Three Great Purim Activities You Can Take Outside!

If costumes inside are fun, imagine
costumes outside at the park!

Today we're going to Get Outside And...PURIM! If this holiday isn't enough fun already, let's take it to the park (or backyard). In fact, that is exactly what we did in our most recent outdoor playgroup event--a Purim Popup Play at the Park. And the best parts about these activities is that you can do them outside or indoors, many of the materials needed are likely in (or outside of) your home, and they can be adapted for year round use.

1. Stick Puppets

Stick Puppet created by
a three year old!

Puppetry is a great way to retell the story of Purim for young children. You can make Purim puppets in a number of ways, but I particularly love using nature's loose parts when I can and sticks are a fabulous loose part. Send your puppeteers on a search for the perfect stick! All you'll need to add to the mix are any loose craft parts you have on hand (we used google eyes, fabric scraps, pipe cleaners, some wool roving and a handful of buttons, gems and sequins). Now here's the one material I can't sing the praises of enough: nontoxic gel medium. I can't believe I made it 35 years before I found out about this! Found in the painting/acrylics section of craft supply stores or online, this works with all the power of a hot glue gun and none of the heat! It is worth the investment as kids can glue loose parts together without the frustration of them falling off while it sets. It takes a very small amount to work and it dries clear. I like to use condiment containers with lids to transport it to the park (or any small dish/piece of cardboard inside) and a craft stick to apply it. Let the kids have at it and design their puppets. They will surely tell some great versions of the Purim story and many other stories to come.

The storytelling continues at home. S is manning
my Stick Puppet and Y is donning a hand dyed cape!

2. Hand Dyed Capes Capes are for more than just superheroes. Wizards, fairies, royalty and just kids who need to fly a little faster might need a cape from time to time. And hand dyeing your own is so fun (and easy)! 

You will need:

• white flour sack dish cloths (sold in bulk at Walmart or similar stores or even online--even better if you happen to have some stained ones in your kitchen stash that need to be upcycled)
• liquid watercolor or food coloring or fabric dye (I used liquid watercolors--I am not sure how permanent they will be upon washing so for a permanent dye stick to ones intended for fabric)
• water to dilute dye
• pipettes (I bought in bulk on Amazon)
• glass jars or cups to fill with/transport your dyes
• foil pans or similar item to work within
• smocks to cover clothing

The children had so much fun dropping bits of color across the fabric. I separated warm and cool colors initially for the children so they would blend without turning brown, but even those who chose to mix all six colors I provided (red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple) came up with gorgeous results! If you're outdoors, hang or drape your capes to air dry. Once dry, they can be tied around the shoulders as a cape. They also make fabulous doll blankets, picnic blankets, and whatever else your little ones may come up with.

If you are hosting a park party and need to send these home still damp, I'd recommend having a plastic bag on hand for each family.

3. Invitation to Dress Up Peg Dolls in Playdough Costumes

Wooden peg dolls are great for storytelling and small world play. They are a great way to retell the Purim story as well. Many times, we use wooden peg dolls or peg clothespins for permanent crafts, but in this fun playdough invitation, the crafting is temporary. Costumes are created using playdough in a variety of colors and small loose craft parts. I also like to set out some cookie cutters in various sizes, rolling pins and plastic knives. There are so many ways to play and it is quite fun to dress, undress and dress again the little wooden dolls. You can easily send a little gift package home with this as well by slipping a couple of peg dolls and party sized playdough containers in a bag to go.

This little 2 year old had so much fun dressing up his peg dolls that he decided he needed a costume to wear as well and visited our giant laundry sack of costumes to choose the perfect jester's hat for the occasion!

S created costumes by rolling out the dough and wrapping it around each peg. He told me the one in pink is Queen Esther and the one in green is her uncle, Mordechai.

Whether you take these out to the park, to your own backyard, or inside, I hope they get everyone into the Purim spirit! We are so excited for the upcoming holiday here and are counting down the days until it begins next Monday night!

Until then...

Happy Playing!

Purim Play: Invitation to Create Wooden Peg Dolls with Loose Parts

For quite a while, I'd had a plan to set up a pop-up loose parts station for the boys to design and create their own wooden peg dolls. We use a lot of my handcrafted wooden peg dolls in small world play, storytelling and even on our Nature Table. The boys love creating materials and toys that we use in their play and the implementation of my longstanding idea finally came to fruition in time for Purim. We've made Purim puppets here before and lo and behold, great minds think alike because I also saw that S was making a set of wooden peg doll Purim characters at school this year. You could definitely set this up to specifically create the characters from the Purim story (or any other story for that matter). I decided, however, that I wanted it to be really open ended and let the boys decide what to create.

When setting up your pop-up loose parts station to create wooden peg dolls, you can include any of the following you have on hand or add in/swap in other items:

• wooden peg dolls (I bought these on Amazon, but you can also find them at craft supply stores or use the old fashioned wooden clothespins).
• sequins
• wool roving in a variety of colors
• tissue paper squares
• fabric scraps
• washi tape
• markers
• tacky glue
• scissors

Some other ideas you might add/sub in include:

• ribbon, lace scraps, rickrack
• small buttons, gems, beads
• yarn/string
• colored/patterned paper
• paint
• felt scraps
• small google eyes
• stickers

The boys each had such creative ideas. I gave very little instruction and truth be told--I came downstairs later the morning we had this set up so my husband was the one who was with them at the beginning! Each of them did make an adorable little peg doll. I drew eyes on the peg dolls in advance and you can do the same or leave them untouched. S created a peg doll that is also a character from Paw Patrol (and has some corresponding fabric wings). Y created his own blue haired little wooden baby. And S also used some materials to make little doll "towels." It was so cute and fun to watch them explore and create. We added the finished and dried products to our dolls and dollhouse accessories and they have been integrated into play and storytelling here. The boys feel such pride when their art is put to use, and not merely displayed.

It is really fun to keep this activity open ended like we did, but it can also be tailored to a theme. Some other ideas to adapt this activity include:

• family/class wooden peg doll self portraits--create your own mini-me
• peg dolls to go along with a fairy tale or favorite story
• wooden peg dolls using natural loose parts (leaves, flowers, acorn caps--perfect for a fairy house or garden!
• holiday themed peg dolls

Happy Playing!

A Peek Inside Our Playroom: Welcome to Fairy Tale Land!

There has been a great deal of building excitement over Purim this year with the beginning of the new Jewish month of Adar. The challenge this year is that it is a leap year in the Jewish calendar and there are two months of Adar--this is Adar I. Purim falls in Adar II. Conversations with S have been flooded with the topic of costumes, the Purim story and characters, and, of course, the treats we eat and share on the holiday. Even Y has been toddling around claiming to be Haman with a very believable scowl on his face! So do I try to quell the excitement and shift the focus for the next several weeks? At first, I did. I didn't want it to be "too hard to wait." But then (even I was getting excited by now) I wondered, why is it so terrible to be excited while you wait? Excitement is a wonderful and joyful emotion. And the month(s) of Adar are a time we are called upon to increase joy. So, I told the boys a few days ago that we would do a playroom shift and transform our Fire Station into a Fairy Tale Land!

The boys used watercolor paints in a crayon resist
to decorate our play-theme signs.

The Purim story itself is quite a dramatic one--most suitable for acting, story telling and small world play. It lends itself quite well to a fairy tale theme. I've touched upon the topic of fairy tales with young children before and I do think they hold an inherent value educationally as well as socially and emotionally for children. I do not feel concerned that children won't recognize the difference between fact and fiction. I don't worry about some of the darker content in fairy tales either--literature and play are safe spaces to navigate deep emotions and childhood fears. I do think that fairy tales are rich in language and opportunities to problem solve, think critically and resolve conflict. Through playing and story telling about common fairy tales and fairy tale themes, children gain an empowering role in overcoming childhood challenges as well as a rich vocabulary, deep imagination, creativity, social skills and critical thinking skills to boot.

While I have prepared materials for many of our dramatic play themes, this one I created from scratch. I spread the work over the course of many days in advance and even I was getting too excited to wait until Purim was closer to transform our play space. I am holding off on setting out all of our Purim props and accessories, but I knew I wanted our Fairy Tale Land play-theme to include some key components:

• costumes (both specific character costumes as well as open ended props and playsilks)
• puppets and our puppet theater
• a Three Bears' Cafe in our kitchen/housekeeping area (the boys had been playing about restaurants a lot lately)
• small world play opportunities
• castle building opportunities with a variety of blocks and loose parts
• literature!
• theme related sensory play
• theme related STEAM challenges
• art
• creative writing/recording, story telling and play acting

I will definitely be posting as we delve deeper into this theme, exploring individual fairy tales in a variety of ways as well as incorporating creative STEAM activities, sensory bins and art/creative writing opportunities. Until then, here's a peek in side our playroom...

A collection of hand puppets and finger puppets are ready to go along with our puppet theater. The boys can put on their own impromptu shows (we even have show tickets!) or act out specific stories and fairy tales. 

Castles and building castles are a big component of this theme. We brought out a wooden playcastle I bought last year at a craft supply store and some toy "Purim story characters" (medieval dolls from Safari Ltd.) and also generic dollhouse dolls and furniture. I also included larger building materials in this area (a combination of recycled tubes and magnetiles) to encourage building on to the castle and kingdom. The boys can bring in other toys and building materials from our other shelves and STEAM cart as they wish. 

Costume central! We have baskets of scarves/playsilks, hats, costumes and costume props.

The Three Bear's Cafe can extend into our living room kids table to accommodate restaurant patrons (human or puppet!) 

Our menu, with a bit of my sense of humor and a photo bomb by a particular Ninja Turtle...

Our play shelves and STEAM cart are stocked and ready. The boys really like to have space beyond the kitchen set for setting up cooking/baking activities, restaurants and stores. I devoted two shelves to that purpose. The top shelf has some additional building materials and loose parts, peg dolls and props for small world play. 

I kept some of the drawers in our STEAM cart the same--particularly ones that were getting a lot of traffic from the boys (like our woodworking drawer and scrap wood). I swapped in bear counters in three sizes (perfect for Goldilocks!), some photos of real castles to inspire building ideas and writing/recording ideas, some awesome castle blocks I scored at a thrift store last year (pictured above) as well as Legos and colored wooden blocks.

Our current sensory table is a Porridge Sensory Bin to go along with our Three Bears' Cafe...very simple setup with dried oats and some cooking utensils and wooden dishes.

The boys got busy at play!

Dinner entertainment has been amazing around here...

Parenting hack: Hang mirrors outside of your bathrooms! Your kids will spend all day looking at themselves and you can finally reclaim the right to peeing alone with the door closed!

Happy Playing!

Playing About Purim: Part 4

Purim is just around the corner! There is a lot of activity that precedes the holiday as we pack up shalach manos (gifts of food), prepare our costumes and, this year, get ready for Shabbat as well. Once the holiday begins, there are four very special mitzvos we must do:

1. Hear the Megillah (Book of Esther) read two times
2. Give matanos le'evyonim (extra charity to those in need)
3. Give shalach manos (gifts of food) 
4. Eat a seuda (festive meal)

We used some great books, posters and visual aids like the one pictured to the right to teach our son about the four mitzvos of Purim. The very best way he will learn about them, however, is by practicing, playing about them and actually doing them! One mitzvah my son is most excited about is giving shalach manos to his friends. The mitzvah itself requires a person to give at least one gift of two types of ready-to-eat foods to another Jew. Many families get really into this mitzvah and give quite elaborate and creative packages. Needless to say, there are a lot of treats and sweets this time of year!

My husband and I were up a bit late last night putting together the bulk of our outgoing shalach manos.

Table Time this morning was an empty bag just for my little one and some extra stickers for decorating it! Now that he's napping, I have stashed some special Purim treats inside for him to open on Purim day...

He has been so excited to pack up and give shalach manos and was very eager this morning to take a trip with me to pick out a basket and some treats to go inside of it for his Tatty. He first chose a bright pink wicker basket (which I am SURE my husband would love!) and then saw this one that looked like a soccer ball! We perused the aisles looking for foods with a kosher symbol to put inside. We picked out some foods that are "sometimes snacks" or "treats" and some healthier options as well. With so much nosh this time of year, moderation can be a hard standard to maintain. We try to balance the fun and novelty of a holiday that comes just once a year with our responsibility to simultaneously make sure no one ends up with an awful belly ache. When we got home, I set out a sorting and packing activity in our "Shalach Manos Shoppe." The shop had three posters depicting three types of foods (over which 3 different brachos (blessings) would be made). He got right to shopping and packing, filling the basket with some sweets, dried fruits, fresh fruits, sparkling cider and, of course, a hamentash! He is so eager to give it to his Tatty that I doubt if he will be able to wait for Purim to begin after Shabbos...

When we had finished, he really wanted to do more. Initially I had thought I would involve him the packing process of all our shalach manos and then I thought twice about how it might go to have a table strewn with candy, cookies, snacks, and juice that are not all for him and not all for right now... I opted in the end to offer him the opportunity to decorate his very own shalach manos bag and to fulfill the mitzvah by packing one just for his Tatty. I decided a play activity would be a great way to allow him the opportunity to continue working in our Shalach Manos Shoppe and set out a selection of foods from his kitchen set in the sorting center along with a basket to fill. He had a lot of fun playing and traveling back and forth between his kitchen area and the table to gather more items, empty and fill the basket again.

This is such a fun and festive time of year! We've had a lot of fun learning and playing here and there is surely more to come with such a big weekend ahead. And just as soon as the rattling of graggers and sugar high hangovers pass by, it will be time to start preparing for Pesach. It surely is a busy time and, as such, we will likely be making space and time to slow down the routine a bit and play through our preparations. In that merit, wishing all who observe it a Good Shabbos and Freilichen Purim and, of course, happy playing!

Playing About Purim: Part 3

Excitement about Purim is definitely building here as we count down the days and sleeps until the holiday begins after Shabbat this week. My son is already so excited to hear the Megillah on Saturday night and to deliver shalach manos on Sunday. He spends a good part of his days in some semblance of a costume, cheerfully singing Purim songs and playing along with his graggers and toy instruments. (My house is anything but quiet right now and it appears we may be raising a young Ringo Starr!) As we are counting down, it seemed only fitting to include some activities into our learning and play routine that involve counting!

One of my son's favorite Purim books for the last two years has been One, Two, Three Purim! by Naomi Shulman, illustrated by Nora Hilb. This was a book we received through PJLibrary when a couple of years ago and through it's adorable illustrations and simple, repetitive text, it captures the main mitzvos and customs of the Purim holiday in a way young children can really grasp and appreciate. I honestly think my son knows more about what to expect on Purim because of this little board book than any of the other ways we have taught him! PJLibrary's website also offers some great articles and ideas of ways to celebrate Purim in your home.

Counting has been a favorite activity of my son's for quite some time. So often these days as we are eating a snack or climbing stairs or even walking through the neighborhood, he will stop to say "Mommy, let's count!" And together we will count his pretzels or the steps as we climb or the number of trucks we see parked on the street. His verbal/auditory awareness of counting are ahead of the game of his numeric recognition and one-to-one correspondence for now, but since he does show an interest in such activities, I include math materials in our play area for him to explore and manipulate. I work with him on these activities and we play as long as he is interested. I do not push beyond that point--he has PLENTY of time to gain math skills as he grows!

He enjoyed sitting together with this material I created using a page of this great free printable Purim activity pack. With young learners like my son, it's helpful to show them the hamentaschen in the baskets and that this is what we are counting! A large felt rectangle makes for the perfect work space when you laminate each part and add a dot of Velcro to the back. Older learners can use materials like this more independently and they are great for quiet times!

After we finished working with the previous activity, he wanted to do more counting! I pulled out our tray of Counting Crowns for some hands on practice with one-to-one-correspondence. Recognizing written numerals and even quantities of dots can be still challenging for early learners. Manipulating small parts (like these glass gems from the Dollar Tree) helps them really get a feel for each number as they count. Including multiple sensory areas in a learning activity (like the fine motor/touch, visual recognition, auditory/verbal skills called upon in this material) helps to address all styles of learning as a child works to develop a skill. As an added bonus, anything shiny and treasure-like is a big hit right now with this little guy!

Songs and music are also a great way to reinforce key concepts of the holiday. My son is especially fond of singing the popular Hebrew song, Chag Purim. He likes to sing it in both Hebrew and English! Some of the songs we sing together are older, traditional songs and others are newer ones. One song he particularly likes is this one:

P-U-R-I-M!
t.t.t.o. "Bingo Was His Name-O"
There is a special holiday
And Purim is it's name, oh!
P-U-R-I-M, P-U-R-I-M, P-U-R-I-M
And Purim is it's name, oh!

He especially enjoys it because it's the exact tune I've used to teach him the spelling of his own name and he also loved using magnet letters on his easel to go through the song. He really got a kick out of me hiding one more letter each time we sang until all of them were gone and then putting them back in order at the end! We used a plastic magic wand from his dress up to point to the letters as we sang and I was actually quite impressed with his letter recognition at this point.

Speaking of letters, it was time to learn another new one this week, and the letter Pp is a perfect candidate. We got out the glue and some small pom-poms for this project:

And speaking of things we love that begin with the letter Pp, we hadn't made playdough in a while! I set out the step stool for this kitchen activity and invited my son to join me in pouring in ingredients and carefully stirring our favorite stove-top playdough recipe.

He loves hindering helping in the kitchen these days! It takes an added dose of patience (and sometimes clean-up), so I try to see it an investment plan that he will be able to do things more independently as he gets older and be as useful in a kitchen as my husband is (who does more than half of the cooking here right now) when he grows up!

Welcome to our Playdough Hamentaschen Bakery! Our finished playdough, some round cookie cutters, a rolling pin and pom-poms for "jelly" made the perfect accessories to this activity and I think having a hand in making the playdough added to his enjoyment of the experience at large.

As always, play is a huge part of our process right now. This orange scented "Persian Rice" Purim themed sensory bin has been a real winner here. He seems to find some new way to play and explore in it each time we get it out! On this occasion, he was using the small plastic goblets to "make kiddush" and the tiny spoon and tea set to practice transferring the rice. During other play sessions, he enjoys engaging in dramatic play with the horses and "feeding them" or dressing up in the costume jewelry!

With just a few days left until Purim begins, it's time to pack up our shalach manos for delivery. Join us next time for a peek into our Shalach Manos Shoppe! Until then...

Table Time on this particular morning was an Invitation to Decorate Masks. He loved gluing on a variety of sequins, rhinestones and pom-poms--and as you can see, costumes are a big part of our holiday fun!

Happy Playing!

Playing About Purim: Part 2

Whether you're hat has three corners

        Or you're a cat in a hat

                   Today's post is sure to have something about that!

A Blast from Purim Past

Dr. Suess's birthday fell on March 2nd, smack dab in the middle of our Purim unit. I love Dr. Seuss and I love watching my son grow to adore many of the books I adored as a child. We could spend a whole unit playing and learning about Dr. Seuss and that might be why I initially did not plan to do anything specifically for his birthday--now a day when reading events are celebrated nationwide to encourage childhood literacy in honor of the author's memory. The Purim story is full of exciting characters with strong emotions and even some funny hats, so when I really got down to it, an afternoon spent honoring one of our favorite children's authors would not really be off topic at all!


Emotions and feelings are one theme that I like to incorporate with Purim. Learning the language the describe emotions along with the physical and facial cues to recognize them are such an important part of social development. Learning how to identify and self-regulate emotions is a vital part of development as well. Many of these lessons are taught and learned "in the moment" as we go through our day. Sometimes, it's helpful to explore strong emotions not "in the moment," as well. One of my favorite Dr. Seuss books is My Many Colored Days. Seeing as I decided to add this sub-theme in at the very last minute, I was not at all surprised to see every copy already checked out of all the libraries in our county! No worry, I just did a quick YouTube search and found this beautiful video adaptation of the book:

I love the feel of a book in my hands, don't get me wrong. It's also nice, however to introduce literacy with a multi-media approach. In this day and age, there are great ways to experience a plethora of literature via audio-book or video. We love audio books for long (and even not-so-long) car trips as well as for quiet times at home. If you have a hard copy for those little hands to hold as they listen along, even better! YouTube is one great resource for video versions of a huge variety of children's literature and Scholastic (among other companies) produces a great variety of videos with children's books being read that are often available at your local library. 

access to paint and water often makes my little guy "very happy!"

I was inspired by this blog post on extension activities with the book My Many Colored Days to create a simple template for my son to artistically demonstrate his own feelings at the time. We used watercolor paints (in conjunction with the watercolor illustrations by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher) and talked as he painted about the different colors he was using and feelings they remind us of. He (like so many toddlers) chose to use many colors! I think it is a beautifully accurate description of the fact that toddler (and human) emotions come and go many times in a day, sometimes in pairs or small groups, sometimes solo. Our work with our young ones is to create a space that is safe in which to experience this plethora of colors and emotions as well as to process them. Providing language to describe feelings, tools to manage them and creative outlets to express them is a huge part of that process. 

After we were done painting, he naturally gravitated toward some of his favorite Dr. Seuss books for some reading on Mommy's lap! He is especially fond of Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? and that one got a lot of air time before he requested The Cat in the Hat in Yiddish! While we were on the topic of silly hats, we remembered a certain Purim story character whose hat was notoriously triangular in shape: Haman! 

We don't like to spend a lot of time focusing on the not-so-nice Haman, but we do like to spend a lot of time focusing on the delicious cookie made in the very same shape as his hat: hamentashen. We had a lot of fun reading The Better Than Best Purim by Naomi Howland a few nights ago and making our own hamentashen dough to chill overnight. I happen to be sensitive to wheat/gluten so we use spelt flour for our homemade hamentashen in a recipe I adapted from several of my favorites. Just as we were about to begin, I realized we were out of margarine! My very helpful husband offered to run to the store and I quickly detoured my soon-to-be-extremely-distraught-son to our computer to see a short video of hamentashen being baked in a kosher bakery. I expected it to dissolve the pending meltdown, but little did I know it would become a new favorite. He's requested to see it repeatedly since then! And the margarine showed up just in time to prepare our dough before bed. My little baker was very excited to shape and bake them the next afternoon.

Our Hamentashen Bakery

I will openly admit that while I love eating hamentashen, when it comes to making them, I'm always looking to cut a few corners (pun intended). This year, rather than roll out all my dough and cut circles with a glass or cookie cutter, I rolled my dough in logs before chilling and tried the ol' slice and bake method. I also found that while I can dream and imagine about the beautiful postcard image of my 2.5 year old son helping me fill, shape and bake dozens of these delicious cookies, it is way more practical to set out a small portion for him to help with and have the rest ready to go Martha-Stewart-Miracles-Of-Television style. That is just what we did! I set out half a dozen circles (that I actually did roll and cut with him to see) and our fillings of choice. He loved scooping jelly in the center. He loved eating chocolate chips. He even loved putting some chocolate chips in the cookies. He did not necessarily love the actual hamentashen, but my husband and I are enjoying them nonetheless and my son is still thrilled to have had a hand in making them.

This is either a really great busy book activity for Purim or the perfect mommy-hack for those kids
who NEVER keep a costume on for longer than 36 seconds! 

There's definitely more fun to be had and preparations in store as we count down the days until Purim. Hope you'll join us next week for some more fun and learning and until then...

Happy Playing!

Playing about Purim: Part 1

Purim is an inherently fun holiday to learn and play about! The excitement is building in our house as we sing songs, read books and play about Purim. Here's a peek at some of our favorite activities so far:




We've been busy making and hanging decorations, creating themed self-portraits, exploring math, science, building/engineering and more!

My little artist has had a lot of fun using the materials from his art center to create Purim themed decorations for our home. He's so proud to see them hanging up!

Royal Self Portraits
Dressing up in costume is a huge part of the Purim fun. The story itself has a theme of Kings, Queens and royalty, so we played on that theme a bit for this Invitation to Create a Royal Self Portrait. I provided a template I put together on my computer. In addition, I set out chalk pastels, a mirror and a crown he could wear, some construction paper crown cutouts, as well as plenty of shiny sequins and rhinestones for gluing on. Some of our Table Time activities fit into the "once and done" category, but this is one he went back to again and again throughout the day as he added and modified his royal self portrait.

Incorporating Shapes, Letters and Numbers...

The Purim story is full of hidden miracles and overall sneakiness. It's one of the reasons we wear costumes and eat a cookie with a hidden treat in the center. With creative planning, you can sneak core concepts like learning shapes, letters and numbers into just about any theme and make it a lot of fun!
Chinuch.org is a great online resource run for and by Jewish educators. There are loads of free lesson plans, materials, multi-media activities and printables available for all age and grade levels as well as for special education. I found this Purim Counting Book there and adapted it into a busy binder that can be used again and again. As my son uses the movable laminated parts (each page and part is prepared with Velcro and stored in a sheet protector), he learns about popular symbols of Purim while simultaneously developing early math skills like one-to-one-correspondence.

I sneak in some learning about letters, too. This week, we learned about the letter Kk with a King-themed letter craft that also helped us remember one of the core Purim story characters, King Achashverosh.
The month of March blew in with gusty winds and warm weather. It was the perfect time to review some shapes and our letter of the week with this kite craft. This puzzle-collage allows the artist to see how 4 triangles make the shape of a diamond.

We sang this fun song about kites as we learned about the letter Kk and welcomed the month of March. We also tied the incoming month to our Purim theme by making some fun paper plate lion and lamb masks as I taught my son that "March goes in like a lion and out like a lamb." There was a lot of roaring and baaaaaing after that!

"Roooooar!"

Paper plate lion and lamb masks to welcome March!

This theme is not without its STEM-based learning and play opportunities. Our warm weather made for a perfect day to take our play activities outside for some castle building with woodblocks and chalkboard blocks, plenty of chalk doodling and an ice castle treasure excavation activity adapted from this great blog post.

Ice Castle Treasure Excavation
We became archaeologists in this fun science exploration. The night before, I filled a castle shaped bucket with water and some Purim/treasure themed loose parts I had around the house (like plastic necklaces, bracelets and rings, plastic coins and magic wands and plastic goblets all collected from the party supply section of the Dollar Tree a few years ago). I did not have the patience to layer water and trinkets and wait for it to nearly freeze before adding more water and trinkets and waiting for it freeze. Since some toys floated and others sank to the bottom, it worked perfectly to just fill the bucket nearly to the top, add some food coloring and glitter, stick it in our deep freezer and call it good!

When it was time to begin our activity, my husband ran the bucket under hot water to loosen our castle. We set up in our water table outside, but you could do so indoors as well in a large basin or even the tub. I provided toy hammers and some paint brushes, a squeeze bottle of warm water and a dish of kosher salt since we explored ways to melt ice more quickly in a science experiment earlier this year. He decided to add the rest of his tool kit! And he really went to town with this. He loved squirting the water, pinching and sprinkling (and eventually dumping) the salt and trying his hand at hammering, brushing...even sawing! A few suggestions now that we are done--you may want to use safety goggles if your little ones are particularly vigorous archaeologists. We definitely had some flying ice chunks. And secondly, stick to dollar store treasures as you may experience some casualties in the process! We had a great time with this and he's already asked to do it again soon.

That's all for now! Happy Playing!