Counting Fun with Fish

     Today I am going to share a counting activity with you.  I found inspiration here.  The kids had  fun painting, counting, and singing.   This project has a secret that I added...read on

Here's how we made it

Materials

• Velcro
• card stock for bowl
• cardboard for fish
• numbers (or marker to write the number)

1.  Draw a fish pattern on a piece of paper and cut it out.

2.  Trace the fish on cardboard.  I made 5 fish for each child and then a couple extra.  (When working with kids things seem to disappear or tear and it's much easier to make a couple extra when your making all of them than to have to go back and make the part that's missing.) 

3.  Cut out the fish and attach soft, furry Velcro on the back of each fish.  (Yep that's the secret!  Children can remove the fish) 

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4.  Draw a fishbowl and cut it out.  The stronger the paper the better!  If you have extra cardboard that would be best.   (Or if you can laminate it that would work great too, but do step 5 first).

5.  Have your child paint the bowl blue, coloring, or markers would work fine. I knew for best coverage for my children paint is the easiest.

6.  Put numbers on the fish.  You can do it or have them do it.  My children loved doing it and they were saying the numbers as they were putting it on. It was great number practice.

7.  Let the bowl dry for several hours, overnight would be the best.  (I didn't and we had one wounded).

8.  Place the rough Velcro circles on the bowl once it is dry.

9. Have children place the fish on the Velcro and show them how you can remove them.  Sing the counting song posted below.  I used the children's fish and put them in a pile and counted with them while singing the song. They loved it!  Be prepared to do the song over, and over, and over again.

    
      For snack, we had goldfish crackers.  While they were eating, I was singing the song and would take one of their crackers away.   They just laughed and laughed.


Sidenote:  C's bowl has an extra velcro on it  because after we were finished she saw the extra fish that I made and wanted to put the number 8 on there.  I went ahead and let her.  She can count to 10 easily so is not confused by seeing 1-5 and then 8.

Counting song

1, 2, 3, 4, 5  I caught a fish alive

6, 7, 8, 9,10 I let it go again

Why did you let it go?

Because it bit me so. ( I add a sound effect "ouch!"  Kids loved it.)

Thanks for stopping by! 

Shawna

Letter fun with silverware

   The other day while C was eating lunch she said, "Look mommy, I made the letter T."

 She had made the letter with her silverware.    She was so proud.

Next, she wanted to make the letter X

After trying to make an X from memory, she asked me to make an x with my silverware so I did.

Then she wanted to make a letter A.

She realizes here that she will need another piece of silverware so she asked me for one and I got it for her.

She's so proud of her letter A!

Then she made a Y.

 Next up, an H.

I love watching her learn and watching her impress herself.  Her imagination and creativity amaze me everyday.   This activity is great for motor skills and letter formation.  Although she cannot write letters yet, it is nice to know that she knows what they look like and can form most of them from memory.  This is an excellent pre-writing activity.  

Thanks for stopping by!
Shawna

I'm linking to : abc and 123 No Time for Flashcards, I Can Teach My Child

Lion puppet-2 day project with toddlers

     This week we are working on the letter L. C loves making animals and puppets so I decided to make a lion puppet.  I saw this and thought it was cute, but I wanted to turn it into a puppet so that C and her friends could actually play with it.

Here's how we made it:

Day 1
     First, I cut out brown circles and realized that they looked like bears so I made yellow circles instead.   The lions still have brown ears because...well...it was just easier than having to cut new ears also. 

    I had them glue ears on the back of the head. Then, I had C and K glue pasta on the lion's head for the mane.  We let the pasta dry on the lion's head overnight.

Day 2
I gave the children their lion's head and they glued it on to the top of the paper sack. Next, they glued the tail on the back of the puppet.   Then the eyes.  And walla!  Cute little lion puppets!  C and K had so much fun playing with them.

Roar!

    Were you scared?  Me neither.  But they sure tried!  This activity took a little more prep work than most other crafts and activities we do because they cannot cut yet.  They are able to glue everything on and do that by themselves.   There was a lot of cutting and tracing but look at their faces. They had so much fun!    It was well worth my time. 

      I keep all of her puppets in a file folder and then on rainy days I get them all out.   They love playing with them.

Thanks for stopping by!

Shawna

Milk painting Marshmallows

       Today we painted marshmallows with milk!  I originally saw the idea (here) where they were painting popcorn and large marshmallows.  We have painted popcorn, shredded wheat, oatmeal squares, paper, crackers, and marshmallows using this method.  It's so easy and the kids love it.  It's a great way to use up milk that is about to spoil!

Here's what you need

• milk ( I usually do this right before the date expiration) 
• food coloring
• bowls
• paint brushes

Talking about the letter M very briefly!  I showed them a bag of marshmallows and pretended to eat one and said "mmmm." 

Staring at the marshmallows.

 

 Milk, food coloring, and bowl is all you need.

1 Tablespoon of milk

Food coloring

Grab a paintbrush and marshmallows and start painting away

Working on motor skills and not even aware of it!

Gripping a small marshmallow and painting it requires concentration and good hand-eye coordination.

Checking out what others are doing.

Mmmm...I think I'll have one.

What happens if I dump pink into purple? 

"It kind of looks closer to brown." C says.

Can I get away with eating 1 marshmallow?  Let me see....

Or instead of painting them...you could dump them in the bowl.

  
      We had so much fun!  You should try it!  You can eat the marshmallows or let them dry and then use them to create a piece of art.   This is a great way to get rid of marshmallows.  Honestly, the kids usually eat 4-6 marshmallows when we do activities with them.  I will take that over having them finish off the rest of the bag by themselves. 

I'm linking to
NurtureStore
abc and 123
Someday crafts
Welcoming Spirit
Growing a jeweled Rose

Hat play using bowls

      The other day I was cleaning up lunch and one of the children had found a bowl that was in a toy box and was putting it on his head and pretty soon C comes up to me and says "mommy, I want a hat too."  I'm thinking "a hat"  and I turn around to the child with a bowl on his head and said "okay," gave her and her friend each "hat."  They had so much fun playing with these. 

 Uh oh my hat just fell off.

 Oh no

Wow!  She figured how to keep it on her head.  What great balance she has.

     I love it when simple things provide children with entertainment.  Without knowing, they were working on balance to leave the bowl on their head and hand-eye coordination when trying to catch the bowl when it fell off their head.



Thanks for stopping by

Shawna