V Is for Valentine: Valentine Color by Number, Letter and Shape

Part of our Mom School series

Valentine Color by Number, Letter and Shape

Materials Used:

• dot markers
• paper coded by number, letter and shape

This activity is fun for 3YO Purple because she becomes comfortable and confident in recognizing the numbers, letter and shapes, AND she has the privilege of using the dot markers, which are usually stowed up high out of reach.  The prep for this activity is quick, especially if you do not mark the numbers, letters and shapes so densely on the paper.  I failed to account for how big the dot markers mark, so my vision of the finished product was different than reality.  

Purple didn't care.  And for some reason I thought we were studying number 6 instead of 2.  Again, not of consequence to Purple and her fun.

Link to our other V Is for Valentine activities

V Is for Valentine: Scissor Practice

Part of our Mom School series

Scissor Practice

Materials Used:

• children's scissors
• construction paper
• black marker

3YO Purple has limited scissor skills, so this was an activity to give her more experience, as well as to explore symmetry.  I folded a quarter page of the construction paper in half, traced half of a V, and then a heart, and then the letter E (the first letter of Purple's actual name).  I handed the paper to Purple to cut along the lines.

I made the mistake of starting out with the heart shape; the curves were too much for Purple and she became frustrated, so I finished the shape off myself.  I quickly shifted to the V and E shapes, which are straight lines.  

The middle line of the E was dissected, but otherwise Purple persisted in cutting out the shapes.  She was excited to then open up the folded shapes to discover their true identity.  When she unfolded the E she traced the shape with her finger, and then proudly announced that it was a W.  And she was right!  It is a W when turned on its side.  And upside down it is an M.

Some unexpected observation or learning always seems to come of these activities, adding to the fun.

Link to our other V Is for Valentine activities

V Is for Valentine: Valentine Hearts Bath

Part of our Mom School series

Valentine Hearts Bath

Materials Used:

• foam hearts (I purchased these at Target's Dollar Spot and Dollar Tree)
• cherry Jell-O
• shaving cream
• decorating bottles

To create our Valentine Hearts bath, I filled the tub with bubbles and added cherry Jell-O for the rich red color and the cherry scent.  Plus the Jell-O was in our pantry where it has been languishing for several months, with no plans in sight to be eaten.

I dipped the foam hearts into the bath water to moisten, and then stuck them to the tub walls.  To make this an interactive bath, I filled decorating bottles with shaving cream, much as I did for our Gingerbread Bath.  

The girls gladly tried their hand at decorating the hearts.

And then they noticed that red + white = pink.  Soon all the shaving cream was merged with the red water to create a opaque pink pool.

Which the girls reveled in.  Much fun!

Blue didn't want to leave the bath so she saved some water in the emptied bottles, and then played like a mad scientist, pouring it back and forth between the bottles.

Link to our other V Is for Valentine activities

V Is for Valentine

Part of our Mom School series

This week's activities:

• Valentine Hearts Bath
• Scissor Practice
• Valentine Color by Number, Letter and Shape
• Valentine Heart Biscuits
• Candy Heart Graphing

Jesus Christ Is the Son of Heavenly Father

For our Active Faith to accompany this LDS Primary lesson, Jesus Christ Is the Son of Heavenly Father,  as taught to 3 year olds, I pondered on a method to make this message meaningful to these young children.  After a few days the idea came to me to make this book that draws a parallel to Jesus' earthly life and heavenly parentage, and that of each child's.  Since it is the beginning of the year and I have been out with illness for the past two weeks, I thought it would help the children get to know me by making an example book using my own pictures.

Materials Used:

• photo album (I purchased these 4X6 photo albums from the dollar store)
• printed pages (click here to print the pages)

Here is my book:

For the children's personalized pages in their books, I chose coloring page type visuals.  Before handing out their books, I gave each child the four different pages to be colored.  Once a child finished coloring their pages, I inserted their pages into their book and presented them with their completed book.

Here is the version of the book that each child received:

On the "I am a child now" page the child draws a picture of what they look like currently.

The boys received this page.

The girls received this page.

We had fun as a class "reading" our books together, finding the matching pages and helping each other to find the right page.  I challenged the children to share and "read" their books to their families.

G Is for Gingerbread

Mom School, second week of December

Gingerbread Bath

Materials Used:

• foam gingerbread shapes from either the dollar store or Target's Dollar Spot
• shaving cream
• decorating bottles (you might be able to use the condiment bottles from the dollar store)
• various foam shapes for decorations; we used our triangles from our J Is for Jack-o-lantern theme, and circles and stars from our O Is for Ornament theme
• pot of hot water containing about a teaspoon each of cinnamon, nutmeg and ground cloves, set inside the room to add fragrance (Note: cinnamon can cause skin sensitivity, so I did not add it directly to the bath water)
• brown food coloring to color the bath water

I've seen several takes on gingerbread boy baths, many of which offer up intricately cut foam shapes with which to decorate the gingerbread bodies.  Because I did not want to have to buy white foam and spend time cutting it into curvy lengths for the frosting decoration, I tried to think of a different approach.  Shaving cream in decorating bottles!  I felt like a genius!

My girls love frosting, even the pretend kind, so they enjoyed this activity.  

1YO Blue gets a closer look at the example gingerbread boy before water is added to the tub 

Gingerbread Playdough Cookies

Materials Used:

• gingerbread playdough (I made it without the orange extract, and added brown food coloring)
• gingerbread man cookie cutter
• white chenille stems
• googly eyes
• pom poms

This was an obvious choice for an activity, but fun all the same.  I set out small sections of white chenille stems to use as the frosting pieces, but these were used only in more "creative" ways.

Freestyle gingerbread person

Gingerbread Boy Color by Number, Letter and Shape

Materials Used:

• dot markers
• print out of a gingerbread boy, marked with "G", "g", "6" and circles

I'm pretty sure this looks more complicated and time-consuming to create than it actually was.  Create a legend for the dot marker colors; I used green for "G", brown for "g", red for "6", and purple for the circles.  This took only a couple minutes.  I then let 3YO Purple loose with the dot markers while I went for a run; Dad was in charge, and Purple worked with minimal supervision.

Purple had a good time.

Life-sized Gingerbread House

Materials Used:

• outdoor playhouse (ours lives in the playroom)
• Christmas string lights
• decorative snow blanket
• paper plates
• cellophane
• tape

This gingerbread house is perfect: zero calories, sugar-free, but full of sweetness.  The previous night I asked the girls to color a paper plate to look like a piece of candy.  I didn't explain why, other than it would be used in a surprise the next day.  I then wrapped the plates in cellophane to resemble pieces of hard candy.

The next day 3YO Purple helped me string the lights, layer the snow, and mount the candies to the playhouse.  She was very excited to share this surprise with her sisters.

Decorating Gingerbread Goodies

Materials Used:

• print out of gingerbread boy, gingerbread house and letter G
• plastic page protectors
• white frosting (although I was required to make a bottle of purple frosting for a certain 3YO)
• decorating bottles
• candies for decoration

Have you noticed that in our unit on gingerbread we didn't actually use a single real gingerbread item?  That's because it would go to waste with my girls.  So I thought of other ways to enjoy the gingerbread activities without having to throw out any gingerbread.

I think this one was my favorite.  Gingerbread boy and house decorating, with all the frosting and candy, but no crumbs or falling walls.

But first, we did our letter G practice, complete with writing a G with frosting.  Purple was careful and patient.

Yellow creating her gingerbread person

5YO Pink hard at work on her house, after completing her boy

Pink's finished house

Purple called this her "brain house" since she squeezed the frosting into what looks like brain mass