Letter Recognition Hop Scotch

Here's a fun way to learn letters and sounds! We played hop scotch two ways using the alphabet, and both ways are great for your toddler or preschooler to learn letters.

Letter Recognition Hop Scotch:

1. Call out a letter and have your child jump, run, or walk to the correct letter. (Depending on the ability of the child, you may need to help.) Once they make it to the correct letter, encourage them to say the sound.

2. Have your child run around the board until you say "Stop". Then whatever letter they are stropped on, help them say the correct sound before running again.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? is one of our favorite books. I swear we probably read it about 5 times a day!! It's insane! Harry is learning his colors from the book, and he uses sign language to tell me the different animals in the book too. This week we did several activities that went along with the book. It was a lot of fun for both of us! :)

Here's what we did:

Gummy bear color sorting:

Well, this all natural organic brand was the only brand that was allergy friendly for Harry, so we only had 4 colors to work with... That's ok because they are healthier for you anyways. ;) Anyways, we sorted the gummy bears by color and matched them to the correct color paper. 

Gummy bear math:

I made us a graph, and we graphed how many gummy bears we had in each color. With my help, Harry did a great job! He had a lot of fun with this too. 

Brown bear breakfast!
I made Harry and I bear toast with sunflower butter, bananas, and blueberries. It was delicious!


Brown bear hop scotch:
What fun!! First of all, I am not an artist, so don't judge... ;) Lol. I drew the animals in the book, and as I was reading the story, we had to hop or jump to the correct animal. Sooooo much fun!!!

Animal matching:

While looking at the book, Harry had to match the animal cards to their correct pages.

Brown bear handprint:


Matching Game:
I printed some animal cards to match the animals in the book for the this game. The goal was to find the match to each animal. We played with the cards face up, but once Harry is a but older, we can play "memory" match with it. :)



Brown bear:
Using construction paper and google eyes, we made bears!

Rock Candy

Seriously... Making your own rock candy is so easy! It only takes two ingredients to make it. Well, it has three ingredients if you add food coloring. This is a great experiment to do with kids, and they can help too!! :)

Here's what you need:

8oz water
8 tablespoons of sugar
Food coloring (optional)
2 plates (any kind)
Aluminum foil

What to do:

1. Cover two plates with aluminum foil.

Note: Paper plates work best because you are can fold up the sides a little bit.

2. Heat 8oz of water up in the microwave for about 1-2 minutes.

3. Next, divide the 8oz water up between the two plates.

4. Add 4 tablespoons of sugar to each plate and stir together.

5. Optional: Add a few drops of food coloring of your choice to each plate and stir together.



6. Set aside, and let the plates sit out for about 5-6 days.

7. After 5-6 days, you should notice that the water has evaporated, and sugar crystals have formed. Enjoy!! They taste great!! :)

Shapes and colors hop scotch

Are you looking for a fun way to learn shapes and colors? We made it into a fun game today while we were at the park! We played hop scotch, but I drew shapes and made them different colors. We had to hop to the different colored shapes. You could also play twister this way! ;) Harry had so much fun playing hop scotch today!!

Homemade Bubbles

Toddlers love bubbles. Kids love bubbles. Adults love bubbles... Sometimes it can be difficult to find the right bubbles at the store. You know, the ones that work properly and make "endless" amounts of giant bubbles! I decided to make our own bubbles. This is an old recipe I used when I taught preschool, and it works great! My son had so much fun making them with me.

Here's what you need:
2 cups of water
1 cup dish soap (Palmolive or Dawn)
1/2 cup of corn syrup (light or dark)

What to do:

1. In a medium sized bowl, slowly stir the water and dish soap together.


2. Once mixed, slowly add the corn syrup and mix again.


3. Pour the mixture into a bottle and lightly shake.
Note: We used an old Coke bottle, and I labeled our bottle. ;)


4. Enjoy! :)
Note: The pictures are a bit blurry, but it is hard to take pictures of bubbles! Trust me!!

Banana Sushi

Here's a quick and easy but awesome and healthy breakfast or snack! We made banana sushi!! It's delicious!

What you need:
1 whole wheat tortilla
Sunflower butter
1/2 banana
Ground cinnamon
Ground flaxseed

What to do:

1. First, cut the tortilla into 5 strips.


2. Next, spread sunflower butter on the tortilla strips.


3. Cut up half of a banana into 5 pieces..

4. Roll each banana piece up with the tortilla.

5. Sprinkle some ground cinnamon and flaxseed in top.



6. Enjoy!! :)

Toddler Busy Bags

Sensory play is extremely important and crucial for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers because of the experience and ways it lets them LEARN. It gives children the opportunity to simultaneously use several of their senses while letting them control and manipulate the objects, toys, environment, etc. Sensory play can done through so many different types of things such as paint (both edible and non edible), rice, beans, water, etc. It's fun. It's messy. It's explorative! Most importantly, children are learning AND having fun at the same time!

If your child is a little apprehensive about sensory play, you can make busy bags! These can slowly help integrate sensory play into their lives. Or if you just need something to keep your child "busy", these busy bags are excellent for that purpose!! Your child can squeeze, touch, manipulate, move, and shake the objects inside the bag with their hands or even their feet!! These also promote fine motor skills and coordination.

Heck, I'll admit.. I have ADHD, and these bags are amazing!!! I am sitting here playing with them as I am typing this. Ha!!! They can have a calming effect on you too, and they are fun!! :)

Here is how I made them:

Busy Bag #1:


Made with:
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon dish soap
Confetti

Busy Bag #2:


Made with:
2 Tablespoons hand sanitizer
Yellow food coloring
Cotton balls

Busy Bag #3:


Made with:
1 Tablespoon hand sanitizer
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
Red food coloring
Feathers

Harry really enjoyed the busy bags. They were a HUGE hit!!