Rainbow Swirl Salt Tray

(4 1/2 Years)

Our latest "toy" is our Rainbow Swirl Salt Tray.  It's so much fun to play with.  It's very relaxing, it's almost mesmerizing.  Plus it took less than ten minutes to put together, and that's with two 4 1/2 year olds working on it!  Oh, and you most likely have everything in your home already.

My husband was going to toss a wooden box with a lock on it, but lucky for me he asked if I wanted it for something.  I knew right away, it would be used for a salt tray.  I've been putting off creating a salt tray, because... because... hmmmm.  Well, now we have a tray and it's time to add the colored salt- so much more fun than plain white salt.

Have you dyed salt before?  Here, let Little Miss and Wild One show you how.

Materials Needed:
1/3 cup measuring cup (optional- but I like having equal measurements of everything)
table salt (we buy whichever is on sale to use in our crafts)
artificial food dye or liquid water color
bowls
fork or spoon
tray(s) to help contain the inevitable mess (baking sheets and cake pans work well also)
tray with a lid (they sell salt trays, but a plastic take out container works well also)

Pour salt into a measuring cup.  Level off with the back of a butter 

knife (it's great practice for leveling off flour for your baking projects)

Pour the measured salt into a small bowl.  Add three drops of food coloring to the bowl.

Mix with a fork.

Continue mixing with your fingers (gloves are not necessary, Little Miss just loves them).

Pour your colored salt into your designated salt tray.

Have fun swirling.

Practice writing letters or drawing faces or swirling.

Everything is more fun with a magic wand!   Have fun getting ready 

for writing, or practicing writing.  Learning through play.

Handwriting Without Tears School Book

(4 Years)

*Blah, blah.  This post is my own opinion, I have not been compensated in any way.  Blah, blah.

"I love this school work.  I'm a lucky, lucky girl."  I hear this as I'm making the kids their breakfast.  I look over to see what she's so happy about.  It's her new school book.  Now, I know it sounds like I'm a walking advertisement to the folks at Handwriting Without Tears, but I can assure you I'm not being compensated in any way.  It just so happens that the few products that we have bought, they really like: the app, the slate board and tiny sponges, and the My First School Book (here's a link to their site*).

Little Miss was busy coloring in her school book.  I noticed how she was carefully trying to stay within the lines.  We don't do a lot of coloring, we do a lot of drawing, but not a lot of coloring.  So, I was surprised that she was concentrating on keeping the color inside the lines.  We have never even talked about coloring inside the lines before.  Although, we read a lot of picture books and that's probably where she picked it up from- the illustrations show coloring inside the lines.

These books are similar to the Kumon writing books, in that they both provide a lot of repeated practice.  They begin by drawing vertical and horizontal lines, then they use those lines to teach L, F, E, T, I.  Little Miss really enjoys working in her school books.  She takes her time choosing which marker she wants to use (she's been picking markers over colored pencils and colored mini pencils lately).

Little Miss will sit at the table and work on page after page after page after page... She has sat there for almost 40 minutes, on several occasions.  She will take her time and work on the entire page, then move on, without talking, until I finally ask her to put it aside so that she will eat her breakfast.

When she's working, she's in her zone!  It's cute.  It's hard not to interrupt and ask questions or give a compliment.  I know she's working, I let her work in quiet- that's how I like to work.

Wild One isn't really interested in this book.  There's times when he'll work on a page or two, but he'd rather "read", play with Legos or play pirates.  That's fine with me.  They are four years old.  There will be plenty of times, unfortunately, that they will be required to sit and write, whether they are in the mood to or not.  For now, if he wants to write he'll write - or maybe he'll take down this puzzle from the shelf and work on it by himself.

One of my friends asked why I leave that puzzle on the shelf for them, when they have already learned how to put it together so quickly.  Good question.  Not everything needs to be a struggle, sometimes it's fun to do something easy.  Plus it's great for his self confidence, and he really likes this puzzle.

Can We PLEASE Practice Writing?

(4 Years)

Ummmm (can it possibly be this easy?  Thank you Montessori technique!)....  
     Me- "Yes, you can!  What would you like to use?"
     Little Miss - "How aboouuuut (pause, with a sly look in her eye) the writing slates?"

I love the Handwriting Without Tears Slates!  They remind me of The Little House on the Prairie slate boards- ahhh, nostalgia.  More importantly, they remind my kids of Professor Quimby in Leap Frog's Letter Factory.  When the kids were little they must have watched that movie at least three dozen times!  We sang the letter songs in the car, during our walks, while putting together puzzles, in the bath - you get the picture (see here).   I completely credit the talented folks at Leap Frog for teaching my kidabunks their letter sounds.

Anyway, back to the slate boards.  In the Leap Frog movie, Professor Quimby writes each letter on a slate board that is almost an exact replica of the Handwriting Without Tears version.  When I gave the kids their slate boards, they immediately said, "It's just like Professor Quimby's!" They were instantly  hooked on using the boards.  Yay!

The process is so simple.  You (parent, teacher, caregiver) models how to write a letter.  The child uses the tiny sponge to erase the letter, using the same strokes that you did to write the letter.  The child next uses the tiny cloth to dry the wet areas, using the same strokes that she/he just did to erase the letter.  The child now gets to write the letter using the half piece of chalk.

We alternate choosing letters to practice.  When we were first learning how to write letters, we followed the Kumon Uppercase Letter Writing Plan (L T H I F E X V Y N Z A K M W D P B R J U C G S O Q).  It's a logical way of learning to write the letters.  Can you see why?  Look at the first six letters, they are made up of only straight horizontal and vertical lines.  Brilliant!

By the way if you like using the slate board, there's an app for that.  There is also a free trial for app so that you can see if your little one likes it.   

Do you notice that stern look on Little Miss's face?  She wasn't happy that her line did not perfectly end on the corner of the board.  My little perfectionist.  It's amazing, I have one child that tries to make the lines perfectly and the other who rushes his work!  If they weren't in my belly at the same time, I would never believe they are twins.  Have a great weekend everyone!

Blah, blah, blah.  All comments are my own, blah, blah.  I have not been compensated for this post, blah, blah.  It's just me, sharing what works with you.

Sight Word Fun Using Clothes Pins (FREE Sight Word Checklist)

(4 Years)

I'm on Day Two of my Pinterest Challenge (see here).  Today we are going to practice this weeks sight words using clothes pins (yesterday we did a Trace It, Stamp It, Cut & Paste It board with the words).  Each week we are going to practice three or four new words and then review the words from the previous week(s).  This week our words are: THE, HAS, HIS, and SAID (since it comes up so often in our read alouds).

I put together a Sight Word Checklist for my kiddies.  It has 50 of the most used words on Pre-K and Kindergarden sight lists.  You can download it here for free!

Today's Pin came from Kelly at Imperfect Homemaking.  I already love this idea, and we haven't even done it yet.  It only takes minutes to create AND I had everything in the house already (markers, clothes pins and index cards)!  Plus, it's easy to store.

  

I invited Wild One over to play first (everything is more fun with a sword!)-

Little Miss came over and sat down ready to work.  She looked at the cards and the clothes pins and began putting them together.  I didn't even get a chance to explain what to do.  "I know, I know Mommy."  They are growing up so fast!

Thank you Kelly for a quick and easy learning activity for my little ones.

Pinterest Challenge & Sight Word Fun

(4 Years)

So... I'm addicted to Pinterest.  I enthusiastically pin with the anticipation that I'm going to actually do what I pinned.  Well, life gets in the way and there are a lot of pins on my board that I haven't tried yet.  Does that stop me from still spending hours searching for pins that I'd love to do?  Nope, I just keep pinning (guilt free hoarding).  Well, it's time to try all of those great ideas that are filling my boards.

Behold The Pinterest Challenge!  It's actually two parts:
The first part, is to update each pin with a post of our success (that's probably my teacher side coming out, share what works and what doesn't)- did it work, what went wrong, what we would change for next time, and hopefully if I documented it, a link to our post showing how we used the pin.
The second part, is to actually do what I pin (with a post of its success).
No more excuses, every day I need to either update a pin with a post of our success or complete a pin.  

Now, for today's Pinterest Challenge.  I chose to use Classroom Freebie's CVC Word Activity for our sight words.  It has stamping, it has cutting and it has pasting AND it looks easy enough to put together!  I just need ten minutes to set it up.  It was perfect timing, the kids were busy "reading", so I quietly slipped away.  I altered Diane's form slightly to fit our needs.  Instead of "write it" we have a "say it and trace it" column.  Other than that, it's basically the same.

Little Miss was so adorable; as she was tracing each letter, she said the letter slowly.  

Wild One was very quiet as he worked.  Before he glued his letters on the board, he placed each letter on the "trace it" word.  Hmmm, good idea.  I wish I thought of that.

The kidabunks really liked this activity, thank you Diane for a fun way to practice our sight words.  I know we'll be doing this again.  I'm glad we finally tried it.  One pin done.  A little less than 800 pins to go!

While Wild One was finishing up his work.  I gave Little Miss the left over strips of construction paper to glue.  I love how she immediately noticed that the strips are different sizes and she began pasting them in decreasing size order.  A few minutes later, she turned her upside down Christmas tree into a stick collage.

What a productive morning!  Sight word practice, tracing practice, stamping practice, cutting on the line practice, pasting practice and beautiful artwork!  Hmmm, I wonder which pin we will be working on tomorrow.