Updated Cool Down Corner and Magic blankets

In my  previous post I talked about the cool down corner in my room.  Just to review when my children get upset I walk them over to the cool down corner and tell them to sit there and calm down and that I will come and talk with them when they do.  I am trying to teach them to go to the cool down corner on the own when they are upset but right now few of them do it. This is what our cool down corner looks like:

It is in a corner of the room and has a book shelf in front of it to give it a more private feel but it is still easy to supervise.  The two large cushions came off of my couch. You could easily make your own using fabric and foam from a craft store.  The small cushions are chair cushions purchased from Walmart.  The blue bin has several calm down items in it.  It has two calming jars.  A pair of noise canceling head phones.  A few stress balls and squish balls.  It also has two pin wheels that can be used to help children to learn deep breathing. Something else I keep in the cool down corner even though it isn't pictured is one of our Magic Blankets.

It is a weighted blanket but we call it a magic blanket because it works so well at calming the kids down and helping them get to sleep at naptime.  The one pictured is one I made.  It isn't very difficult if you have a sewing machine.  The materials to make this one cost me around $24. It is a two pound blanket for each additional two pounds of weighted material it cost an extra $10.  I am thinking of making some to sell on etsy or some where.  If you are interested send me an email by clicking here.

Sensery tub Tuesday- Baking soda and Vinigar Volcanos

Last week we read the book when Sophie Gets angry.  We talked about what we do when we get angry.  One of the pages in the book compares Sophie to a volcano so we made aking soda and vinegar volcanos.  The kids loved to watch the mixture flow out of the test tubes we used.

Fabulous Food Friday- Animal Cracker Cages

I haven't been on here to update my blog in a while so I am putting my Fabulous food Friday activity from two weeks ago on here now.   We were reading the book Zoo Looking by Mem Fox.  Our theme for the week was of course Zoo Animals.  The kids had a pretty fun week.  Thursday the children brought in there stuffed animals from home and we made a pretend zoo.  Friday for Fabulous food Friday we built cages for our animal crackers.

 

As you can see from the pictures our cages were built out of marshmallow and pretzels.  The first picture is my creation the second is one of the children's.  

Kenetic Sand

Hey guys it is Sensory tub Tuesday.  I make a lot of my sensory items but it doesn't all ways have to be complicated.  One store bought sensory item I love is kinetic sand. I prefer the original one I have tried both the original and off brand of it.  The original one has a better texture and flows more freely.  I bought my sand at Walmart for around $15.  I found molds at five below for $5. My kids have had a blast with it.  One of the molds is a car shape the children enjoy making the cars then pretending to be monster trucks and smashing them.

Sunshine Crackers

Hi guys.  I has been a crazy week for me which is why my fabulous food Friday activity is just now being posted on Sunday night. So this week our theme was weather.  We talked mostly about rain and even played out side in it.

 

So by Friday we were ready for a little sunshine! Our Fabulous food Friday activity was sunshine crackers.

Ingredients:

Ritz Crackers

Whipped Cream Cheese- it makes it easier to mix up

Pretzels

red and yellow food coloring

 

Method-

Mix red and yellow food coloring into cream cheese to make it orange.  Have children spread the orange cream cheese on the Ritz crackers with a butter knife.  I gave each child three crackers because we eat it with their two o'clock snack so they don't need a full serving. After they have finished putting the cream cheese on there cracker have them place pretzel sticks around the cracker to look like rays of sunshine.





Preschool Dollar Tree Haul!!

I am just now getting around to uploading this video even though I recorded it last weekend.  I hope you enjoy it.

Weather Sensory Bin

Hi guys it is Sensory Tub Tuesday! Our theme for this week is weather. So this is our weather sensory bin:

The cloud dough is make from flour and baby oil. I didn't measure it out. I started with a whole bottle of baby oil then added flour until it formed a nice dough.  The blue stones are from the dollar tree and they represent the rain drops.  The umbrellas are from party city.  They had sharp ends at the bottom so I had to cut them off.  The kids seemed to enjoy this activity and made everyone's hands feel soft and smell awesome.

Easter Bunny Treat Bags

My center is closed Friday for Good Friday so our Easter party will be tomorrow.  Today we have worked on treat bags for the kids to take home.  I took brown paper bags and cut the top to look like bunny ears.  Then I drew a bunny face on the front.  The kids colored the front of their bags and glued a cotton ball on the back for the tail.

Easter Sensory Bin

In my class on Tuesdays I introduce a new activity to our sensory bin.  This week it is dyed rice with Easter eggs.

How to dye rice-
Materials-
Rice
Food Coloring
Rubbing Alcohol
Ziploc freezer bags one for each color you want to make
Wax Paper

Method-
Take one of the Ziploc bags and add two table spoons of rubbing alcohol.  The add ten drops of food coloring.  Shake the bag to mix the food coloring and rubbing alcohol.  Add 1 1/2 cups of rice to the bag.  Shake the bag to mix the rice with the food coloring.  Continue shaking and squeezing the bag until all of the rice is colored.  Then take the rice and dump it on to the wax paper.  Spread the rice out and leave it out overnight until it is dry.  Store the dry rice in a Ziploc container.

Velcro Blocks

This week I have added home made Velcro blocks to our manipulative center. 

To make the blocks I took a regular set of blocks and added three to four pieces of industrial strength Velcro on the sides.