Homemade Rainbow Glitter Playdough and Stencils

Last week Grammy was here for a visit, and, Masha' Allah, brought me some consignment sale goodies, one of which was a box of stencils. I had been wanting to do a craft I saw on an Early Childhood sight I follow, that incorporates playdough and stencils, so we got right to work on it the next morning. You can find the activity here:

 http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/play-doh-and-stencils/

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Stencils

We have the stencils pictured in the blog post, but we used the ones Grammy brought instead and this set was the main reason:

The picture and the words are together, great reinforcement for our 'early readers' Masha' Allah. 

However, the box contained a variety of fun stencils:

Even the lid could be used as one

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Rainbow Glitter Playdough

For this activity I wanted to use homemade playdough, since the stencils were rather large, and we don't have large amounts of jarred playdough. I went to our favorite 'Snow' playdough recipe and doubled it, but swapped out the silver glitter for Red, Orange, Gold, Green, Blue and Violet glitter. I put the glitter in three separate layers of the playdough mix to ensure lots of sparkles

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Getting Started

Masha' Allah, everyone was happy to see warm, homemade playdough on the table, and wasted no time getting work. 

Masha Allah, with the help and supervision of Mommy, and Grammy, even Baby Professor joined in

He enjoyed himself, and only tried to sneak a bite of playdough once. 

Everyone else hard at work Masha' Allah

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Prints

One of the main ideas behind the original activity was to help with word recognition and spelling. Here are some of the prints we made with the word and picture sentcils

Masha' Allah, we really enjoyed this activity, and I was impressed with how the playdough turned out. The playdough container has been out in the school room on and off since we made it, and Professor #3 is still having a ball with it well into the weekend.

Field Trip: National Zoo

Last week we took advantage of the incredible weather we were having here on the east coast, and took the Professors to the National Zoo, in downtown Washington DC. This was the second trip for the twins, but the first for Professor #3, and Baby Professor. We aimed to make it an authentic field trip with packed lunches, backpacks, and worksheets. Masha' Allah, the Professors were over the moon, and DH and I were so excited, we forgot the camera at home.

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Getting Started

On the National Zoo website, http://nationalzoo.si.edu/ there is section on the homepage titled EDUCATION on the left, click that to get to another section titled, Field Trip Resources. On that list is a link titled Activity Sheets, click the link to bring up a small list of printable worksheets for your trip to the zoo. Fun!

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Worksheets

We chose two worksheets for our trip, the first one was titled  Zoo-per Bingo. 

Each Professor got a worksheet. You are supposed to use the worksheet as a Bingo board, while you walk through the Zoo. Our original idea was to have the Professors just circle what animals they saw, but after the first station, it was hard to keep up, so they used them more like maps, which Masha' Allah, ended up being a pretty useful idea : )

 The second worksheet we used was titled Creature Features Scavenger Hunt. We used this one to help guide them through the different exhibits. The questions generally asked about animal color, size, shape, and a few specifics, such as, does it have a tail, does it have fur, etc. This helped them focus more on what they were seeing at each exhibit. 

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Trip Summary

As I said in the intro, we left our camera at home, so I will share some of the highlights insha' Allah. 

The first stop we made was to the Kids Farm. Its supposed to be a petting zoo, and you can brush and feed some of the animals when staff is on sight. Unfortunately for us, there was no staff on when we toured that area. The Professors enjoyed it, but we breezed through fairly quick. 

One of the things that impressed us all was something called 'The O Line.' This is a length of high beams and rope set up across the zoo from the Ape House to where the Orangutans are housed. Its named after the DC Metro system, and the Orangutans can climb across "The O Line" from house to house. We were fortunate enough to spot a few of them making their way back home, after snaking in a small grassy patch under one of the beams. It was really something to see, Masha' Allah, and we did not see that last trip. 

Another highlight for the Professors was seeing Turtles. There is a large area located under a waterfall that goes into a pond. There were lots and lots of different turtles, but they were surprised to see Red Eared Sliders, two of which, Masha Allah, they have as pets. All the turtles looked pretty happy soaking up the afternoon sun.

Finally, Professor #2 reallly wanted to see the Octopus. It took a little looking to find the exhibit they were housed in, but we eventually found it. It was housed in a neat Aquarium style exhibit, so we got to see all kinds of sea life, hermit crabs, blue crabs and coral, amongst other exhibits. On the way out you have to pass through something called the, Polination Station. It was a beautiful open area full of butterflies and flowers, reminded me of another place we love, Longwood Gardens, in PA. The Professors weren't to sure of the butterflies flying around them, but it was Masha' Allah, so beautiful. 

We did not get to tour the entire Zoo due to the heat, and length of it. Insha' Allah we will go back soon and finish the trip, and see some of the bigger animals.

Alhumdullilah, we finished the day at one of our favorite local parks, which gave the Professors some breathing room to play and eat, and also kept us from being caught up in rush hour traffic.

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Circle Time Wrap Up

Today, we did a small circle time wrap up of our trip. While the Professors colored in their Bingo  boards, I went through the second worksheet and asked them the questions, phrasing them as 'What did we see that was __________?' Here they are below if you care to take a look at their answers.

Masha' Allah I was surprised at some of their answers, and what they remembered. I filled in all of their worksheets so they can have it in their folders, and if they ever want to talk about the trip, its all  journaled right there, and they can add on more if they want, insha' Allah. 

Homemade Hashbrowns

Masha' Allah, a friend of ours recently gifted the Professors with this cookbook:

It's full of colorful pictures, just like the cover, and all the recipes we've tried so far have been hits, Alhumdullilah. 

For a snack yesterday, I decided to try their Breakfast Potatoes recipe, as a side with scrambled eggs. 

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Going into the oven.

All done.

Snack is served.

Masha' Allah I thought they tasted really good, but everyone else needed some coaxing to give them a try, but did well once they got started. I mushed up a few pieces of potato for Baby Professor to try. Nope. I plan to make this again, and use more potatoes to vegetables next time around insha' Allah. 

Recipe is below. Enjoy!

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5 A Day Breakfast Potatoes

1 1/2 pounds Baby Red or small Russet Potatoes, cut into 1- inch cubes

1 medium Red Bell Pepper, cut into 1-inch cubes

1 medium Green Bell Pepper, cut into 1-inch cubes

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaves, crushed 

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

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1. Preheat Oven to 450

2. Combine all ingredients in mixing bowl. Stir well to get oil over all vegetables.

3. Coat baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray ( I used Crisco Shortening)

4. Spread potato mixture evenly over baking sheet

 5. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. 

Transferring Beans, and Rice.

For his work today, Professor #3 transferred kidney beans from a large bowl, to a medium size bowl, using a small pitcher. This activity was a combination of two activities from the book Teach Me To Do It Myself, by Maja Pitamic The first activity we did yesterday, transferring rice. This activity, with the beans, was meant to have the child pour the beans from one large pitcher to another. I don't have the style pitchers needed for the activity, so I decided to give him a small pitcher from a play set, and have him scoop the beans from a large sized bowl, into a medium sized bowl, then dump the medium bowl, back into the large bowl.

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Getting Started

Some of you might recognize this pitcher. Its from a Tupperware play set. 

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 Hard at work

Masha' Allah this was a fairly easy activity for him, and he enjoyed it alot, wanting to repeat it several times. 

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After he was done with this I put out the tray he worked on yesterday, transferring the rice from right to left. He groaned and said 'This is the spilling one!' He was not happy about wanting to do this, because he gets frustrated when the rice drops. I told him its ok, that's why we do this, so we can practice. He wasn't buying it an literally rolled his eyes when I told him I still wanted him to complete the activity. 

You can tell by the way he's sitting he's not interested. He was a good sport though, and we got through it. 

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I didn't have it in me to have the twins do separate work today. As I've said many times, by the end of the week, we are all tired and, the housework has usually grown long and I am eager to get to work on that. That being said I had them complete the rice and bean transferring trays as their morning work. They loved it, and Professor #3 was eager to try the bean transferring tray again. 

Here they all are working hard, Masha' Allah.

Baby Professor kept busy with a flip book 

He wasn't the happiest camper today either, probably because he spent most of nap time yesterday jumping up and down in his crib, instead of actually napping, Masha' Allah. Little quieter all around this afternoon ; )