Valentine's Day Sensory Box with Dollar Tree Items

I love making different kinds of Sensory Boxes to go with themes or the Holiday seasons for my girls. Sensory boxes are great things to make for your kiddos because not only will they have fun with them but it also helps them with their FINE MOTOR SKILLS in their hands that will help them with writing with a pencil or cutting with scissors when they go to school. By pouring and scooping things up in this sensory box, children work the muscle in their hands to help them in the future in school. I wanted to share with you  guys a Valentine's Day Sensory Box that I created for my girls with Dollar Tree Items.

The materials I used was a plastic tub, dry uncooked rice (but you can use white dry beans as well), heart measuring cups, and some Valentine's Day items. All the items pictured above I got at Dollar Tree.

I poured the rice first and then added the items I purchase at dollar tree.

I found some red plastic cups that I had and added it to the sensory box to go with the Valentine's Day theme. I also put in the heart gems and buried some in the rice so that Bri could explore to find them.

Then I let Bri have fun and explore with it. I did add some alphabet magnets one day to the sensory box and as she found them in the rice, I would ask her what letter it was and the sound it makes to practice letter recognition. Another day we practiced counting by counting the heart gems every time she put some in a cup. This sensory box not only helps with fine motor skills but it can be adapted in so many ways to teach other things as well to your kiddos.

What are some fun Valentine's Day theme learning activities do you do with your kiddos? Let me know in the comments below. 

Don't forget to LIKE, PIN, or SHARE this post if you liked it or if you found it helpful.

XOXO

RIA

Valentine's Day Heart Theme Pattern Practice

Hello Everyone! So I know we are still in January but I wanted to share with you some VALENTINE'S DAY  HEART THEME PATTERN PRACTICE activity that I did with Bri when I used to teach her at home during PRE-K and PRESCHOOL time. I always like to change up LEARNING ACTIVITIES to fit the HOLIDAY THEMES because I feel it keeps the kiddos interested in LEARNING when LEARNING ACTIVITIES change up and go with different themes. Bri enjoyed this learning activity and it didn't cost much or take to much time to set up.

All of my materials came from DOLLAR TREE. The HEART shape buttons I found in the craft section and the ice cube tray I found in the the kitchen section of DOLLAR TREE. I made the grid pattern paper myself on Microsoft Word by creating a table and change up the size the of the squares so that the squares would be a little bit of a bigger size then the HEART buttons.

If you can not find the HEART shape buttons then you could also use these HEART candies that are also at DOLLAR TREE.

First I put all the buttons in this HEART shape tray that I also found at DOLLAR TREE. Before we started on PATTERN PRACTICE, I asked Bri to separate the HEART shape buttons by COLOR so that we could also practice COLOR RECOGNITION.  

After Bri was done separating the colors we then started on our PATTERN PRACTICE.

I began the lesson by creating a basic pattern and then asked Bri what is the pattern that she notices on the first line. Once she told me the right pattern, I then told her to finish the pattern herself to the end of the row.

I did the same thing with the next few lines.

The last few rows I let her CREATE her own patterns and as you can see by the picture some were not exactly a pattern LOL but I let her explore and then we cleared the sheet and began again.

This was a cheap, simple, and easy LEARNING ACTIVITY to set up that my child was interested in and had fun while she was learning which are all things that I love in a LEARNING ACTIVITY. Leave me a comment below about some of your favorite VALENTINE'S DAY HEART THEME activities that you like to do with your kiddos.

DON'T FORGET TO LIKE, SHARE, OR PIN THIS POST IF YOU LIKE IT AND FOUND IT HELPFUL.

XOXO
RIA

Winter Treats

Hi Everyone! Are you enjoying this cold weather or hating it? It seems everyone around the world is dealing with COLD COLD weather so I figured why not make it fun for the kiddos! So yesterday I decided to make them some WINTER TREATS for them to enjoy. I made them some FRIED DONUT SNOWBALLS and MELTED SNOWMAN HOT COCOA! Both recipes are so easy to make.

Ingredients for FRIED DONUT SNOWBALLS:

• Powder Sugar
• Biscuit Dough

First take the biscuit dough and cut the premade circles in half. Then roll each piece into little balls.

Put about a half inch of oil in a pan and let the oil heat up. Get the oil hot but not too hot because you don't want the outside to be cooked and the inside still be doughy. Put the balls of dough in the oil when the oil is hot and brown the dough on both sides. The donuts cook fast so keep an eye on them.

Set up a plate with a napkin, a bowl filled with powder sugar, and another bowl. When the donuts are done frying put them on the plate with the napkin first to drain out the excess oil off then roll the donut in the powder sugar.

And that is it for the FRIED DONUT SNOWBALLS.

Ingredients for MELTED SNOWMAN HOT COCOA:

• Chocolate Syrup or Hot Cocoa
• Milk
• Big Marshmallows
• Marshmallow Cream
• Food Markers

While you are heating up the CHOCOLATE MILK or HOT COCOA use the food markers to draw a SNOWMAN face on the BIG MARSHMALLOWS. 

Once the CHOCOLATE MILK or the HOT COCOA is warm up put some MARSHMALLOW CREAM on top of it and then put the drawn SNOWMAN face MARSHMALLOW on top of the cream. Then you have a MELTED SNOWMAN HOT COCOA.

This was a cute and delicious treat for my girls to warm them up from this cold weather. What are some of your favorite WINTER TREATS for your kiddos?

RIA

APPLE THEME FUN

We are still doing some APPLE THEME FUN things for SEPTEMBER and this past weekend we did some more Activities that my girls of coursed LOVED!!

First activity we did was make "APPLE VOLCANOES". I had seen this idea all over PINTEREST  and couldn't wait to try it with my girls! My  girls of course LOVE to do ERUPTING EXPERIMENTS and this activity had that idea plus it uses APPLES to go with our theme. Win Win

To give this activity a sensory feel I decide to add APPLE PIE SPICE to the baking soda so the girls could smell the scent of APPLE PIE while they do their activity.

Also in keeping with the APPLE THEME I made the vinegar green with food coloring and also added APPLE scented hand soap to it (which will create more bubbles too).

Next I cored out a a little bit of the APPLE to make it into a VOLCANO!!

I set up all the materials the girls will need on a tray so that the "lava" will be contain in the tray.

The girls added the baking soda to the APPLE and notice the scent of APPLE PIE!!

Then it was time to add the green APPLE scented Vinegar.

And the eruption began!!

Bri was so excited about this activity that she did it over and over again!

Next I made APPLE PIE SPICE CLOUD DOUGH. Cloud Dough recipe itself take only two ingredients to make it 8 cups of Flour and 1 cup of baby oil ( if you want to make it kid safe for little ones you can replace the baby oil with any cooking oil). To make the cloud dough have a APPLE theme to it I just added APPLE PIE SPICE to the cloud dough to give it the scent.

Next I added measuring spoons and cups. Also I added little pom poms (to be APPLES) and little red pie plates so they can make mini APPLE PIES!

Here is Bri's little APPLE PIE! She was so busy creating she got flour on her forehead!! LOL

Here is the after math of creating LOL

Next I cut up some APPLES and set up the table for the girls to do some APPLE painting.

After the paint dried the girls cut out their APPLE print shapes and made an APPLE wreath by gluing the APPLES prints a paper plate.

Me and my girls are loving all these APPLE activities! We just LOVE the FALL!!

Apple Pie Spice Play-doh

We are still doing APPLE theme activities in my house and on Sunday we did a Sensory play activity. I love making HOMEMADE PLAY-DOH especially when I can change it up for the theme or the seasons. So this time I put a "APPLE PIE SPICE" twist to our regular HOMEMADE  PLAY-DOH recipe. 

The Ingredients you will need to make this PLAY-DOH are:

• 1    Cup of Four
• 1/2 Cup of Salt
• 2    tsp of Cream of Tarter
• 1    Cup of Water
• 1    Tbs of Applesauce
• 1     tsp Apple Pie Spice 
•        Red food coloring

First mix the flour, salt, cream of tarter, and apple pie spice together in the skillet with the heat off. 

Next mix the Red food coloring in with the water. I mixed 1/2  little bottle of Red food color from the Assorted color box (I used a lot of red because to get the color red you have to use a lot of food coloring because the white color in the flour and salt will turn the PLAY-DOH "PINK" if you use just couple of drops of Red food coloring. Then mix the applesauce in with the water.

 Then pour the applesauce/water mixture into the dry ingredients and mix it together with a whisk. 

Then turn the heat on medium and stir the mixture as it cooks.

Keep stirring the mixture until it forms a ball.

Put the ball of PLAY-DOH on a cutting board and let it cool. Once it has cooled knead the PLAY-DOH until it is smooth. Then it is ready to play with.

I then cut out some leaves out of green felt and cut some brown pipe cleaners for steams so the girls could make some PLAY-DOH APPLES.

I set up some others materials for them and then invited them to play.

First thing they did was smell the PLAY-DOH and told me it smelled liked APPLE PIE.

They couldn't wait to start playing and making APPLES with  their "APPLE PIE SPICE PLAY-DOH".

The girls played for a long time with the PLAY-DOH and enjoyed the smell of FALL to go along with it.

I still have some more APPLE activities planned for my girls this month and having fun doing them. Don't forget to leave me a comment about your favorite APPLE activities.