Everyday Crafts: Play Clay WHAT YOU NEED • 1 cup flour • 1 cup water • 1/2 cup salt • 1 tsp. vegetable oil • 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar • Food coloring (for color) and UnSweetend Kool Aid (for Scent) optional Time needed: Under 1 Hour Step 1: Mix all ingredients together in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until the mixture holds together (keep mixing or it will stick to the bottom of the pan). Step 2: When the clay is cool enough to touch, your child can knead it on a floured board. Tips:   This recipe's long drying time makes it most satisfying as a play dough (it's easy to roll into ropes and balls), but sculptures will dry eventually. If stored in an airtight container, this dough will last, refrigerated or unrefrigerated, for 2 to 4 weeks.   Cinnamon Bear You need: simple bear shape (precut for younger ones) cinnamon sugar liquid glue Instructions: 1) mix sugar and cinnamon 2) have older children cut out bear shape 3) children can place glue anywhere on the bear and add cinnamon and sugar mixture 4) glue poem to middle of bear so they can share with their parents Cinnamon Bear Poem Cinnamon, Cinnamon, Cinnamon Bear Sitting on a kitchen chair. Cinnamon sugar in a shaker. Shake, shake, shake it Like a baker. Sprinkle it on buttered toast. It's the treat You'll love the most. Cinnamon, Cinnamon, Cinnamon Bear, Do you think that we may share? Winter Crafts: Make a Snow Gauge Take an old clear plastic soda pop bottle and cut off the top half. Mark the outside in centimeters or inches with a permanent laundry marker and place it outside in a place where it can collect the falling snow. Measure how much melted snow it takes to make water. Collect some snow in a container and record the level of snow on the container. Let the snow melt. How much water is there? Are you surprised at the difference? Sparkle Snow Paint 1/2 cup flour 1/2 cup salt 1/2 cup water Mix together and put in a squeeze bottle. Squeeze doughy paint out on to black construction paper. Make anything snowy, snowflakes, snowmen, - we made snow covered mountains with the moon and northern lights. Let dry thoroughly and it will sparkle. May also be painted (when dry) and allowed to dry again. This is a great 3 dimensional effect for snow. March March 2nd is Dr. Seuss's Birthday The Cat in the Hat: Activities Balance it We read cat in the hat book - balanced the book then a tea cup and a few other small items on our heads like the cat. Kids really loved this (they are only 3) Cat in the Hat Hats We also made Cat in the Hat hats out of paper plate (cut out middle and use as the rim of the hat)and contruction paper (white paper with cut out red stripes) We did this activity on a rainy day.   Cat in the Hat Relay We make hats using black construction paper, and tails using old black pantyhose, and then I give each child a paper plate and a paper cup on top. Each child then carries the plate and cup with one hand to a specific point and back, and then places their plate on top of the next person in line's plate, and they carry two, and so on. The children love to practice balancing, and even figure out how they can switch places, so that the older children carry more, so they can make it through the whole line! Pretty smart! Green Eggs and Ham: Activities Breakfast Before breakfast read Green Eggs and Ham; then show the children you only add food coloring to the food and then prepare the food. Talk about how the food tastes. Is it any different because of the coloring?   Musical Hats After reading "Cat in the hat" you can play musical hats. This is a quieter version of musical chairs. The kids sit in a circle and while the music plays they have to put the stoching cap on and pull it over their ears and then take it of again and pass it to the child next to them. Who ever has the hat when the music stops gets to start and stop the music for the next round. This way all the kids are involved and nobody has to sit out. The kids also like the way their hair stands up after they pull of the hats!!!   St. Patrick's Day Leprechaun Ladders Need per child: white or clear plastic straws cut into 1-inch sections, shamrock shapes cut out of green construction paper and punch holes in the centers (holes need to be smaller than the straws), green yarn. Make leprechaun ladders to use as room decorations. Let the children string the shamrock shapes on pieces of yarn with a straw section between each shamrock. When they have finished, hang their leprechaun ladders from the ceiling or in the window. For a fun surprise, sprinkle a light dusting of flour and gold glitter on the shamrocks for the children to discover on St. Patrick's Day. The "magic dust" was left by leprechauns as they climbed and danced on their ladders! Spring: Mobiles Since spring is typically a wet season have the kids make an umbrella mobile and hang blue raindrops from the umbrella or maybe a collage with a rainbow, raindrops, umbrella, ducks all those spring things. OH and don't forget spring flowers. Easter Crafts: Cupcake Basket A tisket, a tasket...they'll gobble up these Easter baskets!   What You Need: 1 bag DOVE® Brand Dark or Milk Chocolate Eggs 1 bag STARBURST® Brand Jellybeans Tropical Fruits 1 bag MILKY WAY® Brand Minis for Easter 1 18.25-oz. box your favorite cake mix 1 16-oz. can vanilla frosting Green food coloring 12 pink licorice twists 12 green licorice twists   2 cupcake pans   24 paper cupcake liners Re-sealable plastic bag What To Do: 1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line the cupcake cups with the paper cupcake liners. 2.  Unwrap and chop 2 cups of MILKY WAY® Brand Minis for Easter. Prepare the cake mix according to the package instructions, and fold in the chopped candy.   3.  Bake until golden (about 15-21 minutes). Remove from the oven, transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely. 4.  Tint the frosting green and transfer to the resealable plastic bag with a snipped corner. Pipe dots of frosting on the cupcake tops to look like grass, and then refrigerate for 30 minutes. 5.  Insert both sides of a licorice piece into each cupcake as handles. Arrange STARBURST® Brand Jellybeans Tropical Fruits on top and DOVE® Brand Dark or Milk Chocolate Eggs around the base. Makes 24 cupcakes I just found this on another group. I thought some of the ideas sounde pretty cool.  The sand/water table provides for many hours of great sensory fun.  This table can be as simple as dish tubs or Rubbermaid storage containers.  Through sensory play children get to feel / smell / hear / see, and sometimes, taste the media they are using.  Almost all thematic curriculums can be incorporated into your sensory table. If no set theme is being used, the options are still unlimited.  Sensory tables allow children to extend play and experiences from other areas of the classroom or home. The following is a list of items that can be placed in the table for play and manipulatives that can enhance it. Cars With Bubble Wrap: Add bubble wrap, old cars, and a little bit of water to your sensory table.  The children drive their cars over the bubble wrap to make a popping noise.  The little bit of water just adds extra sensory fun. Dinosaur Bones: Hide clean chicken bones in sand. Have the children dig them up. (You can sanitize bones by boiling them in a mixture of bleach and water.  Leave out overnight to dry thoroughly.) Sensory Table Garden: Fill the table with topsoil and add plastic flowers and plastic plants.  The children can use child size gardening tools. Tearless Bubble Play: Use tearless baby shampoo in water. No one cries when they get bubbles in their eyes. Mashed Potato Fun: Stir water into instant mashed potato flakes. Then add food coloring. Oooey Gooey Fun: Use shaving cream and food coloring in the sensory table. Oooey Gooey Fun 2: Pour white glue into your table. Start adding liquid starch to the glue, a little at a time, until it starts to become blubbery. For even more fun, add rock salt to the mixture. Oooey Gooey Fun 3 Cook Knox gelatin according to the recipe on the box. Refrigerate until firm.  Add the wiggly mixture to your table. Cleaning Have the children wash their toys in the sensory table with soap and water. Water Fun Add turkey basters, empty plastic bottles, and funnels to the water table.  You can color the water with food coloring. Cornstarch Goo Make a large batch of cornstarch goo for the sensory table. Dirty Fun Add dirt, toy cars, and Legos to the sensory table and have the children build their own little towns. Hot Weather Fun Add ice cubes in the summer. You can freeze small toys inside the ice cubes as well. Measuring Fun Add assorted dried beans with measuring cups, bowls, spoons, etc. to the sensory table. Sorting Buttons Put buttons in water and have the children sort them by color, size, or whatever. They can use tweezers to pick them up with. Colored Water Add food coloring to the water in your water table. Dinosaur Dig Add plastic dinosaurs to the sand and have an archeological dig. Easter Time Fill the table with Easter grass and add plastic eggs and baskets. Rice Play Fill the table with rice for a new feel. Colored Rice: Each child gets a little plastic bag with rice, he selects 1 or 2 colors of food coloring, adds color with dropper, then I add a little alcohol and seal the bag. The child then mixes the rice around until he's happy with the color. After the children are gone empty all the bags onto newspaper to dry. Swamps: Put a little sand in the bottom of tub and fill with water, add green food coloring and plastic snakes for a swamp Ocean Play Add sea life figures to the water table. Hiding Game Ask 2 or 3 of your children to make mounds in the sand at the sand table. Then have the children close their eyes while you hide a small plastic toy in one of the mounds. Have the children open their eyes and search in the mounds of sand for the toy. Let the child who finds the toy first hide it the next time. Working On the Railroad Show your children how to draw railroad tracks in the sand with craft sticks or unsharpened pencils. Have them make the tracks go up hills, down valleys and around corners. Then give the children small toy trains to run over the tracks. Sink or Float Corks, Styrofoam, Ping-Pong balls, Golf balls, Rocks, Twigs, Leaves, Toys, etc. Sensory Table Fillers 1. Packing Peanuts 2. Bird Seed 3. Snow 4. Ice Cubes 5. Glitter In Water 6. Glitter With Flour 7. Pumpkin Goop 8. Deer Corn 9. Corn Meal WATER PLAY One & Two Year Olds Pouring Water Wheels Squeezing - bottles, basters, sponges Filling bottles - screwing & unscrewing caps, matching caps to bottles Spraying - add food coloring to water in spray bottle, child can spray onto paper Blowing bubbles Sorting - 10 sponges cut into shapes, sort into different containers Sensory (warm/cold) - add ice cubes colored with food coloring and watch them melt. Add dishwashing liquid and beat to a foam. Floating toys Washing babies, dishes, chairs, etc. Three & Four Year Olds Pouring - -back and forth, filling containers -pouring into glasses without spilling -draw a line with a marker on the outside of a container and have child fill to the line Measuring - how many scoops/cups fill this container? - How many large scoops/cups fill this container? - filling same size clear cups to the same height - filling a series of clear cups in a sequence of highest to lowest Pouring and Mixing Colors Squeezing and Filling Bottles/Basters - concept of air pushing out of container and making bubbles Spray Art Murals Blowing Bubbles Tongs Transfer - pick smaller items out of water with tongs and transfer to another container Sponge Shapes - circle, triangle, square etc. - sorting - squeezing Sink or Float Experiments Make boats Water wheels Washing babies, washing and hanging up doll clothes variety of items for sink and float activities - corks, Styrofoam pieces - ping-pong balls - golf balls - rocks, twigs, leaves, etc. Art Supplies Pick up Cotton balls with clothespins Cut Wrapping paper and scissors Packing peanuts Cut Wallpaper sample book pages Shaving cream Rice Corn Science sunflowers look at with magnifying glasses Snow with magnifying glasses More Items To Use In Your Table rice cornmeal colored pasta buttons shredded paper ( Hide plastic spiders in it for Halloween) salt...for snow water with colored ice cubes cornstarch & water pom-poms garland & scissors large, medium and small size pine cones multicolored popping corn lots of old potpourri bay leaves regular dried corn colored rice colorful tinfoil pieces /only for ages 3 and up/ dry cereal sand chowmein noodles spaghetti (cooked or dry) leaves oatmeal (wet or dry) whip cream cornmeal and colored wagon wheel macaroni wet and dry sand water softener salt shaving cream ice snow things that are light and heavy plastic eggs and straw cotton balls pudding dry beans beads feathers grass scraps of material Jell-O flour cut up pieces of felt carpet samples cut up sand paper cars insects monopoly houses sifting toys scooping toys plastic astronauts and rockets teddy bear counters water water with boats and teddy bear counters cups, basters and pails bubbles float/sink activities cold/hot tubs rubber ducks plastic fish etc. cold/warm water coffee grounds magnets and magnetic materials marble tower potato flakes cornmeal birdseed tongs/tweezers with marbles popcorn and soap suction cup things wash doll clothes Bathe dolls wash dishes car wash Looking for more?  Try these sites for ideas and printable activities: Family Fun Magazine First-School Preschool Activities and Crafts Author Jan Brett's Home Page DLTK's Printable Crafts for Kids Coloring.ws