Bottle Cap Letters

I had forgotten about this but..... this is like the water bottle cap numbers I made only this one has upper and lower case letters for matching uppercase and lowercase.

Easter Play Dough

We made some Play Doug for Easter last week.  I thought I would let MD choose the color this time but I suggested we make it yellow.  So of course he chose to add 5 drops of blue food coloring, 3 drops of green, and 2 drops of red.  No yellow.  I was hoping we could make it a pastel Easter-like color but it came out this funky mold color instead. 

Easy Educational St. Patrick's Day Treat

Here's another color mixing activity.  We mixed food coloring into white frosting to make yellow and blue.  And put it on a graham cracker. 

Then we spread the frosting and combined the colors until they turned green!

Sprinkled with candy clover sprinkes.

And enjoyed them.

St. Patrick's Day Activities

Spooning and pouring green beads.  The green beads were cut up from necklaces we recieved for free last year at our town's St. Patrick's Day parade. 

Using the green beads as counters.

Practicing patterns using printables from First School.  Patterns are very very hard for MD right now.

This shapes activity also from First School was very easy but fun.

St. Patrick's Day Play-Dough

We made this homemade green play-dough in December.  MD chose the color and helped add the ingredients.  I Added gold glitter and peppermint extract and we made Christmas trees out of it.  However, he had not played with it in over a month even though it's been within his reach daily.  Recently, I put out some play-dough scissors since he's been so into cutting lately.  This was all it took for what seemed like hours of play with it.  And it's perfect St. Patrick's Day Play-Dough.

Color Mixing Science

This is one of MD's favorite activities.  I put baking soda and some salt on a cookie sheet, fill two bottles for ketchup and mustard with vinegar and food coloring (one red and one yellow), and let him squirt the colored vinegar onto the cookie sheet. 

He loves to see the fizzle action as he pours the vinegar and he likes the color mixing as he makes "orange" from the red and yellow colored vinegar.  He actaully calls this art and when he's done squeezing the bottles he tells me we need to let it dry on the counter like his painting and other art projects :)

Whole and Half

Matching pictures of whole and half fruits.  This one is a little difficult for MD if I don't have him use the control pictures to match.  The first time I presented I also brought out some fruits I had on hand (orange, lemon, apple) and sliced one of each leaving the other whole to show him the concept.  These printouts are from Montessori for Everyone. 

Number Crafts: Six

This week our craft number was six.  I like tissue paper art but MD didn't really care for it before so we had not used it in a while until recently when making some valentine cards with it and now for the number six.  He is really starting to enjoy using the tissue as he carefully laid it on the number and painted over it.  Makes me happy. 

These number crafts are a good way to fit art into the day and they have been great for teaching number recognition and counting. After they are complete I stick them onto cabinet doors in the kitchen and since we spend a lot of time there, MD looks at them a lot. Sometimes he points to each of them and says the number and then I encourage him to practice counting.

Discrimination

This color discrimination activity using paint chips was a bit difficult.  MD was able to do it but with some help because some of the shades only have a slight difference.  However, it is very helpful to increase his concentration and to learn about various shades of the same color. 

Final(ly) Cut

All those Montessori tonging exercises are starting to pay off.  MD starting cutting late last week.  He finally learned how to do it.  For several months I had attempted to teach him how to hold the scissors but he refused to do it how I showed him and kept trying to hold them like pruning shears (he is very stubborn or as I like to see it, persistent).  Obviously that was not successful since he could not cut anything like that and he would give up quickly and loose interest.  But last week he finally tried it "my" way and since then he's been wanting to cut things everyday.  Over the weekend I stocked up on paint chips from the hardware store because they are thick and small and perfect for him to cut easily.  He's also been trying to experiment cutting on different surfaces like a chair before I had the chance to catch him and redirect him.  Shortly after that he also cut the edge of his shirt.  This is what happens when I look away for a minute.   

Sand Tray Letters

This was our first attempt at "writing" letters in a sand tray.  Only instead of sand it was salt that I colored with food coloring.  And instead of a tray it was a cookie sheet.  And instead of MD writing the letters, he only tried once (with the letter "I") and then he had me write each letter as he brought them to me.  After each letter, he would clap and "Yay" me.  He was very excited to see the letters appear on the salt.  "Good Job Mama!"

Since he accidently spilled some of the salt.  This was also a good opportunity to have him practice cleaning up.  He actually seemed to enjoy it and quietly swept up the salt (with a little of my help) and took it to the trash can.

Snowflakes

When I was cutting out these snowflakes that I downloaded after seeing them at Montessori Spanish, I was trying to match them up so I could have them in order.  It was actually a little bit hard for me (maybe it was the dim light), so I thought it would be a bit difficulty for MD since some of the snowflakes look very similar.  I was surprised at how easy it was for him to match them rather quickly.  He loves matching.  And here I was thinking this was going to give him a challenge.

Matching Animal Pictures

They sell these animal flashcards at Target for $1.  They also have sea animals and birds.  I bougth two packs of each to have MD match them up.  He loves it!

Bottle Cap Numbers

I re-used these water bottle caps by placing number stickers on them for MD to match his numbers. 

I also made this nifty container to store them in.  An old baby formula can decorated with tissue paper and Mod Podge.

Number Crafts: Two

This week we are working on number two. 

Numbers Everywhere

MD is starting to learn all about numbers.  We are starting small from 1 to 3 for now.

The Color Match and Hand Excercise Activity

This is an activity that I have seen variations of in other blogs. Matching colored clothes pins to same colored stickers I placed on thick cardboard. MD really enjoys this for some reason.

And when he's done he likes to stand them all up like a fence.

Shapes Activity

Another quick, cheap, and easy acitivity.  I traced small foam shapes on index cards and MD matches the foams to the card outlines.  Another focusing task that he enjoys and I usually give to him while I'm cooking dinner to keep him entertained for a little while.

"Arroz" is Rice in Spanish

My son's primary is Spanish and he is currently starting to learn some English.  Here is his Arroz box. . .

The sensory box I have seen all over in various blogs.  This one has rice, but I plan to switch it up regulary with other things like, beans, oatmeal, pebbles, gravel, water, moon sand, and some type of gooey thing like shaving cream or pudding (when I get the courage to embrace the mess).  This play is mainly to continue to encourage him to explore with his senses.  In the past he had some problems with not wanting to touch different textures especially gooey ones, (I still can't get him to finger paint) but I got to working on this over the summer months and he's finally feeling okay touching lots of different things including shaving cream.  I am so amazed at how quietly MD plays with it and how he seems engrossed with the sensation of the rice on his hands.  He plays with it more than with his new train table!  And rice is so easy to clean up with the vacuum so I don't stress when he spills a few grains.

A Child's Obsession with Matching

MD is so into matching right now.  Especially matching and sorting things by color.  On this day he went around the kitchen (where his easil is) and found things to match to the paint cup lids.  I just happened to see what he did while I was looking for a clip for his newest painting.  I got my camera out and took a picture.