In and Out

Easy, simple, fun!
Pom Pom balls and a grape tomato container.

Working side by side

This was Alivia's first time with dot markers. FUN!

Enough of a mess that I think we'll wait to introduce regular paint until it's diaper only weather on the patio!

Drumming with Daddy

Enough said.

The Letter O

I've been working on doing learning activities with Jaden again. This week we started again with the letter O. Of course, after I planned all of the activities and printed a bunch of things, I learned that he already KNOWS the letter O! Oh well....onward we go!

Here is what we did

Glued Cheerios on Uppercase and Lowercase O outlines

Painted O shaped rings for a ring toss game (via pinterest)

basically you cut the middles out of paper plates and paint the rings. I cut some slits in a paper towel roll tube and taped it onto another paper plate for the target.

Alivia thought it was quite fun as well

Turns out, the rings also make good hats!

See!?!?

We'd yell "YEAH!!!" every time Jaden made it on the ring

Dot painted another letter O outline and then on to the next craft.

and coloring page

this one was an octopus (via pinterest)

You cut 4 cm of toilet paper roll tube, measure the same at the top of 1/2 sheet of construction paper and mark, divide the width of the paper into 8 strips for the kids to cut, glue around paper towel tube, curl tentacles around a pencil.

playing with the fridge letter game. Jaden loves this but was losing interest so I whipped up a list of 10 three letter words that have "o" in them and he set about spelling them. He only made it through about 6 but he is still going back to it days later.

Alivia enjoys the fridge game too!

Stamp painting "o"s with cut toilet paper rolls

which quickly turned into a color mixing art lesson

cool things happen when you dump paint colors together

at least until it all turns brown!

All in all, I'd say it was a successful week!

Paper Plate Turkeys

Here is an easy, fun Thanksgiving craft for anyone with a young kiddo.

I realized how technology dependent I had become when I had several craft ideas I wanted to do but all required printing some item from the computer and my computer/printer connection was not working. So.....I took this image from a website and freehanded it onto the paper plate.

NOT COMPLICATED! Don't know why it took me 1/2 hour of messing with the printer to figure out this 30 second solution was a better idea! Of course, the idea on the web had the child color the turkey face first, cut it out, and glue it on the paper plate - all of which might have been fun steps. But....we just jumped into the painting!!!
The original idea was that the child use their fingers to print the feathers around the edge of the turkey. Finger paint is SO not Jaden's style - so we went for the brushes - which he LOVES! He wasn't too interested in the feathers though....that one is mommy's!

After taking a break he discovered the foam brushes in the supply box (didn't get it put away fast enough) and was interested in the round ones that work kind of like stamps. He LOVES stamps put on his hands - but we don't own any. The "stamping" revitalized his interest in painting and the turkeys got a bit more colorful before we were done.

Our little turkey family!

Thanksgiving Sequencing Game

I had made this game last year for a road trip but the pieces just were thrown all over the floor.

This year, it had a bit more appeal.

Jaden wanted to match the objects by placing them on top of the demo strip. However, the magnets I got for the backs don't seem to be strong enough to go through TWO layers of cardstock with lamination. So.....I convinced him to line them up underneath. I also have a set with cornucopias and pie.

Hopefully they'll get some action this week! It's been awhile since we've played refrigerator games!