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Month: May 2013

Spring Nature Hunt Flower Craft

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We are so excited to join our friend Karyn over at Teach Beside Me as she complies a week’s worth of Spring Learning and Play activities! Stop over and see what has been added to her spring themed blog hop.  Have you done any Spring-themed activities?  Link them up!



Spring Fun!

We have been loving the warmer weather recently.  Digging up worm, running around the yard, and playing in the dirt is happening daily around here!
We went for a Nature Hike one day recently and took along a bucket to collect all kinds of fun Spring-y items: flowers, acorn tops, tree buds, blossoms…
When we got back to the house, we did a little crafting with our Spring Treasures. 
I cut out some tulip shapes from cardstock and contact paper.  The kids created a collage of our collected items.
Baby Girl (18 months) loved this activity!
((look at those knuckle dimples!  The chubby belly! The dirty fingernails! I can’t stand the cuteness in this picture!!))
The kids stuck the nature treasures onto the contact paper and we glued the cardstock to the contact paper to keep the little bits in place.
 We taped a green popsicle stick to each flower and placed them into a basket of paper filler.


It’s a pretty Spring reminder of our fun Nature Hike!
Have you gone on a Nature Hike this spring?  Found any treasures?  What did you do with them?

Real-Toy “I Spy” Game

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Many years ago, we created this I Spy toys game, using real life toys and manipulatives. It was a fun visual perceptual skills activity that is perfect for toddlers, preschoolers, and big kids! Let’s cover how to make your own I Spy toys game and what skills this builds.

I Spy Toys Game

To set up your I spy activity, all you need is items you have around your home. We used:

 

DIY “I Spy” game with real toys… 

 
You have a lot of little pieces to toys, Little People, action figures, cars, trains…TONS of little THINGS all over the house, right??
 
Put all of those little bits and pieces to work and create your own I Spy game in your living room. 
 

Learning Concepts with “I Spy” game

The I spy books are so great for many early concepts for little ones…
 
 
I spread out a bunch of little objects on the white surface of our train table and started asking questions.  The big kids loved little riddles:
“I Spy with my little eye, a red form of transportation.”
 
The little kids (18 month old Baby Girl, and niece and nephew) just liked to explore the items.  I would ask them: “Can you find the cow?” 
They were able to grab it…and carry it off to chew away 🙂
 
 
There are a lot of different ways to grade this activity to meet the needs of different-aged kids…all in the same room.  Big Sister liked to copy down words and check them off as she found them.  (work on handwriting practice!!)
 
…she’s really into making check marks these days!
 
She also loves the game where she covers her eyes and I take something away. Then she has to figure out what’s missing.
 
For the younger set, grab all the items of the same color and concentrate on learning one color, or finding the object that is a different color.
 
 
 
This was a fun way to spend a rainy and cool afternoon. 
Enjoy!
 

Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

Share It Saturday #19 and Our Week In Review

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 Our Week-In-Review…
It’s that time again! We are ready for the weekend and hope you had a wonderful week. We have so much fun with Share It Saturday.  We love seeing what you’ve been up to each week.  Here’s what we’ve been up to…
We made some blue sand this week and did a little letter formation on a tray.  Watch for a blog post about this one!
We went out for a nature walk and did a little sorting with some cinder blocks.  Each section was perfect for sorting leaves, sticks, and rocks.
Big Sister insisted we make a well.  A well, we made! We used a 5 gallon bucket, a couple of wooden planks, duct tape, a paper shopping bag, and crafting paper.  She’s been hauling in water ever since!
One of us sister’s is a teacher and wish a happy Teacher Appreciation week to all teachers out there.
Teacher Appreciation week is May 6-10.
Another of us sisters is a nurse and wish a Happy Nurse Appreciation week to all of the nurses who work so hard each day.
Nurse Appreciation week is May 6th-12th.
 This Week’s Features:
What Mommy doesn’t LOVE handmade handprint artwork from their little ones on Mother’s Day.  Check out this adorable collection of sweet little hand prints. 
Happy Mother’s Day to all of you Mothers out there!

Judy’s Handmade Creations made super cute paper flowers.

Like Mama Like Daughter created handprint flowers.
There’s Just One Mommy made a bunch of sweet little cardboard tube flowers.
Mama to 5 Blessings used plastic water bottles to make fun flowers.
We Made That did their version of the handprint flowers.
Adventures With Jude painted a recycled tin can and planted real flowers.

Blue Sensory Play for Toddlers

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This was a fun activity that the toddlers around here loved.  I put a bunch of little objects out on a tray, all in shades of blue.  Different textures, shapes, and sizes were perfect for little exploring hands.  Baby Girl and my niece and nephew played with these for a while.
Once they had enough of that activity, I poured the whole tray into the sandbox and we had a ball covering everything with sand, finding little things, and starting all over again.  


We’ve been on a blue kick around here.  It started when we filled our bird feeder and had a Blue Jay in our front yard. 
We’ve been playing with blue, sorting blue, crafting blue, eating blue (berries), and even reading  about blue…

Toddler Sensory Tray

((I love the little knuckle dimples in these pictures!!))
Watch this space for more BLUE play and craft activities!

Scooping Ice

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This was an easy play activity to set up one morning.  A few spoons, a bowl of ice, and a mini muffin tin made for an extra cup of coffee for momma!

I pulled this tray-of-fun out on a morning that my niece and nephew (18 months) was here with us and Baby Girl went to work scooping and grabbing at the ice.


Visual-Motor Activity for Toddlers

This is a great activity for toddlers.  At this age, they are getting the hang of the spoon and the slick ice cube is wobbly enough for great practice.  They scooped the ice up from the bowl and slid it into the mini muffin tin cups.  Scooping and moving the ice into the muffin tin is great visual-motor work.
Visual Motor Integration is the ability to control the movements of the hands in an activity as they are guided by vision.  Another term for this is eye-hand coordination.   It is the ability to plan, execute, and monitor a motor task given visual input.
You also Might like:
 Invitation to Scoop and Pour

What are we working on with this PLAY activity?

Eye-hand coordination

Visual-Motor Integration

Spoon Control

Fine Motor Control

Self-Confidence

sensory play

Calming Waterbead Sensory Bin

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We play a lot with water beads.  These blue water beads were part of a 3 pack I found at Walmart.  I wanted to try a calming sensory bin for a while, and the blue water bead pack was perfect!
 
…with three crazy kids, mom needs a little calming activity every now and then :)…

Calming Colors.

Blue is peaceful and relaxing, and produces calming chemicals in the body.  Purple is a color that promotes imagination and is associated with relaxing and calm colors.  It’s said that lighter shades of purple are calming, while deeper shades are stimulating as they pull in more red tones.
 
There is a lot of research out there telling us about how color affects mood and behavior.  Blue and Greens release neurotransmitters that relax and calm the body.  They lower body temperature, decrease perspiration, and suppress appetite.  Reds and Yellows encourage creativity.  (So, pull out those bright and stimulating color strips when you’re getting ready to paint the dramatic play/art/block area!) 





 

Calming Scents.

The sense of smell sends information directly to the brain.  Certain scents can increase our ability to learn, create, think  and attend. Peppermint, basil, lemon, and cinnamon are linked to mental alertness.  Lavender, chamomile, orange, and rose are linked to relaxation and calmness. 

Calming Sensory Bin.

I used our blue water beads and added purple food coloring to the water.  Just a few drops were needed, and the water turned a nice calming shade of purple.  I added a few drops of lavender extract for a nice relaxing scent.  
 
This really was a calming activity for the kids.  They played with the water beads and let them fall between their fingers.  They did go into the kitchen and grab my spatula and whisk.  
 
((They do this every time we pull out the water beads!))
 
Baby Girl played for a long time with this.  She loved it!
Have you done any calming sensory bins?  
 

Playing with purple (tripod grasp with Wikki Sticks)

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We pulled out the Wikki Stix again!
The kids had a ball pushing them into a grated cheese shaker… and worked on their tripod grasp while they were at it!
Baby Girl and my niece and nephew (both 18 months) were really into this. There were a lot of little hands reaching in there at one point.  They liked to take the lid off of the container and twist it back on.

This kind of activity is great for cause and effect and their eye-hand coordination.

I stuck to one color to encourage them to say “purple” and not overwhelm them with 20 little Wikki Stix.  Sometimes it’s good to avoid flying Wikki Stix…and that’s when they seem to “walk off” and  you find them in random places.
…like stuck to the shower stall….
Big Sister had fun sporting her new purple frames…

Share It Saturday and Our Week-In-Review

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We’ve had a fun week and hope you have, too! Here’s what we’ve been up to this week:
We celebrated a special little nephew’s 2nd birthday party with a Pirate theme. Watch this space for more party details!
We had a real toy I Spy activity going on one day.  This was a last minute activity thrown together, but the kids loved it so much that we’ve been playing “I Spy” allll week.  Watch for a post on this soon, too 🙂
We’ve been stopping to watch the construction vehicles.  How fun is it to pull the van over on the side of the road (or into CVS’ parking lot…) and just sit and listen to your 3 year olds excitement!
We’ve had a busy and fun week and are ready to celebrate the weekend with our favorite features from this week’s link up…
Here We Go!
We join the gals at Teach Beside Me and Golden Grasses as co-hosts in our weekly link up party.
Our Featured Links this week take us back to the simple ways to Play With Your Kids.  Easy, fun, and Simple!
School Time Snippets made an easy and basic bird feeder.  We’ve all done this as a kid…and even the birds like it simple!
Toddling In The Fast Lane played hopscotch.  There is so much learning and growth that can occur with this timeless play activity.
Strong Start created a quiet place for little ones.  It doesn’t need to be extravagant…blankets and a few chairs will do the job.  We all need to slow down and find our quiet place sometimes.
Moms Have Questions Too introduced a parquetry activity to her son.  This is a fantastic visual motor and fine motor activity that is SIMPLE and EASY.
Powerful Mothering shares with us how she created a simple ball and box activity.  Sometimes all it takes is the basics for hours of fun!

Pirate Party Telescopes

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Pirate Party Details:

Pirate Telescopes from Empty Paper Towel Rolls…

Arrrggg Matey!  I celebrated the 2nd birthday of my little guy with a theme that he loves best…Anything Jake and the Neverland Pirates will make him smile! 

These personalized telescopes were a great party favor for a Pirate theme birthday party.  The best part was that they were almost free!  I think I only had to buy the yellow duct tape…everything else I had on hand!

(putting these telescopes together was part of a super fun Saturday afternoon for us sisters…full of coffee drinking, salad-and-fried-stuff eating, yard sale-ing, and party planning…all while the cousins played together!)
We had 10 kiddos at the party so I saved up 10 paper towel rolls over the last few months.  We had a bag of glitter sticker letters and went to town spelling out each kids name.
We painted the rolls with black paint and let them dry.
I added a piece of yellow duct tape on each end to give it that telescope look.
The kids LOVED them!
More pictures to come of the whole party!
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