Littles Learnng Link Up: Homemade Playdough

Welcome to Littles Learning Link Up.

 Each month you will find:

• A seasonal round-up (at the beginning of the month)
• A guest post featuring crafts, activities, tips, snack ideas or other early childhood topics. (toward the end of the month)
• Posts where I share what I have been up to with my preschoolers and/or early elementary children.

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme.  Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up. 

I hope you will continue to share your wonderful posts, and I hope you will find something new to try with your child.

It would be great for everyone to stop by and visit the other linked up posts as well. Check them out, leave some comments, pin those that interest you. Let's make this a real party and socialize with each other.

Homemade Playdough

Since the older girls were preschool age, we have been making our own playdough. Not only do I not have to worry about harmful ingredients that might be in store-bought playdough, but making the playdough is a great learning experience for the children. I tend to start the year with a new batch of playdough and then we make some at least a couple more times during the year.

We use the recipe found in the book, "Slow and Steady Get Me Ready" by June R. Oberlander. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup of flour

1 Tbs vegetable oil

1 cup water

1/2 cup salt

2 tsp cream of tartar

Food coloring

I like to have Tabitha or Amelia read the recipe.

Then we add the ingredients. This recipe is quite simple. Just pour all the ingredients in a pan.

Then stir while cooking over medium heat until it forms a ball.

We were going for a brown color as we making Viking Ships to go with our My Father's World Adventures lessons on Vikings. 

Here is a look at what the playdough looks like once the ball has formed. You have to make sure not to cook it too long, or it will dry out faster.

(This picture is actually from the past, but I didn't take any pictures of it at this stage this time.)

Once a ball forms, mommy takes over for a while, because we have to knead the dough, and it is very hot at first. As soon as it cools down sufficiently, I have the children help knead and play with the dough.

I think we succeeded in getting a decent color. Though it didn't look quite right at first, the more we played with it, the more the brown color came out. 

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there were 11 wonderful posts linked up. I will be picking one randomly selected post to share, plus the top clicked-on posts.  

This week's randomly selected post is:

There's Just One Mommy shared Apple-Themed Skip Counting Activity.

The following posts tied for the most clicks:

Carla from Preschool Powol Packets shared Edible Bubble Science With Apples.

Sarah from How Wee Learn shared A Year Full of Name Puzzles.

I would love to have you join in this week! What sort of activities do you do with your young children? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on my Toddler Ideas, Preschool, or other relevant board, and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up.

Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our school time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your child, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Linky will be open through Sunday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized. Please take the time to visit some of the other wonderful posts linked up.

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An InLinkz Link-up

Toddler Ideas Tuesday: September 30, 2014

Welcome back to Toddler Idea Tuesdays! I hope you will join with me again in sharing the fun activities, crafts, and lessons that you are doing with your young children. 

I apologize for there being a few weeks between posts again. I do mean for this to be a weekly link up, but between trying to get organized and internet/computer issues, it hasn't been happening. Hoping for a better future of Toddler Idea Tuesdays!

It has been difficult to find time some days to get the one-on-one time I would like to have with the younger two children. I am still working out our schedule and my organization to have things run smoothly. However, last week, I did make some new learning activities for them. This was to go along with our Poppins Book Nook theme of The Wild West. Our focus was Wild West Fairy Tales, though our trays were mostly inspired by the main ideas in the tales themselves, so there really wasn't a western theme there.

On Tuesday we read "Little Red Cowboy Hat" by Susan Lowell, along with "Little Red Riding Hood", so our learning activities centered around the color red.

Harold hasn't had much of a chance to use these yet, but Hannah's favorite was the Bead Counting on Pipe Cleaners.

For this simple activity, Hannah placed beads on the pipe cleaners to match the counting chart I made. She was able to work on counting, number recognition, and fine-motor skills.

I also put together a Block Counting Basket.

For this block counting activity, I added 1-1 peg block, 2- 2 peg blocks, 3- 3 peg blocks and 4- 4 peg blocks for them to sort and count and build with. We haven't had much time to use this one yet though.

Next, I put together a Red Sensory Bin.

Unfortunately, this was one they didn't have any time to use.

I was quite happy with the way my new Word Family Tray turned out. I have always enjoyed coming up with activities that will help the children learn to read, and we like to focus on word families.

I have found that these Tupperware trays are very good for some learning trays. For this activity I set out the "at" in the top left-hand corner using felt letters, then I placed more consonants in the lower corner, letters that would make words when added to the "at."  In the middle compartment, I set out blank index cards on top and a pile of "at" family words on the bottom. On the right, is a red pencil (to keep with our theme).

Hannah was to build the word directly on the index card, covering the written letters.

Then she wrote the word on a blank card.

On Tuesday we read "Dusty Locks and the Three Bears," also by Susan Lowell, along with Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

I made a theme-related size sorting activity.

And I also brought out the Bean Sorting.

I had some other ideas for learning trays, but I just ran out of time. However, they were kept quite busy with our craft projects during the week. In addition to the two books mentioned above, we read two other books by Susan Lowell: The Three Little Javelinas (The Three Little Pigs) and The Bootmaker and the Elves (The Shoemaker and the Elves).

If you would like to see all of the craft projects and food ideas that I had to go along with this theme, I invite you to check out this month's Poppins Book Nook post, Fun With Wild West Fairy Tales. At the bottom of the post, you will find a linky with many other great Wild West Themed posts linked up, plus a wonderful giveaway. For this post, I wanted to focus on the Toddler/Preschooler Learning Trays/Sensory Activities.

Now onto:

Toddler Idea Tuesday Features

On my last Toddler Idea Tuesday post, there were 5 wonderful posts linked up. I will be picking one randomly selected post to share, plus the top clicked-on post. 

This week's randomly selected post is:

Katie's August Tot Trays, posted by Greatly Blessed.

The following post received the most clicks.

20+ Busy Bags to Entertain the Littles, posted by Embark on the Journey.

I would love to have you join in this week! What sort of activities do you do with your toddler? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on my Toddler Ideas board and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up. Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our toddler time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your toddler, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Linky will be open through Sunday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized.

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Toddler Ideas Tuesday: March 11th, 2014

Welcome back to Toddler Idea Tuesdays! Have you been busy with your young children?

This week I would like to share our St. Patrick's Day Sensory Bin.

In this tub you will find:

Green rice

Colored pasta (in all 6 colors of the rainbow)

Pompoms (small, medium and large of all 6 colors)

Pipe cleaners (again, in all 6 colors)

Gold coins

The children loved placing the pasta on the pipe cleaners. 

I had hoped they would match the colors, but that hasn't really happened yet. Hannah may have been trying, but she did get some blue in with the green.

Now that they have had a chance to use the color sensory tub I have buried some of the items in the hopes they will go digging for it.

I just wanted to share that the children also help dye the pasta and the rice. It is a great opportunity for counting one-to-one and also for observing color mixing.  We used the same instructions for dyeing the rice/pasta as we did the last time we did this. 

You need 1 cup of rice or about 15-20 noodles

1 tsp of rubbing alcohol (much better results than vinegar)

6 drops of food coloring

plastic zippy bags. 

All you need to do is pour the alcohol in the bag, add the food coloring and mix it together. Then you add the rice/noodles, zip the bag shut and shake. You have to be a bit more careful with the pasta so it doesn't break.

Pour it onto a cookie sheet lined with foil or wax paper and let it dry.

Now onto:

Toddler Idea Tuesday Features

Lisa from Our Country Road shared her Preschool Totschool Wrap Up post filled with fun Fruit Themed Tray ideas.

There are color matching and fruit matching activities, along with sorting and counting. She also shared some great Montessori activities, including fruit prep. 

Jennifer from Hint Mama shared 7 Easy & Frugal DIY Ball Pit Ideas Beyond Plastic Swimming Pools.

There are so many great ideas, sure to keep kids busy for a while.

What sort of activities do you do with your toddler? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? How about some fun St. Patrick's Day activities or crafts?  I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on my Toddler Ideas board and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up. Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our toddler time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your toddler, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.