10 for Tuesday ~ Fun with Rain Puddles

1. Guess if objects will float or sink and then try them out in the puddles.
2. Float paper boats.
3. Use watercolors or chalk paint to paint the driveway or sidewalk.  Use the puddles to rinse off the brushes before changing colors.
4. Practice the long jump as you jump over puddles.
5. Talk about depth and use a ruler to measure how deep each puddle is.
6. Puddles are great target practice for pebbles!
7. Play a magnetic fishing game.  Just tie some yarn with a magnet on the end to a stick.  Then, put some magnetic fish in the puddles...try the dollar store or just make your own.
8. Use the water to help make a mud pie.  I think this is a lost art!
9. Use a small cup to scoop up the water from a puddle.  Pour the water into a watering can and use it to water house or porch plants.
10. Put on your rubber boots and splash!!!

In Ontario, April 27th is National Puddle Day.  It is a day set aside to honor those children whose lives are cut short.  Everyone is encouraged to wear their rubber boots and jump in puddles.  What a great way to remember children!  

My neighbor looked at me crazy for allowing my daughter to splash in rain puddles the other day.  I really don't know why.  I'm sure we all can remember how much fun splashing in puddles was when we were kids!!! I hope you enjoy splashing in puddles this Spring and take the opportunity to make it a Teachable Moment!

Sensory Exploration ~ Touch

They aren't just pulling your earrings and reaching in the toilet water for nothing...they are learning about their new and crazy world!!!

So, here are some fun ways to engage your little one's sense of touch...

(without ripping your earlobe or ingesting the forbidden!)  

1. Put some shaving cream in a zip lock baggy.  Put in a few drops of food coloring but don't squish it around to change the color just yet.  Instead, let your little one do the squishing.  Fun, yet non-messy!
2. Sit in the grass with shorts on.  (don't forget that legs can feel, too and help us learn about our world, as well)
3. Make your own touch and feel book with scraps such as fabric, carpet, aluminum foil, curly ribbon, cotton balls, sand paper, etc.  You can hot glue the scraps onto pages in one of those dollar store picture albums. 
4. Put objects in a shoe box with a hole cut just big enough for your little one's hand to fit through.
5. Finger paint ~ Yes, it's messy, but so worth the effort when you get those priceless pictures!  As the weather gets warmer, don't forget you can also enjoy art outside in swimsuits and then just hose off.  Twice the fun!!!

Here is our Touchable Teachable Moment from this weekend.  What fun we had with my precious nephew!!!  (shhh!!! Don't tell his mommy & daddy about the mess!)

I hope you get to enjoy a Touchable Teachable Moment with your little one this week!!!

St. Patrick's Day Activities for Preschoolers

• Sort & Count the marshmallows in Lucky Charms cereal 
• Cut a green bell pepper in half, dip in paint and stamp on paper to make a shamrock print
• Read That's What Leprechauns Do by:  Eve Bunting

• Search for 4 leaf clovers outside
• Make a rainbow out of Fruit Loops and glue 
• Search for Gold ~ hide gold covered chocolates and let your little one find them

That's what we have planned for St. Patrick's Day.  How about you?  What fun stuff do you and your little ones do to celebrate/learn about St. Patrick's Day?

Red and Purple Make Pink

In preparation for our 2nd annual Valentine's Tea Party with Granny, I found this marvelous yet simple craft over at Make and Takes.  I thought it would be perfect for Macy to make for placemats for the tea party, so off we went preparing our art area making sure not to let the paint touch on the paper plate.  Ya know how some people can't let their food touch???  Well, Macy can't let her paint touch...

until today...

She was making the best heart prints and they were going to be the cutest little placemats...

and then...

She started finger painting and screamed out, "Mommy, red and purple make pink!"   

  I assured her that it is really red and white that make pink, but she insisted and told me to watch.  Her pink paint-covered hands took some red paint and blobbed it on the paper and then some purple paint and blobbed it on the red and sure enough it did make pink!  In fact, every combination of paint she came up with made pink, and when we washed her hands in the sink the water even turned pink!  Fun Times!!!

Teachable Moment for mom ~ They are still the cutest little placemats!

Teachable Moment for Macy ~ I can mix colors to make new colors!

In order to convince her that every color combo doesn't make pink, we did some more mixing with chalk, crayons, and water color paints.  Then we played a Curious George mixing game on the internet, and read one of her old favorite books, White Rabbit's Color Book by Alan Baker, that now has brand new meaning!