Weather or Not

I debated what theme to do in January.  Since I started doing bins & trays with Mia all of our themes have been obvious: Halloween, fall, Thanksgiving, Christmas.  I have been collecting things for an ocean theme but I want to save those for February since I think Mia will be really into it and it will help occupy her with the new baby due that month!

So! What to do? I decided to go with learning about weather since Mia talks about it all the time.  She discusses daily if it is rainy, sunny, etc.  I thought learning a bit more may hold her interest.  Here is what I've come up with so far...

Weather Sensory Bin

In this bin:

• Rice dyed with food coloring and a tiny bit of rubbing alcohol (here's a tutorial by pinkandgreenmama of how to dye the rice)
• Cotton balls for clouds
• Snowflakes (from our Christmas bin)
• Pipe cleaners for lightening
• Wooden sun I had from the craft store
• Clear glass floral beads from the dollar store (for rain)
• I also added tiny paper umbrellas later
• Cups, bowls, spoons and a rake for enjoying the bin

 

And here are our trays at the moment:

 

 
Sequencing Cards

I found some royalty free clip art online about weather and made strips in Word and printed them twice.  I laminated them and then cut one set up for matching.

  

Books
we checked out from the library about weather that were a hit...

•  It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw
• Rain by Manya Stojic
• Now I Know Clouds by Roy Wandelmaier
• The Cloud Book by Tomie de Paula (this one is too advanced for Mia but she likes looking at the pictures)

And because everything can't be all about the weather:

Monster Matching Game

This game I made up one night to fill another tray.  I had bought  beverage stirrers like these on impulse at Walmart because they were so colorful and cheap.  I figured there must be something I could do with them for a tot tray.  I ended up grabbing them and an empty snack container from my stash and trying to come up with something fun. I decided to make it a matching game so Mia could match the sticks to the colors.  After cutting the holes I realized they looked like little mouths and decided to draw monsters around them.  Anyone who knows Mia can guess that this is now the FAVORITE in our house because she gets to feed the monsters (I have no idea why but she loves monsters).  Anyway, I added google eyes and modge podged it for durability.  The sticks store right in the container when she is done. Easy peasy!

Animal Counting Game

Mia got these animal counters for Christmas. This is my first attempt at using them in a tray.  I cut circles from construction paper and put them in a muffin tin.  She can match the colors but also the numbers of animals in each cup.  Mia was quite proud of herself when she realized she could count out the animals and match the numbers.

Homemade Gifts

Here are some gifts I made for my nephews and Mia this Christmas but they are fun for anytime!

 Personalized Tote Bags

I used this tutorial from the bloesom kids blog as a starting point. I printed out letters in a font I liked, traced them onto freezer paper & cut them out.  Then I ironed on the freezer paper like a stencil and used acrylic paint mixed with fabric medium over the freezer paper.  I let it dry for a day or two and then took off the paper & set it with an iron.

 

 Marble Maze

Inside the totes were some art supplies and also a couple homemade games.  I made one of these each for both older boys using this tutorial from Family Fun Magazine.  The idea is that you stretch bands in different patterns and roll marbles through the maze.  I included a bag with bands (I used the kind found in craft stores to make pot holders...similar to these) and marbles with each maze.

 Felt Fishing Game

For our youngest nephew, I made a fishing game from felt, fabric, batting and velcro dots.  There is a great tutorial here from Just Another Day in Paradise that I used.  I was excited to find fabric that looks like shiny scales on the clearance rack at Walmart - you can find all sort of fun finds there!

I don't know yet how my nephew liked the fish game but I ended up making a set for Mia because she was so enamored with them.

I also made a couple things just for Mia:

Geoboard

I got the idea from Mama Jenn in this post. It was super easy and cheap ($3 total) to make and Mia enjoys making patterns on it so far.  I'm using it in our Tot Trays this month with pattern suggestions in a sheet protector for her to copy.

Rag Quilted Fabric Letters

These are a big hit with Mia (almost as much as she liked the felt fish game for her cousin...haha!). She likes to throw them around and find which letters she knows.  They were pretty easy to make but do require sewing.  Get the tutorial and templates here from Happy Together.

Christmas Sensory Bin

I hope to catch up on posting - Mia has been sick and ornery so I haven't posted in a bit :)

Sensory bins are becoming a fast favorite in our house!  Here is this month's:

The base is "fake snow" from a bag.  Also in there: plastic cookie jar, mini ornaments, presents, zipper pouch, mini lunch box, bows, erasers, wind up santa & penguin and Christmas tree. I also keep a tray of various sized bowls, scoops, a little rake, cups, funnel, etc. next to the bin.  Mia had a blast picking up the snow with a scoop and have it fall on the Christmas tree.

 

Here are some more fun Christmas bins:

Totally Tots' bin is made with split peas

Pink & Green Mama has an awesome winter themed bin

Counting Coconuts made hers with dyed rice

Learn more about the basics of sensory bins here.

Stocking Stuffers

Some people have asked me what I put in those advent calendar boxes.  I thought I would post about it since many would make good stocking stuffers too. Here are some ideas we used:

- Pretty cards with the activities we will be doing "tonight we are going to see the Christmas lights!"
- Little figurines (I used some I had stowed away when Mia got them too little to use them)
- Wind up toys
- Coloring Crafts from the Dollar Store
- A stamp that says "thank you" so we can be ready to make cards after the holidays.
- I also just finished making felt finger puppets (I put 2 in each box so this knocked out three days ;)

These were inspired by ornaments sold by Red Marionette at Etsy

- Ornaments

Christmas Tot Trays

This week we had fun with a few new Christmas themed tot trays!

First Up: Jingle Bell Push Through: I poked a few holes in a cereal box, wrapped it and put a small bowlful of jingle bells to push through. Turned out to be tons of fun! (Note: if you make one be sure to leave one end of the box open so you can get the bells back out!)

Christmas themed peg game (think Cracker Barrel).  Although Mia is too young to play the real version of this game she has fun putting them in the holes and making patterns from the snowmen and gingerbread men. I think I picked this up at the dollar store.

Foam Sticker Patterning/Matching Game: I saw an idea here about making a patterning game using foam stickers but wasn't sure if it would be too advanced for Mia. So, I made cards with only one sticker and some with multiple ones to try to make it challenging but not frustrating.  Mia loves it! She actually likes the cards with multiple stickers best.  She puts the first piece on and then says "What's it need?"  Because they are a little easier we lay them all out and it doubles as a matching game. We definitely will be adding this and its variations to our permanent rotation!

Advent Calendar

I can't ever remember doing an advent calendar as a kid (surely we did?) but this year I decided to make one for our family. I didn't want to spend any money on it but wanted something unique.  After searching a bit I found this post. Isn't that cute?

Here is our version:

I used this tutorial to make small origami boxes and pilfered some larger cereal boxes from our recycling.  I wrapped those in newsprint so the brands wouldn't show through. Then I decorated with stuff we had around the house: pictures, a dust jacket from a book, foam stickers, an old Santa card I saved, my scrapbook stash and wrapping paper.  I cut the ornaments from scrapbook paper and the 'metal' on them is tinfoil :)  Mia contributed some drawings and a popsicle stick reindeer.  She was very proud to see it on the wall when she got up this morning.  ("That's mine reindeer, mama!")