"Ten Apples Up On Top" with Apple Playdough

We love books. Especially books that allow us to play and read at the same time! I saw a recipe on Pinterest for Apple Playdough but didn't have the book the original blogger used with her activity. After looking through my bookshelf I realized we had "Ten Apples Up on Top" and that it would be perfect! I picked up some inexpensive apple cookie cutters at my local craft store so that the kids could all make apples while we read the book. This apple scented playdough would be perfect for any fall activity or book with apples in it! It smells SO yummy!

The first thing we did was make the playdough. Here's the recipe:

*1 cup flour

*1/2 cup salt (use iodized, not kosher for smoother dough)
*1 Tablespoon olive oil
*1 Tablespoon cream of tartar
*1 cup water
*Red food coloring (I use the Wilton gel colors)
*1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
*1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
*1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
*1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom

1. Stir ingredients together well in pot. 

2. Over medium heat cook the dough, stirring constantly until it forms a ball. 

3. Turn dough onto a board (or the countertop) and knead until very smooth. 

4. Cool. 

5. Store in a covered plastic container.

When we were reading the book I kept a cookie cutter and a portion of the playdough for myself, making an apple each time the characters in the story added one to the tops of their heads and stacking mine like the illustrations.

Elephant Toothpaste

This is such a fun little science experiment that is a variation on the volcano explosion we all know from elementary school science class. My kids were amazed at how thick the mixture came out! We will definitely be doing this a lot!

I got the idea and the recipe here:
http://preschoolpowolpackets.blogspot.com/2012/01/science-experiment-elephant-toothpaste.html

*2 tablespoons warm water
*1 teaspoon yeast
*1/2 cup 6% (or higher) Hydrogen Peroxide. (I couldn't find this in stores so I ordered it from Amazon.)
*4-5 drops of food coloring
*squirt of dish soap.

1. Set a bottle or a jar in the middle of a cookie sheet.
2. In a seperate bowl mix water and yeast together and let sit until dissolved.
3. Mix the hydrogen peroxide, the food coloring and the dish soap in your bottle.
4. Pour the yeast mixture into your bottle.
5. Watch the reaction!

Magic Mud

This was so cool! This activity lasted for well over an hour and it kept Tate's attention the longest! This will definitely go into my bag of tricks! We had already been playing with this for almost an hour when Nathan got home from school and he joined right in, taking it outside and playing with it for another half an hour at least! Definitely great for kids of all ages!

1 cup of water
food coloring
2 cups of corn starch

*Pour water into a bowl.
*Add food coloring and stir until mixed thoroughly
*Add 2 cups of corn starch
*Mix well. This will take some effort! It is not easy to mix, but once mixed it is a lot of fun!

This activity is a great way to play with solid vs. liquid. If you gently touch the mixture it reacts like a liquid, but if you strike the mixture hard to reacts like a solid. My kids were amazed at how it could be so gooey one second and hard as a rock the next!

Clean up is easy. If any gets out of the bowl is dries quickly and can be swept up. Any other residue is quickly cleaned up with a wet rag. I should have realized ahead of time that so much of the mixture was going to end up outside the bowl, but I didn't. Next time I may put down a layer of our craft paper to help clean up even easier! And I will definitely double the recipe next time to make enough for each kid to have their own bowl or cookie sheet.

Alphabet Eggs

These are a great little tool for working on letter recognition. These can be a simple game of picking up a letter and talking about what it is, what sound it makes and what words begin with it or it can be a more difficult game of matching upper case letters to lower case letters. You could even hide these eggs around your house with things in them that start with the letters and talk about them as the kids find them. I am sure that there are many more ways that you could come up with to use these!

Since I still have pre-k aged children we started with the simple version. Lana loved this!! But she is my two year old who is always begging for homework and loves anything to do with learning. To be fair, her twin brother fell asleep while I was prepping this activity so I'm not sure if he would have liked it or not. Our adventurous 4 year old who likes everything fast paced told me that this was "too slow" and may have also used the word "boring." Since he was the one who had picked out this activity on Pinterest I was hoping he would really like it! The next time we play with the Alphabet Eggs I am going to do an Egg Hunt! I am sure the increased activity level will help Tate participate more willingly. For now I am VERY happy to add these to my box of activities!

Watercolor Paints

This was another fun activity that the kids really enjoyed. Of course any paint activity usually gets rave reviews in our house! These paints are pretty easy to make, the hard part is waiting for them to dry so that you can use them!

This idea came from here:
http://happyhooligans.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/home-made-water-colour-paints/

4 tbsp baking soda

2 tbsp white vinegar

1/2 tsp light or golden corn syrup

2 tbsp corn starch

Food colouring

container to keep your paints in – I used a  muffin tin, but you could use an ice-cube tray, small plastic cups, plastic egg carton etc.

*Mix your baking soda and vinegar together and wait for the fizzing to stop. It’s handy if you mix in a container that has a spout (I used a 2c measuring cup).
*Add your corn syrup and corn starch, and mix well until the corn starch has dissolved.
*Pour into your containers. (I doubled the recipe.)
*Use toothpicks for adding your colours, stirring to make sure the colour is mixed in well.  
*Let dry for a couple of days.

Pinterest Makes Me a Better Mom!

I love doing activities with the kids, but I can't always come up with new ideas or creative ideas that will keep their attention but after joining Pinterest I have been able to find a ton of ideas that the kids love!!! My plan is to share all of the fun with you!

I try to do as many fun and educational activities with the kids at home as I can. Lana and Jackson are 2 1/2 years old and very curious about their letters, numbers, colors and shapes. Lana is constantly asking for homework! Tate is 4 years old and has a hard time sitting still so traditional worksheets and workbooks aren't a good fit with him. He also doesn't like to recite his numbers or letters so we have to trick him into participating by making activities silly.

One of the very first activities I tried was a sensory bin full of uncooked rice. I hid our alphabet magnets in it and let the kids take turns finding the letters. As they found the letters we talked about each one and thought of words that started with them. They loved this little treasure hunt!

Painting on Tin Foil

This idea came from this ingenious mom on Pinterest!
http://youllthankmeoneday.blogspot.ca/2011/04/painting-on-tinfoil.html

Now I must say that while my kids really liked this and thought it was pretty neat, we didn't see the brilliant colors this mom raved about. But, that being said, any type of painting is usually a big hit with my almost 3 year old twins. It captured my 4 year olds attention for a litte while, but not nearly as long as my little guys.

It's a pretty simple activity. All you need is paint, a brush and some tin foil!