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rnaments courtesy of beth ann atkins ingredients 1 2 c salt 1 c flour 1 2 c water rolling pin cookie sheet toothpick cookie cutters food coloring optional paint optional glitter paint glue optional ribbon if you re making ornaments you can also add cinnamon to the dough before baking so that it smells yummy preheat oven to 250 mix together salt flour and water until dough is formed you can add food coloring if you want colored dough knead the dough on floured surface until mixture is elastic and smooth if dough is too sticky sprinkle with flour continue to do so until stickiness is gone do not add too much flour as this will dry out the dough and will cause it to crack before baking roll out the dough to about 1 4 inch thick use cookie cutters to make shapes use a toothpick to make a hole at the top if you intend to make ornaments place shapes onto ungreased cookie sheet bake for 2 hours remove allow to cool completely once completely cooled decorate as you wish thread ribbon yarn through hole if you re making an ornament don t forget to write and name date on the back so you ll always remember when it was made if you aren t making ornaments you can also put a magnet on the back or make them into lapel pins posted by raegan at 12 00 am 0 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels christmas thursday december 10 2009 tot school activity list i ve had difficulty getting my ideas for tot school into a workable format and really needed a more user friendly form so i made this one along the left hand column i wrote down several different categories of activities based on the skills practiced then i listed 3 separate activities for each category so if you realize you haven t done pouring in a while and your mind goes blank on activities it will be easier to reference this list click on it and you can see the larger format to read it easier i also have a tiny request from anyone reading this blog could you state which activities here you have tried and at what age and then tell me whether your child did it independently with assistance or was unable to do it i d like to get some more reference points for what the age range for each activity is so i can make one of these forms for the 12 18 month range one for the 18 24 month range and so on i ll be working my way through these with tobias but he s only one child and is past the 12 18 month age range already it would really speed up the process to have other mom s opinions oh and anyone is welcome to download print and use this form i ll hopefully figure out how to get the actual form downloaded in a more share able format but for now it is simply a picture format and even that took me over an hour to figure out lol posted by amanda at 6 00 am 5 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels planning toddlers wednesday december 9 2009 christmas symbols and meanings there are many symbols we decorate with at christmas time that are symbolic of deeper meanings we can do things like put up a nativity set to teach our children about the purpose of christmas but there is much more that we can do as you decorate you can tell your children what each item symbolizes and why we decorate with it if you have already decorated you can go around the house looking for the symbols and talk about them here is a list of common decorations and the things they symbolize color red the color red symbolizes the savior s sacrifice for us it is for the blood he spilt for us color green the color green symbolizes eternal life life everlasting color white the color white symbolizes the purity of christ color gold the color gold symbolizes the royalty of christ the star the star is representative of the star that shone at the birth of christ fulfilling prophecy the star marked the place where christ lay and is the shining hope of all mankind the evergreen tree also known as the fir tree your christmas tree this tree represents everlasting life it is green all year round evergreen needles also point up to heaven this tree can also symbolize the jesse tree jesse was the father of king david christ is from that lineage the bell shepherds ring bells to guide lost sheep back to the fold remember the parable of the lost sheep the shepherd searches for one lost even when he has his ninety and nine 99 the bell symbolizes that all are precious in the eyes of the lord bells are also rung in celebration for the birth of christ the candle the candle is a smaller representation for star light this reflects our gratitude for the star of bethlehem the lights the lights represent that jesus is the light of the world the gift bow the gift bow represents that we should all be tied together in bonds of goodwill the candy cane the candy cane represents the shape of a shepherd s crook this crook is used to bring lost lambs back to the fold the colors red and white are used purposefully see color symbols above if you turn the candy cane upside down it makes a j for jesus the wreath the wreath has a couple of meanings one thing to note is that it is round circular it is a symbol of the never ending never ending love as well as the never ending lord he is the beginning and the end the holly one interpretation for holly represents the crown of thorns holly was introduced as a christmas item in order to eclipse the use of mistletoe the angel this is quite obvious but the angel represents the angels who proclaimed the birth of the savior the poinsettia the poinsettia is representative of the star of bethlehem see star symbol above these are a few of the most popular christmas symbols and their alleged meanings it is of course impossible to know exactly what the story is behind everything for example the story of the candy cane is not known for sure but these symbols are all good we can take what we have and apply them to our celebration of christmas and help us remember to focus on the full meaning of christmas each year posted by valerie plowman at 1 00 am 2 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels christmas tuesday december 8 2009 stork stands and other gross motor control activities gross motor activities deal with the large muscles in the body and their movement it s important for kids to work on gross motor skills to strengthen their large muscle groups kids that have trouble with gross motor skills can later have trouble with fine motor skills like drawing writing and cutting here are a few fun things to do with your kiddos to help with gross motor control and strengthening different muscle groups many of them require them to focus attention on one or two specific groups and use control to guide the movements rock backs for young children hold them in your lap for this activity toddlers may be able to do this on their own my two year old likes to do it both ways whether on your lap or on their own they are still getting benefits of muscle control and abdominal strengthening sit cross legged with knees pointing toward the ceiling or sit with your knees toward the ceiling and legs bent and closed grab knees and hug rock backwards keeping knees and legs tight into the body try to rock back and roll back up to a sitting position you have to use stabilizing muscles to keep the body in control and abdominal muscles to pull back to a sitting position stork stands standing up tall hold arms straight out to the side like an airplane take your foot and place the bottom of the foot on the inside of the opposite leg try to hold that position for as long as possible switch legs my daughter needed to hold onto the wall first to get her balance one leg raise sitting on your bottom lean back and support yourself with your hands arms straight try to raise just one leg at a time then try both at one time make sure you aren t leaning back to raise them up but rather using your abdominal muscles to raise your legs walking while grabbing ankles exactly what the name says grab your ankles while keeping the legs straight and try to walk wheelbarrow this is an activity that they need your help with each time have your child stand up straight then have them place their hands on the floor slowly grab their legs and lift telling my toddler to walk with her hands was helpful since she wasn t sure what we were doing at first hopscotch doing this correctly wasn t really doable the first few times for my toddler this activity takes lots of practice hopping with control on one foot is the first step then try hoping on one foot and switching to two feet we recently got a great hopscotch rug from wal mart that charis has in her room bubble wrap hopping with all the packages and mailing we do around christmas we usually have some bubble wrap left around the house today we practiced hopping jumping over jumping on the balls of the feet and jumping into a stradle position over the bubble wrap she got a kick out of the popping sounds and it helped her focus on landing hard and keeping her balance at the same time posted by raegan at 12 00 am 0 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels child gross motor skills preschooler toddler monday december 7 2009 christmas tree rice krispy treats this is a fun activity to add to your tree week you can do this any time of the year we are learning about trees during the month of december and talking about evergreen trees age range as soon as you start allowing them to help cook i would say most 15 18 month olds and older can do this supplies saucepan you could use as small as a 3 quart but i like to use a 6 quart so you can stir without spilling helpful for me and the children rice krispies 5 cups i always buy the inexpensive rice krispies in the bags like malt o meal marshmallows 4 cups miniature which equals about half a bag or 40 regular butter 1 4 cup green food coloring candies to decorate tree like red candies or string liquorice optional regular size marshmallows for base of tree optional toothpicks optional cookie sheet activity get cookie sheet out and grease or spray with non cooking spray melt butter in saucepan add marshmallows as you are measuring be sure to incorporate math skills for the younger toddler it might just be saying we need to fill this up 5 times can you help me count as your child gets older you can increase the difficulty of this brayden 4 5 is quite good at math and can do simple addition in his head he has also started learning about fractions thanks to my husband the engineer when we made these i used a pyrex measuring cup that measures up to 2 cups i told him we needed 4 cups of marshmallows i then told him our measuring cup held two cups and showed him where the two cup mark was i also showed him where the 1 cup mark was i asked him how many times we needed to fill it up and to what to reach five cups cook over low heat stirring constantly until smooth and all marshmallows have melted add food coloring continuing to stir constantly remove from heat measure out rice krispies do the same for measuring this as you did with the marshmallows use this as a teaching opportunity add rice krispies stir until well coated butter hands i just sprayed cooking spray on our hands put a spoonful of the mixture on the cookie sheet and have your child form into the shape of a christmas tree you might want to show him how first also it might be hot so check to make sure it is cool enough before letting your child touch it this is a good opportunity to talk about three dimensional shapes continue until mixture is gone re butter hands as needed decorate trees if desired once formed you can add the tree base by sticking a toothipick in a large marshmallow and then into the base of the tree eat and enjoy please note that these are not gooey rice krispie treats these have less butter and less marshmallows to help the tree stay up but it has less fat right right posted by valerie plowman at 9 31 am 0 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels baking cooking christmas evergreen math preschooler shapes toddler trees friday december 4 2009 reindeer week this week we are learning about reindeer i decided to take it a step further and go ahead and make the learning poster val posted about and make it a reindeer themed week here s what we are doing 1 hands and feet reindeer this is great as a keepsake for little hand prints you ll need brown and black paper plus 2 small white circles for eyes or you can use big wiggly eyes one black circle for the nose red glitter optional glue scissors pencil for tracing trace their foot or feet if you are making more than one on brown paper trace hands on black or tan paper these are for the antlers so make them whatever color you want them to be you need 2 hands and one foot per reindeer let them glue the hands on top since my daughter is still not a fan of glue on her hands we use cotton swabs to let her put the glue on her papers glue eyes and nose on cover the nose with glue and let them sprinkle red glitter on the nose if they want to make rudolph 2 reindeer cookies you need sugar cookie dough store bought is fine pretzels chocolate chips and m ms before you start break the pretzels up to look like antlers for the kids to do roll the sugar cookies into balls stick 2 pretzel on for antlers for you to do bake according to sugar cookie directions while they are still hot stick on the m m and chocolate chips learn from my mistake if you bake them on wax paper you can slide them off the cookie sheet so your child can stick them on without fear of burning themselves on the pan 3 reindeer breakfast williams sonoma has these great pancake molds super easy easy to clean and they have a snowman too that way it can be used past christmas served pancakes with a side of pretzel sticks and dried berries sticks and berries i invested in these because they are very nicely made and will last a long time i think we ll get lots of use out of these 4 the letter r we ve been using letter stamps and stamping papers holding the stamps pressing on the ink pad and pressing hard enough to make the letter on the paper are great for hand strength also if you put lines on a paper and have them stamp on the line you can work on hand eye coordination as well i also use clear squeeze bottles to make pancakes in the shape of the letter r we have cookie cutters in the shape of letters to cut out cheese lunch meat bread etc 5 shape of the week if it s triangles make open faced reindeer sandwiches cut a slice of bread in half diagonally you ll have 2 triangles i let my toddler use a plastic knife or spreader to smear on peanut butter add some pretzels for the antlers cut a banana up in coins if you cut one of the coins in half you can use those for eyes chocolate chips shredded cheese rolled into a ball or brown m ms work for the nose you can use raisins craisins or m ms draw a reindeer out of basic shapes on ...
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