Welcome to this week’s Monday Morning Mess Mat for Sensory Play! I “structure” our Sensory Playtime at 10:00am on Mondays at our Mess Mat. I use flying quotations there because the point of Sensory Play is actually that it isn’t highly structured play time. The essence is that kids get to explore freely and stimulate their… Read More Pantry Power {Sensory Bin}
The Pearls are here! The Pearls are here! As I gleefully posted to Instagram as soon as they arrived… I have pinned dozens of Taste Safe Water Bead Sensory Play posts from all over Pinterest and I finally get to make my own! Giant Tapioca Pearls are the main ingredient ladies and gentlemen! These are… Read More Rainbow Tapioca Pearls {Taste-Safe Sensory Play}
The intent was to of course make Valentine’s for February. That plan did not come full circle… sorry grandparents. Apparently, the boys have a much different interpretation of how things should go when mom breaks out the pudding paint… I blame our Handmade Christmas festivities… {with a big ole’ grin} Anyway, they still had fun,… Read More Heart Stamping with Pudding Painting | Valentine’s Day Activities
With Spring right around the corner, and being just a bit too early to begin our next Toddler School Mini Unit on RAINBOWS. My fellow Oregonians know that it can be quite unpredictable this time of year! We can have storms and sunshine all in the same afternoon. We wake up in the morning and… Read More Rainbow Rice Sensory Bin & Literacy Lesson
We kick start our month of LOVE with a super fun {but prep-intensive} Discovery Box entitled: All the People I LOVE. This is a great way to work on family recognition and or course a little discovery learning. We managed to sneak in a little science {static electricity… totally counts} too! I first saw this… Read More February Discovery Box | All the People I LOVE for Valentine’s Day
Today I am teaching everyone how to make Rainbow Rice at home…because you aren’t really a legit #momblogger until you have a Rainbow Rice Recipe on your blog…. Am I right? You know I am… It is a rite of passage for any woman who wishes to deem herself Pinterest Blogger worthy… So here… Read More How To Make Rainbow Rice | Recipe
This activity has become a constant on The Mess Mat for morning play. *Mom Note: be prepared to head into the bathtub afterward! I began doing Ooze when Wyatt was about 8 months old. Incredible Edible Ooze This is an edible recipe that is safe for them to put in their mouth, since, let’s face it; EVERYTHING… Read More How to Make Incredible Edible Ooze | Sensory Play
For today’s Literacy Lesson after lunch, we worked on reading comprehension. I built my lesson around the Kane Miller book, I’m a Dirty Dinosaur by Janeen Brian & Ann James. You can snag your own peppy book HERE. They have also just released I’m a Hungry Dinosaur! I can’t wait to get that one! Throughout the book, you… Read More A Toddler Reading Comprehension Lesson | I’m A Dirty Dinosaur
The Mess Mat has a lot of great benefits all by itself including a waterproof,spill proof and clean, designated space to be creative. It is an easy mom-system to implement and use. But one of the other great aspects about using this technique as your free-movement classroom is that kids learn to be structured… Read More Building Morning Routines with The Mess Mat
Wyatt finally gets his turn at the paintbrush! They both had so much fun with the Wreath and Snowflakes we just had to keep going! So for simplicity sake, I figured we could easily just make what would look like the glass ball ornaments but Coffee Filter Ornaments! You can also get back to the main… Read More How to Make Coffee Filter Ornaments | DIY Christmas