Outer Space Sensory Table

Another one of Big K's favorite sensory tables.  Outer space was something she knew nothing about, never even heard of, before me putting this out.  

Materials Included:

Black Beans/Rocks

Felt Sun

Cardboard planets (purchased at Mardel)

Glow in the dark stars

This is when we made our space dough I found on Pinterest.  Follow to this ladies blog here:   http://fairydustteaching.blogspot.com/2011/05/galaxy-playdough.html.  I let Big K roll all the glitter in herself.  



She "smashed" her planets and stars in.  

Her finished product of outer space.

Don't ask me why she looks like this was so exhausting. haha

The dough came back out later with little sister on our play mat.

And I guess she decided that baby needed to sit on it to smash it down.

At the end of playing with all this.  Big K now knows that we live on the planet Earth which is in outer space.  She knows that Saturn has "hula hoops" and Jupiter has "the red eye."  What a great learning experience!

Cutting Sketti

I don't know about you but every time I make spaghetti it seems like I always overestimate and make WAY too much.  So this time, I took some of the extra I had, let Big K pick a color of food coloring she wanted to mix into it, then let her cut away at it with her scissors.  "Haircuts" are a hit topic these days so she enjoyed it thoroughly. 

Materials Included:

Cooked spaghetti

Food Coloring

Scissors!

Frog Sensory Table

The presentation of this sensory table is definitely nothing fancy but I must say it was BY FAR Big K's favorite.  AND, she learned so much from it as well.  She never knew that frog's went through a life cycle, just like butterflies, but now she can tell you each and every stage.  I probably could have added a lot more to this one to make it a bit more exciting but I was in a hurry and it looks like it doesn't matter because it went above and beyond "doing it's job." 

Materials Included:

Water (obviously)

Green foam (lily pads)

Life Cycle of a Frog pieces (purchased at Mardel)

Tiny plastic frogs (25 cents at Apple Tree)

Clear beads (pebbles)

Beach Sensory Bin

On the last day of Big K's preschool, I greeted her with this set out on the kitchen table when she came home.  I always have her snack set out but put out a little extra treat as well.  Put out a "mini" beach sensory tub filled with fun goodies with a note attached that read, "Welcome to summer! Can't wait to spend it with you! Love, Mommy."  

Materials Included:

White Sand (It's expensive to buy too much of this which is why we had to do a "mini" tub this time)

Shells

Sand dollar

Starfish

Shovel

Beach ball

Tree Blossoms

Saw this craft idea on Pinterest and thought it would be awfully cute for Big K to do and place in her room.  We've been working on redoing her room little by little these past couple weeks.  Her theme is trees, owls, birds, that kind of thing.  I'm really big on having kids own art displayed in their room so thought this would be perfect to add to the decor.  She did a fantastic job but I will admit that I jumped in and added a few extra dots to it just to fill in the "blossoms" more.  Otherwise, her little tree may have been a little empty.  I just cut out a tree.  Actually I should say my husband cut out a tree, glued it onto another piece of scrapbook paper and then let her dip a q tip in different colors of paint for the blossoms.  Again, can't go wrong with paints and it's another good fine motor activity.  

Tape Paintings

Got this idea from one of my inspiration blogs.  Not really sure which one!  Basically, just put strips of masking tape on some paper into whatever design you would like.  I chose a snowflake.  Big K's were just wherever she could place them.  Paint over them.  Let them dry.  Then you can take the tape off leaving a pretty picture behind.  

"The Very Hungry Caterpillar" Sensory Tub

We've been talking about butterflies and caterpillars around the house a lot lately.  Guarantee you Big K probably knows about all there is to know about them now.  While we were reading "The Vey Hungry Caterpillar" one day, I got inspired to try and recreate the story through a sensory table.  So here is my finished product!  It doesn't include all the foods talked about in the story because I created it simply with the play foods we already had lying around our house and playhouse.  

Materials Included:

Shredded green construction paper

felt flowers

life cycle of a butterfly pieces (can be found at Mardel or any other teaching store)

mini plastic butterflies

leaf from a fake tree in our house

laminated foods to represent the foods he ate on Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri. (found the images online)

various plastic and felt food that the caterpillar ate to give himself a tummy ache =)

Something else fun we have been doing at our house while talking about butterflies is raising out own caterpillars and watching them turn into butterflies.  I ordered our caterpillars from earthsbirthday.org and they have been wonderful.  

Arrival day

Much larger in size after about a week or so

The cocoons in their cage.  We actually got to witness this little guy emerge out of his cocoon.  I caught it just in time.  They come out quick!

And there it is!  Fresh out of the cocoon!

Several days later...bye bye butterflies! 

Another cute little art you can do with caterpillars =)

Finger Painting with Homemade Paint

Whipped up some homemade finger paint today made from water and corn starch.  I wanted it to be safe in case ingested by Little K since she tends to put EVERYTHING in her mouth.  Of course she barely ended up touching it.  

We chose to take this activity outside to the garage and get messy with it.  

Make sure you have a water bucket close at hand so they can rinse their hands every now and then.  This stuff is messy and gets really caked on their hands and goopy.  

• 
  
• How to make:
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 2 cups cold water
• 1/4 cup clear liquid dish soap
• food coloring or food coloring paste

Directions:

1. 1
   Mix together sugar and cornstarch in a small pan, then slowly add cold water.
2. 2
   Cook over low heat, stirring until the mixture becomes a smooth; almost clear gel about 5 minutes.
3. 3
   When it's cool, stir in clear dishwashing liquid.
4. 4
   Scoop equal amounts of the mixture into containers and stir in food coloring or, for even more vibrant colors, use food-coloring paste.

Read more: http://www.food.com/recipe/homemade-finger-paint-176355#ixzz1uV9gCe1f

Tub paint

I'm always try to think of ways to make bath time a little more exciting.  

I mixed together this tub paint following a this recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup of Dish Detergent
• 1/2 Cup of Cornstarch
• 1/2 Cup of boiling water
• Food Coloring (liquid kind is best)

I used antibacterial, scented hand soap.  Know whatever soap you use, your kids will coat themselves with it – so be sure to pick something that won’t cause a reaction.

Directions:

Mix the cornstarch into the hot water until it is dissolved and the consistency is pasty.

Add the soap and mix until there are no chunks.

Add food coloring.

Store in an airtight container.

Big K painted with these colors for days before finally putting them away.

Chocolate play doh cookies

I got the idea to make chocolate play doh from the blog I follow and love so dearly "Counting Coconuts."  I used to have an old recipe that I followed for making homemade plah doh but have since started using the recipe she uses as well found here  http://countingcoconuts.blogspot.com/2011/02/homemade-playdough-recipe-notes.html.  For the chocolate, I just added in some cocoa mix to the recipe and I had to do some brown food coloring as well to make them actually LOOK like chocolate.  =)  So yummy, you really do almost want to eat them!  Just make sure you're little ones don't (although it won't hurt them since it's all baking ingredients, but not yummy!  Trust me, I've tried just for the heck of it!)

Tracing with cooked noodles

Noodles are fun to touch because they are slimy.  


Manipulating things into letters etches the image of them into their minds even longer.


And it's a very concentrated task that your children are bound to stay committed to.  

M and M sorting

Very simple and edible sorting activity.  I don't allow many sweets around here so when they do come around, it's pretty exciting!  Big K has already mastered the idea of sorting things by color but it can never hurt for more practice.  Obviously this activity wouldn't work for the super little ones that you are wanting to introduce colors too because of the small candies so adapt it some other creative way!  

Water Balloon Tub Time

Put some water balloons in the tub and let the kids explore.  THE END!  

Heart Sun Catchers

Pony beads, cookie cutter, and some glue is all you need for this cute craft.  Put all the beads you want, however you want in a cookie cutter.  Pour on the glue (Big K's favorite part).  Let dry (this takes quite awhile to dry all the way through).  Then when you take the cutter away, you have a beautiful heart sun catcher you can place in the window.  This was by far my favorite Valentines Day decoration.  Unfortunately I forgot to get the "after" picture in the window.  Guess you'll just have to trust me that it was super cute.