Chilly Chalk

One of my favorite things to do is use sidewalk chalk. For some reason, creating art on a large sidewalk canvas never fails to make me happy. Note - I am not an artist; I actually possess little artistic talent. But I still love to use sidewalk chalk.

In an Early Learning environment, sidewalk chalk is a staple; sometimes kids who have no interest in writing or drawing in the classroom will suddenly become Picasso when handed a piece of sidewalk chalk and a large area on which to draw.

I have been exploring different recipes to create sidewalk chalk on my own; with moderate success. But I just stumbled on one that seems to work really well, is easy to make and is cold! When it is 110 degrees outside, icy sidewalk chalk is a no brainer.

You will need equal parts of:

baking soda
corn starch
water
liquid water color or food coloring (note: food coloring may take a few days to fade from sidewalk)

(1 and 1/3 cup of each will yield enough for one ice cube tray of chalk.).

Place all of the ingredients into a bottle with a tight fitting lid and shake well.

Pour mixture into an ice cube tray and freeze over night.

Now you have frozen sidewalk chalk!

If using your chalk during the hot part of the day, please remember the sidewalk can burn - find shade!

Added bonus: after you have made your chalk designs with your homemade chalk; grab a spray bottle and fill it with vinegar. Spray on your designs, and watch them fizz!

Hot Colors in the Desert

It is nice and hot outside right now, here in the desert.

This is the perfect weather to melt crayons in.

I am not referring to accidentally melting crayons, like those stray ones that you find on the floor of the car, or on your car seat (usually after you have sat in the waxy puddle...just me?).

When it gets hot I like to take all my old and broken crayons that I have saved (again...just me?) and melt them together to make new crayons.

Simply peel off the paper (have the kiddos peel off the paper...practice those fine motor skills), and put all the little pieces of crayon into cup cake liners. Set the crayon filled liners on a cookie sheet and place the cookie sheet outside in direct sunlight. Depending on the day, the crayons will melt into a multi-colored liquid fairly quickly. (This liquid is hot and messy - be careful!). Put the cookie sheet in the freezer for 20-30 minutes, and - wah-la! - new crayons.

There are many variations on this...using mini cupcake liners, silicone baking trays, etc...let your kiddo come up with what shapes they want their new crayons to be.

Have fun and stay cool!

Rhyme all the Time

Identifying words that rhyme is a building block to reading and spelling for young children. Rhyming teaches them sound discrimination and exposes them to phonological awareness (the ability to hear sounds within words). These skills will be used as they learn to read and write.

So rhyme, rhyme all the time!

Young children love to rhyme, and love to figure out what rhymes and what doesn't. Find opportunities to practice rhyming every day. If rhyming is a new concept, nonsense words are acceptable. As they develop their rhyming skills, and they come up with a nonsense word, ask them what they think the word means. For example, if they rhyme "fit" and "jit", ask them what "jit" means. Their explanation will more than likely be amazing.

Keep a running list of rhyming words your child makes, making the connection that spoken words can be written. Plus, young children love seeing their words in print.

There are a myriad of books out there that include rhymes. When reading these books, have your child identify the rhymes they hear.

Once a young child figures out rhymes, they will continuously rhyme everything. While it can be exhausting, know they are practicing to be amazing readers.

Have fun, everyone! (See what I did there?)

Word Search

As young students discover the concept that print has meaning, they become more aware of words in their environment. Giving a child a piece of paper and a writing utensil and asking them to go find 10 words around the house heightens their awareness of print, and gives them practice with using a utensil. Plus counting to 10! Math!

Neatness doesn't count
Spelling doesn't count

Making the connection that words are everywhere we look is what counts.

Don't Throw Away Those Markers!

One of my favorite mediums to paint with is liquid watercolor. Purchasing liquid watercolor is pricey, but thanks to Pinterest, I discovered a cheap way to always have liquid water color on hand. If you soak dried up washable markers in water...waa-laa! Liquid water color. It takes about 24 hours to get a nice, brilliant color; the longer the markers soak, the more brilliant the color.

In my classroom, we always have cups with dried out markers soaking, so we always have a ready supply of liquid watercolor.

Yay for recycling!

I Spy!

Making an I Spy bottle is easy and inexpensive, and lends itself to so many activities.

All you need is...

• clean, dry plastic bottle
• rice
• lima beans

With a Sharpie, write letters on the beans. Put beans and rice inside the bottle and seal the bottle (I use glue to insure I don't have beans and rice in places I don't want it).

Use your new I Spy bottle for the following literacy fun with your kiddo!

• For every letter found, say the associated sound
• Write each letter as it is found
• Cut a picture out of a magazine that has the same beginning sound as the letter that is found
• Cut a letter out of a magazine for each letter that is found
• Find the letters in your name, Check them off as they are found
• Find something in the room that starts with the letter that is found
• Say the ABC's up to the letter that is found

Variations:

• Use plastic alphabet beads instead of writing letters on beans
• Write letters on pebbles instead of beans
• Use numbers
• Use numbers and letters
• Use both upper and lowercase letters
• Let the kiddos make their own, have them write their own letters on the beans. Giant lima beans work well for this, Provide spoons and funnels so they can scope in their own rice.
• Add other items (sparkles, rocks, jewels, etc)

Spy on!

It's Raining!

It is raining!!

In June!

In Phoenix!

In my little part of the world, rain in June is unheard of. So why not break out some fun rainy day activities?

One of my all time favorite rainy day things to do is watercolor rain painting. Use watercolors and create a design. Put your painting outside in a light drizzle for a little bit. Watch the amazing effects and designs that occur.

Catch a rain drop! I love doing this, and then painting the raindrops once they are baked.

Make a rain gauge. It is so interesting to see how much rain actually falls; sometimes it feels like a foot of rain has fallen from the sky when actually only 1/4" came down, Using a recycled 2 liter bottle with measurements marked in Sharpie is an easy, free way to create a rain gauge. Place rain gauges in different parts of your yard. Do all the gauges have the same amount of rain?

The absolute best, all time favorite rainy day activity is to simply play in the rain. Forget all that other stuff. Just go play in the rain.

Have fun!!

Corn Starch is the Best

Corn starch is such a cool substance. It can help make a terrific gravy, as well as provide hours of fun for kids (and their grown-ups).

My all time favorite use of corn starch is to make ooblek. Use equal parts of water and cornstarch, mix it together and then play! Ooblek is fascinating because it can be both a liquid and a solid. When you squeeze it, it feel hard, but once you let it go, it oozes through your fingers. I can play with this stuff for hours (and I have!).


Another favorite corn starch recipe is corn starch dough; a soft, silky play dough which shares some of the properties of ooblek. Plus it makes your hands super soft.

Start with:

• 1 cup corn starch
• 12 oz bottle of super cheap hair conditioner (choose a favorite scent!)

Mix until dough forms, and play away.

You can also make your own Moon Sand; why spend the money when you can whip up your own?

Start with:

• 4 cups sand
• 2 cups corn flour
• 1 cup water

Mix together. You can also add glitter and food coloring to jazz up your moon sand.

Working with corn starch is MESSY!!! But so worth it!


Have fun!!

You Spin Me 'Round

One of the most popular activities in my classroom this year was spinning tops. I originally introduced tops as a way to help a few of my students hone their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination, but, as things often do in an early childhood classroom, the tops ended up offering so much more. We explored physics ( what types of surfaces do the tops spin on the longest?), art (what designs look cool when spinning), math (what top spins the longest?), more physics (on how steep of an incline will tops continue to spin before they simply slide down?). And so much more. And while I labeled the explorations with the core subjects being addressed, the students explored all these things on their own, with no guidance from me. (Let kids play!!)

And I made these tops with stuff I had laying around in my classroom....

1 CD
1 marble
1 bottle cap
Some glue (I used hot glue, and was frequently repairing broken tops, a stronger glue might increase durability)

• On one side of the CD, glue the marble in the hole (the marble should sit about a third of the way into the hole, just blob the glue around the marble, making sure the bottom of the marble remains free of glue.

• Glue the bottle cap on the other side of the CD, over the marble. 

• Let glue dry.

• Spin!!!

Ice, Ice, Baby!

Here in the desert, the temperature is supposed to hit triple digits this week, and the thought of playing outside becomes unbearable; how to spend time outside and not melt away?

 Play with ice!

Ice is cold, and self cleaning. It melts and then eventually just dries - no clean up!

Suggestions for ice play:

• Dump a bag of ice into a bin, add water and scoops

• Freeze colored water (use food coloring or liquid watercolor, this might stain...) and use to paint on sidewalk

• Freeze colored water and explore color mixing

• Fill a variety of containers with water and freeze - use resulting ice to create structures

• Freeze items inside ice (toy dinoauars, marbles, cars, etc.) and challenge your kiddos to remove the items from the ice without braking the ice

• Rock salt and ice is fun

• Letter practice - draw letters on sidewalk and trace with ice

• Contest: Who can hold ice the longest?

These are but a few things to do with ice, one of the best summer play items in the desert!

Enjoy!!

Memorial Day Merriment

For many people, Memorial Day marks the first day of summer, and is celebrated by gathering with friends and family for barbecues and swimming.

Kiddos love to help in the kitchen, and picnic food offers a great opportunity for them to get in on the fun.

First, the super sweet and unhealthy, but so fun and messy to make....patriotic marshmallows!!
(Recipe courtesy of The Wicked Noodle). These are so sweet my teeth hurt just looking at the picture!

Patterning is a favorite activity of young kids, and the ability to recognize and create patterns lays a foundation for learning algebra and geometry down the line, as well as the ability to make predictions.

Fruit kabobs offer a fun way to pattern with picnic food. Let the your child choose 3-4 fruits and then allow them to create a pattern as they skewer the fruit on to a kabob stick (of course, supervise your child, no one wants to lose an eye). For example, strawberry, blueberry, grape; strawberry, blueberry, grape, etc. Math and fruit - it's a win-win!

A fun activity that helps with fine motor coordination is letting your child use  a melon baller to scoop melon. A variety of melon balls tossed together is so festive looking, and a perfect picnic food, but so tedious to make. However, your child will love this!

Tossing in a little bit of literacy to the fun....

Have your child find the letters in "Memorial Day" in old magazines, flyers, etc. Have them cut them out the letters and glue them to a piece of paper. More challenging? Have them find pictures that start with the sounds of the letters in Memorial Day. For example, a picture of a man for the "M".

Have a safe and fun first day of summer!!

Summer!!!

The summer is here!

What to do, what to do...

Where I live, it is very hot in the summer, and while I wholly enjoying the feeling of living in an oven, most folks don't. What we need are some easy, fun and inexpensive things to do, to keep the young ones engaged and their grown-ups sane.

I have gathered ideas for some fun simple and easy crafts, cooking and activities to help with the things to do dilemma. While most of these are designed for the 3-5 set, I certainly had fun doing them, and with some tweaking can be geared to most any age group.

Happy Summer!