Forest Sensory Table

Greetings readers,
Today in the crazy creative twos classroom we made a forest sensory table. I first got the children to collect rocks from the playground, collected sticks and paper towel rolls. I saved a large box and broke it down so the cardboard would be a flat surface to put the forest into. The first day I let the children paint a piece of white paper blue so that it would be the sky and the backdrop for out forest sensory table. Some of the children loved paint and didn't want to stop. Some when they had gotten paint on their finger already had to stop because they didn't like the paint being on their fingers. The second day I let the children glue rocks onto the cardboard and also let them try to glue the rocks together so that they could make a cave for the bear since we were learning about forest animals also. Some of the children were able to balance the rocks on each other to make a cave made out of rocks but the younger twos just wanted to glue the rocks on the cardboard. Because Abby's does the Reggio curriculum I let the children do something new to our forest every day and then on Friday they could play with the forest with everything in it. The third day I let the children glue mulch from our playground to the rest of the bottom of the forest floor. The fourth  day I let the children paint the paper towel rolls with brown and green paint. I glued the painted paper towel rolls onto the cardboard. When they were dry I let the children put the sticks into the paper towel rolls so that the branches that came off the stick would like branches to a tree. Friday I let the children play with it all day. They loved playing with the sensory table forest. They loved pretending that the cows and other animals were climbing the trees and hanging there. They are so funny. I loved doing this activity with them. They had a lot of fun pretending the animals were walking around and eating grass or the bear was going into his cave. The blog that I got this activity from was Crozet Play School : A Reggio Inspired Preschool. I used what I had and I think it turned out really great.

Construct and paint Birdhouses

Greetings readers,
Today the crazy creative twos constructed and painted birdhouses for their construction art. The younger twos didn't really like constructing the birdhouse but the older twos really enjoyed helping to put the bird house together. For the blog Babble: DIY Paper Birdhouses with Templates they used scrapbooking paper but I thought the birdhouse could be more sturdy by making it with cardboard boxes inside out so when they paint them the paint would stay on better. When I printed off the template for the birdhouse design it was in a foreign language so I experimented with the dimensions because the printout of the template was way to small. I collected cardboard snack boxes, traced my own enlarged template on the inside of the boxes and then cut them out. The kids really enjoyed painting their birdhouse. To help with the process of putting the birdhouse together I used tape instead of glue because it doesn't dry as fast as you'd want it to. Even using tape the birdhouse would come undone when painting it, if you touched it the wrong way. I thought this activity would be too hard for the twos to do but the older twos loved putting the birdhouse together.

Outside Bird Feeders

Greetings readers,
Today the crazy creative twos made bird feeders for our outside art. Our school is a peanut/nut free school so we couldn't use peanut butter but instead used Crisco. We also didn't have bird seed but we had Rice Krispies instead. I put the Crisco on the paper roll with the spoon, then let the children roll the roll with Crisco on it in the Rice Krispies. The older twos loved rolling the roll in the Rice Krispies, Some were hesitant because it had Crisco on it. The younger twos didn't really like touching it. I had to keep telling one of my older twos to quit eating the Rice Krispies because it wasn't for him, it was for the birds. Another older two kept reminding him they were for the birds for our bird feeders. The older two thought it was funny. Eventually after everyone was done the children kept sneaking bites of Rice Krispies. I kept reminding them we were going to eat lunch right after we made our bird feeders. After lunch we took our bird feeders outside and put them in a grassy area where the birds could get them but I don't think the birds wanted to eat because the kids were watching the bird feeders and were being too loud for the birds to come close. A younger two kept calling for the birds to come though. The blog that I got the bird feeder idea was called Classy Clutter: 10 Outdoor Activities for Kids.

Foil painting

Greetings readers,
Today in my creative two year old classroom the twos painted foil for sensory time.  I got some foil from the kitchen and some painted and then put it into the sensory table so their able to paint to the hearts content. The children were really interested. I was really surprised. The older and younger twos were really interested in painting the foil. They really liked making dots on the foil and also painting on it to make the ripples in the foil. They loved how the foil was really shiny and then when they painted it would turn blue like the paint. Some of them took their time painting the foil and some of the were excited to paint the foil and just dove in. Then children really enjoyed this activity. The activity was taken from the blog: Foil Painting Sensory Art.

Music week

Greetings readers,
Today for art the crazy creative twos painted guitars. I saved boxes from snack and paper towel rolls and asked my boss for some rubber bands to make strings for their guitars.. I glued the paper towel rolls to the top of the boxes and cut out holes out of the boxes. The twos had a really great time doing this activity. The older toys loved painting their box guitars. They were learning to use their fine and gross motor skills to paint a 3 dimensional object. It also took them a lot more time to paint. Some of them liked painting for the longer part of the time and some of them grew tired of painting such a large box. The younger twos painted for a little part of the time and then just wanted to play. The older twos wanted to hold the box onto their own box when they were painting and some of them didn't mind getting paint on their hands when they held the box. Usually the younger ones want to paint inside the box where the hole was but I guess because the box was so big they thought that the paint brush would fall in. I really loved getting this activity ready for our Music theme. You could make a 3 dimensional art activity for any theme that you wanted. Abby's Enrichment Center curriculum is Reggio so I have tried to do something similar with my class each month for a project for the class to do together. The musical instrument that was made in the blog Delightful Learning was a banjo and was made with wood, a tub and a balloon. I didn't have any wood or tubs but I did have boxes which worked just as well. I am glad that my class was able to make their own guitar, take it home and play with it.

Hello,
Today in the twos creative classroom the twos played a parachute game for their physical movement. Since this week our theme was Circus the twos bounced a bear in the parachute. Everyone loved doing this activity. They had so much fun. Everyone grabbed a handle and bounced the bear up and down in the parachute. Whenever the bear fell out they always put it back in the parachute. The older and younger twos really loved it! There was only one younger two that didn't really stay playing the parachute game very long. I think it was because all the children were playing with the parachute instead of just him playing with the parachute. Because when we're in the muscle room at recess he usually loves playing in the parachute. Pretending he's napping under it, sitting on it, and playing peek a boo. Usually when were in the muscle room he is usually the only on that likes to play with it, the rest of the older ones play with each other or other toys. But when were bouncing something on the parachute all the children join in. It was a lot of fun. I really liked that the blog also suggested that the object that you bounce in the middle of the parachute would go with your theme for the week. I think the children would have a lot of fun bouncing a ball in the middle of the parachute too. The blog was called Nurture Store Creative Kids Learning: Parachute Games Active Play for Creative Kids

Hello readers,

Today in the crazy twos creative classroom the children pretended to draw pictures on notes to their friends and put them into the mail bag and then separate the drawings into the separate mail bags for each of the children of my class. All the children really enjoyed coloring on their own mail bag. Some of more then others. The older twos liked drawing on a note for their friend and then putting stickers on their note to their friend. They really liked telling me who they wanted to give their notes to. Some of them surprised me of who they wanted to give their note to. Like Harper who is a little girl who is outspoken wanted to give a boy whose rather quite in class a note. The younger ones mostly wanted to give their notes to themselves. I think the best part of this dramatic play activity they liked was putting the stickers on the notes. I tried with one older two to get them to put their note in an envelope but they just became frustrated with it, so we just decided to write to: and from:. one of my older twos was the only one that wanted to separate the notes into the separate mail bag. I even tried to put a blue mail carrier hat on some of the children that said they wanted to but they just took off the outfit and went to play. I was surprised how long they wanted to do this activity. I loved that it was an extension of dramatic play. They drew pictures on their mail bags, notes to their friends, put stickers on their notes for their friends for about 3 0 minutes. The blog that I took this activity from looked like they did it with ages 3 to 4 and I was hesitate to do the activity with my class but they seemed like they enjoyed it. The older twos much more then the younger ones. I would love to do this more in my classroom. The blog was Here Come The Girls. The activity was the Post Office.

Hello, Today in my twos creative classroom we painted with paint ice cubes. The older and younger ones really enjoyed it. I caught my youngest two trying to eat the ice the paint cube because I guess he thought it was a popsicle. He also liked this art because you didn't have to get dirty with paint. He liked using the stick to paint and mix the colors. My older twos liked using all the different colors. It was a great activity to show them if you mix two different colors they make a whole new color. One of the girls mixed blue and red together and it made purple. Then since she liked that so much she mixed red and yellow together and together it made orange, which one of my oldest boys pointed out. The children liked using the stick with the paint cube in different ways. Some swirled the paint, some made dots. They really liked this art activity. From letting the hot water warm up the paint to washing the paint out of the ice cube trays and throwing away the sticks. I have to say a very easy clean up after such a fun, somewhat messy activity. This activity would also be great for a science activity. Since the children are so use to seeing paint in a liquid form instead of a sold they would be taught on how things can be turned into a solid or a liquid.

Art Appreciation: Mosaic

Hello, Today in the twos creative classroom the toddlers worked on their mosaic pieces. I was thinking about making a copy of a snowflake for them to mosaic but that was a fail so instead I came up with an even more creative idea. I asked them what they wanted to Mosaic. Many of them said Mickey Mouse or Minnie Mouse. Which in turn became singing M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse. It is so funny that when your that little you can break out in song whenever you feel the need to. There was also a disagreement on who could do Minnie or Mickey Mouse. I quickly told them that they could mosaic what every they wanted me to. While the twos were doing this project I learned that the older ones liked doing the activity and spent a good amount of time figuring out what colors they wanted to put on their Mickey or Minnie Mouse and the younger ones couldn't keep their attention on the art activity. I also learned that the two year old that usually isn't very interest in art projects was somewhat interested because it was Mickey Mouse but that it was a time consuming art activity and she didn't want to make sure that the pieces were on the glue but instead wanted to pile them on the other pieces to just get it done. They were doing a lot of fine motor activity trying to grab the small squares with their fingers and the placement of where they wanted to place them. The children had a really good time with the activity. I got the idea for doing mosaic for art appreciation from the website wwww.blog.mellissaanddoug.com and their site off Pintrest Summer Art School 5 ways to teach in 5 days to teach your child about art.