Ice Cream Sensory Bin

Take one under the bed storage bin, add dollar store ice cream bowls, cups and scoops as well as pastel colored pom poms and you have one very happy little girl.  You can use this for math skills as well.  We sorted the pom poms by size and color.  You can count how many pom poms fit in each scoop and bowl also.

Build Your Own Monster

I took some felt cut them in different body shapes, legs, eyes, mouths, feet, etc. and let my daughter mix and match to make her own monsters.

Roll Away Sand Box Cover

I used to use a tarp stuck down with tent stakes but, well, you can see what happened.  Every time I watered the lawn I got a mosquito breeding puddle that started to grow slime and when the wind blew the tarp wouldn't stay down and blew all over.

Here is my solution:

I used a piece of shade fabric and stapled it to the sandbox on one side with a staple gun.  On the other side I sewed a pocket and slid a piece of  PVC pipe in it and put end caps on.  I bolted some tarp hooks to the side of the box and now all I have to do is slip the pipe under the hooks and it stays.  Then I can roll it up out of the way while B. is playing.  You have to make sure it's nice and snug so it stays on the hooks.

Water Oil Fireworks

 Super Quick.  Super cheap.  Super cool!

Fill a clear container with water, taller works better, I used a glass mason jar.  Put about 2 Tablespoons oil in a small bowl.  Drip a water based food coloring in the bowl with the oil.  Stir rapidly with a fork to form small bubbles.  Dump the oil in the water and watch the show.

Magic Spoons

 I loved this experiment.  It was so quick and easy to set up.  Magic spoon set up: plastic cup filled half way with vinegar.  Put one or two drops of food coloring on a spoon and scoop up some baking soda.  Let child put spoon in cup and stir.  For extra bubbles add 1 squirt of dish soap to the vinegar.  We used dish soap in our experiment.

and viola!  We noticed the color didn't start coming out until B. had stirred for a while.  The site I got the experiment from said if you are doing it with a large group you can put water in some of the cups so the kids wonder why it worked in some and not the other.  We did it with 5 different colors and when they were all done B. started spooning color from one cup into another to see what happened.

Fabric Tanagrams

Modge Podge fabric scraps to magnetic paper and cut them into shapes.  They do tend to curl though.  I would try using a different glue next time.

Bulletin Border Organization

Hang your borders on metal rings on a hook to keep them out of the way.

5 Little Monkeys Masks

Monkey masks bought for $1 at JoAnn's and colored with crayons.  I am going to use them with the 5 little monkeys songs.

Look what I did

My fridge is oddly non magnetic so I had to come up with something else to hang B.'s masterpieces.

Fourth of July Bunting

Stars and Hearts Fourth of July bunting made with cotton print, buttons and ribbon.