X is for X-ray

 We have really enjoyed our letter of the week.  Some of the letters were more challenging than others for figuring out an activity to go along with the letter and letter X was definitely one of them! After some searching on Pinterest and Google we came up with an X-ray activity which turned out to be one of our favorites!

Here are the materials we used:
Black construction paper
Q-tips
White crayon
Glue

We started off by tracing our hand and part of our forearm with white crayon.  This was a great fine motor and tracing activity!  After that we simply used some glue (used the squeeze glue bottle so another opportunity to use those fine motor skills) to stick on our q-tips which act as the 'bones.'

We also found a fun skeleton printable (child size) which my preschooler was able to piece together to form a full child size skeleton.  We had fun laying next to it and learning about the parts of our body.

Do you do letter of the week, if so we would love to hear which letter or letters are your favorites!  Visit us on our Facebook page or comment below!

Search and Build Springtime Sensory Bin

 Spring is FINALLY in the air!  To help get us in the spirit I made up a Spring Sensory Bin using some decorative grass, and various other things to help build some indoor spring!

Here's everything we used:

Decorative grass (not shown below)
Pipe cleaners
Foam
Googly eyes
Pom poms
Ribbon
Black beans (not shown below)
Empty soap container (not shown below)

My daughter loves a hunt so I thought how about a mini hunt in a bin?!  I added flower 'parts' to the bin by using green pipe cleaners to act as the flower stem and cut out foam in the shape of flowers.  I also added a bunny also cut from foam and things like googly eyes and pom poms so that my daughter could 'put together' her bunny.

I added a few pieces and then would add some grass and continued layering.

Beginning her 'hunt!'

Finding pieces!

Building the flower...

Building the bunny....

After our flowers were all put together we used an old soap container for our vase and added our flowers and bunny to it. I also had some black beans from our Halloween Garden and used the beans as 'soil' for our flowers. This part is completely optional and if interested in doing this you do not have to put in a 'vase' at all but just glue your flowers and bunny to construction paper. 

Since our soap container had a bit of glue on the front from the label we added our bunny to the front of the vase and it stuck perfectly!

So now we have a bit of spring indoors!

My daughter LOVED the decorative grass and I was feeling brave this day and let her have some fun throwing the grass around.  Believe it or not it was a super easy clean up!  She even helped, happily!  I would not recommend letting your child do this with the grass if you have pets as I'm sure ingesting this would be bad for them. 

Sorry for the blurry shots, so much moving and throwing!

Happy Spring!

W is for Watermelon

 

 We are approaching the end of the alphabet for our letter of the week program.  I can't believe it's been 26 weeks already and this week we will finally hit letter Z!

As we are getting to the end I'm losing a bit of steam as these last few letters seem to be the trickiest, especially our friend X!  But that's for another post!

My daughter had fun making a watermelon craft turned simple math activity.

Here's what we used:
Paper plate
Green marker
Pink marker
Black marker
Scissors
Black beans
Double sided tape

For the watermelon craft:
Simply cut a paper plate in half and let your child begin coloring it with the colors of a watermelon! So easy but yet the watermelon turns out so cute!

For math activity:

After our craft I decided to put our black beans to use for some simple preschool math.  The beans acted as the 'watermelon seeds!'

I used double sided tape which made it super easy for the beans to stick.

My daughter had a great big smile when she saw the 'watermelon seeds.'  We have been doing simple addition and subtraction and I thought this watermelon would make adding a bit more fun!

I love crafts and I love learning activities and in this case we got a 2 for 1!  Craft and learning activity all in 1!

Boring Brownies....No More!

My kids LOVE brownies and to make it easy and fun to bake with them I buy boxed brownie mix. The kids love making them and of course eating devouring them!  Personally for me they are just ok so this last time that we made them I decided to use my mini muffin tin to bake the brownies in.  My daughter is so use to making them the normal way that she was getting concerned about my new idea.

The new brownie baking idea did not stop her from licking the bowl!

Since this was my first time baking brownies in a mini muffin tin I went online to see how long to bake and came across this recipe from Duncan Hines, Brownie Candy Cups.  I am a sucker for chocolate and peanut butter so I knew instantly this was something I had to try!  Being the peanut butter cup lover that I am I had some peanut butter cups on hand too....score!

If you'd like to try these outrageously delicious brownies here's what you'll need:

1 Box of Duncan Hines Double Fudge Decadent Brownie Mix ( rest of recipe on the back of the box)

Mini muffin tin

Peanut butter cups (1 bag should do it)  I only used about 10 since I wasn't sure if the kids would like them with the peanut butter cups so made some with the cups and some without.

Fresh out of the oven!

Ready to enjoy!

Even though my daughter was a little disappointed that we didn't bake them the way she's used to after one bite she LOVED them!  My son had just come home from school and knew by the smell in the house that brownies were made and asked for one.  I showed him and told him he could choose with our without the peanut butter cup, he dove right in for the peanut butter cup brownie and LOVED them!  Hubby was next and he too LOVED them.  The only part we didn't love was that I didn't include the peanut butter cups in ALL of the brownies. But even without the peanut butter cups they were delicious!

Calming Bedtime Books

We love books whether during the day or at bedtime.  However, I'm a bit more selective when it comes to bedtime stories.  Of course I want my daughter to enjoy the book but at the same time I prefer ones that have a softer 'tone.'  I tend to act out the story, so to speak, by using different voices when I read so I don't want a book where there is alot of excitement.  I'll save those for during the day!

If you're looking for calming books at bedtime here are some of our favorites:

1. You're All My Favorites by Sam McBratney

2. Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney

3. Whose Bay Am I? by John Butler

4. Hush, Little Ones by John Butler

5. Won't You Be My Kissaroo? by Joanne Ryder

6. Pajama Time by Sandra Boynton

7. The Going To Bed Book by Sandra Boynton

8. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and other favorite bedtime rhymes (THIS is our absolute favorite) by Sanja Rescek

My daughter never makes it to the end of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and usually dozes off somewhere in the middle.

All of these books have such a sweet 'tone' to them and really help set the mood for bedtime.

What are some of your favorite bedtime stories?  Share in the comments below or visit our Facebook page.