Fizzy Magic

(39 Months)

Sometimes the best activities are the ones that you barely prep for.  This afternoon we were supposed to play with our water table, making colored bubbles.  We haven't done that since last year (see here).  However, we had a huge storm: thunder, lightening, rain, wind, hail.  So I pulled up my Pinterest account and looked through the pins that we haven't done yet to see what we could do (with little preparation).

Materials- baking soda, vinegar, medicine droppers, liquid watercolors or liquid food dye, and a tray.  Perfect, I have all of that (and I know where it all is).  Enter Fizzy Magic.

So simple, line a high-edged tray with baking soda, set aside.  Fill a few small cups with half white vinegar and half liquid watercolor (we chose the primary colors, so that we can continue working on reinforcing which colors combine to make specific secondary colors).  Grab a few towels for the inevitable spills.  Invite the kidabunks over to play with some fizzy magic.

Wow!  Look at it bubble.  That's right it's fizzing, do you hear the sound?  Little Miss worked just with red for most of the activity.  Wild One started mixing colors almost right away.  Look purple!  Look green!  Meanwhile, we were listening to the hail hitting the house, the cracks of lightening and booming drums of thunder.  Can we do more?  Yes, you can.  I'll just add more baking soda to the tray.

Momma, look the baking soda isn't fluffy anymore.  It's hard now.

When we were done, Wild One added some of the baking soda to his green vinegar cup.  They both loved watching the bubbles errupt up and over the sides.  WOW!

When we finished, we practiced our fine motor control of releasing just a couple of drops onto the backs of the bathtub appliqués.

Blueberry Picking is Yummy Fun

(39 Months)

We love blueberries!  Blueberry pancakes, blueberry muffins, heck- give us the container and let us just eat all the way to the bottom.  We love blueberries.  Last year we missed blueberry picking season by one week, and we almost missed it again this year (it's a very short window- about a month, sometimes less, sometimes a week more).

Today, we were lucky enough to not only go blueberry picking, but to have the farm almost all to ourselves.  The farmers handed the kids their little blue pails and told them to snack and pick as many giant blueberries as they could carry!  We began strong, "wow, look at all of those blueberries!", "these are so sweet", "this one is HUGE", "look some are white and pink",  "I'm going to try this one."  Munch, munch, drop in the pail, munch, munch, munch, drop in the pail.  I'm so glad that the farm we went to has a very generous eat as you pick policy.

Then, we slowed down.  Wild One found a stick and started making tracks in the sand along the rows of blueberries.  Little Miss discovered some wildflowers and started picking them.  It was just the hubby and I that continued picking blueberries.  We walked away with a little over two pounds of blueberries.  I'm going to try to save some to make blueberry pancakes and blueberry muffins, but they might be gone before they get into the batter.  There is absolutely no comparison between a store bought blueberry and a fresh off the stem blueberry.

I'd like to say, oh we discussed how these beautiful blueberry bushes all grew from seeds and this was the process, or that we counted each blueberry that we picked, or who had more blueberries in her/his pail, but none of that happened.  There was no lessons here, except that blueberries grow on bushes, not on a tree (like when we went apple picking), not underground (as do sweet potatoes, beets and carrots).  We did look for the biggest and bluest blueberries for out pails, but that was it.  Ooohh- observation skills!  Perfect, it was a science field trip!  I'm just kidding.

They loved picking the sweet blueberries, so did my husband - who by the way never liked blueberries until he had his first blueberry from the farm.  It was his first time picking blueberries too!  I love how we created a wonderful memory for the kids (and us).  On the way home, they reminisced about apple picking with their cousin Buddy and asked to do that again next year. We're so lucky.  I love them so much.

Fast forward to the next afternoon.  I'm listening to Little Miss and Wild One talking during their lunch.  Little Miss: "So, Wild One did you have fun blueberry picking yesterday?"

Wild One: "Yes, I did.  I liked seeing the buggies (bees) on the flowers."

Little Miss: "My favorite part was picking flowers and blueberries."

After nap, we decided to bake a batch of blueberry muffins.  They love baking, the mixing, the measuring, the cracking of eggs.  We adapted this recipe from Allrecipes by using a combination of half wheat flour and half all-purpose flour (instead of all-purpose flour), we also used a mixture of 1/2 white and 1/2 brown sugar (instead of all white sugar), and substituted sour cream for vanilla Greek yogurt, and added 1 tsp cinnamon.  So delicious! Plus, the house smells incredible from the mouth-watering aroma of fresh baked blueberry muffins.  So yummy.

b,d,p,q Identification Game and Assessment

(39 Months)

I never really paid attention to all of the different ways we write and type our letters (fonts), until I started pointing out the subtle differences to my kids.  You have got to be kidding me!  Talk about quick and simple, all you need is a sheet of paper, marker, dot stickers (or character sticker) and that's it.    The object is to place the assigned colored dot on the respective letter.  Yay sticker fun!

Then to make learning their letters and numbers even more challenging, there are the symbols that could be a letter or a number.  A straight vertical line could be a one, an I or a lowercase L.  How did that happen?  Especially when faced with the question, "but, why do they all look the same when they are all different?"   Ummm, hmmmm, ummmmm.

We've played a couple of letter matching games in the past (see here for a great fine motor skill game that focuses on upper and lower case matching), but I haven't tackled b, d, p and q isolated in a group.   I decided to create a fun game and assessment to see if we really know these letters, or are they guessing really well.  My inspiration came from Rockabye Butterfly, she did a fun following directions game using this format with numbers.

As soon as Little Miss and Wild One saw the stickers they were ready to get started- it's amazing how kids love stickers.   I tried to do a quick presentation on the different letters, but they were too eager to get started.  Normally, I'd have them hold off but I really wanted to see who knew what.

A few minutes into playing, Little Miss decided that she wanted to make designs with the stickers instead of placing each sticker where it belonged.  That's odd for her, she's the one who usually wants to sit and do her "work" for long periods of time.  Oh well, I didn't feel like paying the bills today and put that off.  Some people would argue that she needs to sit and finish a project, maybe when she's a bit older I might agree.  At age three, she's done when she's done.  Look at that sad face, how can I say no to letting her do an art project instead of practicing her letters?

Picnic Lunch

(39 Months)

"Momma, can we have a picnic lunch PLEAASE?"  Little Miss asks as we come home from the playground.  I haven't made a muffin tin picnic lunch in almost a year (or at least, I don't think I did).  It's amazing what they remember, I can barely remember to take the laundry out of the washer and toss it into the dryer.

I quickly grab a set of muffin tins and start gathering ingredients.  These little easy-to-carry picnic lunches are not only adorable, but they are great for portion control and to remind me about eating the rainbow.  Plus, they get so excited when they eat out of a muffin tin.

From left to right, top to bottom: Cascadian Farms Fruity O's, peanut butter on wheat bread, milk, Craisins, blueberries and sliced pineapple.

When did they get so big?  I love how Wild One tells me, "See?  I'm bigger now!  I grew, because I  ate a lot of food."

Counting Fun with Unifix Cubes

(39 Months)

I saw this activity on The Imagination Tree and knew that we would be doing it as soon as I bought some Window Markers.

I choose two contrasting colors to work on ABAB patterning (blue, orange, blue, orange) for a future activity.  Then using our Window Markers (which will stay on until they are rubbed off) I numbered the cubes to twenty (if you don't have Unifix Cubes, Legos work just as well).

At 39 months old, we sometimes forget a number (usually it's 13) when counting to twenty.  Between the bath numbers (please see here for a quick and inexpensive water activity) and these blocks, I thought it would be a fun way to continue practicing number recognition and number order.  Plus, we could also reinforce the mathematical concepts of more and less, greater than and fewer, taller and shorter while learning how to measure.

When we were ready to play, I invited the kiddos over for a fun math game.  "Yay!"  Oh, how I wish they will always respond that way to math.  We first looked at the number line put together and I asked what they saw.  Here are some of their answers/questions: numbers, colors, look a pattern, what number is this, can I play?

I modeled how to line up an object and then how to remove the extra cubes to determine the length.  Then we pointed to each number as we counted how long an object is.  After we practiced on a couple of books, they each scoured the room for an object that they wanted to measure.  We played for about ten minutes measuring play food, stuffed animals, dinosaurs, blocks, Wild One's foot and baby.  They kept running to find something new, "let's measure this!"  I love how excited they get.

Tomorrow, we'll bring the cubes out again, and practice linking them in numerical order.  We'll also practice some more measuring- maybe we'll look for items of the same color or items that start with a specific letter.

Rhyming Wheels of Fun (CVC Wheel)

(39 Months)

Little Miss has been doing a lot of rhyming lately - pink, blink, sink, drink.  She also includes made-up words that will rhyme- bink, eink.   She cracks herself up, laughing wildly as she recalls or creates rhyming words.  Since she's having so much fun rhyming, I decided to make a rhyming wheel.  Since we have been pretty lax on practicing our cvc words,  I chose to continue with -at words, since we have practiced those in the past (see here for our calendar time post including -at words).  I made a rhyming wheel, with two paper plates and a brass fastener.  It took all of five minutes- including gathering materials.  Yay, this activity so far gets one star.

I invited the kidabunks over for a fun rhyming toy.  They were both easily hooked and came running over- two stars!  I modeled how to use the wheel, and sounded out the first word together.  Success - three stars!  I let the two of them "play" with the wheel, they took turns nicely- even incorporating Little Miss' baby into the mix- four stars!  Most importantly, they were having fun and learning at the same time.  Did they get each word right on the first try?  No.  Did they have fun trying to remember how to sound out each word? Yes!  When we were finished, I showed them where to put their new toy on the shelf.  A few minutes later, Wild One was playing with it again all by himself- FIVE STARS!