Raised Handprint Stones

I came across this post, and decided this was going to be our Mother's Day project! Aren't they adorable?!

I followed the instructions, but here is my take on it:

1. I made this playdoh recipe step by step, minus the food coloring. For 14 kids, I made 4 batches of it. I was able to reuse it, but you will have to add more flour as the water from the plaster of Paris will soak in.

2. Divide one batch in half and fill in an empty container. I used a recycled Cool Whip container.

3. Press the kids hands in really deep. You want to make a deep enough imprint that it will feel lifelike when the final product is ready! If you mess up, no worries. You can reset the dough and start again.

4. Once that's done, start mixing the plaster. The recipe is two parts plaster to one part water. I did 2 cups of plaster and one cup of water.

5. After mixing, dump it right in your container. It is liquidy enough to fill in the handprint spaces! Now just let it dry. I let it dry overnight in the classroom and in the morning the plaster pops right off the play dough! Cool huh?

I didn't take a picture of the final product :( But they turned out really cool!!



One problem I came across was that plaster of Paris will dissolve in the rain, if placed in a garden as a stepping stone. I'm not sure how to make them waterproof? I did think about using a cement mix instead of plaster, but I'm not sure if it would capture the details and/ or even conform to the mold? Anybody have experience doing it that way? Please share!

Music Library

Hi ladies!

At a meeting a few months ago, somebody brought up creating a music library for our center. Well, I have started one. If you have any children's CD's that are not listed, could you please let me add them?

If you see a CD that you would like, give me a blank CD and I will burn you a copy!

The Master List:

(to be updated)

Sensory bags

Yesterday I attended the MIAEYC Conference in Grand Rapids. One of the sessions that I attended was about sensory experiences for infants and toddlers.

One concern that a lot of people had was that children this young put everything in their mouths, and therefore the teachers are not doing sensory experiences in their rooms! SO. SAD.

We loOoOve sensory in my toddler classroom! We have fun and aren't afraid to get messy. Yes, toddlers learn through hands on experiences. As long as caregivers are active in the process, then you can prevent hands from going into mouths and other uh oh moments.

Another concern was germs. If you are an educator, then I'm sure you can figure out a way to clean up ;) Warm soapy water works great most times.

After the conference, I decided to make some sensory bags by adding gooey stuff to Ziploc bags. You can put anything in them! I even made one with a cut up grocery bag. It makes a cool sound when squished. Don't forget that there are more senses besides that of touch!

Here are my photos:

In the last photo, the final bags consisted of:

Top left: Hair gel with foil glitter

Top center: Moon sand

Top right: Hair gel with gems

Center left: Hair gel and food coloring with mardi gras beads

Center middle: Plastic bag

Center right: Rocks and water

Bottom left: Hair gel and food coloring with glow in the dark stars

Bottom right: Baby powder with buttons

St. Patrick's Day Week

Here are some photos from our St. Patrick's Day week:

1. Marble painting leprechaun hats

2. Rainbow sponge painting!

3. Pot of gold with paper plates

4. Door decorations with marble painted shammrocks

5. Picasso Leprechauns

6. Rainbow ribbon: dipped in homemade mod podge (half glue, half water)

Dr. Seuss Week

Here are some photos from our Dr. Seuss week:

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

Green Eggs and Ham

Dinosaurs!

Here are some photos from our week of dinosaurs:

April is MOYC

April is Month of the Young Child. At my center, each class is doing a project that includes all of the kids. At the end of April, we are auctioning off all of the projects. Each project will have a starting bid of $25.00 and the profits benefit the classrooms.

A lot of the classrooms are doing something with painted handprints. For example, one room bought a white rocking chair and each child will have their handprint on it. But for some reason, I really don't like the idea of handprints. I mean, if I were a parent, what would I do with a rocking chair (or anything else for that matter) with a lot of handprints (that weren't all my child's) on it? Sure, the projects will be cute, but I just don't think they would be my top choice of a class project.

Since I work with toddlers, it was somewhat of a challenge to come up with a project that involved 12 children in which they would do most of the work.

I ended up thinking of this idea. I bought small wooden letters from Joann's for under $4 for the pack. I also bought a collage box from there. It ended up being $8 or so, after taking 60% off! My idea was to have the kids paint the letters of the alphabet and then glue them in the collage box to make a super cute frame to hang in a bedroom, playroom, or anywhere really! (I did choose which letters would be certain colors, to make a pretty pattern. But the kids chose which color they wanted to paint, and I gave them the right letters. I didn't show them how to paint the letters- I let them go to town. If I were doing it, I would have painted all the edges and left no white spots. But this was their project :) )

I taped the back of each letter to a paper plate so they wouldn't move around when little hands were painting. It worked wonders.

I really like the way it turned out and almost wish I would have bought a second set so we could hang it in our classroom!

Here are the photos:

Here are what some of the other classes did:

The infant room made a collage!

The mobile infants made fingerprint bugs on a rocking chair!

(Pic coming soon!)

The older infants made a platter set!

The older toddlers made an artist bear!

The other older toddler room made this picture!

The PreK-3 room made this canvas art!

The other PreK-3 room painted a shelf and birdhouses!

The PreK-4 room painted their handprints on a quilt, and also made "SMILES"!

The other PreK-4 room painted this toy chest!

Steals!

Most teachers always look for good deals! Whether looking on clearance shelves or cheap stores, buying things at a good price is always a happy moment.

Over the weekend, I went to Ikea and came up with these:

Click here for some great learning tray activities :)

More steals to come soon! Happy  shopping!