Thinky Linky Thursday

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Here were the most clicked links from last week's Thinky Linky Thursday:


The first 2 links both come from Mama of Many Blessings!

5 Fun Sensory Table Ideas

5 Easy DIY Father's Day Gifts

And this link comes from School Time Snippets:

Storytime and Craft: Playdough Monsters

Thanks to everyone for linking up!

Thinky Linky Thursday

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The first featured link from last week got an overwhelming majority of the clicks last week:

Sensory Table Ideas from Mama of Many Blessings

String Estimation Game from Meaningful Mama

Bartholomew and the GLOWING Oobleck from Train Up a Child

Congrats to all the featured blogs!

Bubblegum Scented Water Bead Play

CAUTION! Before I begin, I want to warn you that these water beads are not meant for children to play with. The pack even says keep away from children. I am not sure what they are made of or how harmful they may be if ingested, so please use these at your own risk!

I have been seeing these water beads all over the blogosphere and wanted to try them out. I happened across some the other day at Joann's, so I decided to get some to make a sensory bin for my son.

Here is what I used: Bath Fizzy: $1 in dollar section of Target

Water Beads (about half a pack): 2.99 at Joann's

Medicine Dropper and Scoop: About $1.50 at Walmart

Here are some close-ups: 

As you can see, when I added the bath fizzy, the beads began to absorb it and shrink up. They were floating in the water, so I drained some of the water out. I am not sure how much scent there actually was since the beads were absorbing it!

 He LOVES pouring and the duckies are also faves of his!

He had lots of fun until he began to smack at the beads and make them fly all over the room, so we had to call it a day :)

CLICK HERE TO SEE WHERE I LINK UP

Rice Sensory Table

I am so sorry that Wishlist Wednesday got messed up this week! I made a scheduling mistake and accidentally reminded the wrong person to get their post ready, so I will hopefully be rescheduling the person who I thought was supposed to post for today.

Anyways, instead here is some things we've been doing with rice in the sensory table this week.

We measured and poured. Using the sand toy, we discovered how pouring something into the top makes the wheel spin.

We shoveled, raked and funneled.

We used seasoning shakers from the kitchen area to fill with rice and pretend it was salt or just to shake them up and hear the sound it makes.

Tomorrow, we will be having an ABC treasure hunt by digging in the rice to find some hidden letters!

What have you done with rice? Next time, I want to try to make the colored rice I have been seeing all over other blogs and Pinterest such as these... 

Share and Remember: Rainbow Rice and Garden Sensory Play

Just for Daisy: Playing with Rainbow Rice

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More Building Houses

Here are some more photos of the kids using tools to build a house in the sensory table. To see the original post, click here and scroll down.

They really enjoyed cutting the tape and taping things together.

She taped the roof to her house.

I never even realized how great a fine motor activity taping can be. To pull the tape, cut it and keep it from sticking together takes a lot of eye hand coordination, not to mention actually sticking it onto something the way you want it and to stick more than one thing together requires even more complex movements and steadiness.

Hammering, one child on each end. What a creative way to work together.

 One child actually cut all the way through the thick cardboard with our plastic saw!

The girls decided they needed to do a little bit of decorating, so they got out the markers and drew all over the tape. This is one little girl's "grouchy face." I love it!!!

CLICK HERE TO SEE WHERE I LINK UP

Fingers, Toes and Homes around the World

Today I read this book to my class. I have done a previous post about this book, but here are some more details about how we used it in class.

First we did a small group that consisted of using these felt board fingers and toes to count to 10.

Then we took off our socks and shoes to count our toes. Yep, we all had 10 :)

We have also started learning about homes around the world. Here is our sensory table filled with materials for building a house. We got into questions such as what are houses made of, what are the parts of a house, how do you build a house, why are houses different around the world, what is the purpose of a roof? The children had some good answers and seemed like they were becoming interested.

He said this was an apartment :)

Hammering the pieces together.

I introduced a lot of new vocabulary such as carpenter, hinges, plaster, door frame, etc. I am beginning to see that there is so many directions this study could go. We had planned to go into weather around the world next week, but we may stretch out homes for another week. Can't wait to do some more of the activities we have planned for this week. Stay tuned!

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Storytime Sunday: Snow

Here is my selection of snow/winter books for this week. These are only few of the MANY great children's books about winter. They were just a few I happened to have in my personal collection that I have been using with my son this weekend as we have begun exploring snow. The Snowy Day is an older book that I'm sure most of you have read. I like it because it describes actions that children can replicate in the snow. While not particularly about snow, the book On the Night You Were Born is a wonderful book and there are some really awesome outdoor pictures including the polar bears in the snow.

Here are some photos of my sensory bin I used with my 1 year old. I actually left the blue lights in here from the light box I had made and covered it with a white towel then lined it with cotton balls. The blue lights shine through a little bit, just enough to give it that glow that ice sometimes gets when it's really thick. 

CAUTION: DO NOT TRY THIS WITH THE LIGHTS! I had to take my lights out today because they got nearly hot enough to melt the toys inside. Just use some tissue paper or foam under the towel or no towel at all. Just to eliminate the fire hazard completely. Sorry.

The snowflakes are cut out of wrapping paper. There is metallic wrapping paper for a frozen pond with a small snowman figure.

After L played awhile, I decided to give him another empty bin to transfer the cotton balls into since he mostly wanted to take them out of the bin. Also, we added some measuring cups for scooping and pouring.

 At school, we brought some snow inside as it was too cold to go outside. The kids had a blast with it and wanted some art materials to help them build their snowman. I also brought snow in for L to play with at home this weekend and some ice from our newly working ice maker, but as soon as I went to take the photo, L began to fuss. Figures!

We also made sparkly snowflakes with glitter. We used the printable pattern from here. I was going to let the kids cut them out, but once folded, it was too thick for their little scissors to cut through, so I did it for them.

What books have you been reading about winter?

CLICK HERE TO SEE WHERE I LINK UP