4th of July

Please check out my post on Fourth of July activities over at my new sister site. SchoolingAtPlay.com

Water Play- Frog Life Cycle

My daughter saw a package of figures that demonstrated the life cycle of the frog and had to have it (she even counted out her pennies).  We purchased them from Micheal's but you can order them here on amazon. 
 
We love all of our Safari Toob figures but these are our current favorite.  She really likes that she can pretend she is taking care of an egg that slowly matures into a full grown frog.  She also enjoys that she can pretend to be the mommy frog that has to take care of a big kid tadpole, 2 little kid tadpoles, and baby eggs.
 
 
She is learning so much just by playing with these figures. 
 
 
We got some books about frogs from the library.  I set up the sink for water play.  She played while I read the books.  Sometimes, she acted out what I read in the book incorporating the new things she was learning about frogs.
 

Dough Eggs

Earlier in the week we had tried out two different kinds of "dough".  Check out the posts at Soap Dough and Baby Oil Dirt.  My daughter decided that we needed to try mixing them together.  We took a few scoops of each and mixed them together in a new bin.
 
Once mixed together the dough was a little easier to mold.

When we discovered we could get the dough to make an egg shape she ran and got her insects.  She had me hide one of her insects in an egg.

She would slowly break the egg apart, like the insect was hatching, as she guessed which one it was.
 
When she found the caterpillar she quickly replaced it with the butterfly.

Baby Oil Dirt

I wanted to introduce a new kind of "dirt" to our insect sensory bin so I started fiddling around with stuff I had on hand.  Here is our new favorite dirt recipe- 2 cups cornstarch, 1 cup Cocoa, about 1/4 cup baby oil ( I didn't really measure just kept adding as I stirred to get the desired consistency).

My daughter loved the color.  She commented that it looked just like outside dirt. 
We both loved the silky texture and the smell.
 
Like usual, she added glitter.
 
 
When we were done we closed up the container to use for the next day.

Dish Soap Dough

My daughter called this "Soap Dough" because it smells clean. 

It is super easy to make and only requires to ingredients- Dish soap and cornstarch.  We also added green food coloring.
 

Slowly stir in the dish soap till you get the right consistency.

It should be slightly moldable.

She enjoyed burying her rocks in her soap dough.

After a little while she decided that it needed glitter.
 
When she was done we put it in a container to save for later in the week.  My daughter pointed out that she didn't even need to use soap to wash her hands after playing because she was just playing with soap.

Black Light Insects

In case you didn't know, Safari has a glow in the dark insect toob (purchase here on amazon).  We have been having a lot of fun playing in the dark with these creepy crawlies.  Our favorite thing to do with them is to add them to our neon sand box and turn on the black light.
 
My daughter invited her friend over to play with her glowing bugs.  In the picture she is protecting her pretty insects from his scary looking insects.
 
As you can see the insects glow great under the black light and you do not have to worry about "recharging" them in the light.

The kids spent a lot of time just burying and digging out their insects.

After a while I gave them a small mirror to use.  They enjoyed having the bugs attack their own reflections.


I also did a post on using glow in the dark stars and planets under the black light.  

Light Table Handwriting Practice

I have been trying to come up with fun ways to strengthen My daughter's handwriting skills.  This week I pulled out the sand tray.  I made a design and then asked her to copy the design I had made.
 
She really enjoyed making swirls.

Zig Zags

She pretended she was drawing a snake and she wanted it to be really "bumpy"

As you can see she did not always copy what I did correctly but I always praised her effort.  Even though she didn't do it "right" she still gained fine motor skills and confidence which are essential when it comes to good handwriting.
 

Water Bead Fun

Here is a look at some of the fun we have been having with our water beads and crystals.
 
We set up her hot wheels track so that she could roll her water beads down the ramp.
 
She mixed all of her purple water beads in with the crystals she grew (post here).
 
 
She discovered that the flat shape of the crystals was not conducive to rolling down the ramp. 
So she started using the crystals as obstacles for her water beads to overcome.


After a while we pulled out her new balance.  We measured different amounts and combinations of water beads and crystals. Luckily, even though some water beads were bigger than others they were pretty close to the same weight.  So twenty water beads in each cup came out balanced.

Glow Sand Writing

We are having fun practicing reading with our sand tray and black light. 

This picture didn't turn out to good but it is our white sand tray under the black light.  We are practicing sight words.

We made a special sand tray just for the black light.  We used orange and pink neon sand (from Micheals).  I write a word and my daughter sounds it out and then erases it. 
 
My plan for this week- Have her write words for me to read. 
This will be a great way for her to practice recalling words and spelling.
 
Bonus- She loves playing teacher!