Toddler color fun: purple

See our purple pail here.

Take a look at other fun activities we've done with color pails:
Red color pail fun
Green color pail fun
Blue color pail fun  
Orange color pail fun

A "PURPLE" SNACK

Adding our regular snack to the cups from our purple pail adds a little colorful fun!

PURPLE SHAKER

We colored two paper plates with purple crayons, colored pencils, and markers one day at the table.  Little Lady had the most fun adding the array of purple stickers I gave her.  She is quite skilled at putting stickers on.  

On a different day, I added some dry beans and stapled the plates together to make the age-old favorite - a paper plate maraca!  We love to dance and Little Lady had fun using the shaker as part of her dancin' moves.  I didn't catch much in photos because, well, I was dancing, too.  In these photos here, Little Lady is quite concerned that her shaker got bent.  In the second one, one of our dancin' sessions ended in a little tickle fest.  

PURPLE WATER PLAY

A sink of soapy water, our purple pail items, and Little Lady on a stool means Mommy can make a lot of sweet potato fries and everyone is happily working!

PURPLE OOEY GOOEY DISCOVERY BOTTLE

After my first not-so-great attempt (read about it here), I finally tried to make another discovery bottle.  This one took three tries.  I'm not quite sure what my goal is, but I just can't seem to find a discovery bottle concoction that I'm in love with. 
For this one, I put some corn syrup in a small bottle and added blue and red food coloring to make it a lovely plum color.  I screwed the lid on tight and added a line of hot glue to prevent leaks.  Ta da!  An ooey gooey purple bottle.  

It can be mesmerizing to turn it slowly and watch the corn syrup drip and goo all over.  Mini Me likes it... Little Lady is not impressed with the slow-moving goo and just holds it as she walks around.  I still need to get better at this.

PURPLE SEEK AND FIND
Little Lady just loves this game.  One morning she was doing it with gusto even before Mini Me woke up!  We played three full rounds before 7 am.  

She found all the purple items and listened to my rousing narration of the purple-ness of each thing.  

 Each gathered item went back into the pail.

This is her "Where is it?" gesture?  I realized that I ask that question with my palms up and she is trying to imitate me.  The cutest part is the little squeak she lets out with an exact mimic of my question intonation!  

Toddler color pail: purple

Take a look at our other color pails:

Red

Green

Blue

Orange

Our PURPLE color pail:

tea cups

cars

crocheted flower

foam bath letters

squeaky block

measuring cup

chenile stem circle

hand-shaped cookie cutter

phone rattle

I think Little Lady is getting used to the color pails.  She knows that there are always interesting things in the pail to explore!  Mini Me has also become my color-pail-building expert and loves to find items to put in them.

Here is Little Lady rubbing the purple crocheted flower on her cheek.

 

Tongs for the preschooler

We've gotten out the tongs before to practice transferring objects from one container to another and Mini Me has enjoyed it.  Lately, though, he has really been into the tongs.  He wants to use them for everything...


A muffin tin transfer (yes, that is Little Lady's green pail and yup, he has just as much, if not more, fun with those than she does!).

It's fun to do chunky puzzles with tongs!

 Mini Me likes to do our initial sound search-and-find with tongs, too.  

Tongs for our colored pasta play?  Okay!  

We recently started using tongs with our pool noodle lacing box.  Mini Me loses patience after stringing about four or five noodles with the tongs, but he does continue just using his hands, and has fun making patterns!

One day he wanted the tongs as we were playing the wooden letter game.  He picked up the word tiles and the individual letters themselves!  There was much concentration involved. 

   

I almost need to get a play pair just for him and in order to ensure I always have a set ready in the kitchen.  It seems that tongs make everything a bit more interesting.

Letter U - a year of ABCs

Read about how it all started - A year of ABCs.


Art - Color letter U pictures - umbrella, unicorn, umpire, etc.  


Music - Uno, dos, tres perritos.  


 Math - Up and down - opposites.


Spanish - uno (one)


Movement - Practice unzip, unbutton, untie.


This was our worst letter yet as far as creative and fun activities... Mini Me's baby sister was born during U week!

Felt house tutorial: season and clothesline side including final pictures!

Be sure check out Felt house tutorial: planning, supplies, and getting started and  Felt house tutorial: front and garden side.

I did not take near as many photos when I completed the last two sides of the house as I was very much in sewing mode and each small amount of quiet, undisturbed time I had I devoted to just sewing.  I did snap a few photos to share, though, and I still hope it helps someone create a fun felt house!  

Right side with flowers, snowman, and flag, and window that opens:

Flowers, snowman, and flag: 
I wanted to make a small area that the kids could use to "change" the season for the house.  We can plant flowers in the spring, build a snowman in the winter, and put up a flag for summer.  The fall part of our year is on the left side of the house with the big garden to harvest.  

To make the flowers I used the same technique I did when making the vegetables in the garden: I cut two sides, added batting in the middle, and sewed around the edges.  For two of the flowers I sewed on a little button for decoration.  Each flower has a chenille stem for the stem, and then the kids can plant the flowers in the dirt I sewed, similar to the garden dirt with little slots for each flower.  

The snowman is simply white felt with batting inside, decorated with some buttons and black felt.  I sewed Velcro squares to the back of each piece and sewed their corresponding Velcro parts to the blue side of the house.  The snowman sits just on top of the dirt.  

And, not surprisingly, the flag is some felt sewed together with batting in the middle - nothing fancy!  It has a piece of Velcro on the back that corresponds with one of the wall Velcro pieces for the snowman.  

In this photo you can also see the open window.  I sewed it with vinyl and white felt around the opening.  The vinyl is only stitched on the top side, and there is a small Velcro square on the bottom to attach it.  It can be lifted up to open the window and let some air in the little felt house!

Back side with clothesline and inside with pockets:
To make the clothesline, I simply folded over a long piece of felt and sewed around it.  I thought it would make it sturdier and thicker for little hands trying to pin clothes to it.  
I cut out the items of clothing from felt.  I used no pattern, but I did use my trusty chalk to guesstimate the size of socks, a shirt, a skirt, and pants.  I just eyeballed it.  

 
The inside of the back wall has three felt pockets sewed on for storing the clothes, clothespins, snowman, flowers, and flag.  

 One more look at all the sides:

I am so excited to give this to the kids for Christmas.  I already have plans for the big reveal and I deeply hope they love it and spend hours creatively playing with it.  I did set it up for a test run and my husband and I had fun changing the seasons and harvesting the garden (okay, I had fun and he kinda giggled at me).  I hope the kids are over the moon about it!

If you have questions about the process, I'm far from an expert but I can share my experience with you.  Let me know!

Wordless Wednesday - We're thankful for togetherness and good books!

Mayflower centerpiece

A few weeks ago I checked out The Very First Thanksgiving Day by Rhonda Gowler Green from the library and Mini Me and I love it.  I think I have an author crush on Ms. Green and I have yet to find something of hers I don't like.  When I saw this idea for making a Mayflower centerpiece, I knew I wanted to start with this book and the beautiful illustrations of the Mayflower.  


The centerpiece is pretty simple - a drink carton covered with strips of brown paper bag to represent the ship.  Mini Me is kind of hit-and-miss with art projects these days and this one required some "wait" time between steps so it was a good fit for him.  Plus, our Thanksgiving book sparked his interest and all weekend he talked about the "Mayflower ship in full sail", quoting a line from the book.  

Our supplies for the Mayflower centerpiece:  

A washed and empty 1/2 gallon carton with one long side cut off

A paper bag

Scissors

Water and white glue to make a paste

The Very First Thanksgiving Day book

First, we looked through the book at all the pictures of the Mayflower.

Next, we cut the paper bag into various sizes of strips.  Mini Me did most of this on his own.

We made a glue paste of four parts water and 1 part white glue.  I guesstimated the glue part and it still turned out okay!  

Mini Me stirred the glue paste.

We dipped the strips in the paste and placed them on the carton.  It wasn't really even messy!

Our next job was crafting the sails.  I helped Mini Me draw squares on white paper.

He cut the squares out.  He wanted five sails, like the picture in the book.  

He added lines of glue to each sail.

Then he stuck a white straw on the sails.  We'll place those on the ship later.  

I had a small handful of acorn tops and pumpkin seeds saved for a project and we decided to use them to decorate our Mayflower.  To make it easier, I attached double stick tape to the acorns and seeds, then the kids simply had to stick them on the ship wherever they wanted.  Little Lady helped with this step!

Next, we had to paint our Mayflower and everyone joined in.  We decided to let historical accuracy slide a bit and painted it all kinds of lovely colors!

We put some lumps of our homemade play dough in the bottom and stuck our straw masts in.  I love our little Mayflower!  

This will be our Thanksgiving centerpiece and I plan on using some turkey hand print crafts we'll make as part of a "what we're thankful for" game for everyone at the table.  

Happy Thanksgiving!