Arctic Animals and Snow

It's getting super cold here. Temperatures in the single digits, BURRR! Even though we rarely have snow we are exploring fake snow in our sensory bin! I wanted to use something that all the kids could play in, so I needed something edible. I used a large tub of potato flakes from Sam's Club.  I included our arctic animals, some glass decorative discs for the "ocean," some spoons, scoops, and a couple containers. The containers, scoops and spoons are always included.
A loved scooping the "snow" and the glass discs into the bowl, dumping it out, and refilling. Then he enjoyed making the whale swim. He "swam" the whale all around the bin chanting, "swim, swim, swim."
R spent her time creating a birthday cake for all the penguin babies to eat. She scooped and stirred. When she was ready we all spent a moment singing "Happy Birthday" to the penguins. Then she had them eating their cake. R took a turn having his animals eating as well.
I LOVE how they are beginning to pretend play and A is learning to engage in the story that is going on.

 Every month we learn about a new animal. I let our subscription to Zoolets dictated what animal we are exploring. This month is penguins. All the kids seem to love penguins. And while we spend each day reading a little more about them in our Zoolets magazine, we, also, watch videos, pretend play, and read nonfiction and fiction books about our animals.
I believe that reading nonfiction is especially important for young children. Our books we are reading this month to further explore penguins are Planet Earth Penguins and Your Personal Penguin. Both are listed below.

http://www.amazon.com/Planet-Earth-Penguins-Quinlan-Lee/dp/0545080827

http://www.amazon.com/Your-Personal-Penguin-Sandra-Boynton/dp/0761143726/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421123586&sr=1-1&keywords=your+personal+penguin

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Today we read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin. The kids love this book and tehthey love watching and listening to the song. The sensory bin today revolved around the book and the letters. While we played we listed and sang with the song. For the older kids I asked them to find letters that I called. Or they picked a letter and told me what it's name. If they didn't know I told them. I talked with them about the sounds the letters make as well. Overall this sensory bin was a huge success! We played for about an hour with this activity. 

http://youtu.be/vtB5iGHgNVY

This bin included everything in the pantry: pinto, red and black beans, peas, yellow peas, and green and brown lentils. It, also, included scoops, parts of other toys, lids, measuring cups, sand toys, and bowels. 

 T is using part of a stacking toy to create rain for the little. 

J is 9 months old and LOVES this activity. I closely monitor him during the activity to ensure he is not putting the beans in his mouth.  

Here Little Lady is mixing and making cupcakes for us to eat. 

http://www.amazon.com/Chicka-Boom-Bill-Martin-Jr/dp/068983568X

Popcorn and a movie

We LOVE popcorn! Today we made popcorn on the stove and watched the new George movie!

Snowmen

We are obsessed with snowmen at this house! I'm talking totally in love. Over and over we sing about Frosty and look for carrots. Today we built our own to sit in the window seal. He was super easy to make and lots and lots of fun! We took baking soda and mixed in water until we got the right consistancy. Now we have a little Frosty that can sit and hang out and most importantly won't melt.

Spookley

Spookley is one of my favorite fall time stories. It's not about Halloween but I always read it right before Halloween because the people are going to pick their pumpkins.  He's such a sweet little character who happens to have been born a square instead of a round pumpkin.
Today after reading the book and watching the movie our craft was making our own Spookley art work. We started with painting our paper orange. We did this by mixing red and yellow paint to create orange. Did we mix them in a bowl? Why, no where would the fun be in that???? Instead, we poured yellow and red paint on our paper and used water beads to mix it and paint the paper. The kids had a lot of fun playing in the water bead and mixing the paint. The younger girls dove right in. The older two were a little more apprehensive and I ended up giving them paintbrushes to finish the painting. 

Here it's time to clean up. We put water in a pot and washed our hands with soap and the water. Some of us had a little more clean up than others.

Finally our Spookleys are done. :) 

Drawing with Shapeable Foam

I found this Dora Shapeable foam at a dollar store and LOVE it. My biggest regret is that I didn't buy all of it off the shelf as they no longer have any. :( The foam smells like bubble gum and the kids had a great time drawing pictures on the tables with their hands. This activity is great for developing fine motor control and expressing creativity. 

Cooking and Sharing