Basketball hoops

This week was Tara's uncle's birthday who is a basketball lover so we made him a basketball card but I'm sure any sport loving child would love playing this game of basketball and its a quick one to set up!

All that is required is a kitchen paper roll(they are a bit firmer and smaller than a toilet roll) and a print out of a basketball hoop. I just googled basketball hoop and there are plenty. I got Tara to mix some red and yellow paint and asked her what colour it may turn and we got a lovely orange colour ready to stamp out some balls with.
She dipped the end in the paint and started to stamp the circles on the page. I challenged her to try and score a goal in the net. Lots of fun for a rainy day!

Funny faces

I saw this gorgeous mirror at a dollar store so i thought id use it in an activity based around a favourite book "Funny Face" by Nikola Smee. It is a lovely book that talks about a story of little boy who had his ball stolen by a bear and his emotions that of course end in him playing with the bear happily. I colour photocopied the faces pages that have faces/emotions on them and laminated.
As i read the book to Tara i asked her to find the card that matched the story and then show me the face in the mirror..

Sad Face...

Cross Face...

Frightened Face...

Happy Face...

It was lovely to see her amazed by her faces and i think even adults need to look in the mirror to see what emotion they are portraying to others. It takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile!!!!

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Kiddie kutter

Another product wrap would be our Kiddie Kutter
http://www.kiddiesfoodkutter.com.au/
Tara got hers when she turned one and has been using it in the kitchen with me to cut mushrooms,strawberries,watermelon,kiwi etc. It doesn't cut hard foods like carrots but the fact it doesn't cut fingers off, kind of makes it worthwhile. A learning experience without the trip to emergency!

Sand Find It bottle

I had been very excited make a "find it" bottle for a while so i begun by collecting tiny treasures from around the house. I colour photocopied them and laminated it into a card. Wooden letters that spell out Tara's name, buttons, coins, marble, paperclip, really anything that will fit in a bottle easily.

I asked Tara to put all the objects into the bottle. I found this particular bottle at coles/woolies. It was "Preshafruit" brand in the fridge section but any wide necked bottle that is smooth and clear. I thought this small size would be ideal for a travel version to keep in the car and have a bigger one at home but after Tara handling it, i think this is a perfect size for her and i wouldn't go any bigger as it would be awkward to maneuver

Then she added some sand to make it approx 3/4 full. You can also use coloured or plain rice. We used a little superglue around the neck of the bottle and screwed the lid tightly to make sure it wouldn't come off

Then the fun begins...Choose a treasure from the card....

Turn it, roll it, shake it till you FIND IT!

Colour dropper mixing

Colour water mixing is so much fun. I gave Tara four primary colours and two extra empty glasses to use to mix colours. We spoke about different colour combinations.

Making purple was her favourite but next time i would add a bigger container to pour finished colours into as it all turned into a big brown mess after this photo.

Baking paper droplets

Use a piece of baking paper on a tray and see how coloured water forms little droplets!
I chose a simple number activity but the options are endless of designs you can make with dots to which a child can use the dropper to transfer water droplets onto.


It takes practice to squeeze carefully so only a drop comes out at a time!

Bingo markers brother

We always had bingo markers (or dobbers as we called them) growing up with nan who loved her bingo but never did i think i would be pulling them out to play with for Tara but they are the best mess free activity that really entertains

We recently found out baby #2 that is due around Christmas 2010 will be a boy so going with the theme, Tara dot and dobbed a "brother" picture to show the world!
Here are a few bingo marker worksheets but just google "do a dot" as they call them in America and you will find plenty more
http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/SightWordBingoMarker.htm

Super shape puzzles

Again if you haven't seen the American Nick jnr website, its great!
http://www.nickjr.com/printables/geo-super-shape-puzzles.jhtml?path=/printables/team-umizoomi/all-themes/all-ages/index.jhtml
The Umizoomi cut and paste activity gets the children to cut out the simple shapes. I cut out the surrounds of the shape then got Tara to follow the lines of the shape to finish it off. Then you match the shape to the picture and glue it on. Simple but great for shape awareness
Tara Approved!

Beados

I had seen Beados around for a while and noticed the age recommendation was 4+ but was keen to give Tara a go as it seemed to me just like bead transferring, a simple Montessori activity. We found the transferring pen didn't work too easily so Tara used her fingers to transfer some colours into a picture template which is placed underneath the bead board.
It took concentration, matching skills and the use of pincer grip. While the finished product didn't look anything like the picture, the process was the importance and she really enjoyed it. We sprayed the beads with water and put them in the sun to dry which glues them together. I made an angel fish and Tara made a rabbit.

Mr grass head

Our local shopping centre had a grass head making day so we went along and came home with this lovely little addition to our family. Grass head was watered everyday(sometimes a little too much!) and put in the sunshine during the day (we had to bring him in at night as we get wild rabbits who love eating grass).
A week later Mr grass head was ready for his first haircut. Using scissors is something i have always let her have a go at and cutting grass was easy on her little fingers so she managed to finish it all herself

Mr grass heads new hair style!

After a little water we put him back outside till next time he needs a trim! I asked Tara if she would like to be a hairdresser when she is older and she said "Yes, a hairdresser AND a teacher!"

These are simple to make. An old stocking filled with some grass seeds or alfalfa seeds and soil on top. Tie it off, turn in over and place in a container. Decorate the container with a face. Enjoy!

Alphabet pole

I made this activity one night and kept it on hand for when i had one of those important phone calls to make and needed a little someone to keep busy. A simple kitchen paper towel roll with the alphabet (we are using capitals at the moment) on it and stickers to match.
I was looking for actual alphabet stickers but found them hard to find without fancy cursive font but these were simple to make out of coloured dot stickers. She matched them up-took her a few days to get it finished but was great to have a quick activity on hand when we needed it. Great for fine motor, recognising letters and matching.

Threading Hungry Caterpillar

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is Tara's all time favourite book. Our bedtime routine is one book by mummy and one book by daddy and most nights this book will be the choice for mummy and daddy to read so after searching online i found this great activity around the book to enhance fine motor skills and listening skills of course!
http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/VeryHungryCaterpillarStoryStick.htm

Basically you print out the activity, laminate it and hole punch each item. The worm is made of a pipe cleaner and as you read the book your child can find the food and get the worm to eat (thread through) it. Lots of fun!!!

Colour by numbers

If you haven't checked out http://www.nickjr.com/printables/index.jhtml They have some great educational printables and online games. Tara loves Dora, so she tried out a colour by number activity and did really well.

Fireworks printing

We were lucky enough to watch some fireworks from our back room one night which is likely to be the only way we watch them for a while as Tara is extremely sensitive to loud noises, even a police siren passing has her leaping for a cuddle!
The following day we made our own fireworks with an old stocking/pantyhose filled with lentils or soup mix tied up. She dipped it into the pain then printed it on the paper

Makes a great effect and useful for wrapping paper-these will be saved for Christmas! Just rinse the stocking with warm water and let dry. We have reused it may times.

Printing practice

These free printing practice worksheets are fab!
http://www.kidzone.ws/prek_wrksht/dynamic.htm
Started with the most basic straight lines but staying on them was very tricky.

Never give up attitude made it all the way to the end!

Had a go at diagonal lines too

Straw jewlery

Threading is a great lesson to learn and why not make it fun with some coloured straws cut into age appropriate sizes, a length of elastic and make a necklace or bracelet. This was a birthday gift we sent to our 4 yr old cousin.

Self rewarding!

Tara told me it looked like a hexagon bracelet!

ABC Reading Eggs

Have another product rap! I stumbled across "ABC Reading Eggs"
http://www.readingeggs.com/
and thought we would take the 2 week free trial. Its the first real "game" i have introduced Tara to on the computer after reading conflicting advice about computers for under 3's but most preschools these days have them and this is a fantastic educational program

With the use of repetition, funny characters and rewards this program catches the attention and is Australian made so has English accents. It is marketed to 4yrs+ but Tara had no trouble with the single alphabet letters and sounds. Great way to start practising manuevering a mouse and keyboard too!

Golf tees and marbles

This activity involves some plasticine,golf tee's, a hammer and some small marbles. First is it hammer all the tee's into the plasticine as straight as possible.

Next is to balance a marble on top of the tee.Takes great patience and concentration.

Just hope daddy isn't looking for his golf tees anytime soon!

Bath grip bead transferring

Sorry for the shocking photo but this tray is made up of a container of rounded gems/balls/beads, a baby's safety bath grip turned upside down and a pair of tweezers. The idea is to transfer the beads individually over to each suction cap on the grip with the tweezers without dropping them. The rounder the bead the harder it is to get a hold of them and the pressure applied to the tweezers needs to be firm to carry them but not too firm or they will flick off.
I caught Tara in the middle of this activity while i was busy doing something else so usually it should be done at a table.

Depressor stick counting

I found some great tongue depressors at the chemist and they come in handy for so many activities, wooden texture is great for little fingers to feel and so cheap!
This activity involves sticking coloured circles on the sticks and writing in felt tip at the bottom how many stickers are on each one.
Tara then had a bunch of small pom poms she had to place over the matching coloured stickers and count. This helps with the recognition of the number which lately we have been stumbling with since learning to count backwards it all gets a little muddled again.
I chose for the first time to give her the exact number of coloured pom poms so she could self correct but in time just giver her a bowl of assorted colours to increase the difficulty

It was great fun and it still is a favourite she chooses off the shelf herself!