Little hands, big helpers

This was one of our first service-to-others activities. 

Hands may be small, but they have the potential to help in big ways!

Little hands can:

• Tidy dishes
• Clap for a friend
• Plant flowers
• Hug a friend
• Tidy toys
• Draw a picture for a friend

We taped our hand prints to the wall and talk about this topic often. 

They love to put their hands on top of their construction paper hand prints. 

"Are these my hands, Miss Kris?" 

"Yes," I say, "And what good things can we do with our hands?"

Don't you wish more adults pondered this question?

Have a lovely day!

M is for maraca

Lots of tape + NOISE = Fun City!

Each maraca:
2 spoons
1 small container
Beans
Scotch tape
Duct tape

This project is self-explanatory. The little ones filled the cups with beans and I did the rest. I secured the whole thing with Scotch tape to hold it in place. Then I wrapped it with white duct tape.

By the way, I missed the boat regarding plastic Easter eggs. Those would have been perfect to use instead of the little plastic salad dressing containers. I should have reserved some plastic eggs while I had the chance. 

Oh well.

Hope you're having a lovely day!

Happy May Day!

What a happy May Day!

We danced around a maypole (pool noodle). Well, we started off dancing and then kind of passed each other up in a dizzy spin-race that would have made Curly Howard proud.

Step 1. Obtain a maypole from horseback riders.

Step 2. Stuff some tissue paper streamers into the top hole.

Step 3. Give each dancer one streamer.

Step 4: Turn on the music. I used the music from this video.

Step 4. Look out! Dancers really get going.

For the ribbons, I used the zig-zag cutting technique with some tissue paper. Maybe I'll post about how to do that sometime. A sheet of paper can be turned into a really long streamer.

The top photo seems to indicate I don't know what comes after the letter O. Lies! 

We're working our way through the alphabet, letter by letter.

Have a lovely day!

Squirrely project

N is for nest. 

And our color of the week is grey.

OK. This might be a stretch of an activity.

We made nests for our grey squirrels. 

We loaded some mini cake pans with yarn and shredded paper. I attempted to draw a squirrel (hmmm?) and made copies so we could color all the squirrels grey.

Even if I wasn't terribly proud, the kids seemed to enjoy this project.

That's what counts.

Have a lovely day!

Ohhhh K

What is this going to be? 

Here's another hint:

The final reveal:

These purple pipe cleaner Ks were made possible by lots and lots of glue!

Meanwhile, over by the kitchen sink...

the counter is stained from yesterday's grape juice. Frozen purple cows--totally worth it!

I'll clean the counter soon.

Have a lovely day!

March goes out like a lamb

Today is the last day of March.

The little neighbors and I had a slight discussion about March going in like a lion and out like a lamb. I think I made the point, even though they take everything literally:

"It goes into what?" I was asked.

I rephrased it a bit--comparing snowy and cold days with today's warm and sunny weather.

We made these lambs and I think they turned out cute.

This week's color is purple, so we had frozen purple cows. I just made milk shakes with grape juice.

Frozen purple cows are yummy!

We also played outside in the gorgeous lamb-like March morning.

Have a lovely day!

Orange ya happy?

Our theme color this week is orange!

We planted the pretty flowers above. No sprouting yet, but the little neighbors had a great time scooping and pouring dirt, planting the seeds, and WATERING.

We also mixed red and yellow paints in a baggie to make orange. The zip locks were taped shut so we were able to squish without getting messy. I was running low on yellow paint, so I kept adding water. Seemed to work.

Looks like tomato sauce.

On Tuesday, we squeezed oranges to make fresh orange juice. Now THAT was sticky!

Have a lovely day!

A beanstalk and a birthday

It's a beanstalk that goes high up into the clouds. And it has leaves on it.

We can see it in our imaginations, anyway.

We have a picture of Jack that goes on it, but I guess he was outside on a phone call when I took this photo. (J is for Jack. J is our theme this week).

Also, the kids were busy making birthday cookies for a very special mom.

The little neighbors mixed up the powdered sugar, meringue powder, and water. Then we added some coloring. The finished products were loaded with sprinkles.

Yet, no one had one smidge of a taste. Not even a teeny lick.

Funny joke!

We also hung strips of crepe paper near the front door so the birthday mom would have to walk through her special "curtain."

They had so much fun while thinking of the birthday girl. And to imagine her having to walk through that crepe paper!! Oh, the anticipation...and the giggles!!

Thinking of other people provides awareness and can be fun, too. I will be adding service-type projects to our themes in the near future. This is just as important as ABCs and 123s.

Have a lovely day.

Happy first day of spring!

Springtime is here! With it comes so many pretty projects.

We made coffee filter flowers today. First we added food coloring to some cups of water. Then we placed a folded/scrunched coffee filter in each one.

Pretty, huh?

The idea was for the color to travel up the coffee filter without having to dunk it, which it did. But the colors were so very pastel, they weren't very noticeable. 

So, I did some sneaky naptime magic and squirted a bit more food coloring on each one. You've just got to have that wow factor, you know?

I think they turned out very pretty.

What a rainy, blucky first day of spring. But hey, it's not snowing!

Have a lovely day!

H is for happy hippo

This project is from last week.

Our color of the week was blue, so we made BLUE happy hippos. I've seen this idea around the internet, but ours is a little different. 

We didn't endow our hippos with behinds. I thought that even a little booty would distract from the letter H shape. 

She still seems happy, though, with her modest hippo attributes.

I checked out Deceptively Delicious at the library. The author is Jerry Seinfeld's wife, Jessica. Since some of the little neighbors are protesting veggies, I thought sneaking the healthy stuff into foods might be the solution. 

This might be a great thing for our family, too. If I puree the offending foods and mix them into something common, no one has anything to reject. Perhaps I will be able to feel certain that my hubby and kids aren't missing anything vital.

I'm late to the party. I know. I know. This book has been out for a while. We'll see how it goes.

Hope you're having a lovely day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today we matched numbers on a shamrock!

I got the idea here but changed it a bit. We didn't use stickers. I glued the numbers on the shamrock with a glue stick then printed and "laminated" their numerical mates. This goes home with the little ones for play later.

Here is how I fake laminated the mates:
I put one strip of packing tape, sticky side up, on the counter.
Then I stuck the numbers onto it.
Another strip of packing tape, sticky side down, made it like a sandwich.
Then the pieces were snipped, ready for matching with the numbers on the shamrock.

We also made rainbow bracelets with Fruit Loops.

I chose against necklaces, because I didn't want them to have something around their necks. You've got to be careful with these bracelets, too. Kids are quick. And tricky.

Tonight for supper we're having pastrami and Swiss sandwiches on rye bread. I bought the stuff for it on Saturday. I was told last night that pastrami is NOT corned beef. Of course it isn't.

But can't a mom get some credit for thinking ahead?

Hope you're having a lovely St. Patrick's Day!!

Fancy flowers

Continuing with our F theme, we made fancy flowers the other day.

Early in the week, we painted some paper and small paper plates. We had an "anything goes" paint session--paint brush painting, finger painting, arm painting--the willy-nilly approach!

Though I explained the intended outcome for the project, my flowery vision was lost in a free-for-all process of color. Perfectly fine.

The creations dried for a couple days before they were snipped into some fancy flowers and glued onto a construction paper background.

The artists were so proud to show off their finished pieces.

Fantastic!!

Have a lovely day.

Fabulous fun

One of our themes this week is the letter F. Today we glued pieces of foil onto a big letter F.

Any activity with glue is a winner and we got to talk about the letter F while we did it.

I used the remaining bit of foil in the package and was about to put it in the recycling box in the garage when a little one wanted to hold the empty container.

"Did you know," I said, "that there is a sharp part to this box?" 

I showed him the strip of pointy metal on the side of the box and said, "Owie."

Now he knows to be careful with those types of boxes. 

And he also knows about the letter F.

Have a lovely day.

What is this?

This intriguing goodie is comprised of a blue holder for markers with felt pieces stuck in each hole and then some sticks from the number stick game poking in as well.

Diaper-changing stations are lame. Not cool. I could have all the supplies set up and sit there with a smile on, but I wouldn't get any takers.

So today, as I sat there smiling for no reason, I grabbed whatever was within my reach: the marker holder, some felt pieces, and all those sticks. Then I assembled them and played with it like it was the best thing since jelly donuts. 

It's all marketing, really.

And wouldn't you know? A sweetie needing a diaper change approached, took the new item, and then...diaper job done!

I really don't like to chase anyone down for a diaper change. I don't like to make little ones mad. So, if they can come to me willingly, all the better!

Today we also dug in oats for some number sixes. I gave them each a cake pan filled with oats and a few construction paper sixes hidden inside. 

They dug around with spoons until they found the sixes. No big whoop to make and it made the point about sixes. Then they just played with oats.

As I was sweeping the oats, they really wanted to sweep, too. So, I gave them each a small whisk brook to use. They even had fun cleaning it up. 

Hope you're having a lovely day!

Elephants on a spider web

Yesterday we each made a hand print elephant and glued it to paper along with a big letter E.

I was glad we created a hand print template, because today I used it to make props for the Five Elephants Counting Song.

We also did the number sticks game. Matching colored Popsicle sticks are put in the appropriate tubes. One stick goes in the #1 tube, two sticks go in the #2 tube, etc. I would have a photo of this, but my handiwork turned out less than photogenic.

Here is what it is supposed to look like.

After the game, the kids made a Popsicle kitchen, a facility where they made and sold Popsicles. For pretend! They also used the tubes as microphones and sang into them.

Who am I to get in the way of innovation?

Oh and I stuck one yellow stick in a tube and set it in the middle of the floor for some Jack Be Nimble fun. I recently heard another verse to Jack Be Nimble, by the way.

Jack Be Nimble, the extended version:

Jack be nimble.
Jack be quick.
Jack jump over the candlestick.

Jack be nimble.
Jack be spry.
Jack jump over the apple pie.

Now I want apple pie.

Have a lovely day!

E equals engaging enjoyment

Today we made hand print elephants and glued them onto paper along with some big Es.

I got the idea here, but we put our own spin on it. There is a reason we did construction paper hand prints instead of painted ones. I'll post about that activity tomorrow.

We stomped like elephants all around the house and read Elmer and the Birthday Quake by David McKee.

We also talked about words that begin with the letter E: elephant, elbow, ear, empty, educational (oh, they know this word!), Elmer, eagle, Earth, and excellence as well as eviction and epidural.

Just kidding about a couple of those words.

I was elated to entertain and enlighten extensively and effectively with the E element today; and though the kids expected epicurean edibles, we ended up eating epic mac and cheese.

Have an enchanted day!