Q-tip skeleton

We are learning about our human body and this time it is about skeleton. The kids are finding it exciting to learn about how their body moves and what are bones made of. As a fun craft we had them build a skeleton using q-tips. This could also be a great activity for Letter Q or for Halloween.

We used black construction paper and thin q-tips. Have the kids cut the q-tips into smaller pieces for bones such as fingers or toes. They loved this. It was nice to cut something other than paper :-)

We helped the little guys to squeeze the glue onto the paper but then they had to place the q-tips the way they wanted them. 

 

And last on the list is to add the skull! We used white pencil. You could also use white crayon, paint or cotton balls also make for a cute skull. You can add googly eyes!

Making pattern using nails

Little kids are working mainly on numbers these days but we are trying to include some other material into their curriculum to refresh their skills. One of them is pattern. This week is the letter N on our schedule so we called these pegs "nails" and created a pattern using the different colors and the wooden board. This is a Montessori style activity.

Learning to read double digit numbers

I was trying to help the boys get more comfortable with reading higher numbers. I noticed that they sometimes read the numbers the other way around and sometimes they are off completely. Here are few ideas that should make it more fun for them to learn!

Plastic cups number reading

 I found this idea here. Go ahead and buy fun plastic cups (these were in Walgreens for a dollar). Then using a permanent marker, write numbers from 0-9 on each of them, the way you see it below. Now you are ready to teach the kids numbers 0-99.

Some ways we used them were:
- I told them a number and they had to find it
- I told them a number, they found it, and then they had to read every number they created after the number
- They asked me to find a number
- Randomly spin the cups and read the number that you see
- I asked them to find a number that is before a number... in this picture below it would be "Find me a number that is before the number 91". Answer would be 80.

Read me all the matching numbers.

We got the original idea from this great blog.

 

Another cute idea for number reading is this chart. This is really fun. However if your child doesn't have that much patience, you can divide this activity into several days, according to the colors or rows. We got the idea from this creative blog, where you can download different designs for free! We love people who like to share :-) Thank you!

Luther Burbank Quote

Marble fish

For this fun activity with an exciting result you will need:

1 cup of Hot Water

1 Tablespoon of Vinegar

1 tablespoon of Oil (we used olive oil)

Food coloring

Cookie sheet 

Measuring cup and spoon

White construction paper

First, pour water onto the cookie sheet and then add oil and vinegar.

 

Next put in few drops of red food coloring and gently mix.

When we were done mixing it all together, we had the kids dip the paper fish into the solution (you can cut out any shape that works for you). They were so excited to see what will happen!

Doesn't this look cool? The kids LOVED the result!

 

Actually they loved it so much that they wanted to try different shape and color of the construction paper. And how did that work? Let me tell you, be glad that we tried it for you - the paper needs to be white, otherwise the result is not as clear and exciting! So the yellow star didn't show any results.

Counting spiders - fine motor skills activity

The little kids are learning to count till 20. To make this fun, I found some glow in the dark Halloween spiders in Walgreens and I counted 15 of them. I put them in our workbox together with a small pumpkin purse and plastic tweezers. This is a great activity for eye hand coordination and it exercises those fine motor skills.

Simply have the kids transfer the spiders into the purse using the tweezers while counting out loud.

Thank you for stopping by!

Buckeye tree nut animals

These buckeye tree nuts are the typical "fruit" of the fall. If you know about a buckeye tree, you are lucky! Go there and collect some of the nuts just around this time of the year. We really enjoyed this simple activity. All you need are the buckeye nuts and toothpicks.

We asked the kids what animal they would like to make and they came up with ideas such as a deer, a cat, and a caterpillar. Then we poked holes through the nuts with the toothpicks - for legs and neck... or possible antlers and ears.

 

We helped the little kids a bit because it was too hard for them to poke through. The big boys were fine on their own most of the time.

These made for such cute fall decoration!

 

We are linking to The Imagination Tree linky party. Go over there for more fun fall crafts!

Halloween Party

Last year, we threw a fun Halloween party for our kids at "school". We thought we would share the whole morning with you and maybe this will help you in planning your own party this year :-)

This is the crew

We started the party with disco dancing! 

Some cool tunes are the Addams Family or Ghost busters!

 

The disco ball gave it the right touch!

  

Then "the witch" read couple Halloween books.

 

 Here are some classic books that are our favorites:

Then we put together a Mellissa and Dough pirate puzzle!

We painted some jar pumpkins. Click here for the instruction post.

 

...and we also made gauze ghost. The instruction post is here.

 

We made mac'n'cheese for lunch. (doesn't it look like maggots? yuck)

 

 For drinks we went with the fun worm juice (berry juice with gummy worms inside).

 

We had the kids decorate sugar cookies (we prepared the dough the night before).

 

Hope this year will be as successful as the last year one! Have fun!!!

Halloween gauze ghosts

What you need:

Plastic cups

Aluminum foil

Laundry starch

Gauze/Cheese cloth

Lay the aluminum foil over the plastic cup, shaped into a ghost-like shape.

Then take the gauze, cut into squares (size may vary according to what size of cup you are using), dip it into the laundry starch and squeeze as much of it out as you can.

 

Then, layer it over the aluminum foil - we used 3 layers of gauze.

Let it dry overnight.

When it dries, you can ad some scary face to your ghosts. We used permanent markers.

 

To us, these are more adorable than scary :-)

Happy Halloween crafting!

Pumpkin candle jars

This was one of our Halloween Party activities. It is very easy and you end up with very cute Halloween decoration for years to come :-)

First find some cute glass jars, wash them and dry them so they are ready to be painted.

 

Then, if you happen to have a witch at your house at that time, have her cut out the Jack-O-Lantern face out of a painters tape. (you can also do it yourself ;-))

...and have the kids tape it to the jar.

 

Now it's time to paint the jars orange color.

 

And let them dry.

 

This is how they look all lit up with a tea candle!