Vegetable Quesadilla Learning with Cooking

 Cooking with the kids in the kitchen is such a wonderful learning opportunity.  The sights and smells of new and interesting foods and the textures and tasks of cooking provide children with a rich  experience.  Then there is the awareness of accomplishment.  Kids can help to prepare the food that feeds the family.  Kids can learn the steps of cooking a meal from start to finish.  This week in our Cooking With Kids A-Z series, we are exploring Mushrooms.  We made a vegetable quesadilla while learning along the way.

Vegetable Quesadilla Recipe with mushrooms, peppers, onions, and two kinds of cheese, a great dish for kids to eat and make in the kitchen.  Cooking with kids is a great learning opportunity in so many areas!

This post is part of our month-long Learning with Free Materials series where we are sharing learning ideas for homeschoolers and school-extension activities using items that are free or mostly free (i.e. CHEAP or you already have in the home), and is part of the 31 Days of Homeschooling Tips as we blog along with other bloggers with learning at home tips and tools.  While the food needed to create this meal is not free, you do need to feed your family.  So, while doing the chore of making dinner, why not learn along the way?  The educational oppourtunities that go along with cooking are a free lesson in math, process, direction following, listening skills, and safety.

This post contains affiliate links.
Vegetable Quesadilla Recipe with mushrooms, peppers, onions, and two kinds of cheese, a great dish for kids to eat and make in the kitchen.  Cooking with kids is a great learning opportunity in so many areas!


How can kids learn when cooking?

When cooking with kids, there are so many learning opportunities.  Create a list of steps for the recipe and have your child read as they work.  Children can check off completed steps.  Stress the importance of completing the recipe in order.  Oral and verbal direction following are worked on while kids cook.  Kids can learn about safety while cooking.  Shredding cheese with a grater, using a knife, and cooking at the stove are opportunities for safety lessons. 

Vegetable Quesadilla Recipe with mushrooms, peppers, onions, and two kinds of cheese, a great dish for kids to eat and make in the kitchen.  Cooking with kids is a great learning opportunity in so many areas!


We began our Vegetable Quesadilla recipe by shredding a cup of cheddar and Monterrey Jack cheese. Put these aside on a plate.

Vegetable Quesadilla Recipe with mushrooms, peppers, onions, and two kinds of cheese, a great dish for kids to eat and make in the kitchen.  Cooking with kids is a great learning opportunity in so many areas!

Vegetable Quesadilla Recipe

Ingredients:
2 Tortillas
2 Tablespoons olive oil
Vegetables (peppers, mushrooms, onions, etc)
1/2 cup shredded Monterrey Jack cheese
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
salsa, ranch dressing, or sour cream to dip 

Chop, dice, and slice green peppers, red peppers, yellow peppers, onion, and mushrooms.  The nice thing about a vegetable quesadilla is that you can substitute and add any vegetable.  Add in tomatoes, squash, beans, hot peppers, or eggplant…your produce department or garden is the limit!  
Vegetable Quesadilla Recipe with mushrooms, peppers, onions, and two kinds of cheese, a great dish for kids to eat and make in the kitchen.  Cooking with kids is a great learning opportunity in so many areas!
Vegetable Quesadilla Recipe with mushrooms, peppers, onions, and two kinds of cheese, a great dish for kids to eat and make in the kitchen.  Cooking with kids is a great learning opportunity in so many areas!

Next, warm 2 tablespoons olive oil in a pan.  Saute all of the vegetables except the mushrooms.  After 2-3 minutes, add the mushrooms to the pan.  Continue cooking until soft.  Teach the kids about safety with the oven at this point!

Warm a Quesadilla Maker and place a tortilla on the bottom.  Spread out the cooked vegetables over the tortilla.  Sprinkle cheese all over the vegetables and layer a second tortilla on top of the cheese.  Close the lid to the quesadilla maker and allow it to cook until the light changes, indicating done-ness (about 4-5 minutes).  
Vegetable Quesadilla Recipe with mushrooms, peppers, onions, and two kinds of cheese, a great dish for kids to eat and make in the kitchen.  Cooking with kids is a great learning opportunity in so many areas!

Slice the quesadillas along the section lines using a pizza wheel.  

Serve with salsa, sour cream, or ranch to dip.
Vegetable Quesadilla Recipe with mushrooms, peppers, onions, and two kinds of cheese, a great dish for kids to eat and make in the kitchen.  Cooking with kids is a great learning opportunity in so many areas!

Vegetable Quesadilla Recipe with mushrooms, peppers, onions, and two kinds of cheese, a great dish for kids to eat and make in the kitchen.  Cooking with kids is a great learning opportunity in so many areas!

Vegetable Quesadilla Recipe with mushrooms, peppers, onions, and two kinds of cheese, a great dish for kids to eat and make in the kitchen.  Cooking with kids is a great learning opportunity in so many areas!

Vegetable Quesadilla Recipe with mushrooms, peppers, onions, and two kinds of cheese, a great dish for kids to eat and make in the kitchen.  Cooking with kids is a great learning opportunity in so many areas!

Vegetable Quesadilla Recipe with mushrooms, peppers, onions, and two kinds of cheese, a great dish for kids to eat and make in the kitchen.  Cooking with kids is a great learning opportunity in so many areas!
Vegetable Quesadilla Recipe with mushrooms, peppers, onions, and two kinds of cheese, a great dish for kids to eat and make in the kitchen.  Cooking with kids is a great learning opportunity in so many areas!



With a vegetable quesadilla, children get the opportunity to try new vegetables that might be new to them.  The hand-held finished dish is a fun one to eat.  Dipping the quesadilla slices into ranch, salsa, or sour cream may encourage your child to try this recipe and new tastes.  Have fun experimenting with vegetable combinations!






Want to cook healthy foods for your family?  Grab Yum! Deliciously Healthy Meals for Kids, a cookbook for busy families that want healthy meal ideas. 

Healthy recipes for kids

Math Dominoes Discovery Sensory Bottle

Using things you have in the house for learning and play is the way to go when purchasing items is expensive and excessive.  We made this Dominoes Math Discovery Bottle for some sensory math practice this past week using a few items that we had on hand.  The nice thing about this sensory discovery bottle is that you can use different materials based on what you’ve got.  There is no need to purchase specific items for this math activity.  AND, once the learning and discovery is done, you can re-use the liquid inside.  Read on to see how!


Make a math inspired dominoes sensory or discovery bottle with light! this is perfect for Kindergarten and First grade math.


We are including affiliate links in this post just in case you decide you need or want to get the items that we’re sharing.  This post is part of our month-long Learning with Free Materials series where we are sharing learning ideas for homeschoolers and school-extension activities using items that are free or mostly free (i.e. CHEAP or you already have in the home), and is part of the 31 Days of Homeschooling Tips as we blog along with other bloggers with learning at home tips and tools.



Make a math inspired dominoes sensory or discovery bottle with light! this is perfect for Kindergarten and First grade math.

What is a sensory bottle?

Sensory bottles, or discovery bottles are a calming bottle designed to allow a child to focus and re-group.  This math sensory bottle is sure to provide a calming effect as your child does a little math, too.  You can read more about how to make a discovery bottle.
Start with any brand of body wash.  Don’t worry about waste, you’ll use it again after this activity has been done again and again.  For the math portion of our discovery bottle, we used 

mini dominoes. You’ll want the  to be plastic for the discovery bottle material. Other options to use in a math discovery bottle are
foam craft sticks
that you cut into rectangles and draw dots just like dominoes onto each side, or making your own dominoes with craft sticks like Mommy Needs a Coffee Break did.

Make a math inspired dominoes sensory or discovery bottle with light! this is perfect for Kindergarten and First grade math.
Find a clear plastic bottle with a lid.  A wide-lipped opening would work better, but any recycled plastic jar would do.  Pour the body wash into the jar.  Fill the rest of the jar with water.  Add the dominoes and fill the water to the very top so that there are no air bubbles.  Exact measurements of soap/water ratio are not needed.  The soap gives the water a great bubbly consistency and will “float” the dominoes when shaken.  Give your discovery bottle a good shake and swirl and watch the dominoes fall and float to the bottom.  
Make a math inspired dominoes sensory or discovery bottle with light! this is perfect for Kindergarten and First grade math.

First Grade and Kindergarten Math with a Discovery Bottle

Now for the light part of our light discovery bottle: We pulled out a small flashlight and watched the bubbles float as the dominoes sank through the soap and water mixture.  This added sensory component made our discovery bottle extra fun and even more of a discovery!  We tried to follow the falling dominoes with the light and name the number by quickly counting the number of dots.  My oldest daughter was challenged to quickly add up the total number of dots on the spotted domino.  

A skill that is done in Kindergarten math is identifying a number based on dots seen on a dice or domino.  This skill is important in number identification and processing for math.  My soon-to-be Kindergartner tried to name the numbers that he saw by counting the dots.
Re-use this bottle!  Once the kids have used this discovery bottle for addition, subtraction, and calming sensory input, re-use the soapy water.  Add it to a recycled foam soap dispenser
like we did in our foam fine motor workout sensory bin, or just use the soap and water mixture in a recycled soap dispenser at your sink for hand washing.  The body wash will provide a great scent and you’ll have clean hands, too. 

We’ve joined other bloggers in a monthly Discovery Bottles Blog Hop.  You can see all of this month’s light inspired discovery bottles below:
Rainbow Discovery Bottle | Preschool Inspirations
Color and Light Discovery Bottle | Left Brain Craft Brain
Phonics Discovery Dishes | One Time Through

You will love to see our other discovery bottles:


Cursive Lines Fine Motor Art

The latest obsession in our house is learning cursive handwriting.  My oldest daughter asked to learn how to write in cursive and I was so very excited to show her.  Teaching kids how to write in cursive with creative techniques and unique modifications was one of my favorite things to teach as a school based Occupational Therapist.  

We’ve shared a few of the very beginnings of cursive lines, loops, and re-tracing marks that are a the foundation to to writing in cursive, and an important area to work on with older kids who might need a little more practice with pencil control and letter formation on in cursive handwriting.  



You can see all of our cursive writing ideas by searching “cursive” or clicking here.  This cursive lines fine motor art is a powerhouse of fine motor work and cursive handwriting practice.  We connected cursive lines, loops, and re-tracing to form the beginning letters (Read more about which cursive letters to start with.) and worked on connecting lines as well…all with a fine motor twist that resulted in gorgeous artwork!  

We worked on our cursive handwriting, however this activity would be done with any printed letter formation and number formation, too.
Work on cursive handwriting with this paper towel art with a fine motor twist.  Teach kids how to learn cursive lines and connecting lines with this fun activity.


This post contains affiliate links, however we used items that we had around the house as part of our  month-long Learning with Free Materials series where we are sharing learning ideas for homeschoolers and school-extension activities using items that are free or mostly free (i.e. CHEAP or you already have in the home), and is part of the 31 Days of Homeschooling Tips as we blog along with other bloggers with learning at home tips and tools.

Work on cursive handwriting with this paper towel art with a fine motor twist.  Teach kids how to learn cursive lines and connecting lines with this fun activity.


Cursive Handwriting Activity:

This activity is really so simple and makes such pretty art with a fine motor twist.  Start by using fine tip washable markers to write cursive letters, swirls, loops, and lines on a few sheets of paper towels.  Practice cursive connecting lines by making a long line of cursive letter “e”s or “l”s connected together.  Make a long line of “m”s connected to work on the re-trace needed for the bumps of the letters.  You’ll want to practice the re-trace of the letter “c” because that part of the letter is used in so many other cursive letters (a, d, g, and q).  Practice connecting them together for the up-swoop and smooth lines needed with writing cursive words.

Work on cursive handwriting with this paper towel art with a fine motor twist.  Teach kids how to learn cursive lines and connecting lines with this fun activity.

Next, re-trace the loops, swirls, and lines with other colored washable markers for more practice.  It’s starting to look colorful and arty already!
Work on cursive handwriting with this paper towel art with a fine motor twist.  Teach kids how to learn cursive lines and connecting lines with this fun activity.

Fine motor handwriting with an eye-dropper:

Pull out a dish of water and your favorite dropper to slowly add droplets of water.  Pinching the bulb of the dropper is a great fine motor workout for little hands.  Squeezing an eye dropper to grab water and then release droplets requires an open web-space and strengthens the hand muscles.  Dropping water slowly and by the droplet requires a precision and dexterity that works on motor control and further strengthens the intrinsic muscles of the hand.

Work on cursive handwriting with this paper towel art with a fine motor twist.  Teach kids how to learn cursive lines and connecting lines with this fun activity.
Try to use the water dropper as a writing utensil to follow along the lines of the cursive letters.  This will further strengthen fine motor skills as well as line awareness which is so important in handwriting.  Cursive letters will be practiced again and again with repetition by tracing with the dropper and further work on cursive letter formation.

My kids loved that they could add water slowly and make some parts very mixed and other parts more bold by adding less water.  Once you’ve added water to your cursive letter lines, let the paper towels dry.  The best method we’ve found for drying this art works is by hanging the wet paper towels over a cookie drying rack
which can be placed over a cookie sheet
to catch any drips.
More cursive handwriting activities you will Love: 

Love it?  Pin it!
Looking for more ideas to help with cursive? You’ll love our 31 day series on How to teach cursive writing.

Learning Ideas on Windows and Glass Doors

When the weatherman calls for rain or the kids need a little something special to do, you’ve got the perfect learning surface right in your house for creative learning.  Today, we’re sharing learning activities that can be done on windows!  Using a vertical surface in writing is a beneficial way to incorporate muscles of the hand and arm.  It is a strengthening task to hold the arm up and manipulate a writing utensil like window markers or a pencil.  Learning and movement go hand in hand, so these standing and moving learning ideas are sure to be a great way to creatively practice some skills that you might need to cover.  Use the windows in your house for math, literacy, handwriting, and more with these creative learning ideas.

Learning math, literacy, spelling words, handwriting, colors, shapes on a vertical surface with windows and glass doors.


Learning using Windows and Glass Doors


Creekside Learning shares how to do math on the window.
These monster math window clings are a fun way to practice math skills.
Move and learn with a hundreds sticky chart on the window or glass door.
You can practice letters with a seasonal theme, like Mom Inspired Life.
Or, make an alphabet tree on the glass door like Fun-a-Day did for Pre-K Pages.
Practice handwriting like Coffee Cups and Crayons, using window paint.
Therapy Fun Zone shares more about handwriting on the door.
The Jenny Evolution practiced writing on a vertical surface, too.
Modern Preschool practiced handwriting on the window using shaving cream.
Kids can learn shapes and colors on the glass door, like Adventures of Adam.
Or, use paints to explore colors like Simple Fun for Kids.
Discover the colors of the rainbow by building a rainbow on the window like we did.
What better way to hold your paints, pencils, and window markers, than a homemade window easel like the one Picklebums made.
Practicing spelling words?  Make it mess-free sensory window spelling like we did.


This post is part of our month-long series: Learning with Free Materials series, where we share ideas to learn at home using free (or almost free) materials.  It’s part of the 31 Days of Homeschooling Tips as we blog along with other bloggers with learning at home tips and tools.

Learn with Board Games You Already Own

It can be fun to introduce learning into a summer day or after-dinner evening with the family during Family Time.  Pull out board games that you’ve played a thousand times and add a learning component to them for a new twist on the game.  A math, literacy, history, or any educational spin can be made to board games to make them appropriate for your child’s age and interests.  See how we’ve made modifications to board games:

 
 
 
Use board games like Guess Who, Kerplunk, Zingo, and more in learning  extension activities: math, literacy, and educational ideas based on your child's interests. Perfect for homeschooling, classroom, and home extension activities.
 


Learn with Board Games

There are so many ways to learn using board games. Occupational therapy providers love to use games and play as a facilitator to supporting skills. Try some of these ideas for example:

Then there are games that use specific items that are found in the home. Using items like game pieces, paper clips, etc. are easy ways to make a DIY game that supports learning. Try these ideas:

This post contains affiliate links.
 
Some of our favorite rainy day activities are board games.  When you play a game 500ish times, they can become boring (Board-ing Games?) and go back on the shelf for months before they are played with again.  We’ve got some ideas for extending the play with your favorite games to make them an appropriate (free) learning tool.
 
 
Use board games like Guess Who, Kerplunk, Zingo, and more in learning  extension activities: math, literacy, and educational ideas based on your child's interests. Perfect for homeschooling, classroom, and home extension activities.
 
Practice Math with Guess Who (affiliate link):
We added a piece of paper to our Guess Who (affiliate link)game.  Write numbers on the paper inside the windows and on the top.  Slide the sheets into both boards.  
Game players can take turns asking questions like, “Is your number 3+3?” or “Is your number 17-4?”.  The first player to determine the other player’s number is the winner.  
Adjust this game to meet any educational needs.  Learning presidents?  Write them in the windows.  Kids can guess the answers based on facts or dates.  
Learning States, science, or historical facts?  Write them in and adjust the game based on the interests and needs of your child or student.
 
Use Practice Sight Words with HedBanz (affiliate link):
Simply write sight words on post it notes and stick them to the headband pieces.  Participants can act out the sight word.  
Other options are molding the sight word out of play dough or drawing the sight word.  This game can easily be adjusted to meet any topic.
 
Practice Math with the game, Zingo (affiliate link):
A fun way to introduce coding to kids is to create simple decoding activities.  
Assign the card pictures from the game, ThinkFun Zingo (affiliate link)
to specific letters.  Players keep the cards that they capture by playing the game with the game boards.  
They then have to use the letters they’ve accumulated to form a word. 
 
Literacy Practice with Ker Plunk Game (affiliate link):
As the marbles drop in the game, say the letters of the alphabet out loud.
It will be tricky to say all of the letters when the marbles fall quickly once the game goes on.
 
Math with Checkers (affiliate link):
We recently posted our favorite way to practice math with checkers.
 
Math with Uno Card Game affiliate link)is played, add the numbers that are played.  Depending on the players ages, you can add just two cards together keep adding.
 
This post is part of our month-long series: Learning with Free Materials series, where we share ideas to learn at home using free (or almost free) materials.  It’s part of the 31 Days of Homeschooling Tips as we blog along with other bloggers with learning at home tips and tools.

Learning with Legos in Math, Literacy, Occupational Therapy

Using items you already have around the house in learning and play experiences with kids is the best.  You can modify a toy or item (like measuring cups) or reuse an item (like bottle caps) to make it a learning game.  You can also use the toys and items you see every day in a new light.  We play with Legos almost every day.  These classic toys are perfect for fine motor hands-on learning through imagination and creativity.  We used Legos to learn and wanted to share a few ideas you may not have thought of when it comes to building smart kids (yep, went there with the building joke!)


Use Legos in learning: Preschool, Kindergarten, and First grade math and literacy with Legos.  Lots of ideas on this page!  Great tips on the therapeutic benefits of using Legos in Occupational Therapy including fine motor skills, too!

This post contains affiliate links.  

Legos in Occupational Therapy

Legos
are a huge hit with almost every kid I know.  They are also a big fine motor tool with the occupational therapists I know.  Pulling the little bricks apart and pushing them together to build a simple wall requires dexterity and works the small muscles in the hands (The intrinsic muscles).  Two hands work together in a coordinated manner (bilateral hand coordination) which is a huge building block (Did it again with the building jokes!) to so many functional skills. Pinching and pulling requires an efficient grasp and tends to work on a tripod grasp with an open web space.  The little blocks are resistive and really work the strength of the whole hand.  Then there are the bright colors that inspire creativity and play through the visual sense.  Kids can copy forms from a model, working on visual scanning as they search for the correct block, figure ground and form constancy as they make sure the block they found is the correct one, and hand-eye coordination as they manipulate and copy the example.
Wow, what a huge resource for therapeutic development these little blocks are!

Use Legos in learning: Preschool, Kindergarten, and First grade math and literacy with Legos.  Lots of ideas on this page!  Great tips on the therapeutic benefits of using Legos in Occupational Therapy including fine motor skills, too!

So how do you learn with Legos?

Use Legos in learning: Preschool, Kindergarten, and First grade math and literacy with Legos.  Lots of ideas on this page!  Great tips on the therapeutic benefits of using Legos in Occupational Therapy including fine motor skills, too!
We practiced letter identification and letter formation using Legos.  Using the long and single width blocks, form upper and lower case letters.  Kids can copy the forms to build their own letters as they work on letter formation and identification.  This was a great activity for my preschooler.

Use Legos in learning: Preschool, Kindergarten, and First grade math and literacy with Legos.  Lots of ideas on this page!  Great tips on the therapeutic benefits of using Legos in Occupational Therapy including fine motor skills, too!
We used paint
to create letter stamps using the Legos.  Kids can copy their block forms and print the letters onto paper as they say the name of the letter and the sound associated with it.  Older kids can stamp out words.  This would be a creative and fun way to practice spelling words for school-aged kids.

Use Legos in learning: Preschool, Kindergarten, and First grade math and literacy with Legos.  Lots of ideas on this page!  Great tips on the therapeutic benefits of using Legos in Occupational Therapy including fine motor skills, too!
The younger preschool aged kids can work on identifying and building shapes with Legos.  How many shapes can you build?  Can you make 3D shapes like in the first image of our post?  Kindergarten aged kids work on three dimentional form identification like rectangular prisms, cubes, and pyramids.   They also identify the difference between a 3 dimensional shape and a 2 dimensional shape.  Build shapes together with your child as a way to work on these skills.
Use Legos in learning: Preschool, Kindergarten, and First grade math and literacy with Legos.  Lots of ideas on this page!  Great tips on the therapeutic benefits of using Legos in Occupational Therapy including fine motor skills, too!

A big hit in our house was adding and subtracting with Legos.  Build a stack of Legos 10 or more blocks high.  Use a dry erase marker
to write numbers right on the blocks.  Did you know a dry erase marker will wipe right off of the surface of the blocks?  To practice adding and subtracting, work with your child as they build other stacks of blocks.  Together, count on or count backwards to figure out the addition or subtraction by counting the remaining blocks to get to the top of the stack with the numbers written on them.   

This post is part of our month-long series: Learning with Free Materials series, where we share ideas to learn at home using free (or almost free) materials.  It’s part of the 31 Days of Homeschooling Tips as we blog along with other bloggers with learning at home tips and tools.

Love these ideas?  Pin it!  You will want to check out our our Playful Math Pinterest Board for more fun and learning ideas.

More playful math activities you will like: 

Bubble Wrap Math Visual Scanning

Popping Bubble wrap is a fabulous fine motor work out for kids.  Popping the little air bubbles in recycled plastic wrap works the muscles within the hand (the intrinsic muscles) and opens the thumb web space, which is important in an efficient pencil grasp.  We used bubble wrap in a visual perceptual activity and a math activity recently as we practiced “counting on” by twos.  This first grade math activity is a great way to build a foundation in addition and subtraction.  Besides being a creative way to practice math skills, our bubble wrap math maze was big time fun!
Also be sure to check out our math maze activity for more hands-on visual perceptual and fine motor math fun.


This first grade math activity is a great way to build a foundation in addition and subtraction.  Besides being a creative way to practice math skills, this bubble wrap math maze is big time fun and great for fine motor skills like intrinsic hand strength and an open web space.  Also great for visual scanning skills in kids, too.

Counting On Math Activity:

This post contains affiliate links.
 
We’ve done a similar bubble wrap visual scanning activity before, only with letters and colors and using the bigger style of bubble wrap.  Today’s post uses the smaller bubble  bubble wrap and is more age-appropriate for my daughter who is just finishing up first grade.  We used a 

permanent marker
to write even numbers on the bubbles, starting with number “2”. I wrote the numbers in a weaving maze so that it would take a bit of visual scanning to locate the appropriate number as my daughter counted on from 2.



The word on the therapy street is that Bubble Wrap is not going to be made in the near coming future, in order to provide a more environmentally conscious shipping product.   The occupational therapists I know will be stocking up now for it’s fine motor workout awesomeness!  That’s all for the inside scoop on bubble wrap for now.

This first grade math activity is a great way to build a foundation in addition and subtraction.  Besides being a creative way to practice math skills, this bubble wrap math maze is big time fun and great for fine motor skills like intrinsic hand strength and an open web space.  Also great for visual scanning skills in kids, too.
Then, fill in the surrounding bubbles with numbers.  Be sure to write numbers that don’t “add on” to the numbers in the maze.  For example, near the number 4, don’t write a number 6.  You can make the maze more difficult in subsequent mazes.  Create “dead ends”on the maze of numbers. 
 
To further extend this activity, create a maze with even numbers or “count on” by 3s, 4s, 5s, or 10s.  
You can also count down from the end of the number maze to work on subtraction.
 

What is Counting On and Counting Back in First Grade Math? 

Counting on and Counting back math facts are essentially adding and subtracting.  When a child is trying to figure out an addition problem, counting on is a method of finding the answer.  Counting back from a number is a method of finding a subtraction answer.
This first grade math activity is a great way to build a foundation in addition and subtraction.  Besides being a creative way to practice math skills, this bubble wrap math maze is big time fun and great for fine motor skills like intrinsic hand strength and an open web space.  Also great for visual scanning skills in kids, too.

Visual Scanning Activity

 
Scanning for the correct number among a group of numbers like in this activity, is visual scanning.   Visual scanning is an important part of reading, writing, and so many functional skills. You can read more about visual scanning here.  
This first grade math activity is a great way to build a foundation in addition and subtraction.  Besides being a creative way to practice math skills, this bubble wrap math maze is big time fun and great for fine motor skills like intrinsic hand strength and an open web space.  Also great for visual scanning skills in kids, too.
Need more visual scanning activities?  Try these: 

Seek and find games such as “I Spy”.  Or create your own real toy “I Spy” game.
Roll a ping pong ball across a table from person to person. Watch it with your eyes,  while keeping your head still!
Trace pictures on a light box.
Flash light games.
Sensory seek and find.



This post is part of our month-long series: Learning with Free Materials series, where we share ideas to learn at home using free (or almost free) materials.  It’s part of the 31 Days of Homeschooling Tips as we blog along with other bloggers with learning at home tips and tools.


3 Ingredient Kinetic Sand Recipe

We’re excited to share this 3 Ingredient Kinetic Sand Recipe today.  This batch of homemade sensory dough was SO much fun to make and beyond messy, sensory fun to play with.  We kept this dough out all day long and played as we passed the bin.  This is a dough that you can’t keep your hands out of! I loved how easy it is to put this dough together and my kids loved getting their hands messy.  We added a math component to our sensory dough using seashells and dominoes that we had in our collection.  The fine motor skills that happen with a material like Kinetic Sand are perfect for little ones!
 
We’re adding this post to our month-long series where we learn with free (or almost free) materials that we already have in our home.  You can see all of our ideas in the Learning with Free Materials series, part of the 31 Days of Homeschooling Tips as we blog along with other bloggers with learning at home tips and tools.
Make this easy 3 ingredient Kinetic Sand recipe and use in play and learning at home activities, including math with preschool and grade school kids.

Make this easy 3 ingredient Kinetic Sand recipe and use in play and learning at home activities, including math with preschool and grade school kids.

Easy 3 Ingredient Kinetic Sand Recipe

This post contains affiliate links.
 
To make Kinetic Sand, you’ll need just three ingredients.
2 cups sand
About 1/2 bottle of shaving cream
One box baking soda
 
When we started out making this dough, I wasn’t imagining a kinetic sand-type of sensory dough.  I was picturing a foamy, sandy, sensory material.  Our kinetic sand turned out being much cooler to play with! We started by adding together the sand and the shaving cream.  We didn’t quite measure accurately while mixing.  This is definitely a messy play experience and measuring just didn’t happen for us.  Add about half of the bottle of shaving cream or until the sand/shaving cream is moist and sticks to the hands, but holds together slightly.  While the consistency was very sensory, it turned out being just a little too moist.
Make this easy 3 ingredient Kinetic Sand recipe and use in play and learning at home activities, including math with preschool and grade school kids.
Make this easy 3 ingredient Kinetic Sand recipe and use in play and learning at home activities, including math with preschool and grade school kids.
We then decided to try adding something to hold the dough together better.  We slowly mixed in 1/2 of a box of baking soda (add about 8 oz).  Adding the baking soda really gave our mushy sand dough a moldable, kinetic dough-type of consistency.  The consistency of your dough will vary depending on the type of sand you use and how much shaving cream you add.  Mix in more baking soda until the dough holds together.  You will be able to mold the dough at this point.  If you can not mold the dough because it is too sticky, just mix in more baking soda. 
Make this easy 3 ingredient Kinetic Sand recipe and use in play and learning at home activities, including math with preschool and grade school kids.
Make this easy 3 ingredient Kinetic Sand recipe and use in play and learning at home activities, including math with preschool and grade school kids.
This is a messy sensory dough.  You may want to do this play experience outdoors, or prepare your indoor area beforehand with a plastic table cloth under your bin.  We love to use a large storage bin for messy sensory doughs like this one.
Make this easy 3 ingredient Kinetic Sand recipe and use in play and learning at home activities, including math with preschool and grade school kids.

 

Kinetic Sand Math

Make this easy 3 ingredient Kinetic Sand recipe and use in play and learning at home activities, including math with preschool and grade school kids.
I love when the kids add to a play activity that we have going on.  The creative play that happens when they add something to a dough is fun, creative, and even a learning opportunity! They pulled out dominoes that we had in the house and stick them into the kinetic sand.  We decided to play some dominoes.
Make this easy 3 ingredient Kinetic Sand recipe and use in play and learning at home activities, including math with preschool and grade school kids.
Pressing the dominoes into the kinetic sand was fun for my seven year old.  I pulled out two dominoes and asked her to add the total number of dots on each domino.  She then determined which domino had a greater total number.  We used the side of a domino to create a greater than or less than symbol.
 
Don’t have dominoes?  Add seashells or rocks to the kinetic sand and count them out.  Make the greater than/less than symbols between the sets of seashells or rocks.  Pressing the dominoes into the sand really works the fine motor skills. Kinetic Sand is such a resistive material that works on strength of the hands.  Occupational Therapists need this in their therapy bag!
Make this easy 3 ingredient Kinetic Sand recipe and use in play and learning at home activities, including math with preschool and grade school kids.
 
We created a math activity for my three year old as well.  She helped me squeeze the kinetic sand into balls.  We placed them in a row and I asked her to count out the number of sand balls in each row.  This one-to-one correspondence is a  fun preschool math activity.
 
 
Looking for more Sand sensory dough recipes?  
 
See what the other bloggers in the 12 months of sensory dough series made this month:
DIY Moon Sand | Lemon Lime Adventures
Bring the Beach Home with Taste Safe Sand Dough | Bare Feet on the Dashboard
Baby Safe Sand Dough | Creative World of Varya
Edible Sand Dough | Wildflower Ramblings
Music Inspired Beach Dough | Witty Hoots
Rock Pool Sand Dough | Peakle Pie
Sand Foam Dough | Squiggles and Bubbles
Dinosaur Fossils with Sand Dough | Preschool Powol Packets
Foaming Beach Sand Dough | on Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tail
More creative sensory doughs you can make at home: 
 

Teach Letters with Push Pins

Letter formation with push pins

This fine motor activity is a fun way to teach letters with push pins while working on fine motor skills…and it’s so much fun for kids, and a little out of the box. Teach letters with push pins in this push pin activity that builds fine motor skills. Sometimes, when teaching kids how to make letters, it is helpful to add creative and different methods to the good old fashioned, paper and pencil letter making practice. This Push Pin Letter Formation activity is a creative way to practice correct letter formation using a resistive surface for a proprioceptive input to handwriting. We’re back with today’s post in our month-long Learning with Free Materials series, part of the 31 Days of Homeschooling Tips as we blog along with other bloggers with learning at home tips and tools.

Teach kids how to make letters and the correct letter formation in handwriting using a recycled can and push pins.  You can make letters over and over again using a dry erase pen!
 

This post contains affiliate links.

 

Teach Letters with Push Pins

We’ve used push pins in creative learning not too long ago, so pulling the push pins again turned out to be a big hit with my son. He loved using them in our color math counting activity, so when I pulled them out of the drawer, he was excited to try this letter formation activity. In our  Learning with Free Materials series this month, we’re using items from around the house in learning.
 
Push pins are perfect tool for learning, because most people have them on hand, and if not, they are on the cheaper side to purchase.  
 
To do this letter learning activity, you’ll need a can with a plastic lid. An oatmeal, raisins, chips, or any canister-type container with a plastic lid would work.  You’ll want a lid that can be perforated by the push pin and can be written on with a dry erase marker.  
 
Draw any letter on the lid with a dry erase marker. Instruct your child to push the push pins through the lid along the lines in the correct formation. Be sure to provide verbal and visual cues as needed so your child forms the letter with the push pins correctly.  
 
So, for a letter “K”, your child should start at the top of the letter and push the push pins along the lines, going strait down.  
 
Then, they will use push pins to form the slanted parts, beginning at the top and sliding in toward the strait line, then slanting outward to the bottom of the letter. 
 
Teach kids how to make letters and the correct letter formation in handwriting using a recycled can and push pins.  You can make letters over and over again using a dry erase pen!
 
Using the resistive surface with the push pins is a great way to encourage a tripod grasp, which is so important in pencil control and handwriting.  The resistive surface of the lid provides great proprioceptive input during letter learning and handwriting.  
 
After you’ve formed a letter, simply use a paper towel to erase the letter and start all over with a new letter.  
 
NOTE:  As always, provide supervision to your child with this and any activity that you see on our blog.  Use your judgement when doing this activity with your child.
 

Fun ways to work on Letter Formation

High-Contrast Letter Formation
Sensory Letter Formation Practice
Tracing Letters: Letter Formation Handwriting Practice with Chalk
Tracing Lines with a DIY Light Box

Use Cookie Cutters to teach Letter formation

Tripod Grasp Activities for Kids: