What's in the Tub Tuesday?

Our newest book is Mouse Paint.  It's a great book to introduce and reinforce colours.

I made some paint for the little ones to use.

One of the twins is still putting things in her mouth so I decided to use an instant pudding mix as the base and added food colouring.

Here's our red, blue and yellow paint.

(Although the blue is a bit more green than I preferred).

I took their sensory table, turned it upside down and wrapped it in plastic.

The plastic was recycled from a big item that I had purchased.

The girls were excited.

The twins hadn't used paint brushes before and they didn't put theirs down the whole time we were painting. 

They shared the paint pots adding a new element of colour mixing.

(like the mice in the book)

Since it was new they didn't limit themselves to painting on the plastic.

 I brought out some paper to give them another alternative than their bodies.

The older one has a much different hand grip on the brush.

She has been painting before and can manipulate the brush for big and small strokes.

Here's the reason that the paint is made out of pudding.

But using pudding makes the paint sticky.

And they were all pretty sticky by the time they were done.

So like the mice, in Mouse Paint, they needed a bath.

Which they were surprised to have outside but loved it.

Paint Sticks

I was at Michael's store awhile back and found these paint sticks that I thought may work well for the little ones to use.

They are perfect for them to grip in their fists.

They glide really nicely.

There was some cardboard boxes in the recycling bin so I cut it up instead of using paper.

The older little was very willing to show the twins how to do it

 as well as covering her now.

 The mess is minimal.  

You can see some of the paint on her arm from leaning on her artwork.

It washes off very easily.

Lots of different marks, some made by me too, I couldn't resist trying them.

Book Play - Brown Rabbit's Shape Book

 It is so much fun exploring books with this little one.

She loves books and I love bringing them to life, a perfect match.

 There have been lots of birthdays lately so I thought this would be a fun book as it has a present to open.

The present is a square box with a container in it.  The container has a circle lid and it is full of balloons.

 A big red round balloon, like a circle.

I had fun letting the balloons fly around, she didn't like it so much.

There is a purple pear shaped balloon, an orange oval balloon, a long rectangle shaped balloon and a multicoloured balloon that we thought looked like a caterpillar.

But she did like trying to blow up the balloons.

 After playing with them for a while, and letting the air escape, we finally left them expanded and tied them closed.

What is your favourite book to share with little ones?

Roll a Dice and Decorate the Tree Game

I have been teaching Baby Sign Language classes to parents and educators this fall and I wanted a game that would include numbers and colours.

With Christmas happening soon I thought it would be fun to create a game that I could try with my grand daughter.

So that is how Roll a Rice and Decorate a Tree game came to be.

 The dice are made from small wooden cubes.

The tree is cardboard covered with felt.

And the lights (or leaves) are felt too.

The idea is to roll both dice, count the dots, decide on the colour rolled then add that many lights to the tree.

This is her first time using a die so she spent a lot of time figuring out how to maneuver it in her hands and drop it.

I tried encouraging her by rolling the die with dots while she rolled the one with colours.

In this game, I believe, are too many steps for her age.

I will try to create one where she can roll the die and then just match it to the colour.

Marble Painting with a Toddler

Here is our first time using marbles with the Little One for painting.

You may be familiar with marble painting but I'll take you through the steps.

Cut a sheet of paper to fit your tray, any shape and size of tray, although keep in mind your little one's capabilities. 

 Since she is under two I chose a small pan.

Pick a marble and dip it in paint.

Normally I would have little pots with paint and a spoon to scoop the marble out but I didn't have any  pots available.

Put your painted marble onto the paper 

pick up the tray and try to roll the marble around.

She put several marbles in at one time and I showed her how to roll it back and forth as well as shaking the tray.

After each roll and shake she would dip the marble and put it back in.

I think her favourite part was dipping the marbles into the paint.

We ended up completing three sheets which I think will work great for a greeting card.

Good Night Gorilla in the Grass

We love this book, "Goodnight Gorilla" by Peggy Rathmann and have been reading it almost everyday for the past month or so.

I dug out the literacy bag I had put together years ago for StrongStart and strung a clothesline between two chairs in the back yard.

Each animal was behind their 'cages'.  The cages were hung, on the line, with clothespins (which she loved helped taking off when we were all done).

I gave her a set of coloured paper keys that matched the cages.

She knew all about the keys from the book as well I had found some extras at a thrift store for her to play with.

As she opened each cage she played with that animal.  Inspecting them. Getting to know them.

She wasn't in a rush to get each of them out.

The animals were lined up, like in the story, as she removed them from the cage.

Once the story was done she continued to play with the animals.

And her poor baby doll got locked up too.