Filler Activity- Toy Cleaning

 

I'm a garage sale hound.  Over the last few weeks, I have had some great finds.  One was a retiring teacher, where I scored a ton of books.  The other was a family who had probably 30 games for sale, including a few games for E.  I bought her the Cootie Bug game and Don't Break the Ice.  Before playing the new games comes the cleaning.  Typically, I am the one doing the cleaning. But, on this day, I decided that E might get a kick out of cleaning the parts.

Armed with an old toothbrush, a big tub of soapy water, and lots of towels (fabric ones, not the paper ones you can see on the table) she got busy.

And, she stayed busy...for close to an hour.  She LOVED cleaning the parts of the game, and it helped her to anticipate playing the game even more.  She had a ton of fun cleaning and eventually playing the game.  This garage same find was definitely worth the $2.00 I spent!!

Water Creatures- Free the Fish Activity

I love the ideas on the web about freezing objects for kids to try to "free" from the ice.  So, I took a plastic bowl, some plastic fish and water creatures, and added water to freeze the creatures in.  I did the freezing in two layers because the creatures sunk to the bottom of the bowl.  After freezing overnight, I loosened the ice, and took it outside with a bowl of water and a pipette.

 Although the dog is disinterested in the whole process, E was very into it.  She started out using the pipette to try to melt the ice.

 Then, she began sliding the ice around to use the heat of the patio to help her.

 Couldn't resist this shot...

And finally, she figured out that the busting the ice method was the quickest and most fun way to free the fish.  We have done this activity many times since this.  I like that it helps with her problem solving skills.  And, it was meant to help with those fine motor skills, even though in actuality it probably ended up being more of a gross motor skill activity.

Filler Activity- Letter Dig

Although E is doing great with learning her capital letters, she is still learning to master the matching lower case letter, as well as mastering the sounds that go along with each letter.  This little filler activity was to help her find the letter pairs, as well as working on putting words that go along with those letters and sounds.  

 Using her dollar store foam alphabet puzzle pieces and her table filled with sand, I buried capital and lower case letter pairs (about 8 at a time).  E's job was to dig up the letter, and look for the matching big or little letter.

As she found the letter pairs, we would try to think of a word that started with the letter before placing the letters back into the puzzle.  Although the activity was fun and successful through part of the alphabet, it did not hold E's attention long enough to get through the whole alphabet.  But, we will continue working on the activity, as well as letter sounds!

Bugs- Worksheet Notebook

Ever since I have been getting onto Pinterest, I have been interested in using a set of worksheets with E from  1+1+1=1.  Here you can find the link to a list of their preschool packs, including the Pretty Bugs packet that I printed out, cut and laminated parts of, and placed in page protectors.

I know some people are very anti worksheets, but the truth is, once kids are in a formalized school setting, they are expected to show skills on paper.  I think the pages serve a great purpose as filler activities to supplement the activities we are doing.  

This particular activity involves graphing.  E rolls the die (or spins a spinner) and charts which bug the die lands on.  It was great for her object correspondence, as well as getting used to writing in a particular box or area of the graph.  

We have played or E has completed about half of the worksheets from the packet, and has had a blast doing them.  It is great seeing her work through some of the sheets on her own, and the games allow us to work on various skills together, too.  My labels for this post will reference the packet as a whole.  A big thanks to the creators of the worksheets!

Bugs- Sensory Bin

 To get excited about studying bugs, I created a new sensory bin representing a word we have been spending a lot of time talking about-- habitat.  The fillers in this bin include two one foot squares of fake grass (I found it on clearance at Hobby Lobby with the Easter items), pebbles, and green poly fill.

 I included two plastic posts which I filled with a coffee bean/split pea/colored spaghetti mix left over from another sensory bin.  I then cut apart a silk flower bush and a silk leaf bush and "planted" them into the pots. Utensils include tongs, magnifying glasses, and a cardboard tube.  Finally, I added a couple of bags of bugs from the dollar store, along with some self-stick ladybugs and spider confetti.  

 As soon as we opened the bin, E wanted her bug viewing container to collect the bugs from the bin. Her favorite was finding the little lady bugs, which I had placed "crawling" in different spots throughout the bin.

 Here she is counting some of the bugs before placing them into her viewing container.

And here she is making the ladybugs crawl on her feet!  Looks like she needed a pedicure!


I just can't emphasize how great these bins are.  They are fun to put together, a great way to learn, and very entertaining!

Birthday Week- Sensory Bin

This week is birthday week at our house, with two members of our household celebrating birthdays. Birthday week includes a birthday play date with some of E's friends, our core family celbrations and gift giving, and family coming in from out of town. All of that adds up to me needing a good sensory bin to distract E while I am baking cakes, cooking, cleaning, and decorating the house. This bin is filled with white beans, pink rice, lots of balloons, marbles, and some of those noise makers as fillers. Utensils include tongs, cupcake wrappers, a new front loader truck, a magnifying glass, and a couple of different sizes of cardboard tubes. Other items include birthday candles, and the blue birthday garland. With the balloons and noisemakers, I will have to really reiterate the sensory bin rule that we don't put anything in our mouths. I can't wait for her to dig in...she simply loves these things!

Filler Activity- April Fools' Day

For April Fools' Day, I found this adorable book at a discount store called Garden Ridge. If you have a store by you, it is worth a look through their books. Books there are typically less than $5, usually closer to $3. I would much rather spend a few dollars on a book than close to the same amount on a card!

Anyway, this book called Lettuce In by Tina Gallo. Each page is a knock-knock joke with a door flap. Knock-knock jokes are great exposure to the concept of puns and multiple meanings. Some of the jokes are too difficult for E to fully understand, but she definitely finds humor in the ones that are based on sounds (such as "Boo who?). We have read this book at least 10 times since the first reading. She now understands the sequence of a knock-knock joke, and has memorized most of the book!

Springtime (??)- Letter Recognition and Sounds

We have been staying so busy with visitors, MOMS Club activities, soccer, and illness, somehow we have lost Springtime and landed ourselves right into summer! We upgraded our very tiny blow up baby pool into this bigger 8-foot blowup pool to beat the heat and enjoy even more time outdoors. After two days of just fun in the pool, today we added a set of foam letters to work on letter recognition. At first, E was just grabbing any letter, identifying it, and bringing it to me to put into the collection bucket. She was doing pretty well, especially considering that some of the letters were upside down, facing the wrong direction, etc. I would ask her to manipulate them into the right position before removing them from the pool.

The second round we mixed things up a little. This round I would ask E to go find the letters, one by one, in the order of the alphabet. When she brought them to me, we would talk about things that start with that letter, focusing on the sound of the first letter. Sometimes E couldn't locate the letters (mostly because with all the letters, toys, and even her big ole mama in the pool, it was difficult to find each little letter). So, this started a couple of other skill games. The first one she learned the basic of in a game of hide and seek with her grandparents during their visit. That was the hot or cold game. As she would "swim" around the pool, I would tell her if she was hot and close to the letter or cold and far from the letter. Another way I would narrow it down for her was to tell her what color the letter is. I think there are six total colors, so that was a great way for her to have less to focus on.

Now, I guess I need to decide on our next unit since the springtime seems to have come and gone here in OK!

Springtime- Book and Fishing for Letters

After having a few days away from "formal" activities (instead we were actually outside enjoying the very springtime weather), we were stuck inside when the March downpours arrived! So, we got back on track with the nonfiction book, Every Season by Shelley Rotner and Anne Love Woodhull. It is filled with great photos from each of the four seasons showing popular seasonal activities and how nature looks in each of those seasons.

After reading the book, we moved over to our fishing pond I set up while E was napping. It is a colorful beach towel covered with the magnetic letters needed to spell each of the four seasons. Also, I put a magnet at the end of the fishing pole so E could use the pole to catch the letters she needed to spell the words from the clings (see next post) she was using to practice her letter identification.

Catching the letters were more difficult than what I anticipated. A lot of the time E was sitting on my lap and we worked through it as a together activity. My advice would be to spread the letters out as much as possible on the pond. It is definitely a great lesson in motor skills and hand-eye coordination!

Also, if you take a peak at the fridge, E made a little pattern of her own with her letters and magnets. It was interesting to see her make the pattern on her own! What a fun rainy day activity!

Filler Activity- Measurement

The materials for this post were the ones we used a couple of activities ago when we were working on texture. When I cut the ribbons, I made sure there there were some the length of a Popsicle stick or shorter and ones longer than the Popsicle stick (which acted as our measuring stick). We started out the activity talking about what longer and shorter meant, and we did a couple of examples together.

Then, I set E free to determine if each ribbon was longer or shorter than the measuring stick. She struggled some with this activity. I think she may have been getting confused if she was supposed to be comparing the length of last ribbon to the one she was measuring instead of always comparing to the stick. This will definitely be a concept we revisit very soon!

Filler Activity- Getting Organized

So lately, I have been obsessed by the idea of busy bags. I love that they are self-contained activities, educational, and, for the most part, child directed. Then, I started thinking about how many toys and activities E already has that fit the same criteria, but don't exactly fit in a bag. So, I went room to room in our house, and I created a list of activities that could fill the same role for transition activities and filling time as what busy bags do. The list ended up having about 25 items. I also kept track of the activities that will require a little bit more Momtervention. I wrote them all down on craft sticks to keep in a container, writing the self-directed activities in black and the activities that require Mommy in orange.

I put the sicks into this pretty little holder I made using an old stuffing container, some scrapbook paper, and letter stickers. I am so excited to have these activities names organized in one place, including the busy bags I have already made . And, even when I give into my temptations to make busy bags, it will be easy to make sure they don't overlap activities E already has because I have gotten our activities organized!

I definitely think that I will duplicate this activity as we continue spending more time outside, as well, for the activities and games we have out there.

Filler Activity- Loaded Desk

Over the weekend, we were planning on taking a road trip (about four hours in the car), so I loaded up this desk with items for E to play with in the car. Unfortunately, the stomach bug got the best of this mom, and we ended up not going :(. Instead, this loaded up desk became a great filler activity for me when I was more interested in doing nothing than planning and executing activities for E. I know it would have been great in the car, too, because it held her attention for about 30 to 40 minutes.

So, what's in the desk? Here is a list: ColorWonder markers and drawing pad, dress up doll stickers and paper to put them on, a Velcro shape activity book (with a CD that would have been great for the car), a couple of books, a Colorform type habitat and cling page, pony beads and pipe cleaners, and a snack.

Obviously, this is nothing super unique or special, but it is very useful for a car trip or to fill a little time when Mommy is feeling under the weather.

Fun with a Mallet, Tees, and Foam!

What a beautiful day! We spent most of the day outdoors. E watched me use the hammer (actually a rubber mallet) to put the lid back on a can of paint, and she wanted to use it. So, I went in and grabbed a piece of foam, some of her daddy's golf tees, and let her get busy with the mallet. She loved it! She stood and did this activity for about 25 minutes. Easy and fun! This will be in the rotation of outdoor activities as we begin moving into the spring and summer.

Filler Activity- Valentine's Day Present

Today's post-nap filler activity was E getting to open her Valentine's day gifts. I added a table cloth to her table (I wanted her gifts to feel special), and wrapped up each item separately with a cookie on top. Unfortunately, I took the picture before Daddy added his gifts, but she got a great assortment of gifts including MORE filler activities! These include a foam craft kit, a sticker activity book, a self-contained paint book, a DVD, and a balsa wood airplane. Educationally spoiled kids are the best kind!!