Dinosaur Tracks Art Project- Using Dinosaur Toys!

Materials needed: Dinosaurs, Paint, Q-Tips, Paper Plate, Paper.

This was the first project of dinosaur week. Something easy, fun, and uses the toys they already have. It helps to have a variety of dinosaurs so you can talk about the differences between the types of feet.

When I first started this project, I simply had the kids dip their dinosaur's feet in the paint. However, this resulted in mostly paint blobs, making it hard to even tell it was a footprint. We then switched to painting the bottom of their feet with a q-tip. Much better results. After the project, a few of the girls decided to give all the dinosaurs a bath in the sink to clean them up. 

Cereal Name Tracing

Materials needed: Paper plate, glue, q-tips, cereal, and paper.

     Easy and fun for the kids. Write their name on a piece of construction paper. Many of my kids are at different stages when it comes to learning how to write their names. One of our biggest issues with the kids is breaking them of the habit of writing their name is all capital letters. This gave them the opportunity to learn and explore lowercase letters in a less traditional way. 
      First the students would trace the first letter using glue and a q-tip. I encouraged them to hold the q-tip how they would a pencil. Then, they could add the fruit loops along the glue. I made sure they did one letter at a time otherwise the glue would dry too quickly. Most of my kids picked random colors, but a few decided to make patterns. It was really fun for the kids and incredibly simple. 

Cheeto Your Teacher! (Shaving Cream+Cheetos)

Materials needed: Shaving cream, food coloring (optional), puffy cheetos.

This was probably my favorite Friday Funday activity! Since we knew it'd be 70 degrees we wanted a silly/messy outdoor activity for the kids. This activity only requires three things: puffy cheetos, shaving cream, and a teacher not afraid to get messy.

Instructions:

Step one: Have teacher cover upper body with shaving cream. We added some green food coloring because it was the Friday before St. Patrick's Day.

Step two: Have kids stand behind a line and toss puffy cheetos at the teacher. If it sticks- they get to throw again! Some of our younger kids were having a lot of trouble getting it to stick, so after a few tries we would let them walk up and stick it to him. We actually ended up running out of shaving cream. The more the better! It works better if you do a base layer and then add more without rubbing it in.

Aqua Balls Sensory Bin

This is the cheapest sensory bin I have ever done and the kids love it. I bought a jar of aqua balls from the dollar store. (They're normally used for filling decorative vases, called clear floral hydration beads)

I then added a few cups of water and light green food coloring. Before I added the food coloring the aqua balls were completely invisible in the water. I think that'd be a fun bin to play with, but I wanted some green for St. Patrick's Day, so I'll probably save that for a different day.

I added an ice cube tray for them to place the aqua balls in. They could use the spoon or their hands. These balls are really difficult to pick up because they slip right out of your hand and bounce away. Sometimes I have found that after a few days the aqua balls get a bit of an odor to them. However, for $1 they can be easily replaced for hours of fun.

Green Sensory Table

Materials needed: Different types of pasta, rice, green food coloring, green rocks, sugar, acorns, scoopers, spoons, containers etc.

Well, I decided to walk around my house and collect everything that was green. If it wasn't green, I used food coloring and dyed it green. Since St. Patrick's day is just around the corner, my kids decided to make houses and cupcakes for leprechauns.

The first thing I did was walk into my kitchen and pick out a few items. I chose two types of dry pasta, rice, ramen noodles, and sugar. I dyed some light green and some dark green. I know there are a bunch of ways to dye food, but I just poured some food coloring in and stirred. My favorite is the sugar because it looks sparkly once you add food coloring. Just make sure you break up the clumps from the dye.