Mouse paint and mixing colors

We have been busy mixing colors and learning all about what colors mix to make other colors.

Funshine  express always provides a book list to use with the theme. I like to pick a couple and then choose one to focus on and extend activities from it. Mouse paint was the book I chose and the kids have loved it. They anticipate what colors will be made.

The kiddos really enjoyed squirting the food coloring in and watching it drop in and the observe the color change. Their eyes lit up and were so excited to see the colors changing. We changed the colors several times because they enjoyed squeezing the food coloring in.

 Paint can be messy, but oh so fun! With this activity, we crumbled up paper and dapped into paint and then blotted away. One thing I was excited about was they noticed that the colors were mixing and making different colors. We discussed that even with paint, colors can mix and make other colors.

This month the opposites were dirty and clean. In the Funshine curriculum, one of the ways to learn about them was by washing dirty dishes and making them clean. I saved all the paint plates from the other day and they all had a blast washing the paint wash off. We explored the water and why it was changing colors. We observed the bubbles and what is making the paint disappear. The process is so much more than the product. It amazes how the brain can soak things up at such a little size and so many words are formed. Just amazing!

Of course I had to make a video! 

Hearts and more

Scribbling can be turned into any picture the child wants to make it.

Since I have toddlers, scribbling is what we practice and as the year goes on, some of those scribbles start turning into pictures and a story.

 There are a lot of ways the kids can have  fun scribbling . One of the ways we had fun, was laying on our backs and scribbling on paper under the table. 

 The kids thought this was so fun. 

Funshine express had several ways the easy learning games can be used. 

The paint brushes from the paint splat game were used for a very cute song.

 Aaron had fun doing his own version of Four little Brushes. I heard slot of oops!

Four Little Brushes (sung to "five little ducks")

Four little brushes just for me.

I can paint with them you see.

Oops! I dropped one on the floor.

That's ok, I have three more .

Three little brushes just for me.

I can paint  with them you see.

Oops! I dropped one on the floor.

That's ok, I have two more.

Two little brushes just for me.

I can paint with it you see.

Oops! I dropped one on the floor.

That's ok, I have one more. 

One little brush just for me.

I can paint with it you see.

Oops! I dropped one on the floor.

What will I do. I have no more!

Four little brushes on the floor,

Pick them up; one, two, three, four.

Wash them off; they're good as new!

I can paint again! It's true.

The children's favorite part was oops, I dropped it in the floor. I would put emphasis on the word oops and they would anxiously await the word.

The activity we did today , was Heart Rubbing.

The kids took the plastic heart that was provided in the kit and placed the pink paper over it and used the triangle crayon to rub over it. It took a few times before they got of the hang of it, but once they did, they had a lot of fun!

Squiggle and spats

We have started a new fun theme. It's about scribbles and paint. 

One of the Funshine express activities was to cut paint splat shapes and have the kids jump color to color on them. The kids had so much fun. I put on some fun dance music while they jumped. I started a little game. We pointed out the colors when we jumped on them. 

Funshine always has the best early learning materials. 

This game was called paints and brushes . All the kids had to do was match the paint on the tip of the brush, to the paint splat. 

The kids had so much fun with it. I heard "what is your favorite color on here?" "Where is the color _______?" So much teamwork and conversation going on. 

Another idea I got from the curriuculm was to have the kids hold a one the brushes from the game and pretend to paint objects or find colors that match. 

So simple, but so much learning can come out the simplest things. 

Remember To use my 20% code to get on your first kit.

Polar bears and snowman

 We are in our final week of snow friends.

By the end of the 2 weeks, he kids are ready to move on. Buttercups curiculum is 2 weeks on a them and fireflies is 4 weeks. 

To finish up the theme we made really cute snowmen from white paper bags and stuffed them with paper. The kids had so much fun.

They turned out really cute.

The kids used their pointer finger and some black stamps to make the buttons .

One of the books from the book list was this one.

I decided to make a sensory table using polar bears , snow and lots of busy hands.

The kids enjoyed digging to find polar bears.

They pretended it was cold and kept trying to warm them up. 

Hearts and snow

It finally feels like winter out and it makes it easier to talk about snow animals and what animals live in the cold.

Last week we talked about penguins. This week the seal and polar bear was introduced. We continued with a fun activity and a cute book to learn about the heart shape.

The plastic hearts was one of the manipulative that came with the Funshine curriculum. 

I decided to set the hearts out and some items to sort and just let the kids decide what they wanted to and how to sort. 

Aaron picked up the dinosaurs and Had  a dialogue. It was so much fun to listen to all the imagination that was going on. 

Toddlers love to use stickers. I have a stash of stickers to get out if I need to. Since the shape of the month is a heart, I pulled out my heart stickers and had the kiddos peel and stick on a white heart doiley.

Stickers can sometimes be tricky for little fingers to peel off. I peel the backing off the sticker paper(outline) and then it just leaves the stickers and it easier for the little fingers to grasp on to.

Since sharing is really hard to do, I always show and talk about team work. 

Consistency is the key and when I observe team work finally taking place, I think "success" when I hear little voices , say "want to help me?"I smile and just continue to watch it play out.

It may not happen everyday, and most likely will not, but when it does, I embrace it. 

I posted this on my Instagram page. To see more posts you can follow me @coleykidscreations.

Water fun(baby edition)

Water is so fun for all ages. Since I have some mixed ages, water is always something everybody can enjoy. 

Every other Month when I get my Funshine express curriculum, I always get 2 manipulatives that go along with the theme for that month. 

The first manipulative was a penguin water toy.

Since it had four Peices, everybody got a chance to use one of them. We would switch after 5 mins. Rotating keeps everything simple and everybody gets a turn with something new. 

The youngest child I have is 10 months and most of the manipulatives that come , she can easily play with them in her way. 

 She LOVED playing with them in water. 

One of other activities that we did was match the snow friends to the picture.

The baby even enjoyed it. I would say the animal out loud when she would pick it up. I laminate everything I can so they are a lot more durable that way. 

Remember those penguin pictures from my last post? They turned out so cute and each one is so different.

Did you know I have a Facebook page? You can search coleykidscreations and it will pop right up. 

Have a super weekend!

Black and white( because penguins are)

Well we are off to a great start of the new year. 

We started a new theme "snow friends"

The animal (which happens to be my favorite) that we are focusing on is the penguin. 

Look how cute that baby is. I could sit and watch them for hours.

The waddle is my favorite part so of course I had the kids waddle to the song 

I am a little penguin. 

(The tune of I am a little teapot)

 I'm a little penguin,short and stout.

I cannot fly, so I waddle about

When I want to eat, I have to swim 

So I waddle to the water and dive right in.

This song can be found on Funshine express music and movement curriuculm c.d. All the songs complement the  curriculum.

These are some materials we used. The book was provided by Funshine express. 

The penguins are for the penguin tracks art activity. 

We painted ball paint on 3 fingers and made penguin tracks. We looked at peguins feet so the kids understood why we were only using 3 fingers.

Then we painted white paint to represent  snow. I added glitter so it would glisten . The kiddos loved using glitter. 

I will show the finished product on my next post. 

If you are getting interested or ready to get on the Funshine train, I have a code that will provide a discount. Who does not love a discount?