More Bakery Themed Fun with Art & Sensory Play

Our Bakery Dramatic Play setup has been loads of fun so far. Both boys have been busy baking, boxing, delivering and serving sweet treats around the house. And the fun has extended beyond our kitchen set and playroom to the art table and our sensory bin! These sweet activities are sure to please the little bakers-in-training in your home or classroom...

When school ended last Spring, S really missed "Morning Work" each day, so I started setting up a simple Table Time activity each morning at home. Y immediately took to it as well, and even once school started up again in the Fall, I knew there was no turning back. Every morning, the boys are eager to see what's set up at the table for "Morning Work." Sometimes it is related to a play theme or the season or an upcoming holiday or family event. Sometimes it's a journal activity or related to letters numbers, writing/coloring practice or even process art. Playdough and clay are always popular ones and I try to make the activity developmentally appropriate and enjoyable for each of the boys at his own level.

This week, it has been natural that we would include a bakery theme to our Morning Work set-ups. We are in need of some new artwork to hang up around the house after a recent swap out, so I set out an invitation to create cookies using colorful card stock, oil pastels, glue, glitter and tiny circle stickers for decorating. For S, I traced a circle (using a roll of masking tape) onto some squares of card stock that he could cut. For Y (and S if he wanted as well, though he loves cutting and chose to cut his own) I set out some pre-cut circle shapes. You can choose other shapes to add or have children trace/draw and cut their own. I set out a bottle of glue that S can squeeze and use independently but also a plastic container of glue with some brushes for Y to be able to work more independently. I always allow for both boys to try any of the materials that are out. That means Y may need some support to squeeze from a bottle and be safe with scissors and that S can use the more "challenging" options intended for his level or use the alternatives. I also filled a couple of salt and pepper shakers from the Dollar Tree with glitter. You have to really love glitter to do this--especially before 9AM! Admittedly, I closed up shop at 8:35 once the boys and surrounding areas were sufficiently covered in sparkle. Alternatively you can forego the glitter altogether or use/make glitter glue. To help minimize the sparkle factor, I used a pre-cut portion of a plastic tablecloth so I could take it off and toss it at the end. Instead of our usual art mats or work trays, I set down some leftover party plates to work on. This was festive, fun and functional for collecting extra glue and glitter spills and tossing out at the end. The boys loved this activity and each of them made a few cookies to decorate our play space. You could also use the finished work in your kitchen set for play.

Speaking of art that can be used in play, both of the boys have loved creating play food from Model Magic air drying clay by Crayola. Model Magic can be a bit pricey, so I waited for a lightening deal on Amazon recently and bought a bulk set intended for classroom use. Coupons from craft supply chains are also helpful. You can also make salt dough at home and use this instead. This week, the boys made clay donuts from Model Magic. S made the world's biggest donut and Y had fun working with my help to make a couple of his own to contribute. We are waiting for those and some clay cupcakes to dry now so we can add puffy paint and glitter decorations and then add them to our bakery shop setup. 

Meanwhile, in the sensory table... 

I tried out a recipe for Birthday Cake Dough  that I found at Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails. 

You can click on the link for the full recipe. 

You'll need:

• a box of cake mix (I used yellow cake mix)
• a box of baking soda (I actually added a little extra at the end because the dough was a bit wetter than I wanted it)
• a cup of vegetable oil
• a bit of vanilla extract 
• sprinkles

This dough smells heavenly and I would definitely classify it as "taste safe" being that the ingredients are all food ingredients. Nonetheless, it will not taste good, so I'd refrain from calling it edible. 

It mixes into a sticky and rather moist but malleable playdough and is super soft and fun! We added it into the sensory bin along with some baking tools, ice cream scoops and birthday candles for making cakes and cupcakes. You could definitely do this tabletop style instead, but I like our sensory bin for dough activities sometimes, especially some of the messier ones. Little ones can definitely help with making the dough as well and no cooking is involved. To store between play sessions, I would recommend using a ziploc bag or airtight container and refrigerating for longer shelf life. This recipe would also be a great one for Ice Cream themed sensory play and you could use other flavors of cake mix as well.

And nothing goes to waste (even and especially when we are using food products in play) here. I saved and sealed the empty ingredient boxes in clear packing tape so the boys can use them in play at their bakery shop. Nowadays, toy companies market all kinds of great play food and accessories. Nonetheless, these can be pricey and using/creating your own play props is a great alternative. As an added bonus, recycling real food containers and boxes promotes a naturally print rich environment and also feels more "realistic" to young children at play. 

Hope you will enjoy some of these sweet little activities. Dramatic play themes can extend well beyond the playroom and incorporate so many areas of play and development. We will be back soon with more and until then...

Happy Playing!

Table Time Tuesday: Shavuot Theme

Last year's Playdough Invitation to Create Har Sinai

By now, you probably know my love of Table Time activities, or what I describe as any activity that can engage a young child for a developmentally reasonable amount of time with minimal adult support and involvement and be used in a contained area (i.e. a table or part of a room, etc.). Some folks refer to these as "busy box" activities or "quiet time" activities and they can be used for a wakeful child during a sibling's nap, by a toddler with a mommy nursing an infant, or while the adult caregiver is trying to tend to chores and household tasks, etc. Indeed, I set out Table Time activities nearly every evening to welcome and occupy S in the morning so we can move through breakfast routines and getting ready for the day at a reasonable pace without a lot of stopping to redirect. I have done this for about a year now (noted by the photo to the left!) and now Table Time activities do not just refer to those that I set out on the table, but also activities S can grab and take to the table himself. I keep these available to him on our play/learning shelves and in our STEAM cart drawers as well. Some activities instantly draw S in for independent play, while others require a bit more luring and demonstration before he feels confident to explore on his own. Among his very favorite types of Table Time activities right now are invitations to create with playdough or process art, felt board sets, anything with stickers, his journal, and theme-related play and learning activities. There is no need to reinvent the wheel either. It's OK (wonderful, even!) to set out a repeat activity. Art and writing activities need not always involve a lot of prep work and craftiness either; it's OK to use coloring books and worksheets if these will engage your little ones. Sometimes setting out a toy, puzzle, or material or even a combination of toys and materials that are already familiar will engage children simply because they are placed in a way that is inviting and therefor novel! (For example, setting out woodblocks and plastic dinosaurs may create a whole new world of play for two toys that were just before collecting dust on the shelf.) Small scale sensory bins are also great for Table Time. These are sensory bins or experiences that are presented and stored in a small container versus a water table or large bin and usually have room to play for one or two children at the most. For those who hesitant to use larger scale sensory bins, this is a wonderful starting point as well!
In this Shavuot themed edition of Table Time Tuesday, you can take a peek at some of our favorite play and learning activities from this year as well as years past:

We've done this dissection of a flower table time more than once! It's great when you have some cut flowers on the wilt or even to do with weeds gathered from the garden. Simply set out your flowers and plants, some safety scissors, perhaps a magnifying glass, some tweezers and let your little botanist have a wonderful time exploring the parts of plants while developing fine motor skills as well!

As I said, art and writing activities need not always involve a lot of prep work--this is a Shavuot coloring sheet printed from this great free printable Shavuot pack, and rather than setting out the traditional crayons or markers, I set out Do-a-Dots and some flower stickers for him to decorate Har Sinai.

Playdough Invitation to Create: Parts of a Flower--in this Table Time activity, I set out lavender scented playdough we made at home, some dry bean "seeds," pipecleaner "stems" and artificial leaves and flowers for creating. I love using these discount store party trays for activities like this.

A small scale flower garden sensory bin:this is simply paper grass found in the party section of Dollar Tree, some artificial flowers, plastic garden pots, a scoop and some plastic tongs. 

Here's another repeat-worthy activity: Set out some floral foam and individual artificial flowers for sticking into the foam. You can even place the foam in a planter, pot or vase if you'd like. If you are not comfortable using floral foam or do not have any, you can do this activity with playdough or even a colander with holes that the stems can be fit into. It's a playful introduction to floral arranging and a great fine motor building activity. 

Invitation to Create Flowers: We did this activity last year and I stored the remaining parts in a ziplock bag for a rainy day or, as it turns out, our Shavuot unit this year! I am eager to see how S will use the materials this year now that he is a whole year older! I included full sheets of construction paper for the background and construction paper, tissue paper and printed paper cut to various sizes in the shapes of circles, petals, stems/strips and leaves. I also included a variety of colors of hole punched construction paper (this is a great fine motor activity for older preschoolers to do as well) and glue with craft sticks for spreading. Older preschoolers can help in the preparation for this art invitation or adults can cut/prepare the materials in advance. I do make a point to not do away with leftovers from activities like this. They can be used in other art activities, set in a scrap paper bin for cutting practice and child led process art or stored for future use.

I especially love these sectioned plates I found at our Dollar Tree for use with art and learning materials. 

Beyond being useful for creating designated spaces for different materials, they also fit quite nicely in our STEAM Cart drawers so that S can take out the activity on his own when he'd like and it can be neatly stored between uses..

Felt board sets are also great for Table Time story telling--rather than using with a vertical flannel board, I set out with a smaller portable flannel board (or you can simply provide a larger rectangle of felt).

I hope these give you some ideas and inspiration for your own tables as you prepare for Shavuot or even as part of a gardening or flowers theme this season. We are having a lot of fun with these and will be back  with more Shavuot themed activities soon. Until then...

Happy Playing!

Beyond the Book: Eric Carle's "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"

We are BIG Eric Carle fans here, and since we are learning about the lifecycle of a butterfly right now, it's a perfect time to incorporate one of our favorite books of his, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. In fact, my older reader has liked this book since he could first get his hands, er, mouth on it! Now a new little literacy lover has joined the family to share in our love of this book. We even have an infant-friendly soft copy and caterpillar rattle that was a baby gift from Big Brother's infant days!

This morning, Big Brother couldn't wait to see our caterpillars, who have been in the house for three days now. They are, indeed, already getting bigger and bigger!

Day 3

Table Time was already set up with a simple journal prompt using cut outs of a caterpillar and a butterfly (Dollar Tree) and a story prompt. My son was eager to invite his Tatty to draw with him even before he ate his breakfast. Later, he dictated his story to me. He has been enjoying hands-on exploration and play with our theme related toys and materials and talks a lot about various aspects of the lifecycle of a butterfly--many of which he learned and remembers from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Carle's classic and beautiful illustrations help dictate the story of this life cycle as a caterpillar hatches from an egg, eats and grows and eats and grows, builds a cocoon and emerges as a beautiful butterfly! The story also incorporates counting and days of the week--two important developmental target skills for preschoolers, as the Very Hungry Caterpillar increases his food consumption by one item over the course of a week.

We've had our board book copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar handy on our shelf throughout our gardening unit and my toddler has requested to read it together daily. He certainly knows it well enough now to "read" along! Today, I brought it out during our morning circle time and we sat by our flannel board. As I read the story, I used a flannel board set I had constructed several years ago while I was teaching. I printed some images and drew/cut out others. You can create your own set in this way or even check out some of the great free printables and activity ideas that are listed on this fellow blogger's post. Sometimes we also retell the story using toy food and our toy caterpillar. Retelling children's books using props and felt board sets is a great way to spice up an old favorite or to introduce a new book while appealing to a variety of learning styles.

He loved retelling the story on his own afterward! If you'd like to introduce a great theme-related fine motor activity to a preschooler and make your own flannel board set at the same time, provide your printed and/or cut out fruits and foods along with a hole puncher for cutting out caterpillar "bites!" Squeezing a hole punch is a great way to build those little muscles in the hands!

Next it was time for our little craft activity. There are so many wonderful arts and crafts ideas related to Eric Carle's beautifully illustrated books. You can explore ideas all across the internet and in resource books. Since we are in the process of growing our own butterflies right now, I decided to combine that lesson with our target story in this cute little Lifecycle of a Very Hungry Caterpillar collage. I created our vocabulary sentence strips in advance and a sample. We used a combination of stickers and items cut from construction paper. You can do the same or draw your own pictures. You can print images from the computer and I have even seen the lifecycle of a butterfly depicted in dry pasta and beans. In the past when I have done this project with students I have done combinations of all of the above. For the sake of my own little guy, I pre-cut our shapes today, wrote on the associated vocabulary words and let him have fun with the gluing and sticking stickers. I am most often a fan of process art over these types of "cookie cutter" projects, however, there are important skills that are developed through following a sequence of directions and being able to copy and recreate from an original sample. I do not "force" him to recreate his project exactly as my sample is and rather use language like "this is how I made mine, but you can make yours how you like." Over the course of my working with children of a variety of ages, some like to do their own thing, some like to copy exactly (and some get frustrated if/when they cannot) and others do a combination of both. My son falls into the combo category!

He is quite proud of his work!

We had a great time reading, playing and crafting about The Very Hungry Caterpillar and it was a great extension activity for our current learning theme. Want to read some more great Eric Carle books related to gardening and creepy crawlers? Check out

• The Very Lonely Firefly
• The Very Grouchy Ladybug
• The Very Busy Spider

and

• The Tiny Seed

You will likely be able to find copies in your local library! Until then...

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!

Tu B'Shevat Theme: A Walk in the Park

Looking to see if anyone lives inside that hollowed out tree root!

Everyone needs a day to just walk in the park, and for us, yesterday was that day! We had amazing weather (sandwiched between several days of less than amazing weather). Having just learned about the parts of a tree, we grabbed a basket, a backpack, some snacks and headed to a nearby park. We decided while we were there, we would go on a Nature Scavenger Hunt to collect as many parts of a tree as we could find on the ground. My son was so excited to carrying his own basket to collect his treasures. Some parks are protected and therefore have regulations about anything being removed. If that is the case, drawing pictures of your findings, taking photos, writing/dictating about them or even bringing along a journal or printout of a scavenger hunt list can be a great alternative method of preserving your collections. In fact, this webpage offers over 30 free printable scavenger hunts to use in nature or on outings with your kids! You may even be fortunate enough to live in a neighborhood (or with a yard) that has accessible trees or wooded areas.  I do think taking a nature scavenger hunt is a great opportunity to talk about what types of things are OK to take from their natural environment, what types of things might be unsafe and what we must leave in nature because it is still growing! If you feel your child's collection is getting a little too large, it can also be a great opportunity to teach about taking only what we can use and preserving the rest for others to benefit. You can talk about the animals and bugs that benefit from natural items on the ground and how they help the soil that, in turn, helps the trees to grow. Another method we like for nature collections is using masking tape around the wrist, sticky side out as a bracelet. Little hands can collect leaves (as in the photo above), flowers or other small, flat and lightweight items to stick on to their bracelets. You can even laminate or cover them with contact paper once you return home to create a lovely bookmark. 

We had a great time walking, observing and collecting. My son was totally amazed at seeing a tree so large and old that its roots had burst through the ground's surface. He got up close and personal with one hollowed out root and I wondered with him if any animals might be living inside. He confirmed that nobody was home! 

He had fun searching for leaves, pine needles, twigs and sticks, bits of bark, acorns, horse chestnuts, and pine cones. We made sure to take a break for playing on the playground, too--that's pretty important business, after all! He was good and tuckered out by the time we returned home for supper and had just enough energy to take out his Chicka Chicka Boom Boom magnetic coconut tree and work with his letter magnets. We had fun making up our own version of the rhythmic story using the letter names of magnets he chose. I also showed him how to create his name and if he happened to end up with a word on the tree, I showed him that as well!

We have big plans for what we brought home in our basket today. Our Table Time activity this morning is already set out and waiting. I printed this wonderful booklet to draw/write about and collect parts of trees for free from a fellow teacher via the teacherspayteachers.com website. We had actually packed it along on our park trip with a travel pouch of colored pencils but never made it around to using it while we were there. It would be a wonderful material to accompany a nature walk or park visit, however. 

I'm looking forward to seeing some of these natural materials turned into lovely works of art as our unit continues. They are great for observation and exploration in and of themselves and there is a great deal of sensory play that can also happen with treasures found in nature. In the past, I have even used such things to create DIY learning activities, like this one (geared toward 4-5 year old children). I may create a simpler version for my toddler to work on one-to-one correspondence. 

 To create your own version of this Tu B'Shevat themed addition activity, you will need:

• a collection of twigs, about the same length (not too much taller than a toilet paper tube)
• a collection of recycled toilet paper tubes
• a black marker
• number cards (here, I used Montessori sand numbers, but you can print off, write or use any type of flash card as well)

I cut one toilet paper tube in half and wrote a + sign and an = sign. On the remaining tubes, I wrote numerals 1 through 5. You can decide how many tubes you'd like to prepare and prepare accordingly. I also added dots to visually represent each number. To play the game, the child places the corresponding number of twigs in each tube and adds them together to arrive at the sum. He/she then places to appropriate number card in the sum space.

Whether you're enjoying a walk in the park or the weather has you huddled up indoors, I wish you all happy playing and many opportunities to explore the natural world!

Around the World: Shalom from Israel!

This made for a great Table Time activity this
morning when the "teacher" overslept a bit
and hadn't had coffee before her pupil woke up!

Shalom from Israel! Our home preschool Around the World unit would not be complete without a visit to Israel. The curriculum I have created for the year will include a longer unit on Israel closer to Yom Ha'atmazut (Israeli Independence Day), but we did make a two day stop on our worldwide trip this week. We began our visit by learning about the Israeli flag using a playdough mat (just a print of Israel's flag that I laminated), some blue playdough, a rolling pin and Star of David shaped cookie cutters.

We used a couple of books we already had at home to assist us in our learning journey.

This book has great photographs of various destinations in Israel and takes the reader through the spectrum of the rainbow--including Hebrew words for color names!

We teach our son a variety of words in Hebrew and Yiddish. This book has great illustrations and a variety of useful vocabulary words that would enhance any Jewish home!

Our Israel visit was also a great opportunity to incorporate a long-term project we've been working on as part of our Jewish curriculum. We've been creating a book of the Twelve Pesukim, twelve Torah passages selected by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson as the twelve most important pieces of Jewish literature for children to learn by heart. My son has been learning to repeat and say these passages from the time he could first speak and he feels so proud to be creating his own book.

We had a lot of fun pretending to visit a kibbutz and playing with the farm animals there. He loved singing some of his favorite farm themed songs while we were at it!

We took a creative spin on learning about the Dead Sea and made some "Jaffa Orange Scented Dead Sea Bath Salts." To make your own at home...
You will need:

• Epsom salt
• Sweet orange essential oil
• yellow and red food coloring
• a ziplock bag and container/scoop for the salt

We scooped some Epsom salt into the ziplock bag. My son decided we needed four cups! To that I added several drops of essential oil and a few drops each of yellow and red food coloring.

Next it was time to seal the bag and shake it up! 

The results smelled wonderful and took on a lovely shade of orange! My son is very excited to try a bit in his bath tonight. These would also make a great homemade gift and could be made with any of your favorite essential oils and with or without food coloring.

 The bath salts smelled good enough to eat, so the last part of our trip included some edible (or drinkable) fun with squeezing our own orange juice! I recently purchased a simple citrus juicer from Walmart to use with my son. There are certainly a lot of electronic options out there, but I love the gross motor, fine motor and sensory development aspects of using the old fashioned kind. We love to do kitchen activities together and they can be very involved sometimes when it comes to baking and cooking. This was about $4 well spent and proof that you don't need a lot of tools or a lot of ingredients to have a great experience getting your kids into the kitchen!

We talked about and observed the parts of the fruit: the rind/peel, the pulp/fruit and the juice inside!

We did not have any Jaffa oranges available but we had recently bought some Cara Cara pink oranges and they were up to the task of being squeezed into some very sweet and tasty orange juice! It took some practice and demonstration to learn how to use his hands to squeeze and turn the orange halves simultaneously, but he mastered it and was quite pleased.

As an added bonus, he actually enjoyed trying (and finishing) what we made! Many times this is not the case with our baking and cooking adventures...

We had a great time on our visit to Israel. We have just a couple of more stops now to the continents of Australia and Africa where we will playfully and artfully explore the vast array of wildlife on a pretend Safari! Until then, happy playing!