Violet is building things. Then the little person on the right knocks them down. Violet gets so frantic when Piper gets near her things. I feel bad for both of them. Piper wants to play with Violet soooo much, and Violet hates it when the baby messes up her stuff. Violet has started building "baby traps". They're designed to keep Piper out of her play area. They usually consist of a blanket strung across a chair and a rocking horse. They sort of work. More studio progress. Adam is finished putting on every last little bit of drywall and all the wood on the windowsills.
Stairs-yay! Loft-yay! Having to move and/or cover every single thing in this studio-not yay. The guy coming out to texture the walls next month said it gets really messy because they spray it on. So...I'll be busy.
Have you heard of the Word Bird books? They help new readers expand their vocabularies. In the back of the book is a list of all the words with a helpful reminder picture. You can copy that page, then cut it up into strips for mini-flash cards.
Here's what we do: I make a stack of word slips, then Violet reads them. If she gets the word/s right, she can put the slip of paper in her Word House. For some odd reason, she really enjoys doing that. Whatever works, right?
We made these for Violet's class using stuff we had around the house. I only bought the water bottles and some extra rice. The kids seemed to have fun with them, and you can change the theme to fit any occasion or holiday.
See? They're fun.
Supplies:
empty water bottles/any clear bottle will work
rice
a funnel is handy but not necessary
bits and bobs from around the house...here are some ideas:
candy
beans
corn kernels
jewelry
shells
tiny toys
buttons
you know.....JUNK you have lying around
1. Empty out all those bottles and turn them upside down to dry. Fifteen bottles was only about $2.00.
2. Cut off the label.
3. Lay out your goodies. I put them in piles like an assembly line since we were making them for 15 kids. I then put all the trinkets in a ziplock bag.
4. Optional step-photograph the trinkets on a sheet of white paper.
5. On the computer (or by hand) print out a small sheet at life size of the objects to find in the bottle.
6. Using the funnel or a rolled up piece of paper, fill the jar 1/3 full of rice.
7. I'd recommend letting the kids hold the bottle still while an adult or older kid pours in the rice. You might work over a shallow box or put the bottle in a bowl to contain spills. However, we did this with 15 four-year-olds and it was surprisingly neat.
8. Put in half of the trinkets. Even really small kids can do this part.
9. Add more rice until the bottle is about two-thirds full.
10. Add the rest of the trinkets.
11. Fill the rest of the way with rice. Leave about an inch or two of space at the top so that you can roll the rice around to reveal the goodies. If you want to be sure this doesn't get opened accidentally, you can glue the lid shut.
For older kids:
Make it harder by hiding small objects that are the same color as the rice and hard to find. I included TINY star pasta and alphabet letters.
Violet looks mad, but I promise she's just concentrating.
If you like this project, please share it/like it on Facebook or Pin the first photo to Pinterest. Thanks!
