I am thinking of an animal

I suppose it's your typical guessing game but I never thought about playing it with my 3 year old until I heard my good friend, Serena, playing with her 4 year old the other day.

Mommy:"I am thinking of an animal that is black and white and lives where it is cold"
Child: Zebra!
Mommy: No, remember it is so cold and this animal eats fish and walks funny.
Child: A penguin!
Mommy: Yep! Your turn!

Child: I am thinking of an animal that lives in the jungle with stripes
Mommy: A tiger?
Child: Yep! Your turn!

You will be amazed at how quickly a car ride goes by. And I think it teaches great deduction skills. Great pre-reading skills as well. Visualizing things, putting things together in your mind. It is simple, but so great. You will be surprised at how well this works. Since our friend was over visiting we have played it in every car ride -- no fail. It is now a family favorite.

Cost: FREE

Variations: With younger ones say the sound of the animal and have them guess it. You could do different categories as well. I am thinking of a food, I am thinking of a person, I am thinking of a toy, I am thinking of a color, I am thinking of something in the room....(I guess that is kind of like I spy, but oh well, that is fun too). For the older kids you can make it harder -- I am thinking of an animal that begins with the letter R and ends with the letter S and it is not plural. Or I am thinking of an animal that would live in Brazil, or florida or Asia.

My Little Shortcake and the Rockers

Vintage fisher price meets pottery barn outlet emergency station meets Mickey Mouse
Wooden railroad meets remote control car meets blue tablecloth ocean with pirate ship meets dump truck meets hot wheels
meets teething toy giraffe.

I love the way Andy plays with his toys in the beginning of the first Toy Story. Everyone is involved - Potato Head, Bo Peep, Sheriff Woody, army men, a barrel of monkeys, dinosaurs, etc.

When I was young I would spend hours creating towns for my toys -- Barbie and friends had a mansion in my bookcase, My Little Ponies had a grassy meadow on my bedspread, and Strawberry Shortcake and the gang had their hangout. Stacked books became stairs, washcloths became bedspreads, socks became sleeping bags, shoes became cars (Barbies can sit in them so nicely-- no, I didn't have the convertible) and those white plastic pizza thingamajigs that held the pizza lid up in the pizza box to not smash the pizza made the most perfect little tables. Oh, tell me you did that too, with the pizza things.

I remember playing a little bit with my "land" after it was set up but I must admit that the setting it up was by far the funnest part. I'd have everything just so and my entire room would be a big land of My Little Shortcake and the Rockers.

And then someone would let in the crazy giant land wrecking madwoman/man and all would be lost. Wasn't that the worst? Isn't it the worst? I just feel for my older one when my younger one ruins something he made.

It was either that or it was time to go to bed. I couldn't sleep while the ponies were chomping on the grassy meadow.

Have your children use their imaginations and create a land incorporating all of their toys. Make it work. Create a story to act out. Create scenarios. Get neighborhood kids to come over and help.

Cost: Free (just use the toys you have!)

Variations: a million.

Grocery ads

Sometimes I don't post my ideas because I don't have a picture of it. I decided I need to just get these ideas out and not wait for the perfect picture every time. Here is an idea I have adjusted from the days in the classroom.

When I sort through the newspaper or mail I like to save the grocery ads. Max and I will go through them and do different activities. Sometimes we go through each item in the ad -- if he likes the item to eat, he circles it. If he doesn't, he puts and X through it. Teaches great fine motor skill (pre-writing) and teaches critical thinking.

Sometimes it becomes a look and find.

Mommy: I am looking for something to drink that is yummy for breakfast with pancakes.
Max: ORANGE JUICE (and then circles it or puts a star sticker on it)
Mommy: What would be something you can put on your bread to make a sandwich?
Max: Peanut Butter! (or jam or lunchmeat....)

COST: free
Variations: Younger ones can just do labeling. Can you find the apples? Can you find the milk? What's that? (point to something and have them tell you). Older kids could be given four or five different colors and be told to circle all the things in a certain food group i.e. fruits and vegs with a certain color, each group being a different color. An older child could be given a certain amount of money and be told to "shop" in the ads for what they would like to buy for that week if they could. Have them find the best deal. You can tell them to circle all the foods they think are good for them and X out all the bad ones (then look over it together and discuss). Find all the foods that start with the letter B. Different colors for different meals - blue for breakfast, red for lunch, green for dinner, yellow for snacks.... what else????

Tricky, tricky

You know how kids like to have a choice? Like to be in charge? If you are fighting with your kids about nap times, here is a funny suggestion.

My mom told me that when we were little and fighting her about naps she would ask us a simple question. "Do you want to take a long nap or a short nap? --- It's your choice!" she would say. If we complained and whined then we had to take the long nap. Of course we always wanted to take the short nap.

tricky mom.

3 Year Old Tour Guide

another child -led activity. It is amazing what creative and fun things can happen in a day if you allow your child to lead for a little bit.

We came home from running errands today and Max asked to sit in the driver's seat to "drive". At first I said "no, let's go." And then I said, why not? (Sometimes I really try to conciously think of why I say no to my children -- is it because I am lazy????)

So, up he went and I buckled him in. Oliver and I sat in the backseat. Max told us we were going on an adventure. He vroomed this way and that. I shouted out places to go. IKEA! Ma's house in California! The playground! Grandpa's house! Africa! A carnival! Once we were "there" we said hi to things we would see there and then we were off to the new place.

We did it for about 15 minutes or so. We could have done it longer except Oliver wanted to really go somewhere -- like outside and into the house. I thought that it would be really fun to do on a rainy day --- when you can't go much of anywhere and need a break from the monotony of the day. Jump in the car and go on an adventure -- with your three year old at the wheel. You could even bring props and fun things in with you -- get all dressed up to go out. Just a change of scenery. And boy do they like to be the one in charge!

A happy childhood

Yet another post on my main blog that the readers of this one might enjoy

Read about why pancake batter and blue tarps = a happy childhood.

Me, the Dinosaur Hunter

Just thought my Likely Classroom readers would be interested in a post I wrote on my main blog.

Here it is.

Enjoy.

Watering Hole

Even your youngest can have sink time. Create a safe "playpen" by backing up three chairs around them and give them a small cup and a trickle of water. The minutes will tick by (I got about 20) as you prepare dinner or get some kitchen chores done. I think my sweet Oliver must have drank 27 little cupfuls of water that afternoon. He was soaked head to toe. smiling and laughing, but soaked still the same ---- with the fullest diaper on him that evening I had seen in months. You know, the water balloon kind that weigh 10 pounds.

grand fun.

COST: free

Button Pond

You may not have a button collection like mine but you can play nonetheless. You can use a wide mouthed jar or dishpan filled with rice or macaroni or beads or shredded paper. You can hide just one object in it or multiple. We hid a plastic goldfish. It could be made into a game and take turns. Make sure the children playing are out of the put everything into the mouth stage. My little 15 month old Oliver LOVES the button jar. We play in it every once in a while but he is HIGHLY supervised. I cannot deny him the feeling of running your hands through a button jar. It has to be one of my favorite feelings. If I could swim in them.....

Pins and Needles

Do you have Pins? some Yarn? a pillow?

As I was sitting and finishing up some holiday crafting my son Max couldn't keep his hands off of my pin cushion. He kept taking pins off of the magnetic holder and dropping them on the floor. No good with a baby around. So I grabbed a pillow from the couch and turned it over and told him that he could press the pins into it. It started with him just randomly pushing them into the pillow.
Then he started lining them up and called it a train.
And then he said they were flowers in a garden. I love adding a little fuel to his fire so I asked him if he needed some water to help his flowers grow. I gave him a piece of yarn and told him it was his hose. He "watered" the pins and as he did I slowly raised each pin like they were growing. He was tickled with this little game. We watered and grew and then pushed down and watered some more.

As we played this little garden game I thought about using the pins as pegs on a geoboard. Do you remember geoboards in school? I did a spin on it and placed the pins in a certain shape and had him follow the pins, wrapping around each one as we went along. (knot the first one around the first pin) You can see the house in the first picture. We did a few shapes and a few letters together before it was time to clean up and do who knows what.

I love impromptu diversion. Let them lead. You just bring the fuel.

COST: Ummm..... please tell me you have straight pins! and yarn or string! and a pillow?

Variation: use different color yarns and create different artwork. Take pictures before disassembling. For older kids, have them try to place the pins to create pictures like a dot to dot. if you have multiple color pins, they could have to connect them in an order, like rainbow order or something. That way they could create something and a friend or you could complete it. I just had a great idea - what about turning over couch cushions and really getting crazy? You would have to definitely explain that pins don't go into anything, but if you had a canvas-y type couch or the undersides weren't something you would ever use, you could create some real masterpieces. I could see older kids trying to line up the pins in a way to spell their names in cursive using the yarn..... or creating a grid and putting objects into the grid. Make a zoo grid, a jail grid, a collection grid, a snack grid. Okay, I just love lateral thinking. I'll stop now.

More to come soon

Holy Smokes! I have been getting a ton of traffic from The Crafty Crow. She has featured two of my ideas now and I have yet to update. I have a lot of fun ideas, even the pictures to go with them, I just haven't made this blog a priority lately. I will definitely be posting more very soon. Stay posted and thanks for stopping by!

smiles, Likely

Welcome to the Sidewalk Zoo

Yet another activity with those darn animals. Hit up your local Ross or dollar store I tell ya! This time we made a zoo outside on the front walk. We made sidewalk chalk cages and I labeled them all as they told me what they wanted to place in them.

We even had a visitor take a little tour. He had a season pass....All the sea creatures were having a grand time together swimming and splashing in Blue Chalk Pond.
And then you tell the little zookeepers that they must gather food for the animals to eat (grass) and bring a little dish of water around so they can drink. And then you throw your zookeepers up in a tree and tell them to make funny sounds.......



VARIATIONS: stuffed animal zoo, draw pictures of animals and make a zoo, cut pictures out of magazines or old workbooks. If you need to stay indoors use masking tape on a hard-surfaced floor to make cages. It's a great activity to teach organizing and sorting. You could have older kids create the zoo and charge a nickel admission to the zoo, just to add an element of entrepreneur-ism to it.

COST: Well, the animals cost $2.00 a tube at Ross (Dress for Less)...... we have about 4 of them. And the sidewalk chalk.... that's cheap too.... We just have these things.