Candy Stores and Sledding

I have some glass candy that I put out as decoration during Christmas and my son has been exploring and playing with them every day.  As I was cleaning up the kitchen a bit he was upstairs in his playroom playing and I came up to this.....

• Wow, what did you make?
• Its a candy shop, Mommy....and it snowed outside so the people have to eat candy.  They all have one piece.  This one is blueberry, this one is...hmmmmm...maybe spicy, this one is strawberry, and this one is lemon.
• I see.  They sure are lucky to have that candy.
• Yeah....they are.  Mommy, would you like a piece of candy?
• I sure would.  [he hands me a piece]  Thank you.  That was very thoughtful.
• You're welcome, Mommy.

 [continues to play]

Building more of the "candy shop"

"Look, Mommy, she is sledding!"

 

 "She needs a snow hill so she can go super fast"

[out comes the rain gutter]

He added the poly pellets to the gutter to make it a snowy hill.  Then he had his playmobil people sledding on magna tiles.

 

 He put the boys arms up in the air as if he were on a roller coaster.  LOL  (love that detail)

 

 Then we made our own sled for the people.  I LOVE how he was being imaginative with the magna tiles at first and then asked if we could make a "real" sled.

 

 ...and they sledded down the hill

 

 After all of the sledding fun, he spent a good deal of time just playing in the snow bin making tracks with the sled.

**THE "SNOW" IS POLY-FIL PELLETS.  I BOUGHT THEM AT WALMART NEAR THE SEWING MATERIALS.  IT IS USED A FILLER FOR BEAN BAGS, DOLLS, ETC.**

- AK (MESE, MECD)

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Ice Skating Sensory Bin

My girls absolutely LOVED this bin.  When you have more than one child, it's often hard to set something up that they will both enjoy... especially when you have complete opposites!  This is one they both played with together for over an hour!  

What is here:

Storage bin filled with water and frozen to create an ice skating rink.  We put this on the light panel but you do not need to do this.  It would also be fun just on his own.  

Little Christmas Tree

Magna tiles to create an ice sculpture.  :-)  

Little blinking snowman (A gift from AK and her family.  Thank you!)

We wrapped Christmas Lights around for a more "Christmasy" feel

"That's cold!!"

"Mommy, the horse has cold feet!"

Licking the ice

That looked like fun.  Let me try it!  LOL  

<3 them!

The ice had started to melt a little bit creating holes where some bubbles were.  My oldest took out her playmobil dogs and started digging in the holes.

RL  

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Candy Canes and Snowflakes

My students loved these when I taught pre-k.  Its a little more "guided" than some of our other activities...but there can be guidance without a right or wrong way, which is important to remember.  I presented the invitation, explained what it was, and then let my son take the lead.  This activity is a true test of fine motor skills for a toddler.....and patience, and persistence, and emotional regulation, etc etc etc.  Ha ha ha ha!

Things you need:

• beads
• wire OR pipe cleaners

CANDY CANES

 

Our BEADS

wire, pipe cleaners, beads

 My son ASKED me to help him with this one....just with the color part.  I asked him what colors he would like to use and he said red and white (which became clear because we didn't have white).  We had a lot of dialogue back and forth during this process.  A lot of "What color is next, Mommy?" and "Hmmm, let's see.  Can you tell me what colors you have already and maybe we can figure it out together".  GREAT for patterning!!

 stringing the beads - fine motor skills in action

 candy canes....all done and ready to hang on the tree

Another option is to super glue a pin like this on the back of the candy cane and give as a gift.  This is what most of my students would choose to do when I was teaching.

SNOWFLAKES

For the snowflakes my son cut a pipe cleaner into four pieces and then used 3 of those pieces to make the skeleton of the snowflake (sorry for the lack of pics).  I made the skeleton for him.

stringing beads onto snowflake....he chose whatever colors he wanted and didn't ask me for any help

 I used fishing line to hang, and wire cutters to turn in the tips of each arm of the snowflake

Finished product

[Another ornament or pin you can make with these materials - Christmas wreaths]

- AK (MESE, MECD)

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Salt Dough Ornaments

We made salt dough ornaments a week or so ago and they are now complete....by toddler standards anyway.  :)  Here is the recipe we used:

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup salt
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
•  mix flour and salt and add water slowly as you stir....once mixed, knead the dough with your hands until soft and pliable...roll out the dough....cut with cookie cutters...use a toothpick to make a hole in each one for hanging (we skipped this part...keep reading to find out why)...place on a cookie sheet and bake at 325 about 1 hour.

I dont have any pics of the mixing/cutting process because it was kind of a spur of the moment activity and I was too lazy to go upstairs and get the camera.  LOL

We painted our with acrylic paint and then sealed them by spraying them with polycrylic.  I used fishing line to hang them. 

My newly turned 3 year old painting his ornament.  This was a process.  It took him a few days to do all of the ornaments he wanted to do.  I just left the materials out for him to revisit at his own pace.

 Finished product (the tree on the far left is mine).

 My son is a power tool fanatic.  I intentionally left out the "poke a hole in the ornaments with a toothpick" part because I KNEW he would love this part - drilling holes for hanging.

 drilling holes in the ornaments for hanging

hanging from the tree  

:)

- AK (MESE, MECD)

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Puffy Paint Christmas Crafts

For the homemade puffy paint recipe click HERE

This is by far one of our favorite homemade paint recipes.  We use it often.  I set up this invitation for my girls today.  To put a Christmas spin on it, I cut out a tree and snowman for them.  You can either paint this on, or for a more puffy paint feel you can put it in squirt bottles.     

The invitation

My 21M old mixing the paint

Adding color

My 21M old could care less about paint right now.  Her two favorite craft items are markers and stamps.  Even with all that paint sitting in front of her she went right for her markers to color her tree and snowman.... and that is OK!  

Then she thought her baby needed some color.

My oldest painting her snowman.

If you sit on the table and use two paintbrushes you will get amazing results.  LOL  

Before microwaving. 

Placing snowman in microwave...

Waiting....

Finished!

My 21M old before the squirt bottle.   

I thought she would enjoy it more if it was in a squirt bottle.  I poured all the extra paint into the bottle.  It was a success.  

She loved pressing the buttons, too.  

Finished

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Colored Epsom Salt

To color epsom salt just mix salt with food coloring.  

To see natural dyes click FOOD BASED DYES

Some ideas for salts:

On the light panel and in the sensory bin

Candle crafts

Christmas ornaments

Bath bottles 

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