Homemade Play dough

We couldn't finish our day without a craft, so we make some homemade play dough. I tweak the recipe because I didn't make the colors for lack of time and energy LOL, so instead I use Kool Aid !!! Cool ha?

What you need :

½ cup of flour
½ cup of dyed water
¼ cup of salt
½ tbsp cream of tartare
½ tbsp cooking oil

Kool Aid (assorted colors)

Mix all your ingredients in medium heat and stir, stir, stir, stir some more, maybe a little bit more, until you notice the dough is thick and no longer stick to the pot ( about 5 minutes).

I got this recipe from http://www.minieco.co.uk/natural-dye-for-homemade-playdough/

This is what you need

Not quiet pretty as the one we saw at Mini Eco, but...... we got some free play dough for the rest of the week.

Walk on a Circle

As you notice we are doing circles this week, what a proper way to practice our gross motor skills walking on a circle !, carrying a tray maybe or just an object, this will help and prepare the child to carrying things carefully and fully aware of their surroundings and also will help to take care of things around the house !

Parts of a Hand (Nomenclature Cards)

Today we learn about the parts of a hand, using Nomenclature Cards or 3 Part Cards. You can also design this cards using clip art in WORD, but you have to laminate them to make them last longer, because little hands can get get rough sometimes. Make sure you specify on the cards the parts of a hand: palm, fingertips, wrist,thumb, fore finger, middle finger, third finger, little finger.

We also talk about the importance of having a thumb finger, we can not grasp without him, or maybe we can ?. We try to pick up objects with the thumbs tucked in the palms, very interesting, uncomfortable and hard.......thank God we got thumbs ! THUMBS UP FOR THAT!

We talk about things we do with our hands, like: touch, feel, shake hands, comb our hair, grab the silverware (properly), caress mommy face, play ball, paint, etc......

I remember a song I used to sing a lot when I was in Kinder, one of the first I learn : " Where is Thumbkin", we sing that song.

I Hope they remember all the parts of a hand !!!!

Painting Wet on Wet: Waldorf Watercolors for Children

Last week I make my first order through Bella Luna Toys www.bellalunatoys.com and I'm very pleased with my order, not only for the high quality of  the products, but for the natural satisfaction I saw reflected on my children faces. I feel so grateful for being able to provide this high quality materials to my little ones, watching them...stroke after stroke...

This is what you need:

Stockmar watercolor Paint -  20 m.l (Carmine Red, Ultramarine Blue and Lemon Yellow.) http://www.bellalunatoys.com/waldorf-art-supplies/painting/stockmar-watercolor-paint-20-ml.html,

Waldorf Watercolor Paint Brush  http://www.bellalunatoys.com/waldorf-art-supplies/painting/waldorf-watercolor-paint-brush.html

 Heavy weight watercolor (140 lb weight, tape-bound pad, cold press) http://www.bellalunatoys.com/waldorf-art-supplies/painting/watercolor-paper.html

 

Then I told them a color story like this one :

 

“One morning, Tippy Brush woke up and looked outside his bedroom window. It was a crisp autumn morning. As he looked outside his window, he saw bright red leaves falling from the maple tree and blowing in the wind, filling the sky with their color. ‘Oh, I want to play with red today!’ he thought.

So Tippy jumped out of bed, but before he went outside, he had a nice foot bath…

[Here I would demonstrate rinsing the bristles clean in the jar of water]

…and dried his feet clean with his towel [the rag]. Then Tippy ran outside and cried, “Good morning, Red! I’ve come to play with you!”

[At this point Tippy (my brush) dips his “toes” (the bristles) in the red paint.]

The red leaves were happy to have a playmate, and Tippy joyfully danced among the falling red leaves, until there were piles of bright red leaves all around.”

 If you want to add other colors just change the color on the story.....

"Sewing" cards (circle shape) with no needle (for your piece of mind)

Last week we did a lot of activities that include circle shapes, we learn a little bit about the circles and straight lines, their differences, etc. "The circle is a line that curves around a central point", I illustrated with a crayon on a string ( like a compass), draw around the circle with your finger and show that a circle has no beginning and no end. (Sorry for not having pictures to show).


Sewing Cards:   

A quick and easy activity, was creating a circle sewing card. I used a circle inset, trace it over red construction paper, laminate it, punch wholes and Ta Da..... That's it...... It was nice to found red yarn laying around in some corner of my house. The kids really enjoy this activity, 25 minutes well spent "sewing" .

Preparation For Writing - Metal Insets

This is the first of the writing activities. Dr. Montessori analyzed the movements which are connected with writing and developed the Metal Insets to strengthen the three finger grip and coordinate the necessary wrist movements. One of the classic works in a Montessori classroom is the “metal insets”. The metal insets introduce a child to plane geometry: the child works with the rectangle, triangle, curvilinear triangle, circle, ellipse, qua trefoil, pentagon, square, trapezium and oval, to carefully outline the shape and then color it in, discovering that the triangle has three sides, a circle is round, a square has four even sides, and a pentagon has five. Work with the metal insets develops a child’s eye-hand coordination, strengthens and refines the child’s pencil grip, increase a child’s ability to concentrate, and stirs the child’s interest in design and beauty. The children can make works of art with these shapes, varying the shades, the selection of colors, the shape of the lines, even overlaying one shape upon another. It is both the process and the final product  that interest the child.

Bug tracing a   circle inset....

Bug tracing a ellipse inset..., she traced the ellipse frame first with color blue.....

Then she traced the ellipse inset on top of the one she traced previously... with color red...

Racoon did the same....

Weekend off .....We visit : The Capitol Park

Well , we all look forward to the weekend, to enjoy some family fun time and to share some bonding and togetherness. We can't wait to get out and explore with daddy some beautiful nature settings or anything that strike our fancy and moods.

At first glance, the remains of Alabama's fourth state capitol building look like the ruins of a small gothic cathedral somewhere in barbarian-ravaged Europe or Britain. The place seems impossibly small to have housed all the various functions of state government.

Alabama had state capitols in four other places before Montgomery, namely, St. Stephens, Cahawba, Huntsville and Tuscaloosa. Each was built and later abandoned due to floods, insects, disease, and/or political expediency. Every capitol site, including the present, is on or near a major river, as highways and railroads were scarce in the old days.

The facility at Tuscaloosa was quite ornate & elaborate, and served its purpose well from 1826 to 1845. The building was used as a girls' school after the capitol moved, and finally burned down some years later. Eventually all the remaining stone, bricks and marble were either stolen, moved to other building sites, or shoved into a ravine adjacent to the capitol grounds.

The "ruins" you see now are actually a clever, artistic, historically correct reproduction built on-site of salvaged and returned materials from the original building. Finely-crafted bronze plates on the grounds show the layout and history of the capitol edifice. Bring your camera, as these digs seem expressly designed for the artist and photographer.

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