Raising Rooster

cultivating minds while harvesting sanity

Fun at Your Fingertips: Ice Cream Play Dough

Time for a little themed sensory play!  My sweet little Rooster is turning 3 this week and requested an ice cream party for her birthday.  Since I love a good theme, I am making this whole week about ICE CREAM! In preparation for a week of activities, I decided to whip up a batch of ice cream play dough.

 It is SUPER easy!  The only two ingredients are frosting and powdered sugar.  That’s it! I decided to make a triple batch with pink, purple, and yellow.  I like using the Funfetti kind because it is already colored and comes with sprinkles.  For making all three colors, I will use 3 tubs of frosting and 2 bags of powdered sugar.  All of this cost me around $7.00 total for a week of sensory fun.

Making Ice Cream

Making the Dough

This too is easy and something your child would probably enjoy helping with.  In our KitchenAid mixing bowl we combined one whole tub of frosting, the included sprinkles, and 3 cups of powdered sugar.  Mix on low until the powdered sugar gets mixed in with the frosting to prevent a sugar storm. Once it is pretty well blended, you can turn the speed up to medium.

Watching Ice Cream

Now take it out of the mixer and knead it together to form a nice ball.  You are done! I repeated the entire process 2 more times, thus resulting in 3 balls of “ice cream” play dough.  It has a fun texture, smells like ice cream, and is edible. I would not recommend eating it, but if your little one sneaks a little in their mouth, a sugar high is your only concern.

 

All set mommy

 

Using the Dough

After making the ice cream dough, I placed all three colors in a small tub from the Dollar Tree.  I left them separated, but know it will not be long before they get all mixed. You can use this dough just like normal play dough, but I am keeping the ice cream theme going.  For this first day of use, I just let my daughter explore with scooping the dough into her ice cream cups. She played with it for about 30 and would have played longer if I didn’t have to tell her to clean up.  So for today, this provided us with an hour of fun, minimally messy, and educational fun (30 minutes making & 30 minutes playtime).

Playing with colors

Preserving the Dough

I plan on using this dough with my daughter throughout the week.  I covered my tub with some plastic wrap and placed it in the refrigerator.  It will dry out some with use, but drizzle a little olive oil on it and knead to bring back to its original texture.

Please check back later in the week to see what other ice cream activities and book recommendations!

Thoughtful Themes: Fun on the Farm

As you probably know, I was previously a teacher and I LOVE thematic units!  When kids get really interested in a topic and learn about it through a variety of activities, it sticks.  So this week we read, learned about, and explored farms.

So where do you start…..BOOKS!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I check out a TON of books.  When I picked up my batch of farm books this week I had about 25.  These are just the books that came up when I searched for juvenile picture books about farms.  Many of them I have never read before.

So what do I do with all of these books?  I read them to my daughter. Do I complete an activity with each book?  Absolutely not! However, while reading them, I think about which ones lend themselves to a fun toddler activity.  This is where my teacher brain takes over. I think of ideas while reading these books with my daughter the first time, then I create activities to go with a few of them.  These selected books I will reread with my daughter prior to our learning fun.

 

This week the three books I decided to focus on were Mrs. Wishy-Washy’s Farm by Joy Cowley, Blue Goose by Nancy Tafuri, and I Spy on the Farm by Edward Gibbs.

Mrs. Wishy-Washy and Mrs. Wishy-Washy Farm

I read both of these books with my daughter and decided they were perfect for sensory play. The stories are both about farm animals getting dirty and Mrs. Wishy-Washy having to give them a bath in her big tub.

Prior to reading these to my daughter, I hid some of her little plastic farm animal in a garden container that I hadn’t gotten around to planting.  But really you could hide them in dirt anywhere around your house or in a little tub of dirt. When we were done reading the books, I told her I was worried that some of her animals may have been naughty and gotten dirty too.  

We went outside, and sure enough, they were a mess!  I got her a “tub” full of soapy water, some brushes, and a towel. I asked her if she could clean her animals just like Mrs. Wishy-Washy.  She loved taking care of her animals and mama got to sit outside and enjoy the beautiful day!

Blue Goose by Nancy Tafuri

This book was new to me, but as soon as we started reading I knew it was perfect for an art lesson!  Basically, it is about some animals that decide to paint their gray farm to make it colorful. It teaches primary colors and how to mix them to make secondary colors.  

We haven’t used our easel to paint in a while, so this was the perfect opportunity.  I made the very simple chart you see pictured below and decided to make the painting a messy adventure.  I painted her left hand the first color and her right hand the second color. She stamped them each separately on the paper.  Then, we predicted what color we would get if we mixed them together. Now the fun part! I let her rub her hands together to see what color it would make.  We stamped the result and filled in the color word. Have a pack of wipes ready!

 Super simple, but fun AND educational. After finishing the chart I gave her some free time to just paint whatever she wanted.  I do love structured play, but I also think creativity is really important!

I Spy on the Farm

If you have never read an “I Spy” book by Edward Gibbs, I highly recommend.  My daughter loves them. Very simple and interactive! After reading this book with my daughter we played a little I Spy on our front porch.  Such a simple game, but it really makes your toddler observe their surrounds and think about what you are describing.

After playing for a little bit, we got out our sensory tub.  For this activity, I filled the sensory tub with birdseed and hid farm puzzle pieces under the seed.  You could also use dried beans, oatmeal, or corn. I chose bird seed because we had a bag in the garage and we could use it to feed the birds AFTER our sensory play.  As I said, I’m very thrifty and try to entertain my daughter using as little cash as possible. I would describe one of the animals I hid in the seed and she had to “spy” the animal I was describing.  If you don’t have a farm puzzle, you could hide little plastic animals you have lying around the house.

Other Farm Related Activities/Toys

These are all things that we already owned that were farm related.  I searched through our toy room and found:

  • String a Farm Lacing Toy – I love these for toddlers who are just learning how to thread objects.  They are sturdy and the string has a really nice wooden tip.
  • Fisher-Price Little People Farm Animals – This linked set is a little different than mine, but the same idea.
  • Farm Puzzle – I pretty much love everything Melissa & Doug sell.  Very quality toys!
  • Around the Farm Game – I personally love board games, so I’m trying to instill that same love in my daughter.  This game is very simple, but it starts the process of teaching a toddler how to play a board game.
  • Wooden Farm Set – Back to my love of Melissa & Doug!  This is a nice wooden set my daughter loves playing with.

***Please do not feel like you need to buy any of the books, toys, or puzzles that I linked in this post.  I simply put the links there in case you wanted to see what they looked like or want to buy them. They are not required to complete most of the activities listed.  As for the books, you should be able to check them out from the library if you aren’t interested in adding them to your home library.***

Farm Field Trip

This week my daughter and I visited a strawberry farm for a U-Pick Strawberry event.  It was the first time I have ever been strawberry picking, but it will be an annual tradition now.  It was so fun, cheap, and delicious! My family goes apple picking every fall, but I honestly think strawberry picking is better for toddlers because it is low to the ground.  See if you can find a farm near you that offers this activity, I promise you won’t be disappointed!

Hope you enjoyed this week’s Thoughtful Theme.  Let me know if you have any feedback, I’d love to hear from you!

Fun at your Fingertips: Rainbow Rice

 

Sensory tubs are a must at our house! Not only because my daughter loves them and they are great for development, but they are a sanity saver! Nothing keeps my daughter occupied and happy as long as sensory play. It is also great to use for a variety of learning topics, so one big batch can create months of learning fun!

The current batch that my daughter is playing with I started back in February when I hosted a Valentine’s Day party. Rainbow rice is cheap, easy to make, and cleans up extremely easily.

I recommend getting most of the supplies at a dollar store. Personally, I go to the Dollar Tree. I bought 5 bags of white rice, 1 package of gallon Ziploc bags, and a roll of parchment paper. The only other thing you will need is liquid watercolors. This is something I always have because I use it for a variety of craft projects. If you don’t have any I recommend buying a set on Amazon. I promise you will use them for other things too. I bought the Colorations 6 pack which cost about $25. Some people use food coloring mixed with vinegar, but that can be smelly and doesn’t produce as bright of colors.

Once you have all of your materials, you can make your rice in less than 15 minutes and even let your child help! Pour one bag of rice into a gallon bag and add a ¼ cup of liquid. I mix the liquid watercolors with some water to compose the ¼ cup. For brighter colored rice use more watercolor and less water, and for a lighter shade use more water.  My go to ratio is 2 Tbsp of watercolor and 2 Tbsp of water.  There really is no science to this. Now the fun part! Zip the bag and shake away. My daughter loves helping with this step. You want to make sure the rice is completely covered. 

Once it is thoroughly coated, pour it onto a sheet of parchment paper to dry. It takes about 1-2 hours to completely dry.  Often, I make this right before nap time with my daughter so it is dry, and is ready to be enjoyed when she wakes up!  To help with the drying process I stir it around on the paper occasionally.

After it is completely dry, I pour it into our sensory tub. I bought one large shallow tub with a lid from Menards. It cost around $5. When I switch out the rice for a different medium, I put the rainbow rice in 2 small containers with lids that I bought at the Dollar Tree. That way they are easier to store and I only need one large tub.

It will look this beautiful for about one minute until your child mixes it all up!

This kept her happily playing for over an hour!

Tips for Play:

  • Provide spoons, cups, bowls and just let your child explore! My daughter loves just scoping the rice and pouring it from container to container.
  • Hide objects in the sand for your child to find. They can be foam letters if you are working on the alphabet or plastic animals if you just want something fun for them to find. I have even hidden puzzle pieces.
  • To add more fine motor, give your child tweezers or tongs and see if they can use those to find objects.

Tips for Maintenance:

  • Always place the tub on a large tablecloth while your child plays with the rice. Rice will find its way out of the tub no matter how much you tell your children to keep it in. When playtime is done, simply pick up the table cloth from the corners and pour it back in. This way you don’t lose any rice and clean up is easy!
  • If some rice gets off the table cloth, just vacuum it up.
  • After a week of play, store it in a small tub or Ziploc bag. It keeps for months so no need to throw it away. Like I said, by current batch I started back in February.

Have you ever tried making rainbow rice? Did this motivate you to give it a try? Please let me know if it was a success for you or if you have any question!