Jellyfish Art/"Beachy Day"

I set up a tiny beach scene with play doh this morning before my girls got up. Placed some shells in the sand they could make imprints with...they LOVED it! And I do realize my items are no where near to scale with each other! The starfish is larger than the entire ocean/beach combined and if I found shells that were half the size of a whale I would sure set some sort of world record.

And this is what came of the beach.  It got transferred to a cookie sheet on the floor for a place for Tinkerbell fairies to hang out and observe a "giant fish." 

Later in the day we made our sea creature of choice craft, a jellyfish.  They really so turn out very adorable.  

Only need a few supplies lying around in that craft closet.  Glue, goggly eyes, paint, paintbrushes, ribbon and styrofoam bowl.  (and I am aware that jellyfish do not have huge eyes on the side of their bodies like that =) )

Or four on the top as Little K decided to create...

"Look Mommy what I made!" 

BumbleBee Sensory Table and More!

This week we are talking about the letter B.  I decided to start going through the alphabet randomly and focusing on one each week with Big K.  I chose to start with "B" because it tends to be a fairly easy letter to master for little ones.  Since we are talking about the letter B  I decided to make a "Bee" sensory table. Have thought this would be a cute idea for some time but just haven't had the chance to make it until now.  

Materials Included: 

Black beans and rocks

Laminated beehive that I printed off the internet

Homemade bumblebees made from foam, pipe cleaners and googly eyes. (literally only took me like 20 min to make!)

And that's it!  Super easy and simple one but way cute!

Little K only wants to actually get in the table and play in it these days.

I guess the bees are all gathering near their home??? She couldn't tell me exactly what they were doing! haha

We went on a "B" Scavenger hunt.  Here are all the items we found: Bunny, bean bags, ball, balloon, block, baby, book, beans, bee, beehive.  (You can see the item Little K wanted out immediately. Serious obsession with Elmo!)

AND we made a bumblebee out of the letter B!  How cute is this?  And didn't Big K do an awesome job on it?! Wings are made from wax paper.

We practiced writing our "Bb's" a lot too but no need to show you that! 

Magnetic Puzzles

This was an idea I tried sometime back.  I simply placed magnetic strips on the back of a regular puzzle that I had found in the dollar bin at Target and placed them on the fridge.  Big K LOVES doing puzzles so this was just a fun way to change it up a bit.  It also created more of a challenge because they don't fit together as easily once the magnets are on the back so she had to work harder for it! They also can actually look kind of cute just being used as magnets to hold things on your fridge too. Another easy smeezy! 

Colorful Bottles

I saw an idea somewhat similar to this some time ago on Pinterest.  Ours didn't turn out near as glamorous but the girls still enjoyed it so who cares!  haha  I first gathered two empty mini water bottles and filled them about 3/4 with water.  I then set out some supplies of different colors and textures that they could place in their bottles.  

They loved putting everything in.  I say everything, I should say almost everything.  The dice ended up being to big for the opening at the top.  You would have to have a different shaped bottle for that.  Even Big K loved this activity because initially it was really only planned for Little K to work on some fine motor skills and following directions.  I turned it into a lesson of sinking and floating for Big K.  She noticed that the tiny pom poms floated but then after awhile sank.  Got a little lesson in there about how when something fills with water, it becomes heavier and then sinks.  

Very focused.

Little K decided to keep the cups and make her own game of stacking when we were all done. She stayed engaged with that much longer than the actual "activity." 

And then of course we very often just end up getting into our sensory table and dancing around with whatever we've got.  She's my wild girl!

"The Rainbow Fish" Art project

Today we read the fabulous book "The Rainbow Fish" by Marcus Pfister.  This is one of my all time favorite books with such a sweet theme to it.  I won't spoil it for you if you've never read it.  You'll just have to go get it and read for yourself! 

Both the girls LOVED the story then we made our own rainbow fish afterwards...

I'd be lying if I didn't say I did the majority of the project for Little K. 

Big K did a fabulous job and hers really did turn out beautiful!  We used foil pieces for the shimmering scales! =)  

Their finished products.  Left-Big K, Right -Little K's assisted greatly by Mommy

Fourth of July Paintings

We did a little 4th of July art today!  You can never go wrong with paints in this house!  I've done this art with my preschoolers at school a few times too and they always turn out so cute!

All you need is some red, white and blue paper and paints and a few pipe cleaners.  Fold five or six pipe cleaners in half, twist the end to make a handle, spread it out and you have a paint utensil that looks like a firework!

I helped Little K make her fireworks but of course she would rather smear the paint all around.  That's much more fun!

Then we also painted with star cookie cutters just for something additionally festive to do!

The beautiful finished products!  

Fourth of July Sensory Table

Materials Included:

Red, White and Blue colored rice (mix 2 teaspoons rubbing alcohol with desired food coloring to one cup rice and shake it all up!)

flags

star cookie cutters 

USA banner 

cups

funnels

Star molds

Glow in the dark stars

4th of July whistle (Big K made it in a music class)

Kyla has gotten into this sensory table more than any one before.  And let me just say this stuff is a mess all over my house at the moment.  I like to give them a few days to make a huge mess then I  can vacuum it all up when they are done!

I can't remember now the special name she gave these "cookies" but it was quite original.