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Fun with Pipe Cleaners!

6 Sep

While I was at the dollar store last week getting the supplies for the Popcorn Sight Words game, I saw pipe cleaners and decided to grab 2 packs.  Now, I say pipe cleaners, but you may also call them chenille sticks or stems, which is how they are sometimes labeled at at the store.  I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do with them yet, but I know that there are plenty of fun things to do with them, plus they are great for working on fine motor skills.

First, we made some shape, circle, triangle, square, rectangle, heart.  Then we started making some letters, B, b, R, J, L.  Lots more possibilities there!

Then, I remembered  an idea I had seen on Pinterest, and got out my colanders.  Mine do not have circles, just lines, but it still worked well.  The girls had a blast with this!  We decided we were making rainbows!

Next time I am at the dollar store, I will look for some beads to use for stringing on the pipe cleaners.  I also might make up a box with holes and colors around the holes to do color matching along with putting the pipe cleaners in holes.  What kinds of activities do you do with pipe cleaners?

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Playdough!

6 Sep

Last week, K’s pre-K teacher asked for volunteers to make playdough.  Always eager to help, I told him I would help and he gave me the recipe.  I already had everything on the list except cream or tartar and Kool-Aid, plus I was getting low on salt.  Off to the store we went and then came home to try this out.

Playdough
– 3 cups flour
– 1 1/2 cups salt
– 3 tablespoons oil
– 2 tablespoons cream of tartar
– 3 cups water
– saucepan
– mixing spoon
– hot plate or stove

Combine all ingredients.  Cook over very low heat until mixture is no longer sticky to the touch.  Add food coloring or 1 packet Kool-Aid for color (Kool-Aid also adds smell).

Ingredients for Playdough

All mixed together on low heat on stove

Starting to be less sticky

Finished playdough! Note how it easily pulls from the sides of the pan and it will be no long sticky to the touch

Cooled, put into gallon sized bags, and dated

The most expensive ingredient for me was the cream of tartar.  I didn’t have time to check out the dollar store, so bought it at the grocery store while I was there.  Otherwise, all the ingredients are things normally on hand.  In all, this takes about 20 minutes to do, 5 minutes to measure things out, 10-15 minutes for it to cook on the stove.

In the end, we ended up doing this recipe 4 times, making 4 bags of playdough.  We went through about 5 lbs of flour, 2 26 oz canisters of salt, 1 2.5oz container of cream of tartar, not very much of the container of vegetable oil.  Depending on where you shop for the ingredients, it’s a pretty cheap activity.

Update: A friend let me know that she made this recipe and does not have non-stick pans like I used, and the playdough was still stuck to the bottom of her pan even after it was all done.  If you have non-stick pans, I would advise using one for this project.

Popcorn Sight Words

4 Sep

I really don’t remember learning sight words and I don’t remember ever hearing of them until recently when I started doing research on how to help my oldest learn to read (K is 4, almost 5).  We have the first 3 collections of BOB books, thanks to a generous friend who gave them to us since her boys were done with them.  K is doing great reading the first collection, and along with that reading, I wanted to start practicing sight words.  My first thought was flash cards, but I know those can be rather boring.  Then, in the Scholastic Book Club flyer we got at school last week, there was a POP for Sight Words game.  It didn’t really explain what the “game” part of it was, but I was considering purchasing it.  Then, browsing on Pinterest, a new fun way I kill time, I came across this Popcorn Word Activities, and remembered seeing that popcorn tub at Dollar Tree a couple weeks earlier.  So, I decided that we would make it ourselves!

Supplies:
– 1 large popcorn tub, $1
– 2 small popcorn tubs, $1 each
– 1 yellow posterboard, $.50
– 2 sheets yellow construction paper (used up all the posterboard), had on hand
– Sharpie marker, had on hand
– Scissors, had on hand

Since K wanted to help me make it, we decided it would be best to make the “popcorn” be rectangles, because she’s “not very good at cutting circles, but is very good at cutting rectangles.”  So, I measured out the posterboard into 2″ x 4″ rectangles.  Since it was 22″ x 28″, I got 77 rectangles total.  I cut the first 7, then K went to work on the rest.

K cutting the popcorn rectangles

She did a phenomenal job cutting all of them.  Yes, the lines weren’t cut perfectly straight, but honestly, the jagged edges give it a more popcorn feel.  Then I went to work adding the sight words in the best handwriting I could.  I used these Dolch word lists, the pre-primer and primer lists.

The finished product

I’m still working on what games we will play using these, probably at first use them like flashcards.  I found some sight word bingo cards that I can print off and we can draw words out of the bucket to play bingo.  I”m sure K will come up with some games of her own.

I also wasn’t sure what I would do with the 2 smaller popcorn tubs, but decided they would be used to hold the different sets of popcorn inside the bigger tub for storage.  I’m sure we’ll find a way to incorporate them into a game as well.

Smaller tubs labeled for storing the 2 sets of sight words

So, I took a $9 game, made it for $2.50, plus K got some cutting practice and it was a fun way to spend a couple hours on a Sunday morning.

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