Valentine Rubbed and Framed Hearts

I saw a Pinterest post that used cutouts to frame children's scribbles. Well we do a LOT of scribbling around here, but one thing we haven't done in a while is use the rubbing mats. I got these from a client years ago that worked for an architectural firm and these were commercial wall paper samples they were going to pitch in the trash. They are the perfect size and nubby enough for even the ones to get some wonderful texture out of with little effort. 

While removing the paper from crayons is a great fine motor skill, it's not something I encourage due to the mess generated. So, they got to pick their colors and then I removed the papers while lurking in the corner out of view, so as not to give them any ideas.

B at 3 could do most tasks for this art craft independently. Just a little older and I would have just given her a demo and let her do her own thing. But none of them are quite at that developmental level yet, so it was hands-on teacher time. But not for the rubbings....these they were all able to go to town on.

 Next they each chose the color of their construction paper, we folded it in half, and the children traced a heart blank. B was old enough to do it relatively well on her own. The others need a little hand guidance.

None of the children are proficient with scissors at this time, so we used the teacher-assist scissors and everyone cut out their hearts. I tossed the center heart out of the way, since it wasn't part of the activity I was focused on. The girls were a little upset by this. I think they thought the center heart was the important part since they didn't have my vision. They asked if they could color them and I of course said yes. 

 Then they glued the back side directly around the heart shape with a glue stick, which was fine for this activity and gave them a measure of independence they wouldn't have had with liquid glue.

 Then they glued around the outer edge on the FRONT of their rubbings [YES, the first one we glued on the back out of habit, so don't make that mistake.]

 Then they got to SHMOOOOOSH them together. Easier to center from the back side, and it's kind of a kick when they turn it over and see the finished product.

 Especially at this age, even though they see the heart, see the rubbing, and put them together, they just can't forsee the finished project and it is a wonderful surprise for them.

I think they turned out pretty great.

SKILLS: 
Math symmetry, heart shape, rectangle, pattern
Fine motor rubbing, trace, cut, paste
Art creative expression, color usage, media manipulation, composite construction

Tags: Valentine's, craft, rubbing, art, colors, coloring, cut, paste, shapes, heart, holiday, preschool, pre-k, kindergarten, childcare, daycare, homeschool, craft, Valentine, day

Color Hearts Sorting

We've been busy this week, as we always do a full week of Valentine activities. One common activity is conversation heart sorting using heart color mats. The 2 1/2 and 3 year-old were able to do this activity solo, as it mainly just worked their fine motor skills since they have color recognition down pat.

For the ones, this was a major learning activity regarding the heart shape, color recognition, matching, visual discrimination, logic and reasoning, fine motor, and verbal skills. They are just getting their colors, so this was a more intense experience for them. Surprisingly, they really enjoyed it and worked a long time at it each time we did it. I am always surprised at the focus these children can maintain. It's much longer than normal for their ages. They got significantly, progressively better each time.

I created the Valentine Color Hearts  file [available for free on Scribd via link], cut my construction paper down to 8 1/2 inches wide with the paper cutter, printed them out, cut them out, and laminated them for years of future use. I made this to use only black ink since my printer is currently running dry on all colors, as usual given how many materials I print out. I may go back and create a set using corresponding colors. If I do, I'll post that to Scribd before next Valentine's Day.

I'm thrifty [cheap?], so I always cut away my lamination as much as possible for later use with little sight words or manipulatives.

They do have the Spanish words in smaller font, as I teach that early. If you would like a version without the Spanish or with another language, just send me an email.


Tags: Valentine's, sorting, colors, Spanish, shapes, heart, holiday, math, preschool, prek, kindergarten, childcare, daycare, homeschool

Play Dough Face Mats

I saw some face blanks on Pinterest for use with play dough. Knowing that children are excessively self-centered, I thought they would have a much better time using their OWN faces for play dough play. So...I took their pics, took it down to their essence, printed them off and laminated them. Again, my camera leaves much to be desired, so the pics came out darker than I wanted, but it was too late to turn back, as they were swarming me like bees to get these done for them and wouldn't stand another photo booth session. So they got what they got for now. I need to make some more colors of play dough, but they really like the red. I can't believe this play dough was made the end of November and it's still perfect. I do LOVE this wonderfully scented, colored, textured and totally non-toxic [and according to G, great tasting] Kool-aid play dough recipe and so do the children.

I tried to leave just enough around their faces that the little ones would have a good concept of placement, which would be difficult if I had centered in too much. I added a few play dough things to the 1 year-olds' for my own enjoyment, and made G's eye blob into a pirate patch, but they did a great job blobbing things on as they wished, which required fine motor to put the play dough into little pieces and place on the mats. 

The 10-year old thought it was a hoot, and an excellent excuse to procrastinate his homeschool work.

 The 2 1/2 year-old did blobs as well. 

The 3 year-old was able to do simple shapes, the petal flower she asked that I show her how to do, and duplicate ideas the 10 year-old and I performed. At the end, she tried for a whole head of hair and beard, but ran out of play dough. No one was willing to give up their portion.

This is a great sensory experience. The children really had a lot of fun with it. It's great for fine motor skills, creativity, and a four-sensory experience if you use scented play dough [five for the littlest ones who eat it!] Another craft that received a rating of:

Tags: Play dough, playdoh, recipe, printable, craft, art, faces, sensory, kool aid, preschool, pre-k, kindergarten, childcare, daycare, homeschool

Cloud Dough

We made cloud dough!! [Don't pay attention to the dates on the pictures, I simply don't know how to use the darn camera to change it!] 

I came across this sensory experience on my adored Pinterest, of course, from a post from Glittering Muffins. While it is a sensory experience, by allowing the children to create it, it becomes a cross-subject educational experience as well.

Easy peasy: 4 C flour, 1/2 C oil

Glittering Muffins used baby oil, but since I have little ones that I could GUARANTEE would get it in their mouths, I used canola. Any cooking oil will work as well.  The girls felt the flour first and saw that it didn't hold together when smooshed.

I chose to have the girls use a spoon to fill the measuring cup. While they could have just scooped and dumped, the fine motor skills need to purposefully scoop and fill were a better use of the opportunity. They worked very carefully to try not to spill any flour. The first lesson we encountered was that the measuring cup has to be filled TO THE TOP before dumping it out onto the pan. I encountered this issue with both the girls, ages 3 & 2 1/2. It took more than one telling.

 We discussed the difference between the 1 cup and 1/2 cup measuring cups. Since I only had a glass liquid measuring cup, we just used the metal ones. I let them pour into the cup, over the pan, and held ready to grab it if a flood started, but they did fine.

 Glittering Muffins tried to color and scent their cloud dough with Kool-Aid, and when that didn't work after a couple of packets, she tried Jell-O. I can confirm her results that these are not worth time to just add to the mix. After two packets of Black Cherry, there was a bare hint of color and a touch of scent. I can also confirm her results that trying to add any type of liquid to color makes it grainy and harsh, so just let the kiddos enjoy their "cloud" dough as is. After all, clouds are white.

The girls mixed until together, then kneaded the dough into a powder. I found that if you rub it between your hands, you'll get the powder form back the quickest.

 While the dough was formable, it didn't hold together all THAT well. They used the play doh tools and toys with it, but most of the time was spent simply feeling it. Even the 10-year-old thought it felt, truly, like a cloud. He said is was probably the softest thing he'd ever felt.

Which led to the question, what IS the softest thing in the world. We found out that, "Talc is the softest mineral found on Earth, reaching just 1 on Mohs scale of hardness, it is often used to make talcum powder," via Planet Earth Facts for Kids.The chinchilla is the softest living thing.

Since both the girls made their own batches, until those are gone it will simply be a sensory experience, working fine motor skills, sense of touch and creativity. However, in the process of making it several key skills were incorporated:

• Fine motor skills, especially in filling the measuring cup with the spoon
• Gross motor skills, as they had to sit on their knees to get up high enough to reach into the flour bag, working hard on their balance to not spill as they reached back and forth
• Math concepts of bigger/smaller, 1 cup and 1/2 cup, full vs not full, level vs not level
• Science concepts of liquid vs solid, mixture, density
• Language concepts using the above terms, along with soft, silky, smooth, etc. that we came up with
• Social skills since they had to take turns using the materials to create their dough and wait patiently between 
• Cooking skills of measuring, mixing, kneading
• Five senses experiences, even though the Kool-aid didn't do much to the dough, it still smelled and added a bare hint of color to the process. Of course, the little ones, when they got into it, ate it. As I anticipated. So they got the taste factor in there.

The children gave this activity a rating of:

Tags: toddler, sensory, cloud dough, recipe, craft, preschool, pre-k, kindergarten, childcare, daycare, homeschool

I'm Over Here Now!!

Not really, not yet, just getting moved over to blogger, since Weebly's blog stuff is pitiful. Until I get everything moved, you can check older posts here. I fell in love with this Leelou Blogs template and just HAD to use it! Even though it's very popular and on a ton of sites, but hey, we like what we like and it's a good one. Do you agree?