Web in the night

Builds on: creativity and fine motor skills

This is an oldy but goody that I remember doing in school as a kid without the cool stickers. Great for Halloween and bug themes; kids really enjoy the spider web reveal in the end and then trying to make their own reveal designs.

What you'll need:

watercolors
a jar of water

paint brushes

white crayon

white paper

foam stickers

What to do:

Use the white crayon to draw a spider web on to the white paper. Because it's white on white it can be hard to see while you're drawing so hold the paper against a window while it's light out to make it easier to see the marks made by the crayon. 

Put everything out on the activity table and tell the kids that there is a something hidden on the paper that can only be seen when they paint the night sky. Let the kids pick their own colors  Once they reveal the first few lines see if they can guess what it is. If they haven't figured out what it is by the time the whole thing is uncovered start giving hints until they finally get it. Halloween paintings get stars, moons and ghost stickers while bug themes painting would get puffy bug stickers once the paint is dry.

 

This is a great activity to have planned for a babysitter on date night or for a quick family activity just before bed.

 

Give your kids creative license over their own work. If this is how they want night to be look, let it happen and build up their confidence by supporting their choice.

Extra resources:

If you're looking for more activities involving spider webs follow the links to some of these great ideas on our favorite blogs. 

The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carole- Bug themed reading

Halloween Orb Spider Web Craft

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Farm Shapes Sewing
Builds on : hand eye coordination, fine motor skills, life skills

This is the perfect activity when you need a little quiet time to talk on the phone or want to make dinner in peace after an active day. 

What you'll need:

Plastic canvas sheet
Printed farm shape outlines
Scissors
Marker
Basket
1.5 foot piece of yarn for each shape
Yarn needle


What to do:

 To make your own shapes you place your plastic canvas on top of your farm shape outlines and trace the shapes using your marker. Cut them out as best as you can with the scissors. Don't get too wrapped up in making it perfect because the sheets are grid based and you will drive yourself batty trying. If you aren't overly crafty you can purchase some from the Hoot 'n' Roo's Closet tab under "activity supplies" (coming soon).


Tie one end of the yarn to a corner of your cut out shape and string the other end through the eye of the yarn needle. Do this for each shape. If you only have Roos to worry about then place your finished product into a basket on the activities table for them to find on their own and figure out. Offer help if they ask.

Sheer The Sheep To Make Yarn
Builds on: dramatic play, fine motor skills

What you'll need:

a square piece of clear contact paper
scissors
painters tape
permanent marker
1 bag of cotton balls
a low window
1 plastic knife


What to do:
Use the permanent marker to draw the outline of a sheep on the front of the contact paper. Tear 4 pieces of painters tape measuring the length of each side of the contact paper from the roll. Remove the protective paper from the adhesive side of the contact paper and place your drawing against the window, sticky side facing you. Use the pieces of tape to secure the sides of your picture to the window. Now grab your bag of cotton balls and knife and invite the kids over.

As they stick cotton balls on to the sheep you can explain that during the fall farmers let the sheeps wool grow as thick as it will go. Hand over the knife and tell them that in the spring the farmer shaves off all the wool to make thread with. Let the kids shave off the "wool". Let the kids repeat this as often as they want. When you see that either the sheep isn't sticky anymore or that the interest is waning take a cotton ball and explain that to make thread with the wool farmers pulls the wool apart to make it more fluffy and then use a machine to spin/twist the wool into yarn.  Pull the cotton balls apart as you speak and encourage your kids to do the same. Once it's nice and fluffy pinch the "wool" between your fingers and show the kids how to twist it into small pieces of "yarn".

Related Resources:

Follow the links to a yarn activity and youtube videos about wool pulling and spinning.

Farm Shapes Sewing
Wool Pulling and Spinning Video

Spot The Cow Game
Builds on: counting skills, number recognition, finger strengthening

What you'll need:
Large side view print of a plain cow
1 large Ziploc freezer bag
1 tub of black playdoh
number cards 1-30

What to do:

Place the picture of the cow inside the Ziploc bag and zip it up. Place everything on to the activity table and sit across from your little. Explain that you're going to pick a number out of the number cards and your little is going to decide what number it is and make the same number of spots on the cow using small pinches of playdoh.

If you're new to counting and number recognition your going show a number 1-10 to your kiddo. Give them a minute to remember and help if they can't. Then count out loud together as playdoh spots are added to the cow.

The Carrot Seed Farm

The Carrot Seed Farm
Builds on: math, color recognition, fine motor skills

What you'll need:
1 empty cardboard egg carton
green, purple, yellow and orange pipe cleaners
wire cutters
large exacto knife
The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss
* optional: 1 bag of Rainbow Carrots from the health food store

What to do:

Turn the egg carton over so that the egg cups are facing up. Use the exacto knife to cut and X into the center of each cup. Use a pencil to force the X open a little more.

Use the wire cutters to cut the all the pipe cleaners into 2 inch pieces. To create a carrot take a green pipe cleaner and a purple pipe cleaner fold them each in half. Twist the two ends of the purple pipe cleaner together to so that you have a loop at the folded end and a point at the twisted end. Finally, thread the green pipe cleaner through the loop of the purple pipe cleaner and twist close to the loop leaving the ends untwisted for the stocks of the carrots. Repeat with all of your other colors until you have 12. Let your Roo have a shot at it to improve their fine motor skills and hand dexterity.

Once you have them all made push the pointed ends through the holes of the egg cups and place it on the activities table. Once you've read The Carrot Seed you can let your Roo pull out all of the carrots and put them back in. Challenge them with color sorting, counting or color pattern questions.

My favorite part about this activity is that kids always comment that carrots are only orange. I get to pull out Rainbow Carrots and explain that there are lots of different colors for carrots and at snack we test all of the different colors to see if they taste any different from the typical orange ones.

Addition activities:

Follow the links below for some of some more carrot activities, by some other awesome bloggers, to go allow with The Carrot Seed

Soda Bottle Carrots: A Very Small Kitchen Garden
Spring Sensory Tub With Carrots
Carrot Fingers
Preschool Carrot Patch Math Activity

The Pumpkin Patch

Pumpkin Patch

Builds on: hand strengthening, sensory development, vocabulary

 

What you'll need:

1 package of cream filled chocolate cookies- cream removed

1 package of candy pumpkins

A large spoon

Rectangular container

Small cultivator/ hand rake

Toy tractor

What to do:

Place just the chocolate cookies into the container and hand your Roo the large spoon while you inconspicuously dispose of the creamy centers...in your mouth. Just kidding. Sort of. Show your Roo how to use the spoon to crack, smash and crumble the cookies into tiny pieces so that it looks like soil. Place the tractor in the "soil" and the opened bag of candy pumpkins on the side with the small cultivator. You can bury the pumpkins and have your kids dig them out. You can read a story about farming or growing pumpkins and then let them reenact it or you can just set them loose and see what happens. Either way it's a fun activity that will help to strengthen little hands with all the smashing and provide a fun dramatic activity with multiple sensory elements. 

*Don't forget to talk about how it smells, feels and even tastes to help develop the senses and build descriptive vocabulary.