Buddy announced last weekend he wanted to “do an activity”, which is his way of saying he wanted to try something a little different. After talking through some ideas, we decided to pull out our cloud dough. We did our digging for dinosaurs activity with cloud dough about a year ago, and we haven’t done it since then.
Buddy doing our cloud dough dinosaur dig in 2018.
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The recipe for cloud dough is a 8:1 mixture of flour to oil. Originally, I made a batch with four cups of flour and a half cup of canola oil, and then I added a little bit more oil. I saved it in a Tupperware container, and a year later it was still the same texture! It was amazing! I decided to add another 2 cups of flour and 1/4 cup oil to give Buddy a little more cloud dough to play with.
I put the cloud dough in a 9×13 glass pan. Buddy asked to help bury the dinosaurs, and then he dug them out. He used a small spoon to dig and a small paint brush to brush them off. He had a lot of fun, but I was thinking of new things to do with the cloud dough.
Buddy still loves doing his construction site sensory bin, so I thought it’d be fun to put the CAT mini trucks into the cloud dough. Those trucks made the cloud dough so much fun! Buddy had the best time putting cloud dough into the dump truck and having his T-Rex drive it around.
I also pulled out a Dixie cup and helped Buddy make some sandcastles. The bulldozer and backhoe had a lot of fun knocking them down. Then we would make more sandcastles and start over again.
The cloud dough was so much fun, and I’m glad I pulled it out. It made a huge mess, but it was worth it. (I needed to clean my kitchen anyway.) Looking back at the pictures from our cloud dough activity last year, I wish I had thought to put Buddy in his apron, like I did then! He needed an outfit change when this activity was done (and I did too!) But we had a lot of fun together for an hour. It’s always great to do something special with materials I already have at my house.
Buddy’s always enjoyed drawing pictures with sidewalk chalk. Now that he’s a little older, I thought this summer was a great time to try a variation on traditional sidewalk chalk. So when I saw the idea for sidewalk chalk paint on The Kitchen Table’s Classroom’s blog, I was excited to try it.
The recipe calls for a 1:1 ratio of cornstarch to water, with food coloring added as needed. So we started with two tablespoons of cornstarch, a little food coloring, and then two tablespoons of water. Buddy tried to stir the mixture, but it was very firm. So we added more water until it was a nice liquid consistency. It was a fun little science experiment before we got to the art activity.
Once we were all ready to paint, we grabbed two paintbrushes and headed outside. We both had a blast painting on our driveway! After the paint dried, it really did look like sidewalk chalk. And when we were all done, it washed away as easily as sidewalk chalk too. It was a fun and easy activity, and I’m sure we’ll try it again next summer.
Do you have any other fun, outdoor activities for kids? Share your ideas in the comments section.
Buddy has always loved sensory bins, and it had been awhile since we’ve done one. So when I saw the idea for a sensory bin with animals and letters on Happy Toddler Playtime’s blog, I was excited to do it. I was especially excited that I already had all of the necessary materials: black beans, animals, and magnetic letters.
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I started by pulling out some of Buddy’s small animals. Some of them were from this Jungle Animal Toob, and some were from a farm set from the dollar store. Once I had pulled out the animals I wanted to use, I found the capital and lowercase letter for each animal. My letters are from this magnetic letter set. I decided to use upper and lowercase letters to give Buddy a chance to match both types of letters.
When I made the sensory bin, I buried all the animals and letters in black beans. This activity would have also been great in a rice bin, but I think black beans are easier to clean up. I told Buddy he had to find all of the animals and feed them with both the upper and lowercase letter that matches the first letter of the animal’s name.
Buddy had a great time digging in the beans and finding the letters. He didn’t have any trouble figuring out which letter each animal needed to eat. Buddy did have a little difficulty with the difference between C and S and lowercase p, b, and d. I was glad to give him a chance to practice these letters in a fun way.
After we finished with the letters and animals, Buddy asked me to pull out his mini construction trucks. Two years later, the construction sensory bin remains his favorite! (Read more about it here.) He did add a couple of the animals to help him drive the trucks.
Buddy played in the animal alphabet sensory bin and then the construction bin for almost two hours!! And then, he only stopped because it was time for dinner. It was a really great way to practice letters and have a lot of fun.
Do you have any other fun sensory bin ideas? Please share in the comments.
My husband is working abroad this summer, and Buddy and I recently flew to Colombia to see him. I knew before we left that we’d have a lot of down time in our hotel. When I was looking for ideas, something that made me very excited was Coffee and Carpool’s blog on hotel activities. I especially loved the idea of drawing on the windows with dry erase markers.
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Before I offered the idea of drawing on the windows with dry erase markers, I tested it on a small part of the window, to make sure it would erase easily. We used Crayola washable dry erase markers. All dry erase markers should work for this activity, but I like the peace of mind with washable markers in general. If they get on something else besides the window, I know it will be easy to remove the stain.
Buddy and I both took a marker, and we looked out the window. We drew pictures of what we saw outside, such as cars, busses, trees, and bicycles. Then we drew everything else we could think of. I offered to play tic-tac-toe on the window, but Buddy just wanted to draw.
Buddy is not always into artsy things, but he had the best time with the activity. He drew happily for 50 minutes the first time we did this activity. The next day he wanted to do it again, and it lasted 30 minutes. Both times we did this, we erased our drawings with a Kleenex when we were done. Some parts took a little effort to erase, but overall, it was pretty easy to clean up.
Dry erase markers will be a regular part of our travel activities in the future. They take almost no space to pack, and they are so much fun! Do you have any other fun ideas for travel activities? Please share in the comments.
Buddy loves all sorts of transportation vehicles – cars, trucks, trains, and especially planes. We are traveling a lot this summer, and I’ve done a lot of research for activities to do with Buddy while traveling or at our location. I saw two different activities that inspired this one. First, I saw how to make easy paper tunnels on Mama.Papa.Bubba’s blog. Then, I found the idea for making tape roads on Learn To Play at Home’s blog. Together, they made for a great, stay in our hotel room activity.
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Before we left on vacation, I bought two rolls of washi tape at the dollar store. You can find similar tape here. I also brought some construction paper and kid friendly scissors. I cut one piece of paper into four sections, and then we were ready to go.
I showed Buddy how to put the tape down on the floor, and he was so excited. My original intention was to make a road, but of course Buddy wanted to make a taxiway and runway for his toy airplanes. We wound the tape all over the floor, and we each did one roll of tape. Then, I started putting up the tunnels. I folded the edges of the paper into flaps, and then I used the washi tape to tape the flaps down.
Once our airport was set up, Buddy and I took turns driving our planes around the taxiway and then taking off and flying around our hotel room. It was a great way to keep him entertained while we were stuck inside for the afternoon.
Do you have any other great ideas for travel activities? Please share in the comments.
Buddy loves games, so I’m always looking for new ones to play. When I came across the idea for a magnatiles dice game on Happy Toddler Playtime’s blog, I knew Buddy would love it. Magnatiles are his favorite toy right now, so a game with magnatiles was just perfect!
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To start, we each counted out 10 magnatiles, and we chose a dinosaur to race. We both rolled a die, and we counted out that number of magnatiles. (I bought my jumbo dice at the dollar store, but you can buy similar ones here.) Then our dinosaur raced out that amount of squares. The first dinosaur to get to square 10 wins the race.
Buddy and I decided before the game that we wanted to have to roll exactly 10 to win. However, you could also just have the first person who rolls more than 10 win.
After our first roll, Buddy and I talked about how many more we needed to get to 10. We also discussed how many more he had than I had. It was a fun way to work on subtraction and comparing numbers.
Buddy enjoyed the game, but he decided he wanted to use the tiles to build a home for the dinosaurs and the dice. If we play again, I would make the number of tiles in the race more than 10. It only took us three rolls to finish the game, which was a little too quick. It will be harder to do, “how many more until you win” with a number larger than 10, though.
Do you have any other ideas of things to do with magnatiles? If so, please share your ideas in the comments section.
Buddy turned four last week, and I can’t believe how quickly my little boy is growing up! The last week has been filled with fun birthday celebrations. I hope to blog about his Lion King birthday party next week. But for now, I’d like to remember my favorite activities from the last year.
We did this at Christmas, but it was so fun Buddy’s asked to do it multiple times since then. It’s a fun and easy way to paint. The best part is there are no brushes to clean at the end.
Buddy loves Magnatiles, and he plays with them almost everyday. Using Jingle Bells to decorate them was a really fun twist to an activity he already loved. We have done this several times, and it’s always a lot of fun.
Buddy had so much fun with this sensory bin! He loved scooping the cotton ball “ice cream” and topping it with bead “sprinkles” and pom pom “cherries”.
You take turns pulling sticks and reading letters. If you pull a Kaboom, all of your sticks go back in the cup. Whoever has the most at the end of the time (for us it was one song) wins!
This is a fun game that practices letter recognition, engineering thinking, and fine motor skills. You build a coconut tree, and then take turn adding letters. When the tree falls, you lose the game.
I made cloud dough with flour and vegetable oil. Then I buried Buddy’s dinosaurs, and called for him to come and dig for them. It was a mess, but he really loved it.
We pretended that foam letters were cookies. Then we served the cookies onto matching letter plates. It’s a fun pretend activity, and Buddy thinks it’s great. We actually just did it this past weekend!
I’m a seventh grade math teacher, and my husband and I have always both been mathematically inclined. (We even met in a math class!) Needless to say, both of us naturally see ways to incorporate math with Buddy. However, it isn’t something that comes naturally to many parents. We have all heard to read to young kids, but how many parents think about setting a foundation for strong math skills? Not many, I’d suspect. So I’m here to share my experiences with having fun building Buddy’s math skills.
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The Common Core math standard topics for Kindergarten are: counting and cardinality, operations and algebraic thinking, number and operations in base ten, measurement and data, and geometry. These are the skills that I’m working on with Buddy through play and everyday life experiences.
Counting and Comparing
Playing games and keeping score is my favorite way to build this skill. Buddy loves games, and I’ve blogged about some of my favorites here and here. We also predict and count different items as we play (how many animals do we have here?)
One of Buddy’s favorite games is Cars and Trucks, which is a kid version of war. When we are done with the game, at least one of us will have to count into the twenties to figure out who has the most cards. That game also involves special +1, +2, and +3 cards that help kids practice addition.
Adding and Subtracting
We started the idea of addition and subtraction with the game Uno Moo. You start the game with five animals, and after each game one person is out of animals, and everyone else has some left over. We just let the people with animals left over pick some more to get five. So I ask Buddy questions like, “I have two left over, how many animals do I need to take?”
Sometimes when we play games, we add how many we have together. Playing memory and Let’s Go Fishing are two great games for that. “I have three matches and you have five. How many matches have we found together?”
We’ve also started to do some addition/subtracting with Buddy’s physical therapy exercises. I’ll set a certain number of times that we are going to do an activity and then we count how many we’ve done. Part way through, we’ll figure out how many more we still need to do.
Understanding Two Digit Numbers
Buddy made the connection between counting past twenty with Advent calendars. Something clicked in his head, and he understood that once you hit twenty, you continue counting normally. Soon after that he started noticing two digit numbers everywhere, and he wanted to learn how to read them.
We practice reading and comparing two digit numbers at basketball games!
We point out numbers in the world around us, and Buddy points them out too. The grocery store is a big one for us. He will count the checkouts up to 28 on our way out of the store. And he’ll read the aisle numbers as we are in them. He also makes note of large numbers on packages (that package has 12 towels!). Other places we practice reading two digit numbers are restaurants with table numbers, street signs, and basketball scores. (March madness is very important in our house!)
Shapes
Since I’m a math teacher, I’ve always been very conscious about naming shapes correctly with Buddy. When he was learning names of shapes, if he called a square a rectangle, I’d say, “yes, but it’s a special kind of rectangle.” Some of my seventh graders have the hardest time understanding that squares are also rectangles.
We play with magnatiles often at our house. It’s one of Buddy’s favorite things to do. At first, we were calling the triangles: little, medium, and big. And then I realized that it would be so easy to call them by correct names. So we call the small ones with equal sides equilateral triangles, the ones that can be made into squares right triangles, and the tall, skinny ones with two equal sides isosceles triangles.
Pattern blocks are another fun way to play with shapes, and learn different names for shapes. There are trapezoids and parallelograms and hexagons, which are all shapes that are not often seen in kid’s shape activities. If you don’t have your own set of pattern blocks, you can have your kids use digital ones or print ones out.
Measurement and Data
Buddy and I sometimes pull out a ruler or measuring tape, and he measures different things. Occasionally, we will measure to see which item is longer or taller. But most often, he just wants to see which number is closest to the item’s length or width.
We also use measurement when we cook or bake together. Buddy and I made a Boston Cream Pie last weekend, and we needed 6 tablespoons of cornstarch for the filling. I asked him to help me count, and after we did four tablespoons, I asked him how many more we needed to add. Moments like that one combine several of those math standards (counting, addition, and measurement) into things we are already doing.
The kindergarten data standard is about sorting things into categories and then counting how many things are in each category. We’ve done something similar when we did a sort with attribute links. We also sometimes do something similar when we play with counters. Buddy loves to grab a handful to fill up one of his magnatiles creations, and sometimes I’ll ask him how many of each he has. (Two squirrels, three owls, and five apples!)
Buddy playing with attribute links, which can be sorted by color, shape, or size.
Great Math Resources
Hopefully I’ve helped you realize that you can easily incorporate math activities into your normal life without buying anything else. But I wanted to share a few more things if you are looking for something else to supplement the math in your home.
My favorite math books are Countablock and 123 Count with Me. Countablock is perfect for helping kids count to 100. It’s a chunky board book, and it’s so much fun! 123 Count with Me is great for helping kids read, write, and add numbers. There are grooved numbers to trace and flaps to lift to engage kids. The book counts up to 20, and then there are addition problems with flaps as well. (The alphabet counterparts to these books, Alphablock and A is for Apple respectively, are also great!) Buddy also loves watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and there is at least one math topic built into every episode.
Those are a few examples of some of the ways my family does math together. Some of those math moments might take a little extra thought initially, but then it will become second nature. If you can help to establish a comfort and curiosity with numbers before your child starts school, it could serve as a foundation for a lifetime of strong mathematical thinking.
Buddy isn’t always interested in making crafts. However, I like crafty activities, so I always look for ones I think he’d like too. When I saw the pattern snakes idea on Frugal Fun 4 Boys’ Blog, I knew Buddy would love it. As soon as I suggested it, Buddy wanted to do it right away!
To start, I pulled out some pony beads, pipe cleaners, and some sticky google eyes. I twisted the end of each pipe cleaner to make a knot. Then, Buddy and I pulled out the beads we wanted to use for our snakes.
Buddy’s concentrating so hard – look at his tongue sticking out!
The original activity was designed to practice patterning, but Buddy wasn’t interested in doing his snake in a pattern. We did have some patterning discussions with my beads though. Buddy liked finding the next color for my pattern, but he didn’t want to do his own snake that way.
A close up of my snake.
It was really fun and relaxing putting beads on our snakes. We both genuinely enjoyed the process! Plus, it was a great way for Buddy to work on his fine motor skills. Once our snakes were full, I twisted the end to make a head. Then we added two google eyes. I wasn’t sure they would stick, but they did!
Making snakes is fun!
Buddy’s enjoyed playing with his snake this week! The google eyes did fall off after a week – I might try hot glue next time to make them stay a little better. Buddy enjoyed this activity so much that he wants to make them at his birthday party!
Do you have any other fun craft ideas for preschoolers? If so, please leave your suggestions in the comment section.
Buddy has been studying the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom at school recently, so he’s been extra interested in the alphabet. He notices letters around him everywhere! We’re constantly talking about letters and their sounds at our house. We have done a lot of different activities over the last couple of years to help Buddy learn his letters, and I thought I’d write a blog post so they could all be found in one place.
Alphabet Kaboom Game
All of the letters are written on popsicle sticks, along with a few sticks labeled Kaboom! You take turn pulling sticks, and saying the letter. If you pull a Kaboom stick, you have to put back all of your sticks. Whoever has the most sticks at the end of a set amount of time wins. Read more about this activity here.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom STEM Game
The STEM part of this game is to build a strong tree for the letters to climb. Then, you take turns pulling a magnetic letter and putting it on top of the tree. Whoever knocks down the tree loses the game. It’s so much fun! I’d like to play this one again soon. Read more about this game here.
Alphabet Easter Egg Hunt
We did this one at Easter and then again over the summer. I hid eggs that were filled with magnetic letters. Buddy found the letters and matched them to a pan. It’s so easy, and a lot of fun. Both times we did this activity, we had to immediately repeat it. Read more about this activity here.
Serving Letter Cookies
I wrote letters on paper plates, and Buddy scooped up the foam letter “cookie” to match it. We revisited this activity a few weeks ago, and Buddy had so much fun he made me make a plate for every letter! We also enjoyed pretending to eat our cookies. Read more about this activity here.
Magnetic Letters Sensory Bin
Buddy loves sensory bins, and rice sensory bins are his favorite! I hid magnetic letters in rice, and Buddy had to dig through and find all of the letters. The last time we played in the rice bin, Buddy asked me to pull out the letters to throw in the rice because he had so much fun digging for them. Read more about this activity here.
Magnetic Letters Busy Bag
Last summer I put together a tin of magnetic letters and some words to spell. Most of the words were names of family members, but there were a few other simple words in there too. Buddy really enjoyed being able to “read” and spell the names of his family. This was a great activity to keep him busy on long car trips. Read more about the magnetic letter busy bag here.
Floating Letters
I cleaned out the kitchen sink, and then I asked Buddy to find and scoop different letters. He loved this one! It’s been a long time since we’ve done it, so I want to try it again soon. Read more about floating letters here.
Fishing for Magnetic Letters
We started fishing for magnetic letters when Buddy was little. Buddy was not quite two in the picture above, and at the time, he didn’t know the names of the letters. But he loved fishing for magnetic letters then, and we still do it from time to time now. Read more about this activity here.
Spider Web Spelling
We did this activity at Halloween time. I put magnetic letters in different parts of a giant spider web. Buddy picked out a spelling card, and then he went trick or treating for the different letters. This was a lot of fun, and a great way to combine gross motor skills into literacy practice. You can read more about this activity here.
Do you have any other ideas for fun ways to practice the alphabet? Please share in the comments sections.
