Posts Tagged ‘sensory activities’
Book Review: Rainbow Fish
Oct
Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister
First off, my apologies for posting so late today (tonight). Our kids are on a fall break, and we’ve been trying to spend some time as a family. And most unfortunately, I have some scheduling issues with my podcasting host. So here we finally are…
I will be stunned and shocked if you are not able to find this book at your library–both your town library and your school library. Rainbow Fish is extremely popular with teachers and parents. If you want to buy it, as usual you can add pennies to our tip jar and purchase through Amazon. But truly, you should find it with out any problem in a book order.
Real Mom Activities: I am suggesting a conversation with your kids about what it means to be a good friend and how important sharing is. Ask your kids what kinds of things they can do to share with others. If it works for your family, you might decide to go through your toy box and share some toys with those who are less fortunate. I try to do this with my kids at least twice a year for two reasons. First, I really do want them to learn how blessed they are and how often others do without. I think it is critical to teach children about service to others concrete examples and experiences. And second, it seems that every year my kids accumulate WAY more toys and stuff than they can possibly love. So, this is also a great to to get some of the clutter out of my house in a positive manner.
Super Mom Activities: As I mentioned this book is really popular with teachers. As a result, you can hardly do a search on Google without bumping into a teacher with a project for Rainbow Fish. And, frankly, if you ask me, all these activities are for super moms. You can truly pick just about any one and have a great activity. We’d love to see pictures of your art. Leave us a comment with a link to your Super Mom Moment.
Tags: art, book reviews, literacy, sensory activities
Encouraging Sorting Activities
Oct
I was recently visiting with my next door neighbor as we watched the kids play. She has a two-year-old daughter and like many mothers of toddlers is on the look-out for activities that will keep her daughter busy. My friend knows I use containers filled with rice or beans to help keep my children busy. We got to talking about how to make this type of activity work for toddlers. The trick is to use sorting objects that are not going to be choking hazards. Frankly, I kind of avoided this activity until my kids’ compulsion to taste everything they touched subsided. It was later than you think.
Also, although this seems odd, I wouldn’t recommend using beans in the container if the activity is for toddlers. Maybe it’s just my toddlers, but beans can get lodged in orifices. Rice is a lot less likely to get stuck somewhere unpleasant. In any case, here’s some sorting objects that might work for your kids.
Good objects to start out with would be the large-sized Legos (like these Ultimate LEGO DUPLO Building Set). These Legos can be sorted by color or by size. This can also be a good way to support learning colors. Obviously, any other large-sized block will work. These Legos were just really popular with Dylan and Anya.
I would also suggest trying some silverware in the rice. Again, it’s big enough to not be a choking hazard. Also, the differences between forks, spoons, and butter knives are apparent enough that sorting will be relatively straightforward for a beginner. As your toddler gets better at sorting you can add in the two different sizes of spoons. My kids got experienced enough with this that by the time they were three, I had them unload the silverware from the dishwasher for me and put it away. I’d pull out all the unsafe utensils, set the silverware basket on the counter, scoot a chair up to the drawer, and let them be mommy’s helper. It was great! They are a lot less enthusiastic about it now, but it was good while it lasted.
Other things that may work depending on your toddler:
- Assortment of large, unshelled tree nuts (walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, etc.)
- Barrettes or hair bows
- Straws (sort by color or cut up and then sort by length)
- Large pompom balls
- Other small toys like matchbox cars or action figures
Do you have any other suggestions on helping toddlers learn about sorting and practice fine motor skills? What’s working for your kids?
Tags: fine motor skills, math, sensory activities, sorting, toddler
Cooked Play Dough
Sep
After I made the video clip for this post, I came upstairs to write the actual post. I had used up all the cornstarch when I made the batch of salt dough I talked about. And being the compulsive garbage-thrower-outer that I am, I tossed the box. I figured, “No big deal…I’ll just look up the recipe on the internet.” That proved a whole lot harder than I expected. I couldn’t find the one that had been on the box. I searched fruitlessly for over an hour, and honestly I’m a pretty good internet searcher. (And I swear I was only a little bit distracted by some non-related webpages…promise!)
The next morning after dropping off the kids at school, I visited two different supermarkets looking for that brand of cornstarch…except I couldn’t remember exactly which brand it was. I was hoping to recognize the box. I didn’t. So I looked at all the boxes, and I still couldn’t find the recipe I wanted. When I whined to my husband, he told me that is what I got for being so bad about throwing things out that we might potentially someday need. He said it was served me right for getting rid of his holey t-shirts that he still wore. Uhm…yeah…the same but different.
Anyway, I went back to the internet looking for recipes that I hoped would be similar. I spent the day trying out three different play doughs that require cooking. The kids had a great time after school playing with my day’s output, but I was still frustrated with the results and wanting that original recipe. Finally, I decided to search again. I typed everything I could remember about the recipe into the search box. It was the ugliest search I’ve ever done, and I’m embarrassed to even confess to it. In any case, the stars aligned, the bits and bytes of Google love me, and there it was! My recipe!
And here it is for you. I’ll also include the other three recipes with my commentary afterward.
The Recipe for Cooked Salt Dough That I Like
1 1/2 C Corn Starch
1/2 C Flour
1 C Salt
2 tsp Cream of Tartar
1 Tbs Vegetable Oil
2 C Water
Optional coloring or scent
Mix all the ingredients in a medium sauce pan. Stir constantly while cooking over medium heat. After approximately 6 minutes the dough will gather on the stirring spoon and form a ball. Dump out onto waxed paper. (I just dumped it on the counter.) Let it cool until you can handle it. Form it together into a ball and let your kids have at it. Great texture for a dough! Just the right firmness and softness and smoothness. Turns a little rubbery over time, but can be softened again by letting it come to room temperature (I assume you store it in the fridge like me) and kneading in a little water.
Salt and Cornstarch Dough
2 C Salt
2/3 C Water
1 C Cornstarch
Additional 1/3 C COLD water
Optional coloring or scent
Mix salt, 2/3 C water and any optional colorings or scents in a sauce pan and heat until fairly warm. Remove from heat. In another container, mix together cornstarch and 1/3 C COLD water. Add the cornstarch mixture to the salt water, stirring constantly. Return pan to heat and stir until the mixture forms a smooth mass. Cool and play.
Commentary (because you’re dying to know what I think): I scented this dough with a hefty splash of vanilla extract. My kids said it smelled like cookies. They didn’t really like this dough though. It’s texture is rough because of all the salt. It’s sticky to work with, but it doesn’t stick to your hands. In fact, your hands end up with the satiny feel of cornstarch. The dough is also very soft, so it doesn’t work terribly well with cookie cutters or spatulas. All in all, probably my least favorite of the doughs I’ve tried.
Baking Soda and Cornstarch Dough
1 C Baking Soda
1/2 Cornstarch
3/4 C Water
Optional coloring or scent
Mix the baking soda and the cornstarch together in a saucepan. Mix the coloring and scent into the water and then pour into the pan, stirring constantly. Cook over medium heat while still stirring. When the mixture gathers together, remove from heat and let cool. Knead into a ball and give it to the kiddos.
Commentary: This play dough is more like a soft clay. It was very smooth and nice to the touch, maybe slightly sticky at first. This dough has one major challenge. If you overcook it at all it becomes crumbly or prone to cracking. You can smoosh it back together, but it doesn’t really hold as well as a traditional play dough. Even knowing this, I think I overcooked it a bit.
We had a really good time smashing the dough flat and then writing in it with toothpicks. Dylan practiced spelling words and Anya wrote numbers and drew shapes. Anya also spent a good deal of time putting this dough through my garlic press and making worms, pasta, and hair–a grand combination.
I colored this batch with a black cherry Kool-Aid packet. It fizzed when I added it–probably some kind of chemistry thing going on with the acid in the packet and the baking soda. But it didn’t seem to have any particular effect on the outcome of the dough. My kids definitely liked the deep pink color and the cherry smell. To sum up: second favorite dough.
Flour and Salt Dough
3 C Flour
1 1/2 C Salt
6 tsp Cream of Tartar
3 Tbs Oil
3 C Water
Optional coloring or scent
Dissolve salt in the water in a large pot. Add the other ingredients. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the dough pulls away from the sides and forms a ball. When cool enough to handle, knead for 2-3 minutes until it resembles the texture of Play-doh. Store in a sealed container. Should last for 3 months.
Commentary: This recipe started off rather badly for me. I couldn’t ever really get the salt to dissolve in the water, even after I brought it to a boil. Finally, I became worried that I was loosing too much liquid as steam, so I added in the other ingredients. Then it was pretty much instantly cooked. I really do think that I lost too much fluid.
This was a smooth dough that was pretty stiff and firm. It was also fairly dry to the touch and not at all sticky. I added in about 2 tsp of cinnamon and a scant teaspoon each of ginger and cloves. My kids said it smelled like a candle. It was a nice brown color from the cinnamon.
My gripe about this dough is mostly that the recipe was rather hard to do. Also, the longer the kids played with it the drier it got. So toward the end, the dough was kind of hard to smash all together again and reincorporate into a single lump. Again, I’m pretty sure this is due to loosing too much water at the start. Over all, not a huge fan.
Do you have another recipe I should try? Let me know. You know how…leave a comment. 
Surviving the Witching Hour
Sep
When Dylan was a toddler, I hated the late afternoon. By 4:00 p.m., my delightful, happy, playful son turned into a raging monster of frustration and dissatisfaction. Nothing made him happy, and that is not hyperbole. I wanted to crawl under a bed and sing “I caaaan’t heeeaaaar yoouu!” at the top of my lungs. Not a pretty time. But, I did learn how to handle it in ways that didn’t involve duct tape. At least, most of the time.
Knowing what skills toddlers are developing helped me figure out witching hour interventions that had a prayer of success. Here’s some development guidelines for kids 15 to 36 months old. This is a fairly good list. The most useful part is the information about what kids are physically capable of in terms of gross motor and fine motor skills. It helped me think of physical and sensory activities to do with them.
One game that my son loved between about 18 and 24 months was Fill It Up, Dump It Out. He would spend 20-30 minutes happily putting every action figure sized toy he could find into a juice pitcher and then dump it out. The narrow mouth made the dumping part tricky when a toy would get stuck. It was great fun watching him figure out how to get out the things that fit on the way in.
Both my kids loved blowing bubbles outside. By that I really mean they loved stomping and catching and watching the bubbles that I blew. They also loved trying to blow bubbles, but they made slobbery messes until they were about four. One thing that made this successful was not blowing bubbles every single day. Blowing bubbles was kind of a treat, and they responded to that excitement. I heartily recommend making your own bubble solution, since kids are going to spill a fair amount of it. Also, investing in spill-proof bubble containers is worth it. You can usually find these at Target or Wal-Mart. Just so you know, spill-proof bubble containers are only spill-proof until your child learns to unscrew the top and open them. They are not dump-proof, and you’ll still be making your own bubble solution.
Another great way to distract kids is with finger plays and songs. We all know these and if you don’t this is a great collection of rhymes and songs. Do the actions with your child, sing in silly voices, and be as animated as you can stand at 4:30 in the afternoon. You’ll find your child’s fascination with repetition kicks in and you’ll have “Five Little Monkeys” stuck in your head for about 3 weeks solid. But, you’ll make it through the witching hour.
When all else fails, defy the guilt trip, turn on Barney or Elmo or (heaven forbid!) Teletubbies and hand your kid a bag of goldfish crackers and a sippy cup. It doesn’t involve duct tape.
What’s your duct-tape-free afternoon survival strategy? Please tell me I’m not the only mom who had to dance to The Witch Doctor with a 2 year old for 45 minutes solid.
Tags: fine motor skills, gross motor skills, nursery rhymes, sensory activities, toddler
Cooking with Children
Aug
These are my favorite child-friendly cooking websites. If you think I’ve left one out please leave a comment and share your favorites with us. Or if you have a great recipe to make with kids, share that as well.
Tags: early elementary, math, preschool, sensory activities
