Watercolor Resist & Reading: Heart Edition

We have been working on reading some simple words recently so this little watercolor resist activity was a lot of fun for my little lady!!  

Super simple, super easy.

And we're still loving hearts at our house...just fyi!!

I started by cutting out some hearts from cardstock and then wrote some words, names, numbers and phrases on the cardstock with a white crayon.

Then I gave her the hearts and water colors and told her to find the hidden word/message.

I did encourage to try to use one color per heart because it makes it much easier to see the letters and word.

Fun, fast, easy and educational!  My kind of activity!

Valentine's ABC and 123

Anna is all about Valentine's day this year.  She asks me almost every day if it's Valentine's yet....or if tomorrow will be Valentine's.  I'm not really sure why...we don't really do anything special.  Right now, she is obsessed with this heart punch I have.  She punches hearts all day, draws pictures on them, writes "I love u" on them, colors them, gives them to us.....

So today, I thought we would do a little "heart learning".  I punched out enough hearts for both uppercase/lowercase letters, as well as numbers 1-5.

We played a matching/memory game with our letters..

We sorted them out by upper/lower case and then matched up the "baby" (lowercase) with the "momma" (uppercase) letters.

And then we matched up the correct number of hearts with each number.

It was fun...she was learning...and I'm sure we will do this again soon!

Tracing Shapes: A Simple Preschool Activity

I set up this simple little tracing activity one afternoon for my daughter.

It's a little tricky for small hands and it took a little bit of work, but she enjoyed the activity.

Supplies needed:

White paper

Buttons (or some type of shape that is rather flat)

Pencil

Tape

Start by using a small piece of tape to tape down each button to your paper.

Then invite your child over to trace around each shape.  

Anna like to peel off each button and the piece after she was done to see her tracing...

Then as an added bonus, have them try to identify the shape they traced and color it the same color as the button.

After they have colored all the shapes, you can play a little matching game to match up the buttons and the tracings.

Overall, it's a simple activity, but great for fine motor development and pre-writing skills!!

Making a Chalk Drawn City

We spend lots of time outside and lots of time drawing with chalk.  I'm not really sure why I've never ventured any further than hearts and butterflies with my chalk drawings....but I love this chalk city!!

First I drew some roads for the kids to ride their tricycles on.

Then gave the roads a "go"...

and "stop" sign.

And sent them on their way...

Anna requested a house with a garage, and we also drew a pool, our Mimi's house and some other random buildings for our city.

Even my little guy loved riding around!!

Here's to some chalk fun!!

Wrapping Paper Play Mat

You guys know I love simple and easy, right??

Well, this little activity is just that!  I guarantee you have everything you need in your closet!

All you need is some wrapping paper, crayons and an imagination.

I usually only purchase white wrapping paper since it's so versatile and easy to personalize, so I had a roll on hand to tape down for our play mat.

But remember.....the "b-side" of most wrapping paper is white, so just turn your paper over and you'll be ready to go.

I use blue painters tape to tape down my edges...I find it comes up the easiest and doesn't leave any sticky residue behind.

Then we get creative with our markers and crayons....

Here is our construction zone.

And since we are all about the Olympics, we grabbed our Olympians and made our own Olympic park.

I typically let my two kids decide what they want on the play mat and then try to draw it for them.  They like to color in the houses, buildings, etc....  And lately, Anna has enjoyed drawing her own little additions (sun, lake, pool, tree...).

As you can tell, I'm definitely no artist.....but my two kids don't really care!  They just love drawing and coloring!

So go grab your wrapping paper and get creating!  We usually leave our play mat up for a few days and add more and more!  

Enjoy!

Star Necklaces and Bracelets

This was an "invitation to play" that I set out for my daughter one afternoon.  We both had the best time making necklaces and bracelets for pretty much everyone we know.

It's so simple and so perfect for those fine motor skills!

All you need is some pipe cleaners and some beads (I used some star shaped beads I picked up at the craft store a while back).

Check out all our invitations to play here.

Marshmallow Sculptures

I set this fun little activity out for the kids the other day and not only was it fun, it was tasty!  My kids never pass up a yummy marshmallow, so this was definitely a hit to them!

Basically I just cut up a few straws and put some marshmallows into a bowl.

And they got right to work!

Anna want to make some letters so we tried out a couple!

It's a fun (and tasty) way to play and learn!

Rainbow Rice Fun

Like most toddlers and preschoolers, my kids love playing with anything that can be poured, scooped or shoveled (beans, rice, pasta).  So the other day, I decided to make a super large batch of rainbow rice and rainbow pasta.

I added some shovels, rakes, watering cans, bowls and little cups and let them have some fun.

I used the neon food coloring drops and the colors turned out so beautiful and so vibrant!

I also added some rainbow pasta too, but I think they really just loved playing with the rice.

Lots of scooping, pouring and shoveling for sure!!

Invitations to Play - Week Wrap Up

Nothing too fabulous about our invitations to play this week, but the kids sure enjoyed them!  We spent a lot of time outside early in the week since it was so nice and then some time at the pool once it got too hot to do anything outdoors other than swim!

Here's how we spent some "down time".  

I must say that beans and rice are a huge hit in our house.  Basically anything that can be poured, dumped or pushed around is super fun for my one and three year old.  

If you've never tried playing with dried beans, pasta or rice, I highly recommend giving it a try!  Your kids will thank you!  Some tips, though, for your first timers...

1. Start with a larger dried bean or colored pasta (they are much easier to pick up than rice)

2. Place a large blanket, shower curtain liner or something under your container to help with clean up

3. Set some ground rules with your kids.  Mine know that the beans stay either in the container or on the blanket.  And that there is absolutely no throwing, slinging, etc.  We've had a couple of warnings, but no real issues in this department.

4. Be sure to monitor your kids while playing to make sure they don't "taste" any.

5. Offer lots of cups, bowls, spoons, shovels, trucks, etc.

6. Get in on the fun too!  It really is quite relaxing to run your fingers through beans and rice!

To find out more about the idea behind Invitations to Play, visit The Imagination Tree.

Want to see more of our Invitations to Play?

Click here to see them all!