Egg Carton Scavenger Hunt

I recently discovered Pinterest.  For those of you who have not checked this site out, it is a great way to both organize ideas that you get from the web as well as find new ideas.  I highly recommend it! I saw several people posting recently about using old egg cartons for a backyard scavenger hunt and I thought it was a great idea.

First I googled some pictures for common items in our backyard and put them into a chart I could print out and glue onto the top of an old egg carton.

Then the kids had to head out into the backyard and find all the items and place one in each "spot."

I must admit I put the "?" spot on there because I was having trouble coming up with a 12th item, but the kids loved getting to look around the yard and deciding what would go in the last spot! 

Wheels on the Bus iphone app

Wheels on the Bus by Duck Duck Moose

I love using my iphone for many reasons, not the least of which is its ability to distract my kids!  This great little app sings the wheels on the bus song to the kids as they are able to manipulate the pictures on the screen.  You can set song to be sung in several different languages, just the music, or record you or your child's voice.  All for only 99 cents!

Make your own Bubbles

A few months ago, after a few lousy bottles of bubble juice, I was inspired to make some homemade bubble solution.  I did a little research, got a couple of recipes, even bought a bottle of gycerin, and then, well, forgot completely about it! :)  So yesterday when my son was starting to go a little (okay a lot!) stir-crazy in the afternoon I said let's make bubble juice.  It took less then a minute to whip up.  We then tried to find things around the house to create our own wands.  The bubble juice worked fabulously, though the two store bought wands were by far better then our homemade wands.

Bubble Recipe:

1 cup water (Petaluma tap water worked great, though according to the internet distilled is best)

4 tablespoons dish soap (according to my research dawn and joy work best, we used dawn)

2 tablespoons glycerin or light corn syrup (tried both and they worked equally well)

Some more recipes and information:

http://babyparenting.about.com/cs/activities/a/bubbles.htm
http://science-fair-projects.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_to_make_your_own_bubble_blowing_solution
http://bubbles.org/solutions/

Possible Literature Connections:

 

Simple Games on a Rainy Day

So it is raining.... again... and I am trying to come up with some new and exciting activity to keep my crazy, I mean active, three year old entertained, when he asks to play in the kitchen sink. He grabs his stool and announces that he is going to make waffles in the sink.  I go with it, asking what kind of waffles, maybe blueberry?  Pretty soon he is pouring water back and forth between a mason jar and a measuring cup and using a wooden spoon to stir his waffles.  This lasts about 20 minutes then I add ice to the picture and he is off again.  Sometimes I have to be reminded how simple it really can be!

Cleaning Pennies

 

This has certainly proved to be a rainy winter!  Here is an activity I had come across several times and always thought it looked a little silly and passed it up.  On the recommendation of a friend I finally gave it a go, and boy was I glad I did!  Thomas LOVED it and insisted that he help Daddy clean his pennies when he got home. I loved it because it involved materials I already had and  some great learning opportunities!

Materials:

1. baking soda
2. vinegar
3. pennies
4. eye dropper (or medicine dropper)
5. measuring spoon
6. small bowl 
7. large bowl of water
8. towel

First, I showed Thomas what a penny was and had him go through our coin jar and find all the pennies he could and pull them out.  

Next, he put one penny in the small bowl, measured out 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda, and dumped the soda on top of the penny.  

Then he filled a dropper full of vingear and carefully counted out drops on top.  Of course it then it erupted in bubbles which got Thomas VERY excited.

After all the bubbles died down he transferred the penny to the larger bowl of water to "rinse" the penny off and then on a kitchen towel to dry. Then it was time to do another one!

He was happily occupied for about 45 minutes! The whole time he was learning: what a penny is, visual discrimination, remembering and following steps, counting, and observing chemical reactions.  All in all a great activity!

Possible literature connections:

"Snow" Fun

We have been having a lot of rain lately and more rain is coming! Being trapped inside with two little ones, one of which is a 2 year-old boy who doesn't seem to stop, can cause the best of us to look for an exit! So over the next few days I am going to post some of the activities that we have been doing at our house recently, and hopefully your guys will enjoy them as much as mine did!

"Snow Fun"

Materials:

1. shaving cream
2. small objects to find (we used Rub A Dub Abc & 123)
   
3. large dish
4. cup of water

First put down what you are going to have them search for in the "snow." We used some foam numbers.











Next have them bury the objects in the "snow," also known as shaving cream. Any shaving cream will do, though my son loved this activity so much and wanted to redo it over and over again, that I recommend buying some super cheap stuff at target rather than leaving daddy without shaving cream the next morning!








Then have them search for the objects in the snow. They can then clean them off in water and identify what they found. As you can see from the pictures I had my son complete this activity in the bathtub which helped keep the clean-up to a minimum!






All in all a very successful rainy day activity. My son wanted to repeat this game over and over again. I also really liked that not only did it keep him entertained for almost an hour, but all the time we were working on identifying numbers in a fun way!











Possible Literature connections: