1.25 cups Cornstarch (or even 1.5 cups. Most of the above recipes call for a 1:1 water and corn starch ratio, but we preferred river-girl’s suggestion to create slightly thicker paint. However, if it is too thick, it won’t be “paintable”, so you’ll just have to adjust it to your liking.)
Mix the cornstarch into the water in a medium bowl. Add more cornstarch or water as needed to create a slightly thick paint. Add a few drops of liquid dish soap and stir gently.
Divide the cornstarch slurry into several smaller bowls.
Add a few drops of liquid water colors to each of the smaller bowls and stir until all of the color is evenly distributed. Repeat with other colors in the remaining small bowls.
Take all of the bowls of paint outside and set them on the driveway or sidewalk.
Let your tot paint.
(And paint and paint and paint.)
Make more paint when your tot runs out. lol.
Observations: This activity was a huge success. Sweet Pea requests it all the time and I have set this up at least 3 times in the last month.
This is really fun stuff!
There is something really satisfying about this paint. It is just thick enough and the colors are bright so it shows up well against the concrete. It also dries quickly and has an interesting 3-D feel.
Sweet Pea likes painting, with it, but also flinging it off the end of her paintbrush to create “fireworks”.
I highly recommend this activity for all kids. It is excellent!
Notes from the Trenches: I can not remember where I saw the suggestion to add a few drops of dish soap, but I forgot to do it today and when I hosed off the driveway, I noticed that the blue paint had left behind a faint stain. It isn’t very noticeable and will probably fade if we get a couple of good storms, but I wanted to warn you. I don’t actually know if the dish soap prevents the staining, but I will probably add it from now on.
Here is my other warning: I can’t keep the neighborhood kids away when we are outside with this stuff. Seriously, it is like child-bait. I have gone through an entire large container of cornstarch from Sam’s club.
We didn’t do any Tot School this week because we have been on vacation, so I thought I’d give you a quick “Top 10 List” (in no particular order) of some of my favorite activity sites.
When I’m looking for something new to do I check these places first:
Quirky Momma – A kid’s activity blog full of all sorts of ideas.
The Crafty Crow – A craft collective full of fun ideas from around the web.
Teach Preschool – Deborah is an early education teacher who has a blog loaded with ideas that she has used in her classroom.
Activity Mom - This site is always full quick activities that make learning fun for tots.
Montessori at Home is an e-book ($8.95) is a fantastic book filled with Montessori activities. If you don’t want to buy the book, there are a bunch of ideas you can see for free on the sample pages.
If your tot is younger than 3, Carissa at 1+1+1=1 has a great page all about Tot Trays that is great for toddlers. She also hosts the original Tot School linky which is full of links to other Tot School sites.
If your tot is a preschooler, take a look at The Preschool Corner linky at Homeschool Creations for lots of ideas from other parents.
Use the marker to write the first word in each rhyming set on it’s own cup.
Lay out a long strip of masking tape, face up on a table.
Place the craft sticks about 2 inches apart along the tape.
Place a second piece of tape directly over the first piece, “sealing” the craft sticks between them.
Cut the tape to separate the craft sticks and create a tape “flag” on each one.
Clearly print one word on the front (and back) of each “flag”.
Place all of the craft sticks in a basket.
Procedure:
Remind your tot that rhyming words are words that have the same ending sound. Give a couple of examples (“cat” and “bat”) and encourage your tot to think of a word that rhymes with them (“I can think of something that rhymes with “cat”. You put it on your head…”)
Explain that you are going to place the flag sticks in the cup that has the correct rhyming word.
Read the word on each cup out loud.
Invite your child to select a flag stick from the basket.
Either have your child read the word on the flag, or read it for them.
Ask you child to place the flag stick in the cup that contains the word that rhymes.
If your tot needs more help, say the word on the flag and then repeat the words on each of the cups again. For example, if your tot selects a stick with the word “hog” on it, you could point to the first cup and say “This says “cat”. Does ‘hog -og -og -og’ have the same ending sound as ‘cat -at -at -at’ “?
Repeat the procedure for all of the rest of the sticks in the basket.
Observations: Sweet Pea had a hard time at first and I had to help her a lot. She started catching on after 4 or 5 sticks and did seem to like it, but only placed about half of the flag sticks before getting silly.
I have noticed that Sweet Pea has a hard time coming up with rhyming words (one of the reasons that I introduced this activity) and I think this activity was just a tiny bit too difficult for her. We started off well, but it just didn’t quite hold Sweet Pea’s interest. I suspect that she will like it better in another few months.
I intentionally added some “tricky” rhyming words such as “none” to put in the “sun” cup and Sweet Pea found those impossible without my help. I think that would be a good idea for an older child who is a little more comfortable with rhyming, but I wish I wouldn’t have done it this time.
Notes from the Trenches:
We used small plastic Dixie cups which were okay, but they fell over a lot. Heavier cups would probably work better.
Oil pastels. (We used a box of my old Cray-Pas, but I read that Crayola brand pastels are designed for kids and not so messy. You might be able to use regular crayons, but I don’t think the “resist” effect would be so pronounced. Leave me a comment if you try it with crayon and let me know how it works.)
Paint brush. (These paintbrushes from Crayola are my favorite for kids.)
It will be easiest if you draw a castle at the same time your tot draws his own separate one, so that he can copy each step as you show it to him.
Using oil pastels, draw the castle one step at a time, allowing your tot to finish each step before moving on to the next one:
Draw 3 lines, one along each side and one along bottom of the paper. The lines should be long, but not go all the way to the edges.
Turn the 2 lines on the sides into “towers” by creating rectangles out of them.
Connect the 2 towers with another line.
Add a door, merlons, and turrets.
Draw another line below the top one to create a walkway. Add detail to the door.
Draw windows.
Add brick detail.
Add more design detail.
Paint over the entire castle with liquid watercolors.
The castle is easy to draw, but I found the written instructions at Deep Space Sparkle a little difficult to follow, so I took step-by-step photos so you can see how to do it.
Observations: Both Sweet Pea and I enjoyed this and I think our castles turned out so fun and colorful. (Just in case you are wondering what is on her head, Sweet Pea was wearing a slip as a “princess veil”. She came up with that idea all on her own. lol.)
This technique is very forgiving. I think both of our castles turned out great.
I liked that this activity allowed Sweet Pea to work on following directions, but still left enough room for her to be creative.
It requires quite a bit of parental involvement, but it is a good art lesson for preschoolers and up.
Notes from the Trenches:
The oil pastels smudge and generally get all over hands, arms and unprotected clothing.
Also, our pastels are got colored grease on the paint brushes which was very hard to wash out. I had to use soap and even then I don’t think I got it all out.
I call 5:30pm the “Witching Hour” in our house because I am usually up to my elbows in raw hamburger, my husband is texting me that he will be home late, the dog is scratching at the back door to be let out, and Sweet Pea is invariably whining about some article of lost doll clothing that she needs my help finding Right. This. Instant!
In an effort to cultivate a more pleasant household, I have started forcing allowing Sweet Pea to help me with the dinner time meal preparation. At first it was hard to come up with things for her to do and I just felt like I was going out of my way to keep her busy. But lately, I have noticed that she is actually helping me get dinner on the table faster. So if getting dinner ready is terrible time for your household too, consider allowing your tot to help you.
It may take several lessons from you before your tots are able to do a task independently, but it is well worth taking the time to teach them. Here are some things you may not have considered that they could do:
1. Set the table.
2. Get out the cooking equipment (measuring spoons, whisks, cutting boards etc) and set them on the counter.
3. Juice lemons and limes with a reamer.
4. Strain seeds out of citrus juice.
5. Scrub potatoes or veggies at the sink with a soft brush.
6. Peel cucumbers, parsnips and carrots. (Be sure to give your tot several explicit lessons on holding one end of the vegetable with one hand and peeling AWAY from himself with the other hand.)
7. Slice mushrooms, butter and soft cheeses with a table knife.
8. Cut the ends off of a green onion with a table knife and then peel off the outer layer to clean them.
9. Use a spoon to remove the seeds from a cucumber.
10. Wash lettuce or herbs and pull the leaves off of the stems (parsley, cilantro, thyme, etc).
11. Use a salad spinner to dry lettuce, greens and herbs.
12. Toss coleslaw or salad with dressing.
13. Whisk together liquid ingredients for marinades and dressings.
14. Whisk together dry ingredients like flour, baking powder and salt.
15. Crack eggs into a bowl. (And I speak from experience when I say that this is best done in the sink. lol.)
16. Mix together batters or stuffing with a small spatula or a chopstick. (Letting your tot use a large spoon is just another way of asking him to fling batter on the ceiling.)
17. Spoon thick batter into muffin tins. (If the batter is thin, you should just do it yourself because your tot will get more on the counter than in the muffin cups.)
18. Add sugar, salt or other spices.
19. Mix together dry herbs and spices for rubs.
20. Sort through beans and throw out small pebbles, clods of dirt or any misshapen beans.
So what are you waiting for? Get your tots into the kitchen and put them to work! :)
Have I missed anything? What does your tot do to help you with food preparation?
Notes from the Trenches:
Whenever I start cutting up an onion, Sweet Pea drops what she is doing and flees the kitchen because it makes her eyes sting.
And she still can’t manage to squeeze my garlic press.
♥ Linky Love ♥: My favorite color is blue and I love Melissa from Pigtail Pals: Redifine Girly‘s crusade to convince the world that colors are for everyone.
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A large clear jar or bowl filled with water. (We used a beaker from our Primary Science Set.)
About 10 small objects.
A notebook or piece of notebook paper.
A pencil.
Procedure:
Tell your tot that she is going to drop each of the small objects into the container of water.
Explain that before she drops the objects in the water, she is going to make a prediction about whether she thinks they will sink or float.
Help your child create a chart with 3 columns. 1) Item Name 2) The Prediction 3) The Result
Write down the name of the first object and ask your tot, “Do you think this is going to sink or float when we drop it in the water?
Record her answer in the prediction column.
Optionally ask her why she thinks the object will sink or float.
Allow her to drop the object in the water.
Ask, “So did it sink or float?” and then record her answer on the chart.
Repeat with the remaining objects.
Observations: Sweet Pea had a great time with this activity. She loved discovering if something was going to sink or float. She did not know why an object sank or floated. She thought that it had to do with the size of the object and I didn’t correct her, but just let her keep testing the objects to see what happened.
In the video below she predicts that a raisin will float because it is small, but discovers that it floats instead.
I loved doing this activity with her and it will be interesting to repeat in the future to see how her reasoning develops.
Notes from the Trenches: If I’d been thinking, I would have saved the cotton ball (which floated and then sank) for later in the experiment, because it was a little confusing to use as our first object.
Stir several drops of liquid watercolor into to each of the bowls.
Invite your tot to draw something interesting on the paper with a crayon.
Show your tot how to paint the corn syrup over his crayon drawing.
After your tot is done, place his painting somewhere out-of-the-way to dry for at least 2 days.
Observations: This activity was very fun for both of us, but VERY sticky. lol.
Sweet Pea loved this and our pictures turned out beautifully shiny and 3-dimensional.
This was really interesting and while it was “sticky”, the corn syrup was easy to clean up with a damp sponge. If you can handle a bit of a mess, I highly recommend it for preschoolers and up.
Notes from the Trenches: Drawing with crayon first is important because the corn syrup does not stick to the wax as well as the paper, so it runs off and pools in the empty spaces. Doesn’t it just looks so neat? I almost didn’t bother with the crayons, but am glad I did.
The paintings look stunning, but are very fragile. While the corn syrup paint does get “dry” after a few days, it will always retain a slight tackiness. The paintings start very shiny, but if you touch them, they will become dull from your fingerprints. Also if you bend the paper, the paint will crack and leave tiny lines all over the surface. Lastly, I worried that saving these might attract ants, so this is mostly a “process, not the product” type of art activity.
♥ Linky Love ♥: I am sort of a Nervous Nelly about the weather, especially during spring storm season, so I love this NOAA weather map for viewing watches and warnings. Just click on your state (USA only) for a zoomed in map and then you can click again to read the actual weather warnings.
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From: When I saw this “Do-It-Yourself Glitter” recipe all over pinterest (originally from this Sprinkles and Sequins tumbler page) I couldn’t wait to try it. I thought, “This looks awesome! Cleaning up salt will be so much easier than real glitter and I won’t have to worry about tiny pieces of metallic flakes everywhere.” I am not a huge fan of glitter because it sticks to everything and I’m always a little worried that Sweet Pea will get it in her eyes, so this looked perfect.
Add a few drops of one color of liquid watercolor to the salt in the first bowl and stir until well mixed. Add more liquid watercolor until the salt is the desired shade.
Repeat with remaining colors.
Spread the salt on a jelly roll pan and bake at 350 for about 10 minutes.
Remove from oven, let cool and Voila! You have created… colored salt!
(Does the stuff in the picture below look just a tiny bit “glittery” to you? Well, don’t get excited, because that is just a trick of the lighting. Let me assure you that in real life, there is nothing glittery or even slightly shiny about it.)
Let your tot squeeze glue on paper and sprinkle the colored salt over it.
Show your tot how to bend the paper and pour off the excess.
Observations: This wasn’t actually a failure because Sweet Pea did not share in my disappointment for this project. She was thrilled to sprinkle colored salt all over paper.
So, while the colored salt does not even remotely look like glitter, Sweet Pea was very happy with it and I liked it much better than using sand . It was fairly easy to clean up. Also, this colored salt would work perfectly in a tray for letter writing. So, I would recommend it for those purposes, but defiantly not for replacing glitter in your household.
P.S. Once you have the salt and liquid watercolors out, you might as well try this very awesome painting on salt project.
Notes from the Trenches: You mean aside from the fact that this did not actually turn out to be “glitter”?
Well, the salt does not adhere to the glue very well so this artwork is not something you’d want to tape to the front of the refrigerator.
From: This healthy recipe from my Great Aunt Grace is great for little hands.
Material:
6 oz canned / pouch light tuna.
20-30 Mild Whole Peppadew Peppers (The original recipe actually calls for Tennessee cheese peppers, but those are impossible to locate in our part of the country. I have found the Pappadew peppers at an olive bar or by the canned olives at the grocery store.)
1/4 Cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs.
2-4 TBS Olive oil.
Medium bowl.
Airtight container to store the stuffed peppers.
Aunt Grace’s Tuna Pepper Recipe. (Right click on link and select “Save Link As…” or “Save Target As…” to save the worksheet to your computer. This is a .pdf file and requires Foxit or Adobe Acrobat to view.)
Procedure:
Dump the tuna into the bowl.
Let your tot add 1/4 cup of bread crumbs and use her hands to mix them into the tuna.
Drizzle with 1-2 TBS of olive oil and invite your tot to gently mix everything together. The mixture should be tacky and stick together when it is gently pressed. If it falls apart, add a bit more olive oil until it is moist enough.
Show your tot how to take about 2 teaspoons of the tuna mixture and carefully push it into each pepper.
Place the tuna peppers in a single layer into a sealable contianer and drizzle with 1-2 TBS of olive oil.
Enjoy!
The left over peppers can be kept in the sealed container in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Observations: Sweet Pea loves both making and eating tuna peppers. No matter what she is in the middle of, she comes running if I ask her if she wants to make them. I am pretty sure it is the messy mixing that has her hooked.
This recipe is tasty and lots of fun to make. If you like tuna, I would encourage you to give it a try.
Sweet Pea is an adventurous eater and these are a tiny bit spicy. I am a big believer that kids should eat whatever their adults are eating so this isn’t a problem in our house. Sweet Pea loves them, but I can see some tots complaining that they are too spicy.
Sometimes the peppers seem to have quite a few seeds left inside. If you find this is the case then first rinse the peppers under running water to remove any stray seeds.
Sweet Pea got a little over-zealous with the mixing, and I’m sure this could be a problem for all children. I had to remind her to mix everything together gently.
♥ Linky Love ♥:Vi Hart’s blog is full of the most awesome videos about everyday math. For example, she uses “fruit by the foot” to play with mobius strips. If you have even just a teeny bit of math nerd in you, you will love her stuff.
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My domino addition worksheet. ( Right click on link and select “Save Link As…” or “Save Target As…” to save the worksheet to your computer. This is a .pdf file and requires Foxit or Adobe Acrobat to view.) You can also use Erica’s slightly simpler worksheet. A link to it is located about midway down the page on her post.
Procedure:
Set out a selection of dominoes with 1-5 dots on each side.
Show your tot how to place a domino on top of the gray rectangle on the left side of the sheet.
Let your tot choose dominoes and place them on each of the remaining spaces.
Explain to your tot that you are going to count the dots on the left side of the first domino. Use a pencil to point to each dot in turn as you count out loud, “Let’s count these dots. One, two, three, four, five, six. There are six dots on this side.”
Write that number on the left side of the addition sign in the white rectangle.
Hand the pencil to your tot and suggest that she count the dots on the right hand side of the line.
Have your child write the right-side number of dots on the right side of the plus sign in the white rectangle.
Next have your tot count all of the dots to find the total number of dots on the domino.
Suggest that your child write the total number of dots in the answer square on the far right of the worksheet.
Let your child try counting and adding the dots on the next domino on her own.
Once your child understands the concept, you can introduce dominoes with more dots.
Observations: I was somewhat surprised by how successful this activity was. Sweet Pea loved it and did 4 worksheets! We went through our entire box of dominoes before she was ready to stop and I think she would have kept going if we would have had more of them.
Sweat Pea had some difficulty with the larger numbers, but after a little thought was able to count all of the dominoes on her own and later even requested we move on to “the harder dominoes with more dots”.
I think it was poking the pencil into the dots that made this activity so compelling for her. Sweet Pea loved pushing the tip of the pencil into the domino holes to count the dots.
I would highly recommend this activity for all children who are starting to learn about addition.
Notes from the Trenches: Teach your tot to respect pencils by keeping the point down and to only use them for writing. I don’t mean to sound overprotective, but I almost poked myself in the eye with a pencil when I was about 5. I still have a graphite scar only a few milometers away from the outside corner of my eye so every time Sweet Pea is holding a pencil it sets my nerves on edge.
Welcome to my Tot School page. I hope this blog gives you some inspiration for activities to do with your own tots.
I love reading comments so please let me know what you think. I am always looking for new Tot School ideas and I would especially like to hear your own "Notes from the Trenches" if you have tried one of these activities.
