Black Light Solar System


My daughter enjoys playing with her glow-in-the-dark stars and planets but they do not glow for very long and she has to "recharge" them a lot.  So we tried them with the black light.  Problem solved!  They glow great and there is no need to take breaks and turn the lights back on to "recharge".

Here is a picture of the planets and stars randomly spread out on her table.  We did put the planets in order but I must of forgot to take a picture. 
 
We spent more time talking about planets and solar systems than ever before because we didn't have to take breaks.  The planets held her attention longer and she was able to learn more.  Wish I would have thought about this when we first started learning about planets.
 

My son got in on the action as well. He loved the glowing star.  He was waving it around so much that I was worried he might poke his eye out.  His smiles kept me from taking it away though.  He just looked so proud of his star.

Reading, Counting, and Money

This is a fun activity that I came up with to help my daughter practice her reading, counting, and money skills all at the same time. She loves this hands-on activity.
 
I wrote simple words on the her plastic eggs. 
She must sound out the word and say it correctly before she can open the egg.

I filled 10 eggs with 10 pennies each.  As she read the words, opened the eggs, and collected her pennies I had her place them on her hundreds chart.  She would read each number as she placed a penny on it.  When she collected 100 pennies we discussed that 100 pennies made one dollar.  We moved her pennies to the side and went to work on the last two eggs.
 

I filled the last two eggs with five dimes each.  We discussed that dimes are worth 10 pennies.  As she collected the dimes she placed them on her hundreds chart in the tens spot.  When she collected her ten dimes we discussed how they equaled one dollar also.  We talked about how it only takes 10 dimes to make one dollar but it takes 100 pennies because they are worth less.
 
She did such a good job with this game, especially since we were connecting a bunch of fairly new concepts.  We played twice and then she asked if she could be done and put her money in her piggy bank.  We will definitely be doing this activity again.  I have a number of ideas of things to add to this activity- sight words, nickels, quarters, counting without the number chart, etc.

Paper Mache Globe

Let's celebrate Earth Day, April 22nd, with a post about making a paper mache globe.


 Daddy was really excited for this project. 
 
My daughter and husband decided to do the messy part but of course I ended up covered in glue by the end so there are only a few pictures from the beginning of the project.  I also forgot to take pictures of the painting part but at least I got a final shot.
 
Note- If you have never paper mached before just know that it can get messy but it's worth it. 
 
Here is what we did. 
 
1. Blow up balloon. We tried to get it as round as possible
2. Mix Elmer's glue and water in a bucket.  Close to a 1:1 ratio but I didn't measure 
Tip- Do it an a disposable bucket to save yourself some clean up time
3. Cut newspaper (any kind of paper works) into about 1 inch strips
4. Dip a strip of paper into the glue mixture
5. Coat evenly and removing excess glue by running it through your fingers
6. Lay the strip on the balloon
7. Repeat (A lot) making sure to lay pieces in different directions and cover all the balloon
8.  Hang up to dry- make sure you have a drip pan underneath
9. Once dry (Will take at least a day) use a marker to free hand the continents
10. Set up a paint station with blue and green paint
Tip:We painted all the water first and let it dry for an hour before painting the land
We were out of dark green and my daughter was too impatient to put on two coats of light green.
11. Let dry and then enjoy your handmade globe
 

 
 
Happy Earth Day!
 
If anyone makes a globe I would love to see links to pictures and posts.

Arctic Sensory Bin

This post has moved.  It can now be found here.  Sorry for the inconvenience.

Upcycled Wind Chimes

My daughter saw a show on tv that explained how to make wind chimes out of a pan and some spoons.  She immediately wanted to try to make her own wind chimes.  I tried to get her to use different materials for her chimes but she insisted that they be made out of a thin round pan and small spoons.  So we went to the Goodwill where she found a pan she liked.  Then we ran to the Dollar Store and picked up a pack of 4 spoons.
 
Daddy drilled holes in the spoons for us.  My daughter helped thread the twine through the holes as I tied the knots (great fine motor practice).

She also helped measure how long the strings needed to be.

She wanted to hang them up outside as soon as we were done.  Since it was quite cold that day we did not hang the chimes where we planned too.  We just put them on a hook that was already attached to the eves of the house.  The hook happened to be just above her slide so we hung them up for a minute and let her ring them as she went down the slide. 
 
Note- As soon as she rang them a couple times the chimes were moved away from the slide for safety reasons.  They now hang in a special spot she picked and she uses a stick to ring them when she wants.

Just Another Day

Just for fun I thought I would give you all a look at what my house looks like at about 3pm.  3pm is clean up time because my husband gets off work at 4pm. 
 
 
This was an especially messy fun day because my daughter used the entire container of buttons to decorate for a party her ponies were having. 
 
Note- she does clean them up without too much hassle or she would not be allowed to dump them all out.
 
 
 
This week she decided to throw a "Welcome Home From Work" party for Daddy.  I watched her as you decorated the floor with flower petals, flower shaped gems, colorful sticks and even some of her toob animals.  I greeted my husband at the door and spent a couple minutes talking before we walked into the living room to see his surprise.  In the couple minute time frame she dumped the jar full of confetti around the whole room too (we will not be doing that again because Whoa! what a mess and she insisted on saving it all and not vacuuming it up.).
 
So yes my house looks like a tornado hit it most of the day but my daughter is learning that she is responsible for cleaning up after herself and usually has everything in order before Daddy walks in the door.
 
As her brother gets older and starts moving around we will obviously need to make adjustments.  I am trying to figure out the best area to let her play with little items such as buttons and gems. 


Mini Rainbow Volcanoes

My daughter wanted to make rainbow volcanoes.  Here is a look at what we came up with.
 
We put a layer of baking soda in the bottom of a cake pan and then we added drops of food coloring.  I filled up a spray bottle with vinegar and let her start spraying away.  She started off spraying the drops of food coloring and watching the fizzy reactions.  She loved these mini colorful volcanoes and then she decided to mix up all the colors.
 
The spray bottle was not spraying out enough vinegar for her to get a large reaction so we took the lid of and just used the bottle for pouring.  She loved getting a handful of baking soda and then having me pour vinegar onto it.

It was fun to see the volcano erupt in her hands.  She thought it tickled.
 
After a while she asked if she could use another bottle.  I gave her one and she started filling it up with the baking soda that was left.  Then she asked if it would make a volcano now.

I was not sure how good of reaction she would get since the baking soda seemed pretty saturated at that point but we tried it.  It worked really well still.  She refilled up the bottle a couple more times before the reaction finally started to dwindle.
 
She informed me that making volcanoes is her favorite type of science experiment.  You can check out some of our other volcanoes and attempts here and here and here.

Colorful Sink Play

Here is another sink play post.
 
My daughter wanted a "colorful sink" so I grabbed her neon test tubes, shot glasses, and stir sticks.  I also pulled out the food coloring so she could pick what color she wanted to add to the water.

She added some pink coloring to the water and mixed it in with her stir sticks.  Then she started pouring water back a forth between test tubes and cups.  I was going to add some of her colorful jewels and rocks but she was having so much fun practicing pouring that I didn't need to add
anything else to her "colorful sink".

Black Light Table Toys 2


Here is a look at some of the fun we have been having with our black light.

My aunt bought some black light fingernail polish for my daughter.  The left hand is pink and glows really well.  The right hand is green and glowed a little.  Such an easy way to add more fun to play time.

 
These butterflies are hair clips that I found in the party supply section of the Dollar Store.  The sand in the middle is yellow.  It came in a multi-pack from Micheal's.


 
This is orange sand that also came in the multi-pack.  The neon test tubes are from the Dollar Store and the neon shot glasses are from Walmart.




 
The small beads came together in a package.  The larger pink flowers came in a pack that included more colors but they were the only ones that glowed under the black light.  Both were purchased at the Dollar Store.