This week, Miss G and I are participating in a candy play series with several other mamas and munchkins from around the world… On Monday we created beautiful glossy paint using Skittles, and yesterday we created candy clay that is fun, mouldable, and edible.
After yesterday’s homemade candy clay recipe, I decided that today we’d get back to finding creative ways to put Grae’s soon-to-be Halloween candy stash to good use. One of the treats that always seems to be popular during the month of October is small coloured candies, whether they’re SweeTARTS, M&Ms, Smarties, or something else. The good thing about these types of goodies is they lend themselves perfectly to all sorts of fun math activities – sorting, counting, comparing, and graphing included. So that’s what we did – we used a few individual-sized bags of SweeTARTS to develop some basic math skills, all in a way that just seemed like regular fun and games.
I’m absolutely thrilled to be sharing one of Miss G’s all-time favourite games over at 
One of the things I’ve always loved doing with students who’ve found using scissors challenging is pairing them with play dough instead of paper. Let’s face it – learning to use scissors properly is tricky! First there’s figuring out which fingers go where, plus there’s finding the hand strength and coordination to open and close them, and then there’s also guiding them in the direction you want them to go… Certainly no easy task! The reason I love play dough is that although many kids come to Kindergarten not all that familiar with using ‘school tools’ like scissors, almost all kids come to school having played with play dough. And not only are they familiar with it, but they love it. And because it’s fun and non-intimidating, plus soft and easy to cut, it’s a perfect starting point, even for reluctant munchkins. 
I’ve done this activity with Gracen many times, and although she’s already very comfortable using scissors with paper and cutting on pre-determined lines, she still loves cutting play dough. It’s an easy activity to put together and I’d rather smush together bits of play dough than pick up tiny shards of paper any day of the week. When I set it up, I usually create both play dough ‘pancakes’ and ‘worms’ and then let her go to town, but anything goes. Today after quickly preparing the play dough shapes, she used them to create a daisy and a stem. ☺
Then it was time to cut!
Two things I like to reinforce during the cutting process are one, being mindful of where your ‘holding fingers’ are and two, positioning your scissors so they’re pointing away from your body.
During the process Grae almost always asks for a bowl to put her ‘food’ in, which makes the activity that much more fun and adds in an element of pretend play.
Today’s food was for kitties only. ☺
The other day while picking up a few craft supplies, Miss G absolutely fell in love with these heart-shaped pony beads. Next to them, we found tiny little wooden dowels that the beads fit onto perfectly. At the time, I really had no idea what we’d do with the pair, but I knew we’d figure something out. 
Turns out, the answer was play with patterns! I was quite surprised by how early on Miss G grasped the concept of patterns… I remember being in the kitchen cooking dinner one night long ago and hearing Brad ask Grae about a pattern out in the living room. I thought to myself, ‘she’s way too young to know what he’s talking about’, but sure enough she proved me wrong on the spot. So since we really haven’t explored them all that much, I decided our beads and dowels would be perfect for it. While Miss G napped today, I spent a little bit of time catching up on my RSS feed while colouring pattern stripes on the dowels with markers. This time around, I chose to pattern the entire dowel, but next time around I’d probably just start the patterns in order to let her complete them on her own.
With my patterned sticks complete, I knew I wanted to stand them upright somehow. Out came some homemade lemony play dough and the little pots we used for our flower garden yogurt parfaits, and voila. Mission accomplished. 
When Gracen woke up, she immediately saw the little station I’d set out and was thrilled. After a squeal and cheer, the first thing’Mama, I want you to tell me what to do’, but when I asked if she really wanted me to tell her what to do or if she wanted to just play, she decided she was happy to just play.
Of course she immediately realized that the colours on the dowels coordinated with the bead colours and began matching them up. (Just look at that little face… Makes me melt!)
Shortly after beginning the activity, I realized that the dough-filled pots allowed the dowels to sink down as she added beads, so I changed things up a little bit and just used a play dough pancake to hold the sticks up instead. She realized that the stripes in fact made patterns, and ‘read’ each one out to me.
Not only has this activity been fun and great for discussing colours and patterns, but it’s also great fine motor practice too! Fitting the tiny beads onto the tiny dowels requires some serious concentration.
This activity has been out for several days now, is still out currently (dried up play dough and all), and gets some decent attention each day… A hit in my books. ☺
I’m well aware that many people may think I’m crazy, but recently, I’ve been helping Gracen learn how to safely use sharp knives while cooking. She’s been helping in the kitchen since shortly after her first birthday, and is becoming an expert pourer, mixer, peeler, and grater, so this felt like a natural next step. I fully subscribe to the notion that children, even wee ones, are very capable little human beings… More so than we often give them credit for. So, given her kitchen experience, her ability to follow instructions, and her generally cautious nature, I felt like she was ready. Plus, I sort of feel that being handed a cucumber to cut and a butter knife to do the job must feel a little insulting. 
Wouldn’t you trust this innocent little face? ☺
When she’s practicing her cutting skills, I like to give Grae my favourite tomato knife. It’s quite sharp, but it doesn’t have a pointed tip and it doesn’t seem to easily puncture the skin – perhaps because it’s serrated? I also make sure to give her soft foods that have at least one flat side (no rolling) and are long and thinnish (more space for holding).
So far, we’ve been focusing on holding the food at the far end and really being aware of where the knife is in relation to her little fingers.
This morning, while we were at the grocery store, I let Grae pick out what she wanted to cut. First on her list was cantaloupe.
She also selected a dragon fruit and a couple of kiwi fruits…
Perfect for a fruit salad! Overall, she’s doing really well with it. I still always stay close to her and monitor her chopping carefully, and I did ask her to slow down a little bit today, but for the most part, she can safely use a sharp knife on her own.
The best part is how proud she is of herself. Chopping up all the fruit for a big bowl of fruit salad while using a sharp knife = official big girl status. 
After 
With freshly washed hands, we carefully opened the shipping container and took a better look at our babies. Gracen supervised them closely as I scooped a small chunk of the provided artificial food into each container, making sure leave the dirty bits behind. With the food in the containers, I used a gloved finger to gently press it down into the bases.
Then, very carefully, we used the tip of our paintbrush to pick up our caterpillars one at a time and place them into their new homes.
While handling them as minimally as possible is definitely the key to success when raising caterpillars/butterflies, Miss G was absolutely desperate to hold one of her fuzzy friends. With clean hands and a promise not to move, I gently placed one in her little palm. He crawled around, she watched in wonder, and when he made his way off of her fingertip, we placed him in his new home. 
When I saw that the awesome teachers’ store in our hometown, 
While Gracen is usually more than game for impromptu adventures, she is, without a doubt, a little girl who thrives on routine and structure. She very much enjoys being part of the process when it comes to selecting activities and outings and regularly asks me which day of the week it is so she can figure out our agenda for the day. “Tomorrow is Thursday, Mama? We have dance class on Thursday! What day it is today?” she’ll say. I find that when she has a clear picture of our days and knows what’s to come, she’s calmer, happier, and transitions more easily (as many kids do, I think). 
I actually made ours using Pages (an awesome word processing program for Macs), but a design-based program like Pixelmator or PhotoShop would obviously work perfectly too. Since Grae and I do quite a lot on our days at home on our own and weekends tend to include more downtime, I opted for full spaces for Monday to Friday and a shared space for Saturday and Sunday. 
After finishing up the calendar itself, I set off to create activity cards that would fit nicely onto the calendar’s columns. To start off, I made a long list of the activities we do regularly and searched for clipart to match. I popped the pictures into boxes and added in some text in along the bottoms, and they were done.
Because I wanted the calendar and activity cards printed in colour and as 11 x 17s, I paid the few dollars it cost to have the files printed professionally. Then I took everything home, cut the activity cards out, and trimmed the edges of the calendar.
With my pieces cut out, it was back to the store to have everything laminated. While I think I could have fit everything into 2 laminating pouches, the woman working there was worried the pieces were too close together, so 3 it was (which came to around $14).
Next, I cut all of the laminated pieces out, making sure to leave a substantial plastic border around the edges.
I went back and forth on whether to use magnets or velcro several times before finally settling on velcro. The determining factor was the realization that with velcro pieces, the calendar can still be used on a fridge or magnetic board, whereas the opposite isn’t true. Plus I had a giant roll of adhesive-backed velcro already on hand (if you don’t, you can find similar stuff at fabric, hardware, dollar, and teaching stores), which was nice. I simply cut out squares of velcro, put the scratchy pieces on the activity cards, and the fuzzy pieces on the calendar itself.
With everything ready to go, Gracen and I chose a spot for her brand new calendar (the excitement was uncontainable!) We thought about putting it in her room or in the hallway just outside of her room, but chose to put it in the kitchen instead, as it’s where we start most of our days. Now, while I make breakfast, she’ll be able to take a look at her calendar and see what we have planned for the day.
One thing we made sure to do when hanging it was to place it nice and low so that Miss G can see it and move pieces around easily (thigh height on me is perfect for Grae). I hung it up using painter’s tape rolls, but you could easily use poster mounting squares or something similar. (Teacher tip: If you use tape rolls, place them horizontally to avoid your calendar slowly slipping down the wall.) We’ve had the cool magnetic strip hanging below for a long while now and hadn’t yet found the perfect use for it until now. While a bag or pouch would do just fine, the magnetic strip holds all of the activity cards and allows them to be seen all at once which is a perk. 
We’ve only had it up and running for a few of days now, but so far, Gracen is loving her calendar. As soon as it was hung, she immediately wanted to plan out our week together. First we popped up things that needed to be done, like errands, a trip to the library to exchange our soon-to-be-due books, and our Thursday dance class, and then we chose some just-for-fun activities for the other days. She scheduled a hot drink date for her and Bradley on Saturday morning while I’m at a workshop (adorable!) and a family trip to Granville Island on Sunday (fun!) 
Every few days, a newspaper bound in a long rubber band makes its way onto our porch. If it’s not already soaked through with early morning rain, I half-heartedly flip through the stories and flyers {that make up the majority of the paper} so I feel a tiny bit less guilty about recycling it almost immediately. This morning, however, when we found a bone dry paper on our porch, we decided to put it to use.
Gracen’s been helping me wash our produce and sort it into the different refrigerator sections for a long while now and often asks if things are fruits or vegetables, so I decided we’d use our grocery store flyers to play a little fruit and veggie sorting game. 
Next we had a little chat about how we know if something is a fruit or vegetable… While it’s kind of a complex subject filled with talk of flowers, ovaries, and plant accessory parts, I subscribe to the fruits have seeds theory when teaching kids (true story – avocados, peppers, and cucumbers are all fruits!) It’s not a perfect rule because wee ones often don’t realize that things like bananas and blueberries have seeds, but it works for most things.
After adding a few little seeds next to our fruit heading, I began cutting pictures out of the flyers. I’d pass one to Grae, ask her what it was, whether or not it had seeds, and if she thought it was a fruit or veggie, and she’d paste it in the correct box.
After a couple of times, she took things into her own hands… I’d pass her a picture and she’d say, “Dis is lettuce. It no have seeds, so it’s a vegetable!”
When we’d used up all of the flyer photos, she took a minute to admire her project. She was a very proud girl and immediately went to hang her poster on the fridge.
Later on in the day, after a big produce shop, Grae was helping me lay all of the freshly washed produce on the butcher block to dry. Right away, I could see that she was putting all of the fruits on one side and the veggies on the other, so I grabbed a wooden spoon to act as a divider {and she grabbed her poster to add to the display}. Instantly we had a real life sorting game.
These are her piles when she decided she was done playing. The Chinese eggplant on the right is what she chose this time for our