Sensory bin

I made up a Valentine's themed sensory bin last night.  I had lots of fun doing this one!  My husband tested it out for the kids.....he had more fun than he will admit.  I had everything already at home, so it came together pretty easily.  I coloured the rice by putting it in a ziplock bag with some food colouring and a little vinegar.  I shook it like crazy.  I really like that some of the rice stayed white.

Coloured rice, tongs, heart stickers, heart containers, funnel, heart cookie cutters, heart bangles,  heart jewels, and red popsicle sticks. 

I brought it out after Little Monkey had gone to preschool and it was just Little Princess and I.  She loved the heart jewels and played with them the most.  I had it on the kids little table, but I decided it would be easier for Little Princess and I to play with it on the floor!

I left it on the table for when Little Monkey got home from preschool.  He thought it was the coolest thing.  I showed him how to put the rice in the heart containers and make shakers out of them.  It was a great activity for them to do while I got lunch ready.  Little Princess was pretty good about keeping the rice in the container....both of them together made for a lot of rice on the floor!  They had lots of fun and were giggling while playing, so I will take a mess with giggles any day!

This is something we are going to keep out for a while.  The kids loved in and keep going back to it to play some more!  

I redid my math.....I am actually 2 days behind!  I will do 2 posts today and hopefully 2 tomorrow!

Up next heart stamping. 

Monster Fun Pack

In keeping with the monster theme, I made Little Monkey a Monster Love fun pack.  I have made them in a few themes so far, but he really liked this one.   He usually does a few pages and then wants to move on to something else, but he kept asking what else he could do.  This might be a post full of pictures because I did take a lot!
When I print out the pack, I laminate as many pages as I can.  It makes it much more durable and I can wipe them off to do over and over.

Pre-writing page.

Little Monkey still hasn't picked a hand.  He is ambidextrous so far :)

Puzzles are one of his favourites.  I cut them out and laminate them.  If you have a little one just learning puzzles I would print out 2 copies and have them place the cut pieces on top of the solid picture.  

I cut the number off the corresponding objects and Little Monkey has to count the objects and I find the number .

Today we used bingo dobbers to fill in the spots.  We have used pompoms, and laminated them and punched out the dots to do some lacing.  

This one focuses on beginning sounds.  For the heart I told Little Monkey 'heart begins with /h/, what letter makes the /h/ sound?

I hope you enjoy this one as much as we did.  We did this one when Little Princess was sleeping.  She likes to take all the pieces and run away with them. :)  

I just realized that I am a day behind! I will have to double up tomorrow.  

We are doing heart stamping tomorrow.

Love Monsters

When I saw these Little Love Monsters on Pinterest last week, I knew we had to try them!  Little Monkey is really into monsters right now so I figured it would be perfect.  This was a very hands on craft.  Little Princess was more interested in waving her monster's antenna around than making a monster.  I didn't get too many 'during' shots because I was helping.....and making my own!  Little Princess did end up getting 2 of her googly eyes on her antenna so that was a fun touch!
I was a little stuck as to what I was going to use to attach the googly eyes to the monsters.  I didn't want to use the glue gun because I wanted the kids to do as much as they could on their own.  While I was looking for something I came across the some glue dots that I had for scrapbooking.  They worked perfectly.  I had to cut them down a bit for the smaller eyes, but all in all it worked out great.  I did use the hot glue gun to attach the antenna.  I just had the kids point to where they wanted them to go.

While we are on the theme of monster love, I made up a preschool pack for Little Monkey.  That is what is coming up next.

Sequencing with stamps

Day 2 of Valentine's Day themed crafts!  Today we did sequencing with Valentine's themed stamps.  I picked up 5 at the dollar store the other day.  Little Monkey has really enjoyed stamping lately so he was really excited to do this one.  I printed out a table (4 rows 7 columns) that I made in pages (or word if not on a mac).   I started 3 sequences for Little Monkey and let him finish them.  I left the last row blank for him to create his own sequence.  He loved it and did great!  He didn't really create his own sequence on the last row, but he had fun so I didn't worry about it.  When he was done I let him flip the paper over and stamp all over the place.

For Little Princess, I just let her do her own thing.  I gave her a sheet with a bunch of boxes on it and showed her what to do.  She thought it was the greatest thing!  Every time she put the stamp to the paper, I would say 'push, push, push'.  It wasn't long before she started trying to say 'push' every time she put her stamp to the paper.  She also really enjoyed trying to get the lids back on the stamps.  

Up next, some silly love Monsters!

                                                 

14 days of love

Well January is over and hopefully so is the sickness that invaded our house.  Little Monkey has had a cough that has lasted almost 5 weeks!  We are ready to be healthy and on the go once again.
I have 14 days of Valentine's Day themed crafts to do!  I am so excited about all the 'love'!  Little Monkey is a boy in every sense of the word.  He has never been very cuddly and he is about as rough and tough as you can get.  Little Princess on the other hand is much more free with her cuddles and is much more gentle in general.  She hasn't been too into anything as of yet, but I am using February as an excuse to get my girlie on!
Today we did some painting.  I used painters tape to make a heart in the corner and I let the kids go to town with paint on the paper.

I decided to put the paint right on the paper and let the kids go all out.  I brought paint brushes for Little Monkey and I was going to let Little Princess use her hands, but she wanted to use the paint brushes too!  She really likes using the paint brushes, especially the round one.  Little Monkey was a lot more meticulous about covering his whole paper.  Little Princess ended up covering her whole paper by accident...her sleeve did most of the work. :)

Once they were dry, I took the tape off and voila!  I think I am going to write their names in the hearts and the date.  I really liked how they turned out.

Tomorrow we are doing some sequencing with stamps!