as a cool decoration, but you could really make these all year and have fun. There are just a few simple steps:

Step 1:

Cut heart shapes out of coffee filters. First fold them in half to make it easier and cut 4-5 at a time to make even easier.

Step 2:

Scribble a design on the hearts. It doesn't have to look perfect. Just let your kids go to town. We stuck with pink and purple and red since these were for Valentine's Day, but you can choose any color scheme you want.

Step 4:

Put hearts on paper towels and then drip water all over the hearts. We tried spraying them with water first, but we soon found out that they look way better and have a cooler tie dye effect when you drip the water.

Step 5:

Hang on a window to show off your awesome tie dye hearts.

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Coffee Filter Tie Dye Hearts - My Mommy Style

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These tie dye hearts are so easy and fun to make. They are perfect for Valentine's Day because they can be used as a cool decoration, but you could really make these all year and have fun. There are just a few simple steps: Step 1: Cut heart shapes out of coffee filters.

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This is a fun activity for children who loves dinosaurs and construction.

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This STEM activity is part of a series of activities I have created to go children's books. This week's activity is called Build a Dino. It is based on the book Goldilocks and The Three Dinosaurs. You children can try to build a dino like the ones in the book or create one of their own.

Build a Dino Challenge

Supplies

bendable straws

large marshmallows

toothpicks

rolling pin

dinosaur toys or models or pictures

Build a Dino Challenge Prompt

The build a dino challenge is to use the straws, marshmallows, and toothpicks to create a free-standing dinosaur. If you have younger children, they can create a dinosaur that is laying down.

Your children can create a dinosaur inspired by a toy, model, or in a picture. They don't have to make it look exactly like the dinosaur.

Building Tips

Your children can use the toothpick to cut the marshmallow into small building pieces.

A rolling pin can be used to create flat building pieces. Children could also use their hand to flatten the marshmallows.

Sharing Their Build a Dino Creations

When they are finished creating their dinosaur, have them share with you how their dinosaur looks like the one that inspired them.

While they are sharing the similarities, they may go make and want to add more to their dinosaur.

If you like this STEM challenge, here are some more STEM activities you will want to check out.
Owl Eyesight STEM Exploration Counting Sheep Pulley Activity Spider Web Hanger Challenge Fixed Pulley Gets the Truck out of the Muck
(Visited 10,338 times, 3 visits today)

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This STEM activity is part of a series of activities I have created to go children's books. This week's activity is called Build a Dino. It is based on the book Goldilocks and The Three Dinosaurs. You children can try to build a dino like the ones in the book or create one of their own.

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A collection of 49 very short videos, each containing one simple home learning idea

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The spread of coronavirus has an impact on people worldwide, and significant implications for young children's education. There will no doubt be temporary cl...

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Learning at home - fine & gross motor, problem-solving

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Learning at home - fine & gross motor, problem-solving

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Looking for ideas that support children's development of motor skills and problem-solving in your home environment? You don't need fancy equipment or resources to do this, you will be surprised to learn that most of these ideas can be offered with minimal preparation.

Ideas for gross motor skill development

Throwing and or kicking balls in a bucket, hula hoop or etc, keep a score sheet and turn it into a graph (maths). Do this regularly and see how accuracy increases over time. Now try using your other arm or foot.

Act like an animal? E.g. move your trunk like an elephant, wriggle like a snake etc.

Yoga - try Cosmic Kids yoga

Sweeping the yard

Cleaning windows

Bucket of water with paintbrushes to "paint" fence or side of the house

Obstacle course/ indoor or outdoor

Twister Board Game

Riding a balance bike, scooter or skateboard

Jumping on a trampoline

DIY balancing (using planks of wood, retaining walls, pool noodles etc.)

Mud kitchen

Ideas for fine motor skill development

Use a peg or tweezers to pick up small objects, depending on their skill this could be another peg or try a marble for the more skilled

Paint with a homemade paintbrush using a feather, leaf, cotton ball on a stick

Create with play dough, clay or slime, write your name using these resources, create your face, shapes, numbers. Add other resources from nature to create a dramatic picture or landscape. Add textures and smell to the dough etc

Collecting stones outside and sorting them into groups according to size, colour or texture

Screwing and unscrewing containers and their lids

Wrapping "gifts" in paper, using sellotape to secure

Sorting buttons or other small objects

Drawing pirate treasure maps

Threading with beads or natural resources i.e shells, leaves

Putting coins into a money box slot

Ideas to support children's problem-solving skills

Treasure hunt with clues

Make a puzzle with ice block sticks, lay sticks in a line together and sellotape so they don't move. Flip over and draw a picture on the other side or glue a photo being careful not to glue the stick together. Take the sellotape off and cut between the stick and jumble them up and recreate the picture.

Memory game with household objects show for 30 sec and hide object and name what they remember

Eye-spy using colours, shapes or letters depending on skill level

Scavenger hunt, using riddles as clues

Collect a random assortment of empty bottle or jars and jumble the lids up, the children have to use their problem-solving skills to determine which lid fits which jar/bottle

Some parents collect screws/nuts and bolts. The children could be given an assortment of these along with tools that fit each screw/bolt and the need to match them accordingly.

What other ideas can you think of to provide children with learning opportunities in these domains? We would love to hear your ideas!

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Learning at home - Fine and gross motor skills & problem solving | Storypark Blog

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Looking for ideas that support children's development of motor skills and problem-solving in your home environment? You don't need fancy equipment or resources to do this, you will be surprised to learn that most of these ideas can be offered with minimal preparation.

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Some of the best learning can take place in your own backyard. We put together some ideas of activities you can do with your children that will help them use their senses and connect with nature.

Outdoor adventures

Discovering bugs - take photos and research them online

Leaf and natural resource collection

Vegetable or food garden, care for and record growth (track by measurements and digital photos)

Yard work. Trimming bushes, pulling weeds, raking etc.

Scavenger hunt

Treasure hunt

Go for a nature walk and collect sticks and then bring them home and see what the children do with them (imaginative play) They could turn them into a wand, a sword, a mobile, a dream catcher, a puppet

Put up a tent and go "camping"

Using our senses

Blindfold taste tests

Blindfold sound tests

Blindfold smell tests

Listening out the window or in the garden for different birds

Hide and seek

Gloop or slime

Lying on the lawn, listening to all of the noises in your community

Lying on the lawn, finding cloud shapes

An activity for 2 people. Sit with their backs to each other, each with a notepad and a pencil, and they take turns explaining something they can see to the other person to draw. Linking in with their literacy and fine motor development.

Using technology (iPad/phone) playing a guess the sound game

Going out into the garden or local park and gathering some natural items to make your own potpourri

Make your own scented bath bombs

Making nature potions

Dancing with butterflies

Bubble blowing

Outdoor play is incredibly open-ended, and often you will find that some of the most creative and imaginative games are played with nothing other than nature.

Do you have any other ideas? We would love to hear them!

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Learning at home: Outdoor adventures & using our senses | Storypark Blog

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Some of the best learning can take place in your own backyard. We put together some ideas of activities you can do with your children that will help them use their senses and connect with nature.

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Learning at home - music and creativity ideas

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Learning at home - music and creativity ideas

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These ideas from our education team will help get your children's creativity flowing as well as some suggestions for relaxing, quieter experiences.

Musical ideas

Game: Statues, musical chairs or cushions

Sing your welcome song together that you would sing at your early learning centre

Make your own musical instruments and create a song

Clap and stamp to the beat

Make up your own actions for a song

Get dressed up, perform a song, then film it so your child can watch it and share it with their family or friends if they want to!

Ideas to spark creativity

Painting/finger painting

Decorating cakes

Trying out a new sandwich combination for lunch

Cutting from magazines to create words/collage

Scrapbooking

Journal writing

Marble roll painting in a tray with paint

Chalk drawing on your driveway, fence or pavement

Paint with a feather or left paintbrush

Blow up a balloon and each day add a layer of papier-mache - paper soaked in flour and water (glue). Decorate it once you have enough layers on it to pop the balloon and it keeps its shape.

Loose parts ideas

Sensory tubs with pebbles, sand, slime, gelatine, water, beads - anything you can find!

Nuts and bolts

Wood and nails

Empty boxes to be used to set up a mini shopping centre- linking numeracy and literacy to role-playing a supermarket.

Create a heuristic play basket with an assortment of things. Here are some ideas: jars, lids, wooden curtain , pom poms, large corks, wooden , cardboard cylinders, large sinkers, textured , small whisks, bangles, , , pine cones, stones

Sort and combine your treasures in interesting ways and be prepared to rearrange on different days: by colour, by shape, form or perhaps use. Include items that encourage learners to fill, empty, stack, flip and sort. (Keep in mind there is no right way to use the objects, this is an open-ended experience with no sense of completion or testing of achievement applied). Use beautiful fabrics to line your baskets.

Quiet, restful, mindfulness ideas:

Yoga - Cosmic Kids

Reading stories in a quiet area, make a blanket tent

Eye's closed listening to nature sound or soothing sounds

Guided meditation

Audiobooks

Using a soft brush/feather on your arm or face

Stress ball

Noise-cancelling earmuffs

Vestibular stimulation, swinging in a hammock/swing

Cooking:

Did you know we have a whole YouTube channel of simple and healthy recipes to prepare with children? Here is a sample of what we have:
Frozen Banana Softserve Healthy Fruit Popsicles Zucchini Chocolate Muffins Celebration Strawberries

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Learning at home - Music, creativity, loose parts & quiet time |

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These ideas from our education team will help get your children's creativity flowing as well as some suggestions for relaxing, quieter experiences. Musical ideas Game: Statues, musical chairs or cushions Sing your welcome song together that you would sing at [...]

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The clothesline literacy activity pictured below incorporates letter recognition and fine motor skills and is also very inexpensive to make.

This is one of those hands-on activities where the kids have no idea they are learning anything- they're just having loads of fun. Your kids will love hanging up the letters of their names with clothespins!

Supplies for the Clothesline Name Activity
Supplies

2 dowels from craft store

2 small empty containers with lids

Yarn or string

Mini-clothespins

Envelopes

Sentence strips

Plaster of Paris

Scissors

Permanent marker

Hot glue

Colored markers, colored index cards, or colored sentence strips (optional)

How to Make the Clothesline Name Activity

Start by writing each child's name on a sentence strip with a permanent marker. Make sure to leave enough space between each letter so you can easily cut the names apart.

Name Puzzles

Next, cut the names apart between each letter and place them inside an envelope. Write each child's name on the front of an envelope and add a digital picture of the child to the envelope if extra support is needed.

Now, make a small X cut in the top of each container lid big enough to slide the dowel through. Fill the containers with Plaster of Paris and put the lids on. Push the dowels through the hole in the lids and let dry. Attach your string or yarn to the top of the two dowels and secure with hot glue.

Clothesline Name Activity Tips

I also highly recommend color coding the names if you have more than one clothesline being used at a time. Select one color marker and draw a small dot on the back of each letter and then draw the same dot on the front of the envelope.

This way, all the letters with the red dot go back into the envelope with the red dot and the letters with the green dot go in the envelope with the green dot and so on. This will save you lots of headaches. You could also use colored sentence strips or index cards instead of color coding with markers.

This activity could also be used with sight words instead of student names.

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The clothesline literacy activity pictured below incorporates letter recognition and fine motor skills and is also very inexpensive to make. This is one of those hands-on activities where the kids have no idea they are learning anything- they're just having loads of fun. Your kids will love hanging up the letters of their names with clothespins!

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Making space-themed gelatin window clings

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Making space-themed gelatin window clings

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Space has been a big theme in our house for nearly a year now. So when I saw instructions for making gelatin window clings in the book Learn with Play: 150+ Activities for Year-Round Fun & Learning (click the link for more details about this book that I co-authored), I thought it would be really fun to try our hand at making some space-themed gelatin window clings.
Note: Find more great space activities for kids on my Space Unit Study page.
Directions for making the gelatin are listed on page 44 of Learn with Play: 150+ Activities for Year-Round Fun & Learning, courtesy of Crystal from The Science Kiddo.

We used unflavored Knox Gelatine in our recipe. I followed Crystal's directions, except I accidentally poured the gelatin too thick. Oops! But we managed to make it work anyway.

After the gelatin cooled a bit, but before it had fully hardened, we dripped various colors from our set of liquid watercolors into the gelatin.

We tried to make our designs look like planets and the sun. It was fun to discuss color choices for each object in our solar system that we created. Orange for the sun, red for Mars, orange for Venus, etc.

Once the gelatin had hardened in the fridge overnight, we brought it out to cut into shapes. As you can see, the colors did continue to diffuse through the gelatin a bit as it cooled, but the four designs we created were all still quite separate from one another.

We used a butter knife to cut each design out of the dish. Here is our Venus.

Venus stuck to the window without too much difficulty.

Later we added Neptune and a few others objects from our solar system.

This activity was a great way to combine art with learning about our solar system!

If you are learning about the planets, you might also enjoy my Solar System 3-Part Cards as well!

More resources for learning about space

More space-related posts from Gift of Curiosity:
You'll find more resources for learning about life in space on my Space Unit Study page and my Space and the Solar System Pinterest board.
Follow Katie @ Gift of Curiosity's board Unit Ideas: Space & the Solar System on Pinterest.

Products mentioned in this post:

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Space has been a big theme in our house for nearly a year now. So when I saw instructions for making gelatin window clings in the book Learn with Play: 150+ Activities for Year-Round Fun & Learning (click the link for more details about this book that I co-authored), I thought it would be really fun to try our hand at making some space-themed gelatin window clings.

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Learning at home - literacy, maths and science

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Learning at home - literacy, maths and science

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It is a common misconception that children don't learn math, science, language or literacy until they start at school. However, this couldn't be further from the truth! Children practice and develop the foundations for these skills when they are very young, and the good news is, you don't need any specific resources or activities to support this learning at home. Also, learning through play is the best way for children to develop an interest and love of these skills.

Ideas for language and literacy development

Ask educators to record themselves reading popular stories, in a conversational manner. This will encourage conversation between children and families whilst listening, and allowing children to have the familiarity of their educator's voice.

Reading, ask questions, what might happen next, do you see...? Move your finger across the words you are reading

Writing a story or creating a book

Activity for more than 2 people: Create a script for a play/television advert and act it out

Write some affirmation or gratitude cards

Write the shopping list, To-do list for the day

Ideas for numeracy and math:

Game: Finding numbers in your environment i.e find 4 of something and so on

Count how many steps to the bathroom, your bedroom etc

Measure the height or lengths of objects using no measurement items i.e the door is 8 shoes high

Sorting and classifying almost anything

Creating a timetable for the day and using the clock to manage their own time

Cooking-using measurements, temperature-timing

Helping with the family budget

Role play shop

Sorting objects, shape, type, colour etc

Making patterns

Measuring, estimating

Ordering by size

Science ideas

Simple experiments (milk, dishwashing liquid and food dye). Research why it reacts the way it does

Melting ice. What can you use to speed up the process

Balloon rockets

Create a quiz game using household items and the children have to determine whether the item is a Solid, Liquid, Gas

Floating and sinking experiments, record your predictions and then your findings and compare- looking at the properties and material each item is made of.

Can you think of any other ways children can explore math, science and literacy at home?

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Learning at home - Literacy, math and science | Storypark Blog

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It is a common misconception that children don't learn math, science, language or literacy until they start at school. However, this couldn't be further from the truth! Children practice and develop the foundations for these skills when they are very young, and the good news is, you don't need any specific resources or activities to support this learning at home.

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Number identification life size board game

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Number identification life size board game

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We came up with a simple way to practice number identification-a life size board game! It's perfect for preschoolers who are working on recognizing those higher numbers.

Math Board Game Supplies:

I wrote the numbers 1-30 on paper plates with a marker to serve as the board game squares. We used the die we had made from a box for our Colorlicious Game. You can tape a square shaped cardboard box shut to create one too. I then wrote numbers on each side.

I set up a life size game board by making a path out of the plates. The kids took turns rolling the die and moving themselves around the board. They would take turns identifying the number they ended up on after each turn.

Preschool Skills Practiced:

counting

number identification

following directions

taking turns

This life size board game can be set up in minutes and is full of learning. It can also be easily modified to work on other math skills or sight words too. These simple ideas are my favorite types activities because they are the ones that get done over and over again. We also played it indoors just as easily which makes it a great way to move and learn all year long!
The other Move and Learn co-hosts were busy putting together Move and Learn Activities for kids this week too, make sure to check them out!
Other Ways to Move & Learn this week:

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Number Identification Life Size Math Board Game

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We came up with a simple way to practice number identification-a life size board game! It's perfect for preschoolers who are working on recognizing those higher numbers. I wrote the numbers 1-30 on paper plates with a marker to serve as the board game squares.

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WATCH: Astronaut Spacewalk Earth Views from NASA FEED #EarthfromSpace

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Encourage children to use these templates to draw their own comic strips and then add words to describe what's happening, the sounds and the conversations of the characters with your help. This will develop their literacy skills and knowledge of print.

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This lava lamp experiment is super cool! Your kids will love exploring colored water and oil, but a surprise ingredient will make this science activity even more exciting! It's always a hit with the kids. So grab a few household supplies and give this lava lamp science activity a try!

As part of our science lessons this school year, we are trying out all kinds of really neat science experiments and activities. This lava lamp experiment tops the list!

Both of my kids had a blast with this. We've actually done it several times and with all different colors, but it never ceases to amaze them. It's almost shocking how long they will engage with it.

One great thing about this science experiment is that you only need a few supplies and your probably already have most of them in your home or classroom.
*Disclaimer: Adult supervision is required for this experiment. You must supervise your children at all times while doing it.
Lava Lamp Experiment
Supplies Needed: Affiliate links below.
To begin, color about 1/2 cup of water with food coloring. I like using these gel food colors for vibrant coloring.

Take the Alka Seltzer tablets and break them into 2 or 3 pieces. Place them in a small cup or container.

Fill a glass about 3/4 full with vegetable oil. Then pour in the colored water until the liquid in the cup is about 1-2 inches from the top.

You don't want it to overflow! Well, unless you want to turn it into an eruption experiment too. For this reason and quick cleanup, I like to do this on a tray.

Let the children take turns adding a piece of an Alka Seltzer table to the cup. *DO NOT let them put the tablet in their mouth at any time.

Why this Science Experiment Works

The water and oil do not mix and the oil doesn't change color because the food coloring is water soluble. The Alka Seltzer reacts with the water to make bubbles of carbon dioxide. The bubbles attach themselves to the blobs of colored water and bring them to the top of the glass. When the bubbles pop the blobs of colored water fall back to the bottom of the glass.

This lava science experiment is sure to WOW your kids. They may even ask you to do it over and over again like mine did!

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Super Cool Lava Lamp Experiment for Kids

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This lava lamp experiment is super cool! Your kids will love exploring colored water and oil, but a surprise ingredient will make this science activity even more exciting! It's always a hit with the kids. So grab a few household supplies and give this lava lamp science activity a try!

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Learn commonly used single syllable words. These videos develop children's letter recognition and confidence in writing in a fun and engaging way.

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Victorian Cursive (handwriting font your child will learn when they go to school) alphabet and number models

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Victorian Cursive (handwriting font your child will learn when they go to school) alphabet and number models

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From the Victorian Department of Education Website. This is the font that your child will learn when they go to primary school, so it is good to familiarise them with it. Print it out so that it serves as a reference when your child is playing with letters - this could improve your child's confidence to write.

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40 Telling the Time Activities | Liz's Early Learning Spot

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We've pulled together lots of links to telling the time activities from different bloggers to give you a wide range of learning options for your kids. Many include free printables or easy-to-create activities for young children with varying levels of knowledge. I hope you enjoy these telling the time activities!

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Looking for a fun, hands-on way to teach kids how to tell time? Try building this LEGO Clock Math Manipulative! It's a great way for kids to learn to read an analog clock while also practicing science, technology, engineering and math skills.
This post may contain affiliate links.
How to Build a LEGO Clock Math Manipulative

The LEGO ® Clock is a wonderful math manipulative for kids in school or homeschooling! This LEGO activity requires many bricks, but don't worry if you don't have some of them. Just make do with what you have! Learning will take place anyway! ?

Building Instructions:

Write the numbers 1-12 on the 2×2 tiles using a fine point permanent marker.

Then using the plates and tiles listed, build an analog clock face with spinning hour and minute hands.

With the other plates, build a digital clock face. Make sure to have enough space for four numbers.

To use the LEGO Clock Math Manipulative, have the child(ren) spin the hands on the analog clock face, and build the numbers onto the digital clock face.

Are you interested in more learning with LEGO® ideas?

Sign up for our NEWSLETTER to stay up to date on all the book happenings and join our awesome Learning with LEGO Facebook group for more educational ideas using LEGO®!

And be sure to check out our new book The Unofficial Guide to Learning with LEGO®! In it are over 100 hands-on learning activities from literacy to S.T.E.A.M. using LEGO® bricks!
LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO Group of companies which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this site.
© 2016 - 2017, Stir The Wonder. All rights reserved.

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How to Build a LEGO Clock Math Manipulative | Stir The Wonder

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Looking for a fun, hands-on way to teach kids how to tell time? Try building this LEGO Clock Math Manipulative! It's a great way for kids to learn to read an analog clock while also practicing science, technology, engineering and math skills. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Choo-Choo! All aboard! Meet Tina the Tiny Train. Children will have fun learning to tell time as a train picks up different objects whose names begin with the letter t, such as a tiger, a tulip, a trumpet, and a tomato. It's also a great book to introduce your children to the initial consonant blend /tr/ sound.

Before Reading

Ask children if they ever have been on a train. Discuss that a train can carry lots of things (people, cargo, animals). Discuss that trains depart from a train station at different times. A train schedule displays the times a train leaves the station.

Clocks and Telling Time

Show children an analog clock and ask them why it is used. Show them that the hands move around in a "clockwise" direction all the time. Let children move the longer hand around one time. Explain that the longer hand is the minute hand and the shorter hand shows the hour. Move the longer hand around the clock and demonstrate as the minute hand moves, the hour hand also moves but at a slower rate. Explain that the minute hand needs to go all around the clock for 60 minutes until the little hand to points to a different number. Point and name the different numbers on the clock in order.

Explain to children that you will read a book about a train that picks up different objects from a train station at different times. As you read the book, change the time on the clock (or on their paper plate clock) to match the time on the booklet.

During Reading

Have children listen to the online Twiggle Book Tina the Tiny Train or read it to children. Afterwards, give children a chance to read the book with you or aloud to you.

After Reading

Let children color the Tina the Train coloring page or write and draw to expand on the story. For independent reading, print out the printable version of the booklet. Children can also practice writing and reading the words from the story.

Language

(Tune: The Wheels on the Bus) Clock Song

Adapted by Jolanda Garcia, KidsSoup Inc.

The hands on the clock go round and round,
Round and round, round and round.
The hands on the clock go round and round,
All day long.

Arts and Crafts
Paper Plate Clock

Paper plate, red and black craft paper, craft foam or craft paper circles, black marker, glue, brass fastener

Write the numbers 1-12 on the craft foam circles.

With a black marker, write the number 1-12 on the paper plate.

Let children glue the circle number on top of the matching numbers on the clock.

Drill a hole in the middle of the plate. Cut a one inch wide strip out of both craft paper. Fold in half lengthwise and glue together.

Cut strip in to a short and a long hand.

Drill a hole to the bottom of each hand and attach to the paper plate with a brass fastener. Flatten the legs of the brass fastener at the back of the clock.

Math

Use the paper plate clock to show the time. Print out the movement clock cards and cut out. Let children copy the time on to their paper plate clock. What time is it?
Time Movement Cards
Movement and Game

Look at the movement cards together. Tell the time and make the movement (dance, hop, crawl, etc.) that's shown on the card. Place the card inside a basket. Recite the rhyme:

Tick Tock Goes the Clock
by Jolanda Garcia, KidsSoup Inc.

Tick tock goes the clock
and what shall we see?(Pick a card from the basket.)
Tick tock it's one o'clock!
Can you dance with me?(Make movements together.)

Repeat until no more cards are left in the basket.

Clock Snack Idea

What you need:
Sliced bread
Peanut butter
M&Ms or small carrot slices
celery stick

What you do:
With a glass or circle cookie cutter cut a circle out of a piece of bread.

Spread peanut butter the bread circle and let children count and pick 12 candy pieces or carrot slices and place them on the bread. For the clock fingers, cut two small strips from a celery stick and place them on the clock. What time is it?

Book Suggestion:
Available inside our KidsSoup Resource Library: Nursery Rhyme: Hickory Dickory Dock
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Tina the Tiny Train and Clock Activities and Craft

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Choo-Choo! All aboard! Meet Tina the Tiny Train. Children will have fun learning to tell time as a train picks up different objects whose names begin with the letter t, such as a tiger, a tulip, a trumpet, and a tomato. It's also a great book to introduce your children to the initial consonant blend /tr/ sound.

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Tina the tiny train - telling the time (analogue clock)

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Tina the tiny train - telling the time (analogue clock)

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Science Snacks - a collection of easy science experiments (the Exploratorium)

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Science Snacks - a collection of easy science experiments (the Exploratorium)

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I wanted to create a printable solar system model, something that I could print and put together easily to show my son what planets are in the solar system, which ones are closer or further from the sun and from us and which one is the biggest or the smallest. I chose not to use an actual scale, otherwise it would have been hard to make it printable, but I still tried to give an idea of the different sizes. I also tried to replicate as much as possible the actual colors of the planets as we see them from the earth, to create a realistic effect without using the actual pictures. Here is the result:

Here is how to recreate this simple solar system model:

1) print the free hi-res jpg on cardstock with a color printer (click here for the planets and the arms);

2) cut out the planets and the arms;

3) with a pointy knife or the tip of the scissors make a hole in the center of the sun and on one end of the arms; if you want you can also make a hole on the other hand of the arms and in the center of every single planet, but this is optional;

4) place a metal brad in the middle of the sun and connect all the arms to it before opening it;

5) place the planets at the end of every arm with tape, or with their own brad if you made the holes for it in step 3;

Enjoy!

Gabi

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Free Printable Solar System Model for Kids

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I wanted to create a printable solar system model, something that I could print and put together easily to show my son what planets are in the solar system, which ones are closer or further from the sun and from us and which one is the biggest or the smallest.

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How leaves breathe: backyard transpiration experiment

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How leaves breathe: backyard transpiration experiment

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How leaves "breathe": a backyard demonstration of leaf transpiration

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This post may contain affiliate ads at no cost to you. See my disclosures for more information. The title of this post is "how leaves breathe," but leaves technically don't "breathe." Instead, leaves engage in processes called respiration and transpiration. This activity provides kids with a visual way of understanding the second process, that of transpiration.

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If you read my blog regularly, you know that I love doing science activities with my kids. I truly believe that all kids are scientists at heart, since kids show such tremendous curiosity and desire to understand the world around them.

Well, given my love for science I was excited to try this apple rotting experiment with them so they could observe what would happen to an apple under various conditions.

Be sure to read to the bottom to see the printable observation worksheets you can use as a tool for your students to record what they notice both before and after the experiment. Using the recording worksheets along with this activity adds a higher level of critical thinking and scientific observation that supports students' developing scientific skills.
Note: This activity and many others are included in my Apple Unit Study.
For this experiment, I sliced and cored an apple into four quarters. I then placed one quarter into each of four glasses.

One glass was empty (except for air, of course).

One glass was filled with water.

One glass was filled with vinegar.

And one glass was filled with oil.

After three days, this is what the apples looked like. As you can see, the apple in the air glass had started to shrivel. The apples in the other three glasses looked relatively unchanged, although the glass filled with vinegar had taken on a pinkish tint.

At the end of a week, there were additional changes. Notably, the water and vinegar levels in the glasses had gone way down, exposing more of the apple to air. The oil, on the other had, had not evaporated like the other liquids.

We took the four slices of apple out of the glasses in order to examine them more closely. The apple in air was obviously the most shriveled, and had gotten somewhat hard. The other apples had all darkened in color.

I'll admit to being a bit surprised by the results for the apple that had been left in air. I had expected it to start molding, but instead it just got dry and shriveled up.

Did any of these results surprise you? How would you modify this experiment to try with your kids?

Update: I've created an Apple Rotting Experiment printable to go along with this activity. The Apple Rotting Experiment document includes directions for the teacher as well as student worksheets to record their pre- and post-observations of the apple rotting experiment.

Using the recording worksheets along with this activity supports young students (preschool through grade 1) to develop a higher level of critical thinking and scientific observation skills.

Want a copy of my Apple Rotting Experiment?

Or get it as part of the Apple Unit Study:

More apple resources

More apple posts from Gift of Curiosity:
For more kid-friendly apple activities and apple printables, see my Apple Unit Study page and my Apples Pinterest board.

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If you read my blog regularly, you know that I love doing science activities with my kids. I truly believe that all kids are scientists at heart, since kids show such tremendous curiosity and desire to understand the world around them.

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Fall is a great time to use corn in your learning activities. If your little ones are still building their fine motor skills, you'll find eight corn fine motor activities below to try out this fall.
Note: For more corn activities, see my Corn Unit Study page.
Who knew there were so many versatile ways to use corn for developing children's fine motor skills? Check out the great corn fine motor activities below. Some of the activities are ones I did with my own kids, and some are ones I'm sharing from other creative bloggers.

1. Indian corn fine motor activity and sensory bag from Fantastic Fun and Learning

2. Stripping the kernels from the corn cob from Gift of Curiosity

3. Indian corn mosaics from Kitchen Floor Crafts

4. Pouring corn kernels from Gift of Curiosity

5. Shucking corn from Gift of Curiosity

6. Tweezing corn on the cob from Best Toys 4 Toddlers

7. Corn silk fine motor and sensory play from Coffee Cups and Crayons

8. Scooping corn kernels with a spoon from Gift of Curiosity

More corn resources

More corn posts from Gift of Curiosity:

For more corn activities, see my Corn Unit Study page or my Corn Unit Study board on Pinterest!

Follow Katie @ Gift of Curiosity's board Corn Unit Study on Pinterest.

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Fall is a great time to use corn in your learning activities. If your little ones are still building their fine motor skills, you'll find eight corn fine motor activities below to try out this fall. Note: For more corn activities, see my Corn Unit Study page.

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Making a worm tower (nature observation)

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Making a worm tower (nature observation)

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Did you know that earthworms are very important for soil health? Through their role as decomposers, they provide fertilizer that enriches the soil. Through their burrowing activity, they create multitudes of channels in the soil that support aeration and drainage. Earthworms are truly under appreciated members of our backyard ecosystems.

While learning about plants, my kids and I took a sideways detour to talk about soil health, including the role played by earthworms. To enhance that learning, we created this fun little worm tower kids can make with a bit of adult help.

We learned how to build a worm tower from this post over at Teach Beside Me. The kids and I worked together to prepare our worm tower and fill it with the right kind of dirt and plants.

Then we hunted in the dirt to find some earthworms. Fortunately it didn't take too long to find some!

We added them to our worm tower.

And then we observed.

Be sure to see more about building a worm tower over at Teach Beside Me!

More botany resources for kids

More botany posts from Gift of Curiosity:
For more botany activities for kids of all ages, see my Botany Unit Study page and my Botany Pinterest Board.
Follow Katie @ Gift of Curiosity's board Botany Unit Study on Pinterest.

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Did you know that earthworms are very important for soil health? Through their role as decomposers, they provide fertilizer that enriches the soil. Through their burrowing activity, they create multitudes of channels in the soil that support aeration and drainage.

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Today I'm welcoming Katie, my talented blogging friend of Gift of Curiosity. Katie offers countless learning activities and printables for young children. My favorite are her science activities - she knows just how to challenge young children while making learning fun at the same time. Be sure to follow hop on over and follow Gift of Curiosity for learning ideas and free printables!

Here's Katie...

I'm Katie, and I blog at Gift of Curiosity to share hands-on learning activities and educational printables for young children. I'm so excited to be sharing at The Measured Mom today to help Anna as she takes a break for the birth of her new baby.

I have two kids, a boy and a girl. My six-year-old daughter has been absolutely enthralled with space for about a year now. Astronauts, planets, the sun, the moon. . . if it's in our galaxy, she wants to learn about it.

In this post I am sharing 10 of our favorite space activities for kids. Most of these activities would be enjoyed by kids ages 3 to 9. Click any of the titles or images below to learn more about the activities described.

Through observation alone, my kids had already noted that the moon changes shape over the course of the moon. We then did several activities to learn why the moon changes shape and to develop our vocabulary for describing each phase of the moon. The kids particularly enjoyed the moon phases craft we made using Oreo cookies, and playing with flashlights was also a big hit. Read more. . .

In studying the moon, we learned that its surface is filled with lots of craters. These craters were formed many years ago when huge rocks slammed into the moon, leaving behind deep holes. We did an awesome moon craft as a great hands-on way to reinforce facts about the moon's crater-filled surface. Read more. . .

I love using art projects to reinforce science concepts. With these sun paintings, my kids not only created some beautiful artwork using a new painting technique (hint: it involves plastic cling wrap), they also deepened their scientific understanding of the sun's colors, gaseous composition, and solar flares. Read more. . .

This is a fantastic activity for showing kids how the earth rotates throughout the day, causing the sun to appear in different places across the sky. We spent a day recording the shadows cast by the sun to see this phenomenon in action. My kids made predictions about the shadows cast by the sun and then compared what actually happened to their predictions. Read more. . .

One of the facts I wanted my kids to understand about the planets is that they orbit around the sun in a large circle (or more accurately, an ellipse). To drive this point home, I set up a simple activity using a pie tin, some play dough, and a ball to demonstrate for my kids how planets orbit the sun. Read more. . .

When I came across directions for making window clings from gelatin, I knew it would be the perfect recipe for making our own planet window clings. So we mixed together the ingredients and then dyed them to look like the planets and the sun. The kids and I enjoyed discussing color choices for each of the planets we created, making this a great way to review the unique features of each planet. Read more. . .

Of all the activities we have done to learn about space, I don't think any was as eagerly anticipated as this one was. My kids were so excited about making a model solar system it was crazy. I absolutely loved their enthusiasm for this project and I loved how excited it made my daughter, in particular, to continue learning about all things space-related. Her model solar system now hangs in her room. Read more. . .

Who doesn't love learning about the constellations? This was a super fun constellation craft we did that worked on visual-spatial awareness, fine motor skills, and more. My kids had a blast with this activity, especially when I let them turn me into a constellation. Read more. . .

As part of our space unit, we had the opportunity to visit a small, local NASA museum. One of the exhibits my kids enjoyed the most was focused on life in the International Space Station. That exhibit included a glove box, which is a special box astronauts and scientists use to study objects that may be damaged if touched directly by human hands or that may pose a health hazard to the astronauts if handled directly. I wanted to give my kids a better understanding of the glove box and its role in scientific research. So I figured, what better way to help them understand the glove box than to build one of our own? Read more. . .

During our space unit we read a lot of books about how astronauts live in outer space. We learned how they get around in zero gravity, including how they sleep, bathe, and eat. To really drive home the challenges of eating a meal in space, we planned our own "space lunch" featuring foods you might find on a space shuttle. We also added some extra challenges to simulate the need to keep one's food tied down or risk having it float away from you! Many months after we did this activity my kids still talk about their space lunch and ask to do it again. Read more. . .
Katie is the mom of two wonderful and curious kids. With a master's degree in education and a Ph.D. in child development, she loves engaging her children in hands-on learning activities. She shares lots of educational ideas as well as printable resources at Gift of Curiosity. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
© 2016 - 2018, Anna G. All rights reserved.

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10 Fun space activities for kids - The Measured Mom

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Today I'm welcoming Katie, my talented blogging friend of Gift of Curiosity. Katie offers countless learning activities and printables for young children. My favorite are her science activities - she knows just how to challenge young children while making learning fun at the same time.

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Dinosaurs and fossils activities - Museums Victoria

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Dinosaurs and fossils activities - Museums Victoria

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Your questions answered
Our questions form for this topic is now closed.
Did you miss out on asking a question this time? Our Ask Us team can help connect your questions to museum experts.

Activity 1

What is a Palaeontologist?

Suitable for Year Levels F-6

Listen to The Fact Detectives podcast with Museums Victoria's Tim Ziegler to learn all about what a palaeontologist does and why their work is so important.

Tim Ziegler, Collection Manager, Vertebrate Palaeontology, Museums Victoria

In this podcast Tim and The Fact Detectives discuss:

What fossils are and how they are found

How fossils can teach us about past

Why we keep fossils in museums

What Tim's favourite fossil at Melbourne Museum is!

Now that you have listened to the podcast, I bet you've got some questions of your own!

Well the good news is you can send your questions in to be answered by Tim Ziegler, one of Museums Victoria's expert palaeontologists.

On Friday 8 May we will be posting our Ask the Experts video with Tim in which he will answer some of your dinosaur questions. Make sure you check back in on this page to see if your question gets answered.
Send in your questions to Tim Ziegler using the link below by Wednesday 6 May.
Activity 2

Virtual tour of Dinosaur Walk at Melbourne Museum

Suitable for Year Levels 3-6

Tarbosaurus and Mamenchisaurus on display in the Dinosaur Walk exhibition.

Come and visit the amazing dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures at Melbourne Museum by taking a virtual tour of Dinosaur Walk. Explore the gallery by clicking the arrows on the ground to move forward. You can also click and drag your mouse to look to the sides, up, and down.

As you are exploring the gallery see if you can answer to the following questions:

How many dinosaurs (or prehistoric creatures) can you count in the exhibition?

Can you find the Tarbosaurus? Clue: It looks like a small T. rex

Can you find the Mamenchisaurus? Clue: It has a loooooong neck

Which dinosaur do you think is the most interesting to look at?

Write a list of all the different dinosaurs that you know.

Learn more about the dinosaurs on display at Melbourne Museum, including how big they were, what they ate, and when they roamed the Earth

Activity 3

Dinosaurs lay eggs! Who else lays eggs?

Suitable for Year Levels 3-4

Did you know that dinosaurs lay eggs? Watch this short video with one of our palaeontologists, taken from a virtual learning session we ran last year to learn about some special dinosaur egg fossils that we have at Melbourne Museum:

Did dinosaurs lay eggs?

In the video, you learned some interesting facts about dinosaur eggs, other animal eggs were mentioned too. This next activity gives you an opportunity to consider how different animals reproduce and for you to have a go at sorting and classifying.

Download and complete the Who Lays Eggs? activity sheet

Activity 4

Dinosaur Fun! Making a feathered dinosaur

Suitable for Year Levels K-6

The way that palaeontologists think about dinosaurs has changed in recent years.

Once upon a time palaeontologists thought that all dinosaurs were covered in scales or scutes, just like modern day reptiles. We now know that some dinosaurs were covered in feathers!

Deinonychus antirrhopus

Palaeontologists think Deinonychus had feathers, but nobody is sure what colour they were. There is a Deinonychus skeleton on display in the Dinosaur Walk exhibition which you can learn more about at the website below.

For this next activity we want you to use your imagination to design your very own feathered dinosaur! You get choose what your dinosaur will look like, and what sort of feathers it will have. You might like to base your dinosaur on one of the ones we have at Melbourne Museum, or create a brand-new type of dinosaur.

What you need
Option 1
Download and print this fact sheet of Deinonychus, colour it in and glue on some feathers:

Play-dough, plasticine, or clay

Feathers

Make a model of Deinonychus out of play-dough, plasticine, or clay and attach some feathers.

Take a photo of your feathered friend and share it with us on Twitter @MVTeachers

Activity 5

Dinosaurs Alive! IMAX FILM

Suitable for Year Levels 3-6

Dinosaurs Alive! is an educational film from the IMAX film library that has been made available for viewing at home for a limited time.

Narrated by Michael Douglas, Dinosaurs Alive! is a global adventure of science and discovery, reincarnating the earliest creatures of the Triassic to the monsters of the Cretaceous - life-sized and life-like. You will marvel at these great creatures of the past as they are brought roaring to life in this film.

Grab a pen and paper and keep it nearby. As you are watching this film write down 10 facts about dinosaurs to share with your family and friends!

Dinosaurs Alive! (Feature) from Giant Screen Films on Vimeo.

Victorian Curriculum

Biological sciences

Levels F-2

Living things have a variety of external features and live in different places where their basic needs, including food, water and shelter, are met (VCSSU042)

Levels 3-4

Living things can be grouped on the basis of observable features and can be distinguished from non-living things ( VCSSU057)

Different living things have different life cycles and depend on each other and the environment to survive ( VCSSU058)

Levels 5-6

Living things have structural features and adaptations that help them to survive in their environment ( VCSSU074)

The growth and survival of living things are affected by the physical conditions of their environment ( VCSSU075)

Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework

Children have a strong sense of identity.

Children develop their emerging autonomy, inter-dependence, resilience and sense of agency

Children are connected with, and contribute to, their world.

Children become socially responsible and show respect for the environment

Children are effective communicators.

Children express ideas and make meaning using a range of media

Children are confident and involved learners.

Children develop dispositions for learning such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment enthusiasm, persistence, imagination and reflexivity

Children are confident and involved learners.

Children develop a range of skills and processes such as problem solving, inquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching and investigating.

Children are confident and involved learners.

Children transfer and adapt what they have learnt from one context to another

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Our questions form for this topic is now closed. Did you miss out on asking a question this time? Our Ask Us team can help connect your questions to museum experts. Suitable for Year Levels F-6 Listen to The Fact Detectives podcast with Museums Victoria's Tim Ziegler to learn all about what a palaeontologist does and why their work is so important.

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Dinosaurs Alive! (FULL IMAX movie - available for a limited time)

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Dinosaurs Alive! (FULL IMAX movie - available for a limited time)

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Educator's Guide Link: http://gsfd3d.com/dl.asp?id=1841

Giant Screen Films website: https://gsfilms.com/

Follow Giant Screen Films on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GSFD3D/

Dinosaurs Alive is a global adventure of science and discovery, reincarnating the earliest creatures of the Triassic to the monsters of the Cretaceous – life-sized and life-like. Audiences will marvel at these great creatures of the past brought roaring to life in 3D. Journey with renowned paleontologists as they hunt for fossilized clues buried in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert and Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, uncovering evidence that dinosaur descendants may still walk (or fly) among us today. Narrated by Michael Douglas.

Watch WILD OCEAN here: https://vimeo.com/401065415

Watch MUMMIES: SECRETS OF THE PHARAOHS here: https://vimeo.com/400675981

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Dinosaur walk virtual tour @ Melbourne Museum

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Dinosaur walk virtual tour @ Melbourne Museum

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Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

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Minibeasts activities - Museums Victoria

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Minibeasts activities - Museums Victoria

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The Planet Song - 8 Planets of the Solar System Song for Kids | KidsLearningTube

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Make your own hammered nature process art...

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This fun and easy printmaking project for kids uses hammered flowers and leaves to create naturally colorful process art.

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WATCH: Mars Cam Views from NASA Rover during Red Planet Exploration #Mars2020

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Finger puppets templates - for song-singing and storytelling

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Finger puppets templates - for song-singing and storytelling

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Nature colour wheel - scavenger hunt.pdf

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In our Early Explorers subscription, there's a dinosaur-themed month that we absolutely love. We want to share a fun, crafty way for you to add to the experience and learn about making dinosaur fossils! In this craft, we take easy-to-make salt dough and combine it with dinosaur toys to create your very own DIY dinosaur fossils.

Ingredients

1 cup salt

2 cups flour

3/4 cup water

dinosaur toys (small sizes are best)

How to Make Dinosaur Fossils

1. Combine salt, flour, and water in a small bowl or dish. Mix well until a soft dough forms.

Before mixing, we also enjoyed playing with our dinosaur toys upon "Salt and Flour Mountain" and discussing the habitats each kind of dinosaur would have lived in.

2. When the dough forms, pinch off small fistfuls and shape into flattened rounds similar in shape and size to a cookie. Press your dinosaur toy into the dough.

Tip: Some dinosaur toys, especially those with a long tail, are curved to show the dinosaur in action. Try pressing the dinosaur into the dough as evenly as you can at first, and then lift it up to see any areas that left a shallow mark. Press the toy down again into the dough, pushing harder on the shallow section so you get a better fossil.

3. Repeat step two with each dinosaur. The dough should yield about six fossil disks.

4. Bake at 200° Fahrenheit until your fossils are dry. The amount of time needed to bake depends on size and thickness. Thin, flat fossils may only take 45-60 minutes, and thicker fossils can take 2-3 hours or more.

Bring on the Science!

During this activity, natural questions may come up. If they don't, start a discussion using the questions below!

What are fossils?
Fossils are the preserved remains of ancient life, found as rock in the Earth's crust.

How are fossils formed?
When an organism dies, its body begins to decompose. Fossils form when the body gets buried by sediment (sand, mud, or silt) before it completely decomposes. Layers of sediment build up, and the pressure turns the layers into rock. Behold, a fossil!

How do we know what dinosaurs looked like?
Paleontologists can determine what dinosaurs may have looked like by studying their fossils. Some fossils include bone parts, which show paleontologists what dinosaur skeletons looked like. Other fossils include footprints, which tell paleontologists how dinosaurs moved around.

Let's play!

Pretend you're a paleontologist. Bury your dinosaur fossils in a sandbox, then dig them up! If your child enjoyed this activity, they'll love our Early Explorers subscription!

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How to Make Dinosaur Fossils Using Salt Dough - Little Passports

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In our Early Explorers subscription, there's a dinosaur-themed month that we absolutely love. We want to share a fun, crafty way for you to add to the experience and learn about making dinosaur fossils! In this craft, we take easy-to-make salt dough and combine it with dinosaur toys to create your very own DIY dinosaur fossils.

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Ready for a fantastic crafting session with your kids or students? We have a ton of engaging art and craft for kids to make and you'll find ideas for all ages and for all occasions.

We have hundreds of easy to make ideas with simple step by step tutorials you and your kids will easily follow. From the simple no - prep crafts that take minutes to make (and are perfect for the classroom) to engaging paper crafts that both you and your kids or students will fall in love with.

Our aim is to make crafting fun and frugal - with supplies most households already have at hand (or won't cost you a fortune). What ages are these crafts suitable for? We have ideas for all age ranges, you will find many easy projects toddlers can make, crafts simple enough for preschoolers to do at home or in preschool, kids in kindergarten will be able to make most of our crafting projects and there is a ton of projects for older kids and kids at heart (yes, you will enjoy quite a few of these too!).

Some of our Latest Projects:

Sections we'll cover

Seasons

Holidays

Other themes

By Material (animals, vehicles...)

Kids Crafts Ideas by Seasons

Spring - a wonderful selection of frugal and fun spring themed crafts for kids to make.

Summer - great project ideas to make with your kids during summer break

Fall - lots of easy project using both store bought crafting materials as well as materials from nature

Winter - easy ideas to make during cold winter days when you are stuck inside

Crafting Through the Holidays and Celebrations

Our collection of holiday and celebration crafts is growing each year as we try to cover as many holidays (that we are familiar with) as we can. There's nothing quite like having a creative crafting session with your kids during the holidays as it's a great bonding experience as well as a great way to make memories.

Valentines Day is perfect time of the year to make heart and love inspired crafts with your kids.

Our St. Patrick's ideas are focused around clovers and rainbows.

Easter crafts to do with children - we have many bunnies, sheep and Easter eggs. Fun, fun, fun!

Father's day crafts for kids will make any dad proud.

Other Fun themes for Crafts for Kids

Vehicles (soon)

People (soon)

Dinosaurs (soon)

Space (soon)

Kids Crafts Ideas by Popular Materials

There is a variety of materials you can use when crafting with kids, we think frugal or recycled are the best.

Crafting with Paper Plates

There is a whole section of paper plate craft ideas on our website (and we constantly add new cool projects to make with your kids). Paper plates are really frugal which makes them a great crafting material for classroom crafts or for crafting at home. There are a million and one ways you can make wonderful crafts.

See our collection of our favorite paper plate craft ideas here.

Some of our latest paper plate crafts for kids:

Origami Paper

You can turn a sheet of ordinary paper into an origami in no time, and even if you use regular origami paper this is still one of the more frugal crafting materials around. Origami are great for kids to make, as they help develop fine motor skills, patience and are fun to make above all.

Check our section of origami ideas for kids and beginners and our origami bookmark designs, something we are especially fond on.

Here are a few of our latest origami projects:

Paper Rolls - Crafting With Toilet Paper Rolls, Paper Kitchen Towel Rolls and similar

Toilet paper roll crafts, we use this term for all kinds of paper rolls, you can even buy sterile crafting rolls in craft shops if you are not comfortable using toilet paper rolls, or cut the paper kitchen towel roll to smaller rolls. There are many cool things you can make by using paper rolls and boy do we have a few ideas for you!

Some of our latest craft ideas for kids using toilet paper rolls:

Rock Arts and Crafts for Kids

Another wonderful material to get creative with are rocks. If you live near a river you can go on a rock hunt on your next nature walk. If that is not an option most craft stores (and dollar stores) will have rocks available for crafting.

Why should you craft with kids? Benefits? What about creativity?

Crafts can be fun! But they might not be for every child. Not everyone is crafty or has interest in crafting and that is absolutely OK.

Crafts and craft tutorials can be followed to a dot, or be taken as inspiration and a base for a open ended creative session.

You make crafts suit you! Some kids enjoy following tutorials and making a project that resembles the "original" - which usually results in a sense of pride, while others are more inclined to take their own route and create something completely different. All is OK and should be encouraged. Usually people see arts as more open ended and crafts as end product based, but we think crafts can be open ended too, and even if they are not, there is place for both in this word as the thing that matters most, is taking the time to do something together with the kids and making memories.

Crafting with kids has it's benefits. It's good for coordination, coloring crafts help with pencil grip, hand coordination, most crafts for kids are great for fine motor coordination. Making crafts helps build self-confidence, especially when it comes to easy crafts. Most important benefit in my opinion, and this one stands beyond all is bonding.

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Crafts For Kids - Tons of Art and Craft Ideas for Kids to Make

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Time to get crafty with these arts and crafts for kids - tons of crafting ideas for home and classroom (toddlers, preschool, kindergarten and beyond)

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We love active indoor games, especially when the weather is not cooperating to play outside. The kids loved jumping and running inside. Our simple shape hopscotch game is a fun way to work on gross motor skills along side color and shape recognition.

I love this simple Indoor Shape Toss Game from Learn Play Imagine. Instead of tape for our shapes, we used colored paper. The kids had so much fun jumping, twirling and hopping through the shape maze!

Shape Hopscotch Game:

I cut 6 different easily recognizable paper shapes ~ Orange stars, yellow circles, red squares, green ovals, purple squares, and blue triangles.

Tape the colored shapes to the floor with painters tape.

The object of our simple game was move and learn while having lots of fun. Mission accomplished. The kids had no idea that they were working on important skills like color and shape recognition.

I encouraged the kids jump, wiggle, twirl and hop through the shapes. Here are a few of the kids favorite ways to make it though the shape maze:

Hop from one side to the other only touching one color/shape.

Have one kids call out colors or shapes that the other kid raced to find.

Jump across the shapes following directions like..."jump 2 shapes to the right"

This simple indoor activity was a great way to get the kids moving and learning.

For more indoor games for kids, check out our:
Finger Knitted Jump Rope Cup stacking Balloon Racing Elastic Band Launchers

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We love active indoor games, especially when the weather is not cooperating to play outside. The kids loved jumping and running inside. Our simple shape hopscotch game is a fun way to work on gross motor skills along side color and shape recognition. I love this simple Indoor Shape Toss Game from Learn Play Imagine.

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Story symbols - use this to tell/retell stories

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Story symbols - use this to tell/retell stories

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This HOMEMADE PUFFY PAINT recipe is easy to make with just 3 ingredients: self-rising flour, salt and water. Paint your picture, put it in the microwave, and it puffs right up! Your kids will love it!
Homemade puffy paint is fun and easy to make, and it doubles as a wonderful art process for kids AND a cool science experiment. You just need a microwave and a few kitchen ingredients to make it.

You know I LOVE homemade paint recipes and easy science activities. Homemade puffy paint fits the bill perfectly!

Puffy paint is an easy and inexpensive alternative to buying storebought puffy paint for your preschoolers. It's fun to paint and create with, and the best part is watching your artwork puff right up when you place it in the microwave!
See us making it here:
A printable recipe can be found at the bottom of this post.

Homemade Puffy Paint Ingredients:
For your conviencience, this post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
How to Make Self-Rising Flour

If you don't have self-rising flour, you can make your own by mixing together the following ingredients.

1 cup all purpose flour

1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1. Combine flour and salt in a small bowl.

2. Add a bit of water and stir until you get a smooth, thin paste (about the same consistency of stirred yogurt).

3. Add your food colouring, and mix well.

Our puff paint sat for a bit while we walked to the school bus, and it thickened up again, so I just added a few drops of water to thin it back to the yogurt consistency.

Get some sturdy cardstock or thin cardboard, and some paintbrushes or q-tips, and get creating!

Magically transform it in your microwave:

Now for the science!

When you're happy with your masterpiece, pop it into the microwave for 30 seconds and watch your painting puff up!

Your artwork will be warm when you remove it from the microwave, but it will be completely set.

Ta daaa...

Aren't these paints remarkable?

What a fun art/science activity to do with your kids!

See our Puffy Paint Valentines here and our Puffy Paint Earth Day craft here!

3-Ingredient Homemade Puffy Paint

More cool art ideas for kids
Starry Night with Melted Crayons Wax Resist Art Salt, Glue and Watercolour Art Sharpies and Rubbing Alcohol Art Marbleized Shaving Cream Art
Puffy Finger Paint with Shaving Cream and Glue - Skip to my Lou

Get the 3-5 Playful Preschool e-Book!

25+preschool activities, 10 printables, 50 links to activities not featured in the book all for $8.99 until Download your copy today:

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Make homemade puffy paint with 3 kitchen ingredients! It puffs right up in the microwave. Get the easy Recipe here.

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If there is one thing I know from the past 5 years of my life, it is name activities for preschoolers! In the classroom and in my home, learning names has been front and center. When children start learning letters, the very best place to start is with their names. After that, I like to teach the letters in the order I chat about in this post: Teaching letter recognition.
Learning letters is important, but there are 7 other critical skills little ones need to know before they can learn to read! But don't worry - they are all super fun and can be learned through play!
But always, always, always we start with a little ones name. Those letters are awfully important and hold a lot of meaning. There are so many fun ways to practice a name too. SO many.

As in, 45 ways were super easy to find.

So for those of you with little ones just on the cusp of learning letters, these activities are just for you (well, I suppose for your little ones, it might be a little odd for you to do on your own. But hey, whatever blows your hair back friends, no judgements here.)

I bring you 45 Awesome Name Activities for 3 and 4 year olds (or anyone else interested ...)

Name Hockey - My youngest loves playing hockey, so I thought this was a fun way to bring in some name practice.

A Year Full of Name Puzzles - Name puzzles for every season! I love how these puzzles can be adapted to different holidays, seasons, and interests.

Name in a Jar - Take the kids on a name-based scavenger hunt around the house or out in nature.

Building a Name - A real hands-on activity as kids use blocks to make a name tower.

Name Books for Preschool and Kindergarten from Fun-A-Day - Use simple materials to make books all about the children's names!

Foaming Names from Fun-A-Day - Kids can turn their names into a colorful, foaming science experiment!

Marshmallow Names from Fun-A-Day - What a fun way to make tactile name art together!

Rainbow Name Puzzles from Still Playing School - Explore the colors of the rainbow while learning letters and names.

Easy Toddler Name Art from Learn with Play at Home - This tape resist name art encourages creativity while working on name recognition.

Painted Name Rocks from Mama.Papa.Bubba - There's just something about rocks that most kids love, so why not make them into names!?

Name Activity Using Toy Cars from Buggy and Buddy - Make letter roadways for favorite toy cars to travel on while children explore their names.

Clothesline Names from Pre-K Pages - What a fun fine motor or pretend play activity using children's names!

Leaf Name Game from The Pleasantest Thing - This would be perfect with the changes of the seasons, especially when the leaves are falling.

Crystal Names from Playdough to Plato - Kids can "grow" their own names with this science experiment!

Squirt Their Name from Hands-On: As We Grow - Get outside, make some fizzy paint, and then paint names on the driveway or sidewalk.

DIY Name Stamps from Preschool Inspirations - Kids can use these name stamps in play dough or with paint, all the while exploring the letters in their names.

Glue and Watercolor Names from Happy Hooligans - Take the classic salt, glue, and watercolor art to another level with kids' names.

Button Worm Apple Name from Fantastic Fun and Learning - Kids thread the "worm" through the apple letters to make their names.

Name Practice with Play Dough from Stay at Home Educator - Play dough always provides endless opportunities for playful learning!

Toddler Art Name from Love, Play, Learn - A fun and meaningful way to paint with letters and names.

Build Your Name Sensory Soup from Sugar Aunts - Grab some letters from the "soup", then stick them together to make names.

Mouse Shapes Learn to Spell Your Name Activity from Growing Book by Book - Love how this book-inspired activity can easily be adapted depending on the child.

My Sticker Name Activity from My Nearest and Dearest - Focus a child's love of stickers on creating her name!

Pop That Name from Coffee Cups and Crayons - Kids can use their little fingers to pop bubble wrap names.

Spring Flowers Name Activity from Stir the Wonder - Decorate doors and windows with these interactive name flowers the kids can put up, take down, and rearrange.

Our Names in Watercolor from Teach Preschool - Simple, colorful way to practice writing names with young children.

Clothespin Dinosaur Names from Play to Learn Preschool - Dinosaur-loving kids will get a kick out making their names become part of these dinos.

Name Bowling from School Time Snippets - Put together a miniature bowling kit focused on names, and let the kids knock down the letters in their names.

Name Practice Water Game from Inspiration Laboratories - The would be fun in the backyard during the summer! Using the garden hose as a learning tool!

Name and Sight Word Smash from I Can Teach My Child - Smash some baked cotton ball names!

Preschool Name Puzzles from Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds - Children mix and match letter cards to learn how to make their names.

Clothespin Name Recognition Activity from Munchkins and Moms - Kids manipulate letters as they make their names. The picture is such a nice addition!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Name Craft from Toddler Approved - Let children make a name craft based on a well-loved children's book.

Textured Names from In the Playroom - Grab different materials to make multi-textured name art with the kids.

Letter Name Game from The Domestic Notebook - Such a fun way to create names while sending "letters" and playing postman.

Name Search Activity and Printable from Mom Inspired Life - Kids get to be detectives and search for their names using this free printable.

Spell Your Name Game from No Time for Flash Cards - Grab some dice and pompoms to challenge the kids to this name activity.

Craft Stick Name Puzzle from Frugal Fun for Boys - Children add their artistic touch to a simple craft stick puzzle about their names.

Alphabet Fishing Name Spelling from This Reading Mama - Children go fishing for the letters of their name with this engaging activity.

Name Web Preschool Lacing Activity from School Time Snippets - New sewers will get a kick out of making this name web.

Ladybug Names from Here Come the Girls - What a fun way to turn shells into name learning materials.

Building My Name from Rainy Day Mum - Encourage children to use various shapes to engineer their names.

Rainbow Names from Mamas Like Me - Delve into colors, textures, and scents with this simple name activity.

Straw Name Collag e from Childcare Land - Kids can use bits of straws to make their names.

Rainbow Name Bottles from Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds - Add another dimension to sensory bottles with kids' names. Perfect for games of I-Spy!

Loads of ideas, right? Hope you find a few that are just right for you and your little ones.

We are in the midst of a doozy of a snowstorm right now. Our power has been on and off, as has our internet. So should it happen to get a little quiet around here over the next couple of days you'll know why. And if it stays quiet longer than a couple of days ... please SEND COFFEE. I am running dangerously low.

Hope you are staying warm friends, thank you for being here.

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45 Awesome Name Activities for Preschoolers! - How Wee Learn

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If there is one thing I know from the past 5 years of my life, it is name activities for preschoolers! In the classroom and in my home, learning names has been front and center. When children start learning letters, the very best place to start is with their names.

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Insects ABC | Animal ABC | Learn the alphabet with Insects and Bugs | Club Baboo

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Choice chambers are an investigative method used to study animal behaviour and to determine the favoured conditions for a habitat.

It is a very simple investigation to set up and one that kids loves at it involves searching for insects, and then predicting and watching.

The living organism that we chose to study were woodlice as they are easy to find.

We decided to investigate whether woodlice

prefer damp or dry conditions

dark or light conditions

A minimum of 5 woodlice

A collection pot

Two dishes with lids

Filter paper (I just used coffee filter paper)

Dark or black paper

A pen/scissors

1. In your collection pot, put in some soil and dried leaves. Start looking under stones and bricks for some woodlice and put them in the pot. Make sure it is deep as woodlice ae very good climbers and we had a few escapees! This is just to keep them happy when not under investigation as we do not want to put them under undue stress.

2. Draw around the lid of your pot onto the filter paper

3. Cut it out and fold in half.

4. Wet it and place it one side of the pot.

5. Add your woodlice and over time see which side they prefer over time (about 5 minutes to let them acclimatise to their surroundings). The side that has the most of all of the woodlice is the side they prefer.

6. You can then repeat this experiment using the dark paper to block out one side of the lid to see whether they prefer dark or light conditions.

7. You could also see if you can carry this out with other insects.

Please be sure to return the insects to the place you found them.

Have Fun

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Choice chambers are an investigative method used to study animal behaviour and to determine the favoured conditions for a habitat. It is a very simple investigation to set up and one that kids loves at it involves searching for insects, and then predicting and watching.

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All you need is a base plate and a handful of basic bricks. Make it as easy or complicated as your imagination wants. It is so fun to build a LEGO marble run and it is a perfect example of a STEM activity using basic bricks. Combine design and engineering for a STEM idea that will provide hours of fun and laughs! We love simple LEGO building ideas!

Make A Kids Marble Run

You don't need a giant collection of bricks to build a marble run or marble maze, but you do need a marble or two. Build it simple or build it extreme, but don't lose your marbles over it!

This Lego marble run is so easy to build and super fun to play with for quite a few ages, at least 5 to 70 to be exact!

Of course you can also make a marble run or marble maze with cardboard tubes, pool noodles, or a paper plate! A magnet maze is a fun alternative to try!

What Is STEM For Kids?

STEM sounds complicated, but it isn't! Once you get how science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) mingle, you can see how it applies to so many of the science and STEM activities you already love.

The best STEM activities encourage your kids to use at least 3 of the 4 pillars of the STEM acronym (science, technology, engineering, and math) to tackle their projects head-on, challenge what they know, and build character. The lessons STEM can teach our kids are priceless!

Have you played around with science with your kiddos? If you haven't, you are in for a real treat. And if you have, you already know how much fun STEM activities are...

Unlock your kids' curiosity, and spark their inner inventor! The world of science and STEM is AMAZING with these hands-on science experiments and STEM activities!

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to share STEM with your kids. We have everything you need: simple-to-follow activities, low-prep ideas, easy-to-digest science information, and inexpensive supplies.

Helpful STEM Resources To Get You Started

Here are a few resources to help you introduce STEM more effectively to your kiddos or students and feel confident when presenting materials. You'll find helpful free printables throughout.

Extension: Turn It Into A STEM Project

If you want to extend the activity as part of a STEM lesson for older kids, you can have them research design ideas and draw a preliminary design before they start building. Is their marble run design possible? Does it need some tweaking?

You can also set out additional mini-challenges for kids who have built marble runs already and need a greater challenge when it comes to designing a marble run.

Also, if you have several base plates handy, can the kids build a mega LEGO marble run?

Fun Marble Run Variations

Here are some additional marble run challenges to try or elements to add:

Include a set amount of turns the marble must make before it reaches the finish line.

Create a tunnel or other feature the marble must travel through.

Build a ramp for the marble to go up and back down again.

Add in a door for the marble to roll through.

Create obstacles the marble must avoid.

DIY Marble Run

Instructions:

Now grab your pieces and let's get started! The key to success is to make sure the marble can fit everywhere you want it to fit!

The best way to start your LEGO marble run is to build a frame around the outside of the baseplate leaving two holes, one for the start and one for the finish. Use your marble to measure as you go!

Add a piece, remove a piece, you might find a corner too tight for the marble to roll through, so you will need to rethink the design and change it around!

It can become a really cool problem-solving activity. You could make just one path that will work to get to the finish, or you can make several!

Simple LEGO building ideas are my favorite, there are so many creative ways to play, explore and learn with LEGO!

More Fun LEGO Building Ideas To Try

Make sure to also check out our free printable LEGO building challenges! There are tons of cool themes and topics to choose from!

Printable Brick Building Pack

Don't want to bother checking out every link 👆, grab the huge brick bundle instead. Make it easy on yourself.
Visit the SHOP for the huge LEGO and brick building pack!

10O+ Brick theme learning activities in an e-book guide using the bricks you have on hand! Activities include literacy, math, science, art, STEM, and more!

A complete year of Brick themed seasonal and holiday challenges and task cards

100+ page of The Unofficial Guide to Learning with LEGO ebook and materials

Brick Building Early learning pack filled with letters, numbers, and shapes!

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All you need are a few bricks to make your own LEGO marble run. Hours of fun with a DIY marble run for kids.

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Build Batman's vehicle with this cool LEGO rubber band car for a book inspired STEM project! This month we were invited to participate in a storybook STEM challenge series. Although, I had initially thought that I needed to choose a book specifically about STEM, I realized any book provides the same kind of opportunity for learning including our beginner Batman book collection. My son wanted to make Batman's bat mobile out of LEGO, and we have always wanted to try building a LEGO rubber band car!

How To Build A LEGO Rubber Band Car!

LEGO BATMAN CAR

Find out how to turn the Batmobile into a LEGO rubber band car with this fun STEM project. Your favorite book can also be a great STEM activity!
Looking for easy to print activities, and inexpensive problem-based challenges? We have you covered... Click below to get your quick and easy STEM challenges.
You can build a more complex LEGO rubber band car or a simple one! Either way it moves!

BUILD A LEGO RUBBER BAND CAR

YOU WILL NEED:

LEGO Pieces

LEGO Crazy Action Contraptions Set {If you don't have a supply of technic pieces, this is a great inexpensive set with lots of fun ideas}

Rubber Bands

LEGO Batman {or other superheroes}

Batman Books {these are a few of our favorites}

PIECES USED TO MAKE BAT MOBILE:

You can see in the two pictures below some of the simple pieces we used to create this LEGO rubber band car and bat mobile.

2 axels

4 wheels

1 flat piece with holes that spans the width of your car

2 long bricks with holes in them to make the sides of the car.

The two important pieces for the rubber band car are the gray piece on the axel show below and the black peg in the blue piece shown below. Use your imagination for the building the rest of the car!

You do not have to use the exact pieces below. The key points to remember are having two fixed points. The fixed point on the axel must not spin freely, it must be on their tightly. Otherwise the rubber band can not wind up properly or release properly.

You can turn the black wheel of your LEGO rubber band car to wind it up or you can pull it back on the floor to wind it up! Let it go and see how far it travels.

LEGO balloon cars are also a neat project to try!

HOW TO MAKE A RUBBER BAND CAR GO FAR
Turn this activity into an experiment by building different size cars or trying out different length rubber bands. Find out which car will go the furthermost. Use a tape measure to record the distances traveled by each!
This is a nice simple model for a young child to explore making a LEGO rubber band car. He could easily manipulate it with his fingers. For more fun fine motor and science based practice our icy superhero rescue activity!

Next he's hoping to make a flying LEGO bat thingy. I am sure we can figure something out! We have also used our favorite superheroes to make a computer-free coding game for STEM.

Have you ever thought about taking your kid's favorite book or book character and adding a STEM challenge to it?

This is a wonderful way to encourage kid led learning. For us, this was also a fun family activity for an afternoon. Daddy built a pretty cool bat mobile too!

LEGO Rubber Band Car for Superhero Book Inspired STEM Project

Click on the picture below or on the link for fun STEM projects for kids.
Looking for easy to print activities, and inexpensive problem-based challenges? We have you covered... Click below to get your quick and easy STEM challenges.

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Build Batman's vehicle with this cool LEGO rubber band car for a book inspired STEM project! This month we were invited to participate in a storybook STEM challenge series. Although, I had initially thought that I needed to choose a book specifically about STEM, I realized any book provides the same kind of opportunity for learning including our beginner Batman book collection.

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25 easy pretend play ideas with pictures

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25 easy pretend play ideas with pictures

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{ Hello! If you are checking us out for the first time and like what you see you can subscribe here and get new ideas to play and learn with your kids daily. }

Pretend play is one of the essential preschool activities for children. When I would meet a new student who did not know how to engage in pretend play my heart would sink and immediately I'd run through all my ideas in my head to see which would spark their interest and open the door to a world of limitless possibilities. That is what pretend play is, but that isn't why it's so important. Kids aren't just living in what many adults would call a fantasy world, instead most of their play has deep roots in reality, and it offers them a chance to practice social situations, adult roles and even play out fears and anxiety in a safe place.

See why it's so important?

Still starting this journey can be hard for families so below I have some easy to set up scenarios and easy to make props serve as launching pads. Don't make the boundaries too rigid, just use these ideas to set the scene and let your child run with it, you sit back and play along. There is no need for specific goals - just play. Trust me they are learning more than we think they are.

These are just our favorites. Browse through all our Pretend Play Ideas Here.
What does your child like to pretend to be?

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Hello! If you are checking us out for the first time and like what you see you can subscribe here and get new ideas to play and learn with your kids daily. } Pretend play is one of the essential preschool activities for children.

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Do your kids like to stack blocks into tall, gravity-defying towers?

Ever try to stack liquids without letting them mix?

It's easy and oh-so-cool! You just need a little chemistry know-how and a steady hand.

In this article I'll show you how you and your kids can stack seven liquids into a rainbow of layers, one on top of the other, without mixing them.

It looks like magic, but it's not-it's science!

Why Stack Liquids?

It's important to teach kids basic scientific concepts so they'll understand how the world around them works.

When you make it fun or exciting or even jaw-droppingly awesome, you capture kids' attention, pique their curiosity and make them want to learn more.

Stacking liquids achieves all three. And when you do it together with your kids, you make it an adventure!
Science Secret-Density
So, let's start with the science: This experiment is based on density. Think of this experiment like a liquid burrito.

Density measures how much mass is contained in a given unit volume (Density = Mass / Volume). Fancy words, but what do they mean?

Think of mass as the measure of how much stuff there is in an object or liquid.

Volume is the portion or how much there is of the object (for example 8 ounces [237 ml]).

Density is a measure of how tightly that stuff is packed together.

If the weight or mass of something increases, but the volume remains the same, the density has to increase. Likewise, if the mass decreases but the volume stays the same, the density has to go down.

Lighter liquids like water or rubbing alcohol are less dense or have less "stuff" packed into them. Denser liquids like honey have more "stuff" packed into them.

Learn more about mass, volume and density by viewing this presentation.

Now that you understand density, let's make stripes.
You Will Need

Clear glass cylinder (vase, jar, water glass, etc.)

Food coloring

Food baster

7 plastic cups

Light corn syrup

Water

Vegetable oil

Dawn dish soap (blue)

Rubbing alcohol

Lamp oil (select a cool color like red)

Honey

Scale (optional)

Preparation Time
About 15 minutes
Activity Time
20-30 minutes and a lot of patience
Location
Kitchen table or a flat surface that is easy to clean up

Here's a quick video to show you what we're going to do:

Watch this video to see how the density column experiment works, then do the experiment with your family.

Watch with your kids to see how it's done, then read on for step-by-step instructions.

#1: Measure and Color

Measure each type of liquid into one of the seven plastic cups. We used 8 ounces of each. Depending on the size of your glass container, you may need more or less of each liquid. The key is to use the same amount of each while also filling up the container.

Color the corn syrup, the rubbing alcohol and the water different colors for dramatic effect. You can also leave them clear but the layers won't stand out as strongly. If you want to see all of the stripes, color those three ingredients.

#2: Pour

You will layer the liquids in this order, starting at the bottom of the cylinder and working to the top:

1. Honey - yellow/gold

2. Corn syrup - we dyed ours red

3. Dish soap - blue

4. Water - colorless (dye it a color if you'd like)

5. Vegetable oil - pale yellow

6. Rubbing alcohol - we dyed ours green

7. Lamp oil - We used red

Honey: Start the column by pouring the honey into the cylinder. Pour the honey into the center of the cylinder being very careful not to touch the sides while pouring.

It's very important to let each layer settle before adding the next one. Take your time and pour slowly and carefully.

Corn syrup: Next, layer the corn syrup (we dyed ours red). Pour it carefully and slowly in the middle and don't let it touch the sides.

Dish soap: Repeat the same procedure for the dish soap. Pour the soap directly into the middle of the layer of corn syrup and take your time pouring.

#3: Trickle Down

There's a secret to stacking the less-dense liquids without mixing them...

Water: For the water layer, you will need to use the food baster (Ta-dah!). From this point forward, it's okay to let the liquids touch the sides. In fact, it's a must!

Dip the food baster into the water in the cup, squeeze the bulb and draw up some water.

Rest the tip of the baster on the inside wall of the cylinder and slowly squeeze the bulb. Let the water slowly trickle down the glass to create the third layer.

Vegetable oil: If you colored your water, rinse the food baster and fill it with the vegetable oil. Again, use the inside wall of the glass and let the oil trickle down the side.

Rubbing Alcohol: Since the oil will stick to the insides, wash the food baster with soap and water before you fill it with the rubbing alcohol. Use it and the inside wall to dribble the next layer.

Again, rinse the food baster and congratulate yourself. You are one layer away from a seven-layer science burrito.

Lamp oil: Draw up the lamp oil in the food baster and keep your finger over the tip while you transport it to the cylinder. Finally, use the glass wall and the baster to fill your last layer.

Caution: Since lamp oil is flammable, you must do this final layer away from any open flames.

Take a bow and a big sigh of relief. Now, give each other a hug. You've done it!

How did your stripes turn out? Be sure to take a picture!

Caution: You may make this in a drinking glass, but make sure your kids do not take a drink of this experiment!

You can make a three-color density column that IS safe to drink, using different ingredients.

#4: Take it Further

If you want to create an even cooler science burrito, go on a scavenger hunt to find a few items around your house like a safety pin, key, staple, peanut, raisin, chocolate chip, small rubber bouncy ball, ping pong ball, etc.

Carefully drop each item into the center of the cylinder. Some items will stay near the top, others will sink part or all of the way down.

How Does it Work?

By understanding the science of density, we know the same amount or volume of two different liquids will have different weights, because they have different masses. The liquids that weigh more (have a higher density) will sink below the liquids that weigh less (have a lower density).

To test this yourselves, you can set up a scale and measure each of the liquids that you poured into your column.

Make sure that you measure the weights of equal portions of each liquid. You should find that the weights of the liquids correspond to each different layer of liquid. For example, the honey will weigh more than the corn syrup.

If you dropped objects into the column, observe the different densities of the liquids versus the different densities of the objects.

If the layer of a liquid is more dense than the object itself, the object stays on top of that liquid. If the layer of liquid is less dense than the object, the object sinks through that layer until it meets a liquid layer that is dense enough to hold it up.

Some Final Thoughts ...

Encourage your kids to ask questions and test new liquids and objects. Do all brands of lamp oils exhibit the same characteristics or densities? What about corn syrup or vegetable oil? We smell the beginnings of a great science fair experiment.

In our experiments, we've also observed some of the layers switch places after the column sits for a few days. The layers of vegetable oil and rubbing alcohol switch places. The rubbing alcohol moves below the vegetable oil, indicating that the density changed. We are not exactly sure why the change occurred.

And remember the next time you are drinking iced tea, you will know why the ice cubes float. It's all about density.

What do you think? We want to see your Liquid Layer Science Burrito. Share your family's success story of the liquids you stacked and how many. Who can stack more than seven?

Tags: density column, density experiment, density project, density science, indoor activity, indoor experiment, indoor project, liquid burrito, science experiment, science project, steve spangler, steve spangler science

About the Author, Steve Spangler

Steve Spangler is an author, teacher, toy designer, Emmy award-winning television personality and creator of a huge soda mess. His appearances on television demonstrate his passion for making learning fun. Other posts by Steve Spangler "

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How to Stack Liquids in a Rainbow of Layers: A Fun Kid Science Project

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Do your kids like to stack blocks into tall, gravity-defying towers? Ever try to stack liquids without letting them mix? It's easy and oh-so-cool! You just need a little chemistry know-how and a steady hand. In this article I'll show you how you and your kids can stack seven liqui

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Spring is finally here...sort of. Despite the fact that it is still chilly outside, spring has sprung at the Curious Kindergarten! This year, the children were particularly excited about the arrival of spring - doing their own countdown in the days leading up to March 20th. When the first day of spring arrived, some children were naturally disappointed that when they woke up that morning there was still snow on the ground, a chill in the air, and a winter jacket to wear to school. We wanted to latch on to the children's natural excitement about the changes that were still ahead, so we created a "Spring Inspiration" table at our classroom science table.
Above: Birds nests, birds, eggs, and early spring plants inspire the children's thinking around the creatures we have already observed in our Outdoor Classroom. Above: Insects, a bug house, planting supplies, animals, and non-fiction books about spring changes help the children envision what they might begin to see and do outside now that the weather is changing. Above: These fairies and garden gnomes were a huge hit, providing ample opportunities for dramatic play, storytelling, and the development of ideas around how creatures respond to the changes outside.
The question we have been asking leading up to spring (and after) is: "When you dream of spring, what does it look like?" In order to support the children's thinking, we have been reading a lot of books (both fiction and non-fiction) about spring and engaging in visualization exercises. Many of our classroom activities have been designed to help the children communicate their thinking in a variety of ways. For example, at the playdough table we created a provocation with green dough and spring-themed loose parts (mushrooms, flowers, butterflies, stones, wood chips, etc.) in which the children created their own "spring scenes." At the writing table, children have been encouraged to write their own poems about spring, and at the art studio, children were given the opportunity to paint a still-life portrait of a tulip.
M.F. and M.B. created a collaborative drawing that tells their story of spring creatures. "Hello Spring" is a poem written by one of our JK students at the writing table.
What an exciting time! It really does feel like there has been a "spring awakening" happening in our classroom. How have you marked the arrival of spring with your students? What kinds of inquiries and ideas are you talking about?

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Outdoor Classroom - The Curious Kindergarten

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Posts about Outdoor Classroom written by msmcdonell

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49 things you've got to do in nature before you turn 5

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49 things you've got to do in nature before you turn 5

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Develops mathematics as well as fine and gross motor skills. Could also help with recognition of colours, numbers, shapes and letters.

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Sorting activities make the best toddler games.

Sorting activities are some of my favorite toddler activities. I'd go all out and say they are my favorite favorite, but I do love me some messy sensory play too. Hold the phone: someone make me a messy sensory sorting activity. My head would spin.

Oops, I've digressed, haven't I?

Sorting activities. The Cadillac of Toddler Activities. Why do I love sorting activities so much? Because they have so much bang for their buck. They take seconds to prep and you get tons of learning (and concentrating quiet time) in return.

Here, I'll show you...

Here's my sales pitch on sorting activities

Sorting is a math skill and one of the first that our kids can master. When a child sorts objects, they are analyzing data, finding relationships among objects, and applying rules to groups.

They are also thinking logically and critically about a given set. It may seem like an easy skill, but sorting is so very much more.

I try to do at least one sorting activity every day with my toddler - whether it's pasta sorting or color sorting.

Check out these easy activities!

I've come up with 8 super simple to set up, super easy to put together sorting activities.

Perfect for busy moms with busy kids living busy lives. I promise - these sorting activities will be easy on you, but the learning return with be great for your tot.
Each activity title is linked to a full blog post for more information on that specific sorting activity.
MAGNET SORT: Sorting magnetic vs. non-magnetic items in this simple STEM sorting activity.

OBJECT SORT: Sorting activities often come back to color so I took that variable out with a "like objects" sort of all blue items.

PUZZLE SORT: Dump, mix, and have your kids sort back out their favorite puzzles. This is a tough one (in a good way)!

ABC LETTER SORT: AKA what to do with all those alphabet pieces from all the puzzles and games you own...

BEAN SORT: Sorting out a bowl of beans is one of my favorite quiet sorting activities.

PLAYING CARD SORT: Playing cards invites sorting by color, suit and number - the sorting possibilities abound!

Sticker Sort: Grab those dot stickers - this is one of my all time favorite ways to sort!

SORTING & GRAPHING:You can take sorting up a notch by turning it into a simple toddler graph... seems tricky but it's actually a breeze!

Sorting is a powerful skill and one that is easily mastered at home with simple, easy to prep activities. You'll feel like Wonder Parent with all the learning from sorting activities like these.

What are your favorite sorting activities?

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8 Simple Sorting Activities for Toddlers - Busy Toddler

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Sorting activities are some of my favorite toddler activities. I'd go all out and say they are my favorite favorite, but I do love me some messy sensory play too. Hold the phone: someone make me a messy sensory sorting activity. My head would spin. Oops, I've digressed, haven't I?

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"Emotions" - StoryBots Super Songs Episode 8 | Netflix Jr

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I have collected these visual activity cards and timetables to use if you want to give your child a clear idea of the routine at home and the sequence of activities to do. Knowing the day's plan will help children anticipate what's coming next, which will reduce their anxiety and helps them develop a sense of structure.

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Engage in a conversation with your child about the upcoming ANZAC Day and why we're observing it. This is also a chance to explore the stamping technique in visual arts which promotes their fine motor skills.

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War is a tricky subject to broach with little kids, but teaching kids about the symbols of remembrance is a good starting point. The red poppy flower, or a field of red poppies, is one of those symbols.

In Australia we observe Anzac Day on 25th April and Remembrance Day on 11th November (which is Veteran's Day in the US).

Last Anzac Day we made these poppy paintings as a way to help our kids learn about, and commemorate, our fallen heroes.

Poppy paintings

JJ (5.5 years old), Bee (3.5 years old) and I worked alongside each other, working on our projects partly individually, partly collaborating, as is usual in our household.

We started by painting a blue and green background layer using watercolours. We use a watercolour wheel stack like this one (<- aff link*). I find watercolours are great for painting backgrounds as they are quick to dry, and provide a subtle pastel background image which makes any bright colours we add later to really stand out. We painted two sets, because JJ and I had different ideas that we wanted to try.

Related: You may recognise this watercolour background technique from when we did our Aussie bottlebrush paintings.

Once the watercolours were dry (which only took a minute), we moved onto the next layer, using brighter acrylic paints. The acrylic we use look similar to these (<- aff link*).

JJ wanted to try painting poppies with a paintbrush. She painted the black centres first, washed her brush, and then painted red petals around the outside.

The first few poppies looked great, but with the next few she had difficulty preventing the black paint from mixing with the red. We talked about how she could have waited until the black paint was dry before adding the red layer. (We've been learning about layering paintings to achieve particular results and prevent others, and so this was a great way for her to see this for herself).

Meanwhile, Bee and I started painting red circles with a water bottle lid from the recycling. (I love modeling that you can paint with things other than brushes - it's a great way to help kids think about different materials they could use for their art.)

We dotted the middle of the poppies using a thick paint brush with a splodge of black paint on the tip. We talked about how we didn't have to wait for the red to dry, partly because black is a darker colour than red, and partly because we were stamping the black paint on with one motion, so it wouldn't smear.

We talked about how we could paint poppies all over the top, without necessarily matching up each green stem, to give an impression of a field of poppies. JJ helped paint some poppies too.

All the while we talked about how poppies are a symbol of war veterans, and how the girls' great-grandfathers had fought for Australia when they were young, and how the girls' great-grandmother had served as a nurse in the war when she was young too.

Sadly, since creating these poppy paintings, that great-grandmother passed, at 99 years old. JJ and Bee were given a red poppy each to pin to their dresses at her funeral.

For more commemorative poppy art and craft ideas:

xx Danya

* This post contains affiliate link(s). An affiliate link means I may earn advertising / referral fees if you make a purchase through my link, without any extra cost to you. It helps to keep this little blog afloat. Thanks for your support.

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Field of Poppies Art for Kids - Danya Banya

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War is a tricky subject to broach with little kids, but teaching kids about the symbols of remembrance is a good starting point. The red poppy flower, or a field of red poppies, is one of those symbols. In Australia we observe Anzac Day on 25th April and Remembrance Day on 11th November (which is Veteran's Day in the US).

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Hundreds of great books read to your child. Their playlists are very systematic and easy to access. Categories include "bedtime stories" "stories about animals" "stories about family" "rhyming stories" and many more.

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book reviews "read aloud" "soothing asmr"

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Welcome to The StoryTIme Family! Family life is hectic! That's why it's more important than ever to take time out and settle down for some calming quiet time, to recalibrate and just be in moment. Reading with our boys has always been our nightly routine since they were babies and we hope to extend the joy of reading with you.

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This activity is very simple to set up and very inviting to the children. Children get to be creative while engaging their multiple senses at the same time.

You could also grind up leaves/flowers/grass and add a little bit of water to make even more paint with different colours, textures and scents.

Make sure to provide supervision if using chilli pepper powder to prevent them from putting the powder onto their skin/into their eyes.

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Spice Painting is a fun way to make some creative art - with a sensory twist!
The following post contains affiliate links, which means that at no extra cost to you I can make a tiny bit of money to help support this blog. Thank you!
To make the spice paint we poured washable white paint into four small bowls, then added paprika, turmeric, cardamom and cinnamon. Depending on what you have in the pantry - any ground spice might be worth trying!

The more spice you add, the deeper the colour. My son was very keen to be responsible for mixing all four varieties.

The smell from the spices was fantastic! We both really enjoyed the specific smell of each spice when he used a particular paint.

For some reason he decided to mix the cardamom with the turmeric, so I didn't get a clear sample of each type. However, I just love the earthy tones of the different paints!
Note: These spices can cause staining - especially the turmeric. Make sure your surface is protected if necessary. Oh and watch out for the kids' clothes, too!
If you like getting creative with spices then try making Herb and Spice Play Dough!

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Sensory Spice Painting - process art for kids with an aromatic twist!

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Spice Painting is a fun way to make some creative art - with a sensory twist! The following post contains affiliate links, which means that at no extra cost to you I can make a tiny bit of money to help support this blog. Thank you!

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Book-reading "Should I share my ice cream?"

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Book-reading "Should I share my ice cream?"

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A simple, heartwarming little book that reminds all of us to share and have compassion