No Mess (Hopefully) Hidden Sight Words

(4 Years)

I am so excited to share this!  I found this AWESOME Squish and Seek Sight Words game on Playdough to Plato (thank you again Norin for posting your own spin on the squishy bag from Mama Smiles- the kids loved it!).  This immediately reminded me of Disney World's Winnie the Pooh ride's area that you swipe away the dripping honey to reveal the hidden Pooh characters.

 

We have been working on learning these seven sight words: the, has, his, her, with, and, said (see here for a look back at what we've done).  When I saw this, I knew we would be making one!  I decided to make the Squish and Seek game using the seven words that have learned plus three more (are, of and they).  We used large 12 x 18" sheets of construction paper - although you could always just tape two smaller sheets together.

Since it's St. Paddy's Week, I decided to have the kids mix yellow and blue.  I knew they would love seeing the colors blend together.

Now, here are the things that I wish I knew before working on this with the kids:
1.  Use a gallon freezer ziptop bag that does not have a logo or designs on it.  The designs will get in the way of the game- a word may get hidden under the logo or design.  The freezer bags are thicker, which will help guard against punctures.
2.  Definitely use packing tape to secure the opening of the ziptop bag closed.  Better safe, than cleaning up paint which could possibly go everywhere!
3.  Choose a light color construction paper, we chose purple for one of the stations and it was a little hard to read through the paint.
4.  Choose a light colored paint.  The green was too dark.
5.  I wish I measured the paint for you, but I just squirted yellow paint on one side and blue paint on the other.  It was too much paint though.  If you add too much, it makes it harder for the kids to move the paint away to find the hidden word- which was our case.
6.  Make sure you tape down the bag to the construction paper and then tape the construction paper down to the table.  Or else the bag and paper will be sliding all over.

Here's a short list of modifications that this one bag can be used for - just switch out the paper underneath and it's ready to go!  Talk about fast and convenient.
1.  Shapes or animals for little ones (I would have to paste the animals on the paper, as I have no artistic ability).
2.  Beginning letter sounds (write the word under the mat (ran) and then the letter on the answer key).
3.  CVC words.
4.  Number recognition (write the word under the mat and then the number on the answer key).
5.  Math facts (write two addends under the mat (2+3) and then the answer on the answer key).

St. Patrick's Day Then and Now (Part 2)

(4 Years Old)

Deep breath and a sigh.  I can't believe they are already four, four, FOUR, years old.

(2010 - One Month)

(2011- 13 Months)

(2012 - 25 Months) 

(2013 - 37 Months)

(2014 - 49 Months)

The Leprechaun Took Our Gold!!!

(4 Years)

Last week we built two leprechaun traps (we worked together on the one with the hat, and Little Miss also made her own fort-style trap- see here for the post).  They really liked the part about filling the traps with gold to lure the leprechaun right into the trap.

When Wild One woke up this morning, he came running into my room excitedly saying, "c'mon you've got to see this!"  The three of us followed Wild One as he was running to the spot where our traps were.  "Look!  Foot prints!"   They were so sure they caught the leprechaun, but there under the hat was a little present wrapped in rainbow paper (see here) and a green card from Lucky.

Little Miss was a little upset that he took our gold, even though we read story after story about how leprechauns love gold.  Wild One was surprisingly alright with it, saying very nonchalantly, "that's ok, I didn't need it."

They ran all over the house looking for footprints and trying to figure out what he was doing.

Little Miss was trying to see how much smaller Lucky's foot was than here's.

This was priceless!  We loved watching them run around, excitedly looking for footprints.

Now, how do you make leprechaun footprints?  Pour green paint onto a plate.  Make a fist.  With your fist closed, dip the side of your fist (keep your fist closed) that has your pinky finger into the paint.  Press your fist onto the floor, and voila you have a partial footprint.  For the toes, I used the tip of my thumb for the big toe and the tip of my index finger for the rest of the toes.  That's all there is to it.  We used washable paint, for easy cleanup.  On the chalkboard I rested my hand on a damp towel.

Leprechaun Cupcakes (no artificial food dye)

(4 Years)

Look how adorable these mini cupcakes are!  Look at all of that green.  Beautiful green, with no artificial food dye!  

This is an an adapted recipe, from the recipe that Catherine's adapted over at Weelicious.   I promise, you can not taste the spinach at all.  This is a really quick and easy recipe to put together, perfect for a last minute snack or as part of a delicious breakfast.  Throw the first six ingredients into the food processor, whisk the remaining dry ingredients.  That's really all there is to it.  It takes about five minutes to prepare the batter and only 10-12 minutes to bake.  In less than 20 minutes, you can enjoy delicious cupcakes with your little ones and surprise them that a leprechaun left cupcakes for them (maybe as a consolation prize for not catching him - see our leprechaun trap post here).

 Have you ever seen a kid so excited to eat spinach?

Leprechaun Mini Cupcakes 
Makes 24 Mini Cupcakes

Ingredients
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 egg, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups baby spinach, packed
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp plain Greek yogurt (or 2 tsp coconut or canola oil)
3/4 cup white whole wheat flour*
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp Kosher salt

*if you do not have white whole wheat flour, you can substitute either: whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour or all-purpose flour (the latter two will bake into a lighter cupcake).  I haven't tried it with almond flour yet.

Directions
1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease a mini muffin tin.
2.  Place the first six ingredients in a blender or a food processor and puree until smooth.
3.  In a large bowl, whisk the remaining ingredients.  Pour the wet spinach mixture on top of the dry.
4.  Mix until just combined (try not to over mix it will make the muffins tough), the batter will be thick. 
5.  Scoop the batter into the prepared tin.  Filling each cup.
6.  Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

The batter will be very thick.  I used a cookie scooper to quickly portion the cupcakes out.

Look!  Even Grandpa ate the cupcakes!  He laughed, while asking, "why what's in these?"

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Rainbows without Boarders

(4 Years)

I love freestyle kiddie art.  I love the uninhibited expression, the broad strokes, the carefree choice of colors.  I didn't always love freestyle kiddie art.  When they were younger, I would become so frustrated that they didn't create the art like the beautiful ones that I saw on those creative mommy blogs and the ones my nephew brings home from daycare.  Why can't I have handprints turned into a flower?  Then, I just accepted the fact that they are going to paint what they want to paint and if they are painting my ideas, I might as well do the painting myself.

Today we made rainbows, using cotton balls instead of paint brushes (holding the clothes pin with the cotton ball attached helps to train their hands to use a tripod grasp - perfect muscle memory training for holding a pencil correctly).  I was going to draw a rainbow and then invite them to paint it with the respective colors, but then I decided to see what it would look like if THEY created their own rainbow.  My idea, was to have them cover the entire page in color.  Paint straight across with the colors slightly overlapping.  However, I just asked them to paint a rainbow.  I didn't give any other instruction.  They both decided on painting a traditional arc rainbow.

I love the results.

After we finished our rainbows, they asked to keep painting.  Now for completely unstructured painting.  Wild One painted picture after picture, asking for sheet after sheet of paper.  Little Miss made sure she filled in every bit of white space available.

Now we are just waiting for them to dry so that I can hang them up!