peppermint cookie play dough

I put peppermint extract in this months plain white play dough. They loved it. It occupied them for an hour today after lunch. Little-man really enjoyed this activity. I taught him how to roll snakes. It was so cute! play dough is such good learning fun, practicing both Sensory and motor skills. It also stretches their little imaginations and they work alone on their own dough so pitty-pat isn't bossing tippy-toe. We are really focusing on tippy-toe learning to act on his own not under the force of big sis. She has gotten him in alot of trouble lately making bad choices and telling him to do things he knows is wrong. It was a survival for them but it needs to be nipped in the bud before she pulls him into real trouble and he blindly does her bidding.

Sensory basket-fall theme

Inspired by a post at counting coconuts blog I decided to put together a fall sensory basket for the kids.So far from around the house I have added:
a felt letter A
a wooden red heart
2 red pipe cleaner circles
1 pipe cleaner apple (I made)
2 cinnamon sticks
2 pine cones
a is for apple card
1 magnifying glass
15 fuzzy red pompoms
4 large acorns
4 red-orange maple leaves form our tree
6 beechnut hulls from our beech tree

Rainbow rice

Today we made rainbow colored rice for our I SPY JARS. I will look for small items to make an alphabet theme jar.
Rainbow Rice Recipe
Rice in a small ziploc baggie about 2 cups. (One bag for each color.)
4-5 pumps hand sanitizer or rubbing alcohol 4 Tblsp.
4-5 drops food coloring
Close bag and mix. open bag and let dry.

Right now they are drinking up a gatorade so we can recycle the clear bottle. i found this neat idea at Pink and Green Mamma's blog.

Making Moonsand

Cam's moonsand got destroyed by the littles and she's wanted more ever since. I just found a recipe and want to record it here so we can make it soon.


Moonsand

9 cups play sand in color--crayola brand found at walmart
3 cups corn starch
2 1/2 cups water--start with 2 1/4 and add more to desired consistancy
Mix well.

(ratio of corn starch to sand 1:3)

This looks like simple fun for all the four littles.

I found this recipe at www.skiptomylou.org

Crash

The big three got in a truck tree slide on the way to school.Everyone is safe but truck is totaled. Homeschool was a wash out for the day. But I had saw and idea to make sensory stress balls. So far we have filled balloon with flour, sugar, salt,rice, popcorn,and a sheet of bubble wrap. You take and blow up balloons and let the air out. Then I put one balloon inside of another and used a funnel to fill with different sensory items. The teen have loved these. Maybe they'll let the little kids have a turn soon.