Spaghetti Spaceship

Posted in Kid's Corner by Selections By Sisters

Another fantastic fine motor activity! Henry and Reagan enjoyed this activity and spent about twenty minutes breaking their pasta noodles, sticking them into the play dough and then placing the Cheerios onto the noodles. Henry’s verbal skills are much more advanced than Reagan’s and his imagination is fantastic!. He talked about how the play dough was a spaceship, the noodles were seats and the Cheerios were the space men.

Materials for Two:
Spaghetti Noodles- We used 5 noodles
Play Dough- Enough to make two balls
Cheerios- A small bowl for each child

Form play dough into a ball and then flatten on the bottom.

Break noodles in half or whatever size you want.

Insert noodles into play dough.

Place Cheerios onto noodles.

22Feb2013

Pint-Sized Picasso

Posted in Kid's Corner by Selections By Sisters

This was such an easy activity from start to finish!

Materials

Washable Paint
Construction Paper
Corks
Styrofoam Plate
Something to cover table

This activity took no time at all to put together and allowed for me to utilize things that I already had in the house. I found an old set of washable paints and was excited for Reagan to stray from her normal blue and pink paint (I have yet to remember to purchase more colors). But, low and behold the paints were dry;( I even tried adding a little water to the bottle and shaking it, but it just wasn’t the right consistency anymore. So back to the trusty old standby colors.

I placed a cardboard mat underneath where Reagan would be working, even though it’s washable paint, it doesn’t always wash out 100%. I gave her a piece of construction paper, four wine and champagne corks, paint on a styrofoam plate, told her that they corks were stamps and let her go to town!

She LOVED every second of the paint stamping. I mean, why wouldn’t she…she LOVES to dip, dip! Here she is, using sign language, to ask for more.

The activity lasted about 15 minutes before Reagan began to stamp her hands, her face, the chair and was even successful at getting the dog once or twice.

When the fingers went in the mouth, I called it quits on the activity. I could have easily given her a binkie and she would have continues to paint. However, I’m trying to confine the binkie to the crib and the car, so the binkie was not coming to the kitchen table to paint.

We had a blast and ended the activity with her favorite thing…a tubbie! Sometimes I think that Reagan loves to get messy because she knows that she will end up in the tubbie.

Everything cleaned up really easily. I threw away the styrofoam plate and corks- no paint brush washing today! And returned the left over paper, the paint bottles and the cardboard mat to the craft section in the basement.

13Feb2013

Pasta Necklace

Posted in Kid's Corner by Selections By Sisters

Today Reagan was a disaster; tearing apart every toy that ‘lives’ in the family room (as you can see in the background of all these pictures…HOT MESS!). I was attempting to put away things purchased from a trip to BJs (the TP that you see in the background), but Reagan wasn’t having it. She was in desperate need of a quick wind down activity.

A few months ago I dyed, with food coloring, a box of uncooked ziti. I wouldn’t repeat the way that I dyed the ziti because if Reagan puts it into her mouth, which I know she will, the food coloring wipes off onto whatever the ziti touches after getting wet. I need to find a better way to dye the pasta and when I do, I will be sure to share it with you! Nevertheless, I’m continuing to use the pasta until it’s gone.

Continuing on the path of strengthening her fine motor skills, I decided that Reagan could make a pasta necklace. We used a piece of ribbon that I cut long enough for Reagan to make a necklace that when tied would fit over her head, dried dyed ziti, and a pipe cleaner. The pipe cleaner is such an important part of this activity for Reagan. She struggles with stringing the ziti on a floppy piece of ribbon, I’m not sure what 15 month old wouldn’t. By twisting a pipe cleaner around the end of the ribbon, I am giving the ribbon support and allowing for Reagan to have something straight and sturdy to string her ziti on to.

By stringing a single piece of pasta and then tying it off with a knot, you are creating a stopper and are ensuring that not one piece of pasta will fall to the floor while stringing.

I poured out the dyed ziti bags onto a large rimmed plate, held up the pipe cleaner with the straw attached and told Reagan that we were going to string some ziti to make a necklace. We’ve done this multiple times, so I no longer need to show her how to string the ziti. The first few times that we did this activity I showed Reagan how to string the ziti, I then guided her hand to assist in stringing the ziti, all while verbally explaining what was happening.

A solid ten minutes is spent in deep concentration as Reagan chooses a colored piece of ziti, we say the color name, and then she strings it onto the pipe cleaner.

I tie the loose end to the tied noodle on the opposite side and BAM…a colorful ziti necklace!
I totally forgot to take a picture of the necklace yesterday, so here’s one the next morning. Oh, and checkout the toilet paper that is still sitting in the front hall.

8Feb2013

Water Colors

Posted in Kid's Corner by Selections By Sisters

Reagan is in LOVE with dipping things lately…thanks to her cousin Henry, who taught her how to dip, dip veggies into blue cheese dressing at their grandmas house. FYI- neither kid really eats the veggies, it’s more of a triple dipper disaster, they really should have their own dip bowls, but hey, it’s all in the family…right?

I thought that I would put her ‘dipping’ skills to work and see if water colors would be of interest to her. I had the materials for the activity, so it really seemed like a no brainer to try it out. First mistake I made right out of the gate…giving Reagan a bowl with water in it. She immediately picked up the bowl and drank the water- at least she hadn’t dipped any paint in it yet. I refilled the bowl with a very small amount of water and explained to Reagan that the water wasn’t for drinking and proceeded to show her what do to. With the paper, water color pad and water bowl in front of her and paintbrush in hand, I guided Reagan’s hand to dip the paintbrush into the water bowl, then to the color pad and onto the paper. I made sure to verbalize what we were doing and to say the color names that she was dipping into.

Reagan seemed to enjoy the watercolors, switching from using the brush to paint to using her fingers. I ended up giving her a foam paint brush to allow for the activity to last a little longer. A bib would have been a great idea, but Reagan just yanks them off. A previously stained turtle neck worked out perfectly!

Another great activity to strengthen her fine motor skills!

6Feb2013

Rice Play for Toddlers

Posted in Kid's Corner by Selections By Sisters

I had some serious pot cleaning to do today, so I set Reagan up on a towel in the kitchen with an activity that she LOVES…playing with rice! I provide Reagan with various ‘tools’, such as spoons, forks, measuring cups, bowls, pots, pans and muffin tins. The cream colored circle thingy in the picture came with the Baby Bullet- it was used to freeze pureed foods. I don’t give her all of the ‘tools’ at once, by adding things as she plays, it allows for longer play time.

We have been doing this activity for several months now. When I first introduced rice play, a fantastic sensory activity to Reagan; I would sit on the floor with her and guide her in how to use the ‘tools’ that I provided her with. I began with only two bowls and a spoon until Reagan got the hang of scooping the rice from one bowl to the next. As Reagan masters the ‘tools’ that are provided, I add more ‘tools’ for her to explore with; showing her first a couple of ways to use them, before allowing her to explore independently. It’s amazing how her fine motor skills have progressed and she is able to use a table spoon to scoop rice from a bowl into 12 individual muffin tin spots.

The first several times that I did this activity with Reagan, we used Uncle Ben’s White Rice, because that’s what I had in the house. While cleaning out the cupboards one day I found an unopened bag of Lunderg’s Brown Basmati, which I believe Erin, my sister, gave to me to ground to feed to Reagan when she was just beginning to eat solids. Anyway, I continue to use Lunderg’s Brown Basmati because I find that it is smoother than the Uncle Ben’s White Rice but it’s totally a personal preference. FYI- we have been using the same bag of rice for 3 months now.

I will warn you that this activity is a bit of a mess until your child begins to figure out the ‘tools’ that they are given. At the beginning stages, I turned the messy cleanup into something fun for Reagan. She loves using the mini vacuum, so after she finished play, I would pick up the towel and the ‘tools’ and let her vacuums up all of the rice! At this stage, Reagan rarely gets any rice off of the towel, so the vacuum doesn’t even need to come out! An easy way to get the rice off of the towel is to lift the sides of the towel and allow the rice to roll to the middle. It’s so much easier to clean up the rice from one neat pile.

I keep the rice that we play with in a zip locked bag, labeled with her name in sharpie marker. I wouldn’t want to come home to my husband cooking rice that we play with on the floor with the stinky dog. As I said before, we have been using the same bag of rice for about 3 months now.

Use what you have and have fun with it!

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