Milk Carton Gingerbread Houses

Our interest in gingerbread is going strong so I put out some small milk cartons,

brown paper and glue for the children to make their own play

gingerbread houses.

 We used glue and tape to attach the paper.

The children learned how to cover each side and fold a piece

over top for the roof.

The children love using the tape dispenser.

 Over on the glue gun table I put a container of trim

that they could use for the decorations.

As the day passed children started looking farther for decorations.

They used buttons, cupcake liners and more colourful tape.

Next week we will use some of them, that didn't go home,

for a small world play.

Gingerbread Cookie Update

It has been almost three weeks since our gingerbread cookies ran away

and we have received a lot of stories from them as they travel the world.

At school Ms Green's grade 3 class visited and left us some stories too.

A New Balance

A week or so ago I shared a post about the children playing with a small scale.

They showed quite an interest in balancing the animals on both sides of the scale

that I decided to offer another opportunity.

While thrift shopping I found this stand with the dowel that goes through.

But I thought my crafty husband could modify it to make 

a balance.

He screwed the dowel on to the front so it can pivot up and down.

He added two little nails to stop the dowel from

going to far down on either side.

He also cut notches at both ends of the dowel for the cans to rest.

I bought two cans from the dollar store

and set it out with our pom poms.

The cans do occasionally fall off but part of the process

is learning how to put both of them back on at the same time.

It takes team work.

These two boys challenged each other to see who could fill their can

up the fastest.

 Once full they quickly tried to empty their cans back into the tray.

It was fascinating to watch the older children work together with the balance.

Younger children enjoyed putting the pom poms into the can

and it appeared they did not really notice that the can was getting heavier.

And this child loved just the pom poms.

 He pulled my toadstool closer and started placing them on the circles.

I thought that was very clever and observant.