Sensory Activity:: Candy Corn Sensory Seek

Who doesn't love a good game of hide and seek? Halloween and Thanksgiving are over and I'm sure y'all have some extra candy corn, Indian corn or candy pumpkins left, no? I know I do! Here's a fun way to use it up without eating all that sugar!


Materials::

• Box/Bag of White Rice (I used just about 2 boxes) 
• Rubbing Alcohol 
• Food Coloring (red & yellow) 
• Large Zip Bag 
• Sensory Table/Water Table/Bucket/Storage Bin...anything really! 
• Candy Corn (the yellow, orange & white kind) 
• Cookie Sheet 

Process::
You will be separating your rice so you can make 2 colors (since the rice is already white, you won't need to do anything to it for the white color...obviously). I'd say I used about 3-4 cups of rice for each color.

To dye the rice, just pour your rice into a zip bag, add a splash of rubbing alcohol and a few drops (I think I used about 8 drops of each color) of food coloring. Close the bag and have either your child or yourself shake it up! I found that to make the orange color it was best to pour the alcohol in a bowl and add the red and yellow first before pouring it into the bag. This gave it an even orange color.

Once you are done coating your rice with the color, spread it out onto a cookie sheet to dry overnight.

Now you can play! Mix the yellow, orange and white rice together in your sensory tub and add the candy corn. Bury the candy corn so it's not visible. You can leave some peaking out for starters.

We used an egg carton to collect all the candy corn Bug found.

She doesn't look too thrilled here, but I promise she was!

Isn't that fun?! Bug certainly thought so!

Like what you see? Come visit my blog Tutus & Tea Parties for more fun with the kiddos and; even some DIYs for you!

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Sensory Activity:: Baby Lotion Body Paint

One rainy day my sister came for a visit and while looking for something to do, we came across this recipe for baby lotion body paint! Since I still have 4 bottles of baby lotion from my baby shower (3 years ago) I though it was the perfect paint to make!

Good times!

Like what you see? Come visit my blog Tutus & Tea Parties for more fun with the kiddos and; even some DIYs for you!

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Bring the Outdoors in: Worm Terrarium

By Christine of Belly Bear Baby Gear

No collecting baskets will be needed for this outdoors to indoors adventure.  All you will need is a sturdy glass container (small fish bowl, old spaghetti or mayonnaise jar), some nice rich soil and your bare hands.  We will be making a worm terrarium for your children to observe and investigate indoors.

 

To begin with find yourself a nice rich patch of soil to dig into.  Your summer vegetable garden that you are preparing to put to bed for the fall would be the perfect location.  Let your little ones dig right in and see what they discover.

As they dig, encourage your children to fill the jar you have provided them with some of that beautiful dirt.

 About two scoops in, look what we found!  A gardens best friend, the earthworm.  Young children will often squeal with delight at the sight of a wriggling worm. 

Put that little guy right into your jar full of beautiful soil and don't forget to add a few bits of rotting vegetation for him to snack on.  Sean was happy to add this rotten tomato to the jar.  It will be best to find several worms to add to your terrarium.  This way your children will be able to observe them as they tunnel and dig through the soil.

Bring your terrarium right into your children's work/play space and talk with them about safe ways to observe the worms at work.  Providing them with tools such as magnifying glasses and paper and pencil will allow them the opportunity to examine the worms closely and document what they see.  Don't forget to lightly moisten the soil each day or you will have another type of experiment on your hands.

Sean went immediately to his activity table following nap time

Digging right in.  Who can resist dirt?

Christine can be found online in the following locations: Facebook, Blogger and her etsy shop:

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Sensory Activity:: Puffy Paint ABC Cards

Bug is starting to learn her letters. She knows a good amount already and she can write an H {the first letter of her name}. I love having some hands on ways to learn so I came up with this for letter learning. Bug seems to like them and we have been working on one letter at a time each week. I have all the letters she knows in one pile and the ones to learn in another so she can play games with the letters she learned. I am thinking about gluing a photo of the letter sign on the back to help her with signing her letters when I'm not there to show her the sign.


What you will need:
-microwave puffy paint recipe {found here}
-microwave
-writing utensil {I used a Sharpie}
-cardboard {we used an old box}
-food coloring
-scissors/razor blade
-a squeeze bottle or a spoon
-patience


What to do:
-cut 26 small-ish squares out of your cardboard {big enough to write a letter on}
-draw in marker a letter on each square
-make the microwave puffy paint {I doubled the recipe and had a little more than enough}
-using your squeeze bottle {I used a spoon} trace the letter with your puffy paint
-microwave according to instructions below the recipe {I think we did it for about 25 seconds}

Here are some things you can use these for:

Have your children trace along the letters with their fingers.

Do crayon rubbings with the letters. {not sure how well these would work...but it would be worth a shot}

Make words with the letter squares.

Spread them all out, mix 'em up and have a letter search.

Glue a photo of something that begins with that letter or a photo of the ASL sign for that letter.

If you like this post and want to see more toddler activities please visit my blog, Tutus and Tea Parties. You can also follow me on: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest.

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