Summer Playdough

I made a fresh batch of playdough the other day, this one has a summer feel to it. :)

Using my tried and true playdough recipe, I split this batch into two and added some food coloring and yummy smelling extracts (coconut and banana).

As soon as I had the dough colored and scented James wasted no time and plunged right into our big bucket o' cutters!

Click here to see more of our playdough themes.

~Thank you for your comments!~

Robot Playdough

We have family visiting right now so I'm a bit late in sharing this with you, but better late than never, right? :)

James and I had a blast creating little robots with a variety of odds and ends like old Christmas tree bulbs, beads, pipe cleaners, and paperclips.

I really wanted the playdough to be silver, but I couldn't find that shade of food coloring, so instead I created this kind of steel blue color (by mixing black and navy together) and added some silver glitter to it.

Click here to see my playdough recipe and notes, as well as links to our other playdough themes.

~Thank you for your comments!~

March Playdough

Unpredictable Weather Playdough :)

I made one batch of playdough (click here to see my recipe & notes) and split it into three sections: yellow w/gold glitter (sun), blue w/ white glitter (rain), and white (clouds/snow). Note: the white is simply plain dough - no food coloring.

I also made some weather word cards for James to use along with letter shaped cutters. James loves to spell and read and so this was a HUGE hit with him! Btw, we received the cutters as a birthday gift a couple of years ago - this exact set is no longer available, but this one is similar.

I've made a PDF of the weather word cards - simply copy and past this link into your address bar:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0By-8pEe8O7e5NWM0YTBjNTktMmExMC00YTA2LWE4ODktNjdjMDA5MTUyODAz&hl=en&authkey=CMXohg4

As always, my printables are for your personal use only - please do not sell or offer them in giveaways. Thank you!

~Thank you for your comments!~

February Sensory Tub & Playdough - Valentines Day

Like last February's tub, I created this one with Valentine's Day in mind, except this time around I went with all red.

What's inside: I won't detail everything that's in the tub since, as you can see, there's quite a lot. I pretty much tossed in any red thing I could find!
:: LOTS of pony beads (these were the same I used for our 4th of July tub)
:: Pom-poms
:: Popsicle sticks
:: Fruit erasers
:: Various beads
:: Felted balls
:: Water filled stars (these are reusable ice cubes)
:: Buttons
:: Feathers
:: Silk flowers
:: Knitted apples

I made some I Spy cards to go along with it. We did this same thing in August with our yellow sensory tub and it was a huge success.

Chocoloate Playdough
With some real cocoa added to it, this playdough smells nearly good enough to eat! I made chocolate playdough last year, too, but this year I've added an empty chocolate box for James to make pretend chocolates. I have to confess, my friends, a great sacrifice went into doing this.... I had to eat all of the real chocolates in order to provide this fun extension for my son. Sigh... the things we do for our children. ;)

~Thank you for your comments!~

January Sensory Tub & Playdough - Outer Space

~Happy 2011, Everyone!!~

We're kicking off the year in a fun way - our theme for this month is space! My husband is an astronomy enthusiast and his interest has definitely rubbed off onto James (and me, for that matter!). We used to have a solar system poster and I remember when James was about 18 months old he had memorized all the planets by name and sight. Two years later and he loves to build rockets out of Legos and searches for the moon whenever he's outside at night. Needless to say, I think he's really going to enjoy this tub!

Here's what's inside:
:: Navy blue aquarium rocks - this is my first time using these as a filler and it won't be my last. They are affordable and pleasing to touch. If you plan to use aquarium rocks for your own tub, be sure to rinse them off with water beforehand - they're very dusty otherwise.
:: Small plastic crystals.
:: A variety of glass beads, all colors. I just love glass beads because each bead is so unique. I happened to have a good collection of them on hand (I do a bit of jewelry making from time to time), but you can find a variety pack of these at any good craft store.
:: Marbles - large and small.
:: Superballs - I found these at a toy store here, 6 for $1. They're sort of translucent and VERY bouncy! :)
:: Jacks. These caught my eye as I was contemplating what to put in the tub - they sort of remind me of stars.
:: Pieces of a geode - this is the same geode from our November discovery tray.
:: Crumpled balls of tin foil.
:: Astronauts, a moon buggy, and a rocket - all from this Toob.
:: Silver pitcher and spoon - for pouring and scooping.

:: A variety of rocks and minerals.

Starry Night Playdough

My hands are still blue from making this dough! I wanted to make it a nice, dark blue so I had to use a lot of food coloring. I added silver glitter to it to give the effect of stars against a night sky.

For more solar system fun check out what was on our shelves this month!

~Thank you for your comments!~

December Sensory Tub & Playdough - Christmas

James has been talking about Christmas trees ever since we put ours up last week and so I thought it'd be fun to make this month's tub and playdough a "Christmas Tree" theme.

Here's what's inside:
:: Green rice (colored with food coloring to simulate pine needles)
:: Yellow star pasta (borrowed from our yellow sensory tub)
:: Plastic lights
:: Wooden stars
:: Small ornaments
:: Red and blue beads
:: Green sparkly puffs
:: Small wooden discs (to represent the tree trunk :D)
:: A wrapped gift with a bell inside
:: Plastic birds
:: Wooden scoop
:: Blue glass cup
:: Tree shaped box
:: Two tiny gold bells

I put jingle bells in last year's Christmas tub, but I decided against it this time around as I found the rice collected inside of the bells making them nearly soundless.

James and I had a blast decorating this playdough tree while listening to some Christmas music...
James shouted, "Oh, Boy!" (his new go-to phrase) when we finished making it. :) I added some peppermint extract and glitter to the dough for even more sensory fun. For the decorations, I gathered a collection of beads, buttons, sequins, gems, little birds and bits of chenille sticks and put them in a bowl. I put out a selection of Christmas themed cookie cutters, too.

~Thank you for your comments!~

Turkey Playdough

I've dedicated our November playdough to the American Thanksgiving holiday coming up later this month.

Gobble-gobble!

I simply created some brown playdough (see my sidebar for the recipe) and gathered some feathers and googly eyes together in a basket.

James thought this turkey making business was hilarious!!He named his turkey "Old Featherhead". :0)

~Thank you for your comments!~

October Sensory Tub & Playdough - Halloween

This year's Halloween tub isn't much of a departure from last year's, but I thought I'd share it anyway. Here's what's inside:

:: Black beans
:: Yellow lentils
:: Porcupine balls
:: Real mini pumpkin
:: Plastic pumpkin
:: Purple scoop
:: Skeletons
:: Various beads
:: Teeny tiny pom poms
:: Stretchy spiders, a snake and a big bat
:: Googly eyes
:: A few scrapbooking embellishments
:: Feathers

James is crazy about this tub - seriously, he plays with it for the longest time! I think his favorite thing is the skeletons. He likes to point out all the bones. :)

Spooky Playdough
This is just some regular, unscented orange playdough I made (see my sidebar for the recipe). Along with the Halloween cutters I put a bunch of black beans in a little pumpkin container so James could make little Jack O' Lanterns. He L-O-V-E-D doing this! Total hit.
I was very tempted to make some some cool black playdough with purple glitter like The Picky Apple did - check out this cute spider she made!

~Thank you for your comments!~

September Sensory Tub & Playdough - Fall

It's hard to believe it's September already! It certainly doesn't feel like fall, at least not here in Bermuda. It's still very warm and humid and will be this way for another month at least. Nonetheless, I'm ready for it to be fall so I created this sensory tub and playdough to get us in the mood. :)

Here's what's inside:
:: Silk leaves - found at Michael's and Hobby Lobby. If you can't find individual leaves, look for a garland you can cut up.
:: Button leaves
:: Cinnamon sticks
:: Wooden acorns - purchased from here
:: REAL acorns - these are a wonderful gift from the lovely Mama Bee. We have no oak trees in Bermuda, a sad thing for this acorn-loving girl!
:: Pinecones
:: Small wooden bowl - purchased from here
:: Wooden apples & bucket - purchased from the same place as the wooden acorns
:: Knitted apples - see here for my post about those
:: Plastic apples
:: Two teeny tiny button apples
UPDATE: I've since added a little rake to the tub, too. After all, when the leaves fall you have to rake them together! This fun idea comes from Kara at Little Learners Lounge - thanks, Kara!

As you can see, there are a lot of apples in there! I focused on apples for this month's theme not just because it's the typical "back to school", but because September has always meant apples to me. Every September while I was growing up we'd visit the Pine Tree Apple Orchard (in Minnesota) to watch the apples roll around on the sorting belts and to eat some fresh apple pie, cinnamon ice cream and hot apple cider. I remember being SO excited about this and it made the return of the school year something I looked forward to.

I had the apple pie in mind when I created this month's playdough...
Using my favorite recipe, I kept the playdough a plain color and added in cinnamon which yielded not only a delicious aroma, but also some lovely brown swirls. I gathered some small pie tins, an apple cookie cutter, little plastic apples (in the apple container), a rolling pin and a knife for James to make his own apple pies!
He had such a blast doing this! He tore up bits and filled the pan to make a "crumb" topping and I sliced strips for him to lay criss-cross.

Yum! Wish it were real!

James is really into reading right now and is constantly trying to sound out the words he sees wherever we are. While we were playing with the dough he said to me, "A is for apple!" and asked me to make a letter 'A'. :) I love that his interest in reading comes 100% from him - I wasn't planning on him entering the world of reading for another year or so!

We read a couple of great books that fit in perfectly with our sensory fun:
The Apple Pie Tree, by Zoe Hall. A very cute story about a pair of sisters who watch their apple tree grow and change in the seasons and use the apples it produces to make a delicious apple pie. There's even a recipe in the back of the book.

Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf, by Lois Ehlert. This story details the journey of a tree from a sapling at a nursery to a new tree in a child's backyard. There's an informative section in the back about the various parts of trees and even a section on how to plant a tree.

I'm linking this post up to Montessori Monday, The Preschool Corner and Tot Tuesday.

~Thank you for your comments!~

August Sensory Tub & Playdough - Ice Cream!

This tub makes me smile whenever I look at it - it's so soft and colorful and it's all about ice cream!!

Ice Cream Shoppe Tub
What's inside:
:: LOTS of colorful homemade pom-poms (aka scoops of chocolate, mint, strawberry and vanilla ice cream!)
:: Silicone cones - these were a surprisingly cheap find at a local store
:: Ice cream scoop and spoon
:: Little red beads - James calls these "cherries" :)
:: Small sundae cup and bowls
:: Sprinkles - because of ants, humidity and what's sure to be sticky fingers I'm keeping these sealed!
:: Wooden banana (for a banana split, of course!)

I saw this idea on Growing Up Our Style where Rebecca used tons pom-poms to fill up her sensory tub. I love her idea, but I didn't have enough poms on hand, so I had to make my own. Not that I minded at all - I look for any excuse to make something with my hands! At the end of this post I'll share with you a quick tutorial on how to make your own pom-poms. :)


3 Scoops of Spumoni Playdough
I had fun using up some of the food colors and flavorings in my stash. Here's what I used:
::Brown: cocoa (you could use root beer extract to simulate a root beer float!)
::Green: peppermint extract
::Pink: strawberry extract

This dough is so much fun to play with - James LOVES it! It smells delicious and the colors look so pretty all mixed together. :) Oh and bonus, all that tearing and pinching of the dough is excellent for strengthening those little fingers!

Now for the pom-pom tutorial. These are SO quick and easy peasy to create - each one took me only a minute or so to make. I remember making these with my sister when we were kids. This would be a fun activity for children who know how to cut and tie.

Here's what you'll need:
:: Yarn - this is a great way to use up leftover bits. I used whatever I had on hand, but I would recommend chunky weight yarn for these.
:: Sharp craft scissors
:: 5 inch piece of cardboard folded in half

Step one:
Wind the string around the cardboard. Using the chunky weight yarn, I wound approx. 25 times around.

Step two:
Cut the yarn and then cut another 6 inch piece of yarn.

Step three:

(apologies for the blurry photo)

Slide the yarn "ball" off of the cardboard, being careful not to unravel the loops. Gently center it on top of the 6 inch piece of yarn.

Step Four:
Use the 6 inch piece of yarn to tie a tight double knot in the center of the yarn "ball".

Step Five:
Using your scissors, cut the loops - make sure you DO NOT cut the knot you created in Step Four.

Step Six:
Trim and fluff the edges so they are all fairly even. That's it! You now have a happy little pom-pom!

I'm linking this post up to The Preschool Corner, Tot Tuesdays, Montessori Monday, We Play and Creative Friday.

~Thank you for your comments!~

Beach Sensory Tub & Playdough

Since I forgot didn't get a chance to make a sensory tub for June, I've created two for the month of July - our 4th of July tub is used only indoors and this beach tub is for outdoors only. (I'll have two tubs -indoor/outdoor- to share with you in August as well!)

James can't get enough of the ocean and beach! We're there every chance we get. So you can imagine how thrilled he was about having a bit of the beach at home!

Beachy Sensory Tub

Quick little fun fact: did you know Bermuda beaches are known for their pink sand? Click here to learn more.

What's inside:
:: Sand from one of our favorite beaches. We plan on returning it to the beach when we're finished with this tub.
:: Shells - most of these are from our stash, but I bought a few at our local tourist shop.
:: A family of three wooden peg people :)
:: Sea glass and bits of coral
:: Leaves (fallen) from one of the trees that lines the pathway to the beach.
:: Shovel and pail

Sandy Playdough
I love this dough! As always, I used my favorite play dough recipe and kept it a plain color and added some sand to give it an interesting texture. It look just like the sand on our beaches! I found some beach/ocean themed cutters and put out a little basket of shells.

James had SO much fun with this activity and played with it for nearly an hour. He scooped "sand" in and out of the bucket, hid the shells and even made a sand castle!

Here he is making "sand balls". See that furry thing sleeping on the shelf in the background? Nope, it's not a radical new Practical Life work, it's just our kitty taking advantage of the open space. :)

~I'm linking this post up to some of my favorite blog parties: Montessori Monday, The Preschool Corner, Tot Tuesdays, We Play and Sharing Time. Join in and share your ideas!~

July Sensory Tub & Playdough - Red, White & Blue

Ok, I'm jumping ahead a bit by posting this in June, but I never got around to making a June tub and this one is actually themed for the 4th of July, so there you go. :)

Sensory Tub
This was a bit hard to photograph because there are so many sparkly light reflective things in this tub!

Here's what's inside:
:: LOTS of red and blue pony beads
:: White star-shaped beads
:: Red, white and blue puffs
:: Tiny red, white and blue flowers
:: Sparkly red, white and blue chenille sticks twisted around one another to look like fireworks. Hubs tells me they look like fireworks, but I wonder if they look a bit more like patriotic spiders?
:: Bits of the chenille sticks cut up into 1" pieces
:: Containers - one for pouring and one for collecting
:: A spoon for scooping

James was SO excited about this tub!! He reaaaallly liked the "fireworks" and kept holding them up and saying "BOOM!"

Playdough

I wasn't able to get the dark blue and red I was aiming for, but it's all good. :) The white ball has red, white and blue glitter mixed into it.

This is the recipe I use for the playdough. Be sure to keep your homemade dough sealed in an airtight container and kept in the refrigerator. Sadly, we can only play with ours for 30 minutes at a time. Beyond that and it starts to get gooey thanks to the humidity.

**PS: Don't forget to enter my Alphabet Box giveaway going on until 6/29!!**

May Sensory Tub & Playdough - Gardening

(Phew! I'm getting this in just under the wire, aren't I?)

Sensory Tub
I was so psyched about this month's tub because it involves dirt!! Like real actual dirt! What kid doesn't love playing in dirt?! And truth be told, I was anxious to get my hands in this tub for some sensory goodness! Ever since I was a kid I've loved getting my hands dirty whether it be with mud, paint or flour. :) Hooray for messy fun!!

James saw the tub and said, "Ooo what's that?! It's beautiful!". :) Bless his little heart.

Here's what's inside:
:: Dirt - organic potting soil, to be exact. If you create this yourself please be sure to use organic soil because the other stuff has far too many chemicals in it for little hands.
:: Little gardening tools - this is the set we bought & it has three tools and a kneeling mat.
:: Silk sunflowers
:: Small clay pots - to scoop dirt, collect seeds or plant the sunflowers in.
:: Lots of rocks
:: Plant markers - these are actually from my own potted plants, but had been pulled out by James. Thankfully I can tell the difference between mint and dill! :D
:: Seeds - I used the biggest seeds I could find: sunflower, peas & pumpkin.
:: Small (fake!) bugs and snakes

My bloggy friend, Cara, from The Picky Apple made an awesome garden sensory tub for her cute little guy where she used real flowers and LIVE worms! Now that's one super mama!! (sorry, James, your mama just can't handle creepy crawly stuff!)

Playdough
(fyi, I've just added my go-to playdough recipe to my sidebar.)

I went with brown to simulate dirt and, with this idea in mind, I created a little gardening activity for James.

He can put the "dirt" in the little pot and grow some plants...

OR

He can roll out a little garden bed and grow some flowers. :)

I'm positive he'll come up with lots of other ideas on his own - he's the true creative force behind our activities!

The little pebbles (in the muslin bag pictured above) and the tiny flowers provide an excellent opportunity for fine motor improvement.

Live and learn: the playdough stuck to the clay pot and would not come off without washing. Just something to keep in mind should you recreate this activity for yourself.

PS: This is an OUTDOOR ONLY sensory tub for us! I like dirt, but I do not like it in my house! :)

PPS: I'm linking this post up to a couple of fun blog carnivals - click here for more information.

April Sensory Tub & Playdough - Rainbows

James and I are rainbow fanatics so I declared April to be our rainbow month! My next few posts will be filled with various theme related activities so stay tuned!

Rainbow Sensory Tub

I think this is my favorite tub out of the ones I've done so far (click here to see others). I added lots of goodies for James to seek and find. He will love it! See if you can spot the following inside:

::Shredded paper
::Homemade puffs (we used them for a PL activity here)
::Glass marbles
::Dyed popsicle sticks
::Feathers
::Wooden beads
::Butterflies
::Flowers (cut from a lei)

I also added a small basket for James to store his finds and a strawberry huller - you know, just in case James gets a hankerin' to do some tonging :)

Playdough

As always, I used my go-to homemade playdough recipe from here. I didn't add any scent to these this time around, and the green ball is actually from our St. Patrick's Day dough. :)

I think James is going to be so excited to see such a variety of colors and I can't wait to see how they look all mixed together! (Yes, that does go against my usual type-A/OCD personality - maybe I'm chilling out a little in my old age?)

Lots of fun cookie cutters from...

my ridiculously large stash! Anyone care to take a guess at just how many cutters are in this bin? I'll send a little package of these to whomever comes closest to the correct number. Ha! An impromptu mini-giveaway! :D

UPDATE:
The magic number is 126! Theresa guessed it on the nose! :-) Oh and check out how groovy all these colors look together...

I'm glad I caught this shot when I did because the colors have since been mixed even more thoroughly and now resemble something out of a diaper. ;)