Sensory Bin - Slime, Gel, and Goop :)

Our latest sensory bin was put together mainly because LO was just having WAY too much fun with this Magic School Bus Kit on Slime, Gel, and Goop :)  He received this kit for Christmas and just absolutely fell in love it! :)  Once we completed the actual lessons, he just wanted  to play with it more and to conduct more experiments.  In the essence of trying to figure out HOW to save such a kit, I realized it would make a GREAT sensory bin! :)  So I dumped out most of the contents of the previous sensory bin on "snow" and put all the materials from this Magic School Bus Kit inside :)  LO was in heaven!  :)  He played with it for 2 solid hours straight! :)


Here is my "How To" in pictures on making this sensory bin :)

Slime, Gel, and Goop Sensory Bin 101 :)

1.  The materials included the following:  a small funnel, a small plastic test tube holder, a couple of plastic test tubes, an eyedropper, a popsicle stick, instant snow, some gel rocks, some gel balls, a plastic cup (for water), and some tap water.

 2.  As you can see from the pictures, LO had loads of fun and it got kinda messy.  He used the water to mix up the materials and watched what happened.  He loved pouring things in the funnel to see what would happen and to make things in the test tubes.  You are going to need lots of paper towels to help you LO clean up the mess :)

 3.  After cleaning up the original mess is when I realized this would make a great sensory bin activity! :)  Hahaha.  Lesson learned on this one.  So I transferred all the materials from the table into the empty plastic container.   I told LO that he had to keep it ALL inside the container or else he was not allowed to continue playing with it.  He did make a little more of a mess but it was not nearly as much as the original :)  I also added some measuring spoons, plastic fork, plastic cups, and pipe cleaners to the sensory bin.  LO LOVED the addition of the measuring spoons and cups! :)  He played with this for about 2 hours straight that day and has taken it out multiple times since :)

4.  I also used my label maker to add a label on the outside of my plastic container to read "sensory bin." :)  I hope to change up the sensory bin at least once a month.  Keep tuned for  more :)

Volcano Lesson

 For those that like step-by-step instructions, I am going to step you through my volcano lesson with my preschooler :)  It's super simple  and we used things that we already had in the house.

Volcano Lesson 101 :)

1.  My son LOVES dinosaurs and volcanoes.  He already had this very cute stamp set made by Melissa and Doug that had dinosaurs and a volcano stamp.  He started our lesson by using the stamps to make a "scene" including dinosaurs and a volcano.   We just used a basic piece of white paper.

2. While he was happy stamping away, I got together our materials for our volcano lesson.  All you need are: a cookie sheet with sides, one canister of regular playdoh, some vinegar (I used balsamic but any vinegar will do the trick), some baking soda, and a spoon.

3.  I placed the playdoh in the center of the cookie sheet and made it into a rough shape of a volcano.  I then used my thumb to push a hole in the center of our volcano.  We placed some baking soda into the hole (little one liked to do this part).  And that I poured some vinegar into the hole, which makes the "volcanic eruption." :)

4.  Here is a video of our "volcanic eruption" lesson in action :) Enjoy! It's an easy, peasy lesson and loads of fun! :)

"Snow" Sensory Bin

For the month of January, my son wanted to play in the snow.  But there wasn't any actual snow outside.  So I decided to bring the "snow" inside :)  Here is what we put in our "snow" sensory bin.  It was super easy to make and I used things that were already in my house.  Sensory bins do not require a lot of money or specific "lists". You can use anything you want and BE CREATIVE :)  For those that want a "list" here are pictures of what I used :)

"Snow" Sensory Bin 101 :)

My Steps in Pictures :)

1 - I got a medium size plastic bin.  Any sort of plastic container will work just fine. I picked up a whole bunch of these at Target and use them for all sorts of things. I love that they fit very nicely on my homeschool bookshelves.

2.  I grabbed some Polyfil from my sewing bag.  It was leftover from making LO's Halloween costume. I thought it looked like white fluffy snow.

3.  I grabbed some cotton balls from our medicine cabinet.  Definitely fit the "white and fluffy snowball" category that I was looking for.

4.  Then I grabbed some foam balls.  We bought these to do various crafts.  I also threw in the bin some white plastic cups.  I figured he could stuff "snow" in the cups.  He used them to be "cones" for ice cream ;)

5.  I had some random silver and white pipe cleaners in the craft drawer, so I threw those in.  I figured that he would come up with something fun to do with pipe cleaners.

6.  I also threw in some white coffee filters.  Basically because they were white and I was like "why not?" ;)

7.  And then we had some leftover candy canes and when I think of "snow", I think of Christmas.  And I had a random Pampered Chef scraper and some measuring cups and white plastic lids in my kitchen "junk" drawer, so I threw those in the box.  Measuring cups are ALWAYS a good thing for a sensory  bin.  Mixing and pouring and HUGE preschool concepts. :)  Oh, and I threw in some marshmellows.  I figured they were sticky and would be fun to play with ;)  Obviously we were not going to eat those afterwards ;)  [but if you check out my "Grotto" blog post which I will be posting soon, you will see that we recycled the marshmellows from this sensory bin to melt to make his grotto out of corn flakes]

8.  LO sitting proudly at his school table with his sensory bin.  I didn't let him see what I was putting in it so that it would be a surprise.  He is waiting in anticipation in this picture. ;)

9. LO is discovering the cups and coffee filters.  He decided that they were ice cream ;)

10.  LO's big "idea" was to make snowmen out of the foam balls. ;)  I gave him some toothpicks to hold them together.  If you are doing this with really little ones, I would not advise toothpicks.

And that is our "snow" sensory bin :)  LO loved it and played with it a lot. Stay tuned for my blog post on our next sensory bin which was on "slime, gel, and goop" ;)

A Must Read about Blogs :)

Just stumbled on a great blog post from one of my favorite homeschool bloggers :) It is sooo true! Please keep her rules in mind when you read my blog and see my pictures :) http://www.theunlikelyhomeschool.com/2013/01/the-ugly-truth-about-blog.html?showComment=1359317227235#c8462655698032823960

An Awesome Homeschooling Day . . .

An Awesome Homeschooling Day . . . looks like this :)

When I got home from work (around 12noon), I told my LO that we were going to do some of his "school", but that first I needed lunch and a shower.  He was following me all over going "Is it time for school?  Is it time for school?  Is it time for school?"  :)  He was soooo excited!  :)   We had a great day with lots of lessons (way more than I had planned to do!).  When we finished one thing he was like "now what?  let's do more!"  So we kept on going :)

This is what we accomplished :)

- Updated our Circle Time wall by updating our month to January, our calendar of events for January, and our day of the week.  We also reviewed the season "Winter" and the liturgical season "Christmas".

- Read various books

- Finished our "space" unit using "George's Secret Key to the Universe" (finally!  We started this so long ago that my  renewal options from the library had run out!)  And, LO, retained A LOT of the information and could answer all my review and critical thinking questions from the chapter book.

- Completed his National Geographic Little Kids magazine for January/February

- Made our first monthly sensory bin for the year.  LO wanted to play with "snow", so I made that the theme. :) - I am going to make another blog post specifically on what I put in the "snow" sensory bin. :)

- We completed our PBS Dinosaur Train Lesson on volcanoes by making a volcano eruption using playdoh, baking soda, and balsamic vinegar. - I am going to make a seperate blog post with the specifics of this lesson :)

- He used his stamps to make a dinosaur and volcano theme.

- He played with his playdoh to make more dinosaurs, sharks, and volcanoes.

- We watched a YouTube video from the Discovery Channel about volcano eruptions.

All-in-all, it was a great homeschooling day! :)

Started a Nature Collection Today :)

Today we went outside and started a Nature Collection.  :)   LO collected pinecombs, rocks, pine needles, and twigs for his collection.   We were following the PBS Dinosaur Train lesson found here: http://www.pbs.org/teachers/dinosaurtrain/lessonplans/naturecollection/.  Here are some pictures:

What I do for each subject

What I do for each subject

*I have a preschooler – age 3.5 years*

LA (incl. handwriting) - Read lots of books, progressive phonics

Math – Right Start Math Level A

Science – PBS Lessons (Dinosaur Train)

Social studies – visit Smithsonian Museums

Health – basic daily hygiene practice (brush teeth, get dressed, wash hands, etc.)

Music – Beginning Piano lessons

Art – Gymboree School Skills class

Library studies – weekly library playdate

PE – weekly yoga class

Bible – Catholic Icing Preschool Curriculum; go to church weekly; say prayers daily

other subjects – Spanish – We use library DVDS (Whistlefritz and Little Pim, mainly)