Learning Double Digits

My almost 4 year old can identify numbers 1-10 with no problem.  However, when it comes to any number past 10 she gets a bit confused.  So, we have been finding fun ways to learn our double digits.  I found these eggs at Target in the dollar section and knew I could use them for something.  Then, I came across some free printables from the homeschool den and knew what I would use our eggs for, a number matching game!

I cut out the animal pictures and the numbers and used tape to attach the pictures to one half of the egg and the numbers to the other half of the eggs.

I like this activity because first, it helps Tiffany count higher than 10 which she has some trouble with.  Next, it offers one to one correspondence and it makes Tiffany have to identify which number matches the number of animals she counted. Lastly, it helped with sequencing as once the numbers were matched she had to put the numbers in order from 10-19.  Alot of times Tiffany will get ahead of herself with counting and rush the numbers especially with double digits.  When I saw her rushing the counting during this game I just helped point to the numbers with her.

Once the pictures were matched to the correct number we began putting the numbers in order from 10-19.  We didn't start on 20...yet!

To be honest at first Tiffany was not really interested in playing.  I left this game out for 3 days before she finally wanted and asked to play what she called, the egg game.  Once she had the interest in playing she was off and running. Overall, Tiffany liked our match game and it's something I can easily leave out to play with again and again.  Tiffany also liked putting the eggs back together again too!

I'm glad I have some extra eggs since I have come up with some other fun ideas to use them for!  Stay tuned.....!

If you are looking to help your child learn numbers you might also want to check out our bean bag numbers game

St. Patrick's Day Sensory Table

I was inspired by Munchkin and Bean when I read about their St. Patrick's Day Sensory bin.  We've never played with green split peas until now so I was excited to see what Tiffany would make of it.  Almost immediately after reading Munchkin and Bean's blog post I purchased 5 bags of green split peas and a few extras because we were going to be using our water table.  Next on the list, gold coins but after not finding them at the Dollar store or any of our local grocery stores I decided to buy some green gems I spotted at the Dollar Tree.  Initially, I set up the sensory table with just the peas and the green gems.  Since I wanted to include coins in the some way I remembered we had some play coins so I threw in a few play pennies.  My son has always liked pirates so I looked through his room and was able to find some gold coins....score! Finally, the table was set up the way I had hoped!

This is a picture of just the beans and green gems.

This is with pennies.....

And finally, with the gold coins!

I liked how all 3 looked but was happiest with the coins included.  Thankfully, I found some because that is what kept my daughter's attention.  She was happy to find the gems but finding the coins was her highlight.  She even asked if I could bury some more and thankfully I was able to scrounge up a few more from my son's pirate collection!

My daughter was excited to find her St. Patrick's Day sensory table when she woke up.  I almost wished she hadn't spotted it until after we took my son to school because getting her to stop playing after about 30 minutes was not easy.  Normally, that would be a great thing but school was calling!!

My son had to feel around a bit too!

Finding her first gold coin!

Digging around...

After finding the gems and coins my daughter sorted her treasures into cups (shucks, no pics of that!)

A fun and mess free sensory activity to celebrate St. Patrick's Day!

Rainbow Craft

This is such an easy, fun craft to do with your preschooler or even toddler. We also read the book Minnie's Rainbow to go along with our rainbow theme.

Here are the supplies needed to make this craft:
1. Construction paper for each of the rainbow colors
2. Paper plate cut in half
3. Cotton balls
4. Glue
5. Hole punch
6. Yarn or string

I didn't have my preschooler cut the strips for this craft but this is a good opportunity to practice those scissor cutting skills! Once the strips of paper are cut have your child glue on each piece of paper to the backside of the paper plate.  Gluing is also good practice for fine motor skills.

This next step is my daughters favorite part, gluing on the cotton balls!  I only take out as many cotton balls as I think the plate should hold otherwise Tiffany would happily use up our entire bag of cotton balls!

Lastly, I used a hole puncher and punched a hole near the top of the paper plate, strung through a piece of yarn and their you have it!  An easy, fun, colorful craft to welcome spring!

Bottle Flower Stamp

Is their really something you can do with the bottom of an ice tea or soda bottle?  Yes! Believe it or not the bottom of this ice tea bottle makes a pretty flower stamp!  And please don't mind what's inside the bottle....those are colored sprinkles that I used for an I Spy bottle.

I put some paint in a dish placed the bottle on top and started stamping.

It was at this point that my 3.5 year old had her own idea.  Apparently, she wanted the flower to have a circle in the middle.  So, she put her finger in the paint and pressed on a little circle.

Final step, painting the flower stems and we have pretty spring flowers!  It has been fun doing winter crafts but so refreshing to finally do a flower craft!

I would love to hear about your flower or spring craft! Feel free to share on our Facebook page!

Sun Bleached Letter Matching and Sensory Play

My daughter loves anything that involves a hunt!  When I saw this post on Pinterest about sun bleached letter matching I knew we had to give it a try.  First, I gathered whatever magnet letters we had (I chose random letters), put them onto a black piece of construction paper which was placed on top of a baking sheet and then out into the sun for a few hours.

After a few hours of sunshine, this is how it looks:

I set up our water table with some shredded green paper which I had left over from our Shamrock craft and hid the letters in the shredded paper.  Tiffany had fun searching for the letters and matching them to the sun bleached letters on the paper.  

This activity helped with letter recognition and offered sensory play by including the shredded paper.  It was also neat to see how the sun bleached the letters into the paper!

Five fun ways to use cardboard tubes

The creative opportunities with cardboard tubes are endless!  Here are 5 of my favorites that we've made and enjoyed at our house.

1. Learning Seasons: This activity has helped my 3.5 year old learn our 4 seasons better.  You can read the full post here .  Simply print off some pictures of what happens in the different seasons, sun for summer, snow flakes for winter, etc and then again print off pictures of different activities that happen within each season and glue them to the tips of craft/popsicle sticks.  Their are so many different ways to use this activity.

2.  Pre-schooler chore tubes: My daughter wanted to help with house chores so I came up with this idea to encourage and motivate.  It has worked out great!  Taking the craft stick and putting it in the Good Job tube gives her a sense of accomplishment!  We use it every day since we made it.  You can read full post here

3.  Butterfly craft:  Their are so many fun animals that can be made using cardboard rolls.  If interested in making your own butterfly check out post here 

4. Heart Stamping:  Perfect for Valentines day or even St. Patrick's Day as hearts can be used to create and take on various shapes like shamrocks.  Using cardboard rolls for this activity is so, so simple.  Just takes a little squeeze together of the roll and some paint and paper!  You can see what we made here

5. Bird Feeders:  My daughter had so much fun making these bird feeders.  We used both a toilet paper roll and a paper towel roll.  With all the snow we've had the birds were very thankful! Take a look at our full post here 

Whatever you decide to do with your cardboard rolls, have fun and let your imagination run wild!!

Re-use Lysol lids

In an effort to re-use I try and give thought to things that are ready to be tossed out.  One of the things I recently thought I could re-use were the lids to the Lysol containers.  They are the lids that flip up and when you close the lid it kind of 'clicks' into place.

I made a car for Tiffany out of a cardboard box and used these lids as traffic lights.  After playing with my daughter and using the 'traffic lights' I got an idea.  Toddlers like flip books where they can lift up a flap to see what's hiding behind it.  These books are good for participatory learning and also helps the child, like a game of peek-a-boo, that even though you can't see something (or someone) it's still there.  These Lysol lids are kind of like those flaps in books.  To test it out I hot glued the washed lids to a piece of cardboard.  I already had the colors of a traffic light glued into the inside of the lids for the game I was playing with my daughter but you could use any color or even numbers, letters, animals, etc. The lids are now ready for interactive play.  Toddlers are probably ideal for this since they love to discover!  It also works on their fine motor skills. So, if you have some Lysol or Clorox lids you may want to give this a try.