Playdoh Mats

 Filling up the laminated mat 'trucks' with playdoh rocks. Number recognition, sensory, language, fine motor and imagination skills all in one with this activity. Great way to spend time on those upcoming rainy/snowy days!

Special thanks to 

www.prekinders.com

for these free printables!

Why Save Paper Towel Tubes? And Toilet?

We like Dramatic Play in my childcare environment. And when you need something to fill the time, you make something the children can take home. But first, we do a 'Test Run'. After all, it's more fun to play with friends! Right?!

So showing you how we turned a simple color page into a way to extend our theme of Fire Safety into the Dramatic Play Center. This color page is from about 16 years back so sorry no link for making a copy.

But maybe you could find a back issue on Amazon??

 Notice the $5.50 price? Unheard of today.

 

Here is a view of supplies needed including a color page. We printed ours on cardstock for more longevity.

1. The color and cut stage
   
   
   
   2.Connect the long tubes on each end ONLY.
   
   
   
   
   

   

Masking tape works best.

 

For the "People", firefighters in our instance, use tape loops and attach to the smaller tubes.

 

 Finally, slide the fire truck in-between the longer tubes. It should be a snug fit. Trim the ends if it's a little long. And there you have it! Individual play sets for your theme to enhance Dramatic Play.

 

Skills Learned from Dramatic Play:

 

• Learning to cooperate, to control impulses (like tearing it up by 'crashing', leads to less aggressive tendencies.
• Eye/hand coordination, fine and gross motor skills
• Developing literacy skills with use of new language, role-playing and problem solving
• Learning to ask and answer questions. This introduces a larger view of the world they are living in. Some of them will relate the events of the evening news they see at home to their play. Great opportunity to 'be there' to discuss our times.

 

Talk with your caregiver about the importance of Dramatic Play.

 

 

Upcycling wallpaper

You know those wallpaper sample books you can get for free at your local paint store? That is if your town/city still has one with all the large chain stores. (cough Lowe's, Home Depot, Menards, etc)

WE still have a couple here. My dad being a painter by trade during his life, this was a popular spot for us to shop. So... throw in a few decades later and you have me, painter's daughter doing childcare. And this is one of those ideas I use those sample books for.

Here's one example.

So we tear them out for this activity and use 'masking tape' (another painter's utensil) to attach them together. Thus, saving me $$$ from buying butcher block paper and also keeping my costs for families from skyrocketing due to needing more supplies. That( could be a whole other blog post)

 

 

 Now for the writing we picked out all the basic colors to keep track of them in case our little friend Hudson decided to run off with one to practice chewing :) And also, notice the print on the back is not a deterrent to the drawing going on.

 

In fact I used it to my advantage and created a writing prompt for Ben, age 2. Here's his little story.

Hope you enjoy our tutorial and story.