cardboard boxes and mini pizzas

Today I S and G came for the whole day. It is amazing how well 4 kids can entertain each other. I think it works well because S and AR are close in age and so are AP and G. They spent most of the morning playing with My Little Pony Ponyville ponies. When they were done with that they moved on to playing with the 2 boxes we have from our new toilet in our upstairs bathroom. The 2 older girls went inside the bigger of the 2 boxes and could be heard giggling a lot at little girl stuff:0) The younger 2 were running around "getting excercise" as AR put it. The dragged the smaller box into their path and made their own obstacle course playing for about 20 minutes and laughing the entire time. When they started to get a little fussy with each other I had them all take a turn washing their hands. I had grated cheese, put sauce into small bowls, and placed Plibury biscuits onto a cookie sheet 3 for each child. They spread out the biscuit and put the sause on and then some cheese. I hleped some. S needed the most help being the youngest. Then I placed them into the oven. They now have made lunch for themselves and were entertained for about 15 mintues. While they were waiting for the pizzas to finish they went back to playing nicely since they had a little break. Couldn't get any better then this:0)

Happy Brithday Dr. Seuss

In Honor of a person I think was a great author we will be having a birthday party today. We will be reading 3 of Dr. Seuss's books The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, and The Foot Book. We will be coloring our feet with washable makers after reading The Foot Book. We will try to balance a cup and then a book on our heads after reading The Cat in the Hat. We also will have cup cakes int he theme of the cat in the hat. We may even try on the Cat in the Hat suit (if I can find it), and paint whiskers and a black nose. Finally we will color a picture of the Cat in the Hat with Thing 1 and Thing 2. Have a party if you have time, if not try to find time to read a book of any kind to the little on in your life. It is a wonderful thing to do.

Chocolate scented playdough

Here is a recipe for playdough that smells really good. It is in honor of Valentine's Day. Will You Be My Valinswine? is a good valentine book.

Chocolate Scented Playdough

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup salt

1/2 tablespoon cream of tartar

1 1/2 tablespoons cooking oil

1 cup boiling water

Mix the dry ingredients. Add the oil and boiling water. Stir quickly, mixing well. When cool, mix with your hands. Store in an airtight container.

Groundhog's Day

Well in honor of Groundhogs day we celebrated. We read the book Ground Hog Gets A Say, by Pamela Curtis Swallow. It is a longer story, but funny non the less. After we read the story we looked at the parts we were going to use to make our own groundhog. brown circle and brown oval, always a great oppertunity to review shapes and colors. Supplies needed, styrofoam cups, craft stick, small brown cicles, small brown ovals, wiggle eyes, brown markers, flower stickers and glue. I had the kids color the cup brown. I gave them flower stickers to decorate it. Then I had them glue the circle to the oval to make the ground hog. Then they glued it to the craft stick and put the wiggle eyes. I cut a slit in the bottom of the cup to stick the craft stick through. Then they can pop their ground hog up and down. They had fun making them especially putting the stickers on.

Cleaning Coins

Today I did quick research on what to do with the kids and took an activity out of my The Preschoolers Busy Book (ages 3 to 6 version), by Trish Kuffner. You put dish soap and water in a bowl and give each child coins to scrub with a tooth brush. I put their bowl on a towel lessens spills that go onto the floor. I thought this would get old quickly so I figured we could name the coins and sort the coins into piles of each type. We did do this, but it was after about 20 minutes of scrubbing the coins and I am not even sure they were done when I had them dry their coins off. I am always amazed at what simple task can entertain kids.
M had the idea to use ketchup, which they apparently used in kindergarten. We tried it also. It seemed to clean the coins a bit better, but was messier. The kids really preferred the soapy water anyway, so I gave everyone clean bowls and they cleaned their coins again.

Snowmen

Today we built snowmen out of marshmellows. I put 3 large marshmellows in a bowl with 2 pretzels for each child. They got to create their snowman from my example and then eat it. While they were eating it I read Hello, Snow, By Hope Vestergaard and Under My Hood I Have a Hat, by Karla Kuskin. S just kept licking his marshmellow apparently liking the taste. M had his built lickety split as well as AP. AR didn't make an attempt she just ate her marshmellows. G took her time to make her snowman and then ate it. We counted to 26 on the calendar. The kids are now having free play with our play cars from the movie Cars, from McDonald's Happy Meals, like 2 years ago, but they seem to still hold the kids interest. Hopefully we will get to be outside in a few weeks. I would love to be building a real snowman with the kids.

Marshmellows and shaving cream

Today I had the kiddos in the morning. They are all having a great time in their PJ's After a couple of hours of peaceful free play, amazing, I gave them each a sheet of paper with the letter that their name started with. We looked at each letter and talked about whose name started with it. Then I gave them all a handful of mini marshmellows to lick and stick onto their letter tracing the line. They each got to eat the left overs. AR just ate hers right off the paper. Once we were finished with that I gave each child a squirt of shaving cream on the table and let them spread it all around on the table. They had a fantastic time. I think S enjoyed the feeling of it between his fingers. It was a great day.