Homemade Rainstick

In honor of our weather theme this month, James and I made a rainbow rainstick using this tutorial. It was such a fun craft and since the weather outside was warm and sunny, we took it all outside!

First we hammered lots of nails into the cardboard mailing tube. This was James' favorite part, though he got bored with hammering about halfway through. :)

Next we filled the tube with river stones and rice.

The inside of the tube looks a little scary - watch those fingers!

Testing out the sound.

Then we we decorated the tube with all sorts of colorful goodies.

The rainstick makes such a beautiful sound and will be a welcome addition to our classroom instrument basket!

~Thank you for your comments!~

Rainbow Activities - Part II

Some more rainbow fun - Montessori style! Click here for Part I.

Practical Life

Pouring colorful buttons...
Scooping "alphabet soup" from one container into two...
I used food coloring and dyed this pasta in batches. I'd be happy to do a tutorial on how I dyed the items in this post if anyone is interested - let me know!

James always enjoys spooning work and with this one he came up with a surprise grace and courtesy lesson - he carefully scooped "soup" into each bowl, and then he brought one of the bowls over to me and he said, "Here's some soup for you, Mama. It's delicious!". To which I replied, "Thank you, James!" and then he in turn said, "You're welcome, Mama!" Oh how I love good manners!

Transferring flowers with tongs...
I cut these flowers from a lei I purchased at the dollar store. We did this same activity for St. Patrick's Day only in that case we used green and white flowers. James handles tongs with such ease now, whereas a few months ago he either couldn't or wouldn't. He also named the colors of each flower as he transferred it.

Sweeping rainbow rice...
James l-o-v-e-d this work and has done it several times. I found the little crumb brush and dustpan here. The rainbow rice is homemade with food coloring.

Matching jars and lids...
Ok, so not a rainbow activity, but I was anxious to put this out on our shelves. I've been saving up glass jars of various sizes for the past few months and I finally had enough to create this work. The lids are inside the homemade bag. James was really into this activity. It has come off the shelves many times. Love when that happens!

Buttoning with the button snake...
It's been a while since I put this out, and I'm pleased to say James was really interested in it this time. Unfortunately, I need to re-evaluate the design of my snake. I think the button is too small because it was tricky for James to get a good grasp on it.

Color mixing...
This is a classic Montessori activity whereby the child uses a dropper to transfer the colors from the (baby food) jars into the cube sections of the ice tray. They take notice of the color change that occurs when certain colors are mixed together. We love this work - anything involving water is usually at the top of the list for James. :)

Rolling/unrolling a mat...
Again, not rainbow (sorry!), but I snapped this shot of James and wanted to share it. We use a mat for all of our floor activities. For those not familiar with Montessori, the reason for using a mat is because it delineates the child's workspace. It's best to use mats/rugs that are light in color and free from distracting patterns or designs. This allows the child to focus on the work, not the mat. Anyway, rolling and unrolling a mat is one of the very first things a child learns in a Montessori environment. James is a pro at this and usually knows which activities are intended for a mat and which are meant for the table.

Sorting

Sorting gems by color...I found these fake crystal looking gems at the pet store of all places! I found the citrus bowl at our local thrift store and the small pepper looking bowls (I think they're supposed to be apples) came in a kit which I purchased here. Just a side note, if you do decide to order this kit please note the quality of the small fake food is quite poor.

Sorting wooden beads by color or pattern...I love these beads. I found them at a store called Daisy & Mac. They came all bound together on a long elastic string. No clue what the intended purpose was for them, but I thought they'd make a great sorting tool.

Placing colored beads into the suction cups of bathtub mats (you can find the mats here)...
Excellent activity for improving fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and color discrimination. The cute little clay pot is from Mexico, a gift from my dear friend, Dana. James is SO careful with it - he knows it's special and treats it with great respect. I know a lot of people don't believe this, but children can (and should!) be trusted with breakable things. They just need to learn how to handle them first. There's sense of pride and accomplishment they inherit from knowing they are being trusted with these kinds of things.

Sorting itty bitty fruit by shape and color.
James got such a kick out of these! He loves tiny things. Of course he counted the fruits as he sorted them. :) I found these at our local craft store.

Click here and here to see our other rainbow activities.

Rainbow Activities - Part I

Here's the first batch of rainbow-y activities I put together for James. Really they're not so much about rainbows as they are just really colorful! :)

Numbers:
Lego counting. This is an oldie but goodie; one that I created ages ago. You can download my template here, if you're interested.

Lacing number beads. (These are awesome - you can buy them here.) It's amazing how kids change in what seems like a blink of the eye. A few months ago James was either unable or unwilling to do any kind of lacing. Now he's a lacing machine! He has spent a good 20 minutes here and there working on these. He says "I knitting!" whenever he does it. He sees me knitting all the time and often asks to learn - I can't wait to teach him in a couple of years.

Bead counting. I used a paint tray and those little magnetic numbers you can stick on the fridge. My lovely friend, Karen, sent me these (and the tray!) from Puerto Rico!

Counting fish. Click here to read more about these fun little fish I made.

Letters:
Alphabet puzzle. I put this out because James loves it - he knows the sequence of the alphabet, so it's not as though he's learning anything new, but I'm a believer in repetition and let's not forget that puzzles are great for improving fine motor skills!

Memory/match game. I found a pack of these Noah's Ark calendar inserts at a local teacher's supply store. I use calendar inserts all the time because they're so versatile. In this case, I wrote James' name in both capital and lowercase letters. He'll have to flip them over to find the matches and then arrange them to spell his name. I think he'll do fine with the letter matching, but the name spelling may be a challenge. We'll see!

We used our rainbow playdough to spell out the word 'rainbow'. These letter cookie cutters were money well spent - we use them all the time! You can buy a set here.

Tracing the alphabet with colorful pencils. I think James is really going to like this. We've already worked with tracing letters in a sand tray, and since I don't have metal insets at my disposal (yet!) I'll have to make due with this. I love the Lyra colored pencils in the roll-up case I made. A bit pricey, but trust me - they are so much nicer to work with than regular ol' colored pencils.

And just a little shout-out: be sure to visit Confessions of a Homeschooler for TONS of 'R' rainbow-themed letter and number printables!

Books:
Let's Paint a Rainbow, by Eric Carle is a simple, but cute book. I think it's out of print though - I found it at the thrift shop.

Rainbow Fish, by Marcus Pfister. James really liked this book and I was pleased to find out it has been adapted into an educational series with topics on counting (available in Spanish, too!), opposites and colors.

Planting a Rainbow, by Lois Ehlert. This is lovely book and a must have for anyone.

Eating the Alphabet - another Lois Ehlert book (we love her!) - this one inspired me to create this...

A rainbow of fruit muffin tin meal! Strawberries, oranges, pineapple, kiwi, blueberries, grapes and some pink lemonade! :) As the last two books point out, nature is FULL of rainbows!

Click here for Part II of our rainbow activities.

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. ;)