Favorite rhymes and finger plays

Homes
A nest is a home for a bird. (cup hands to form a nest.)

A hive is a home for a bee. (turn cupped hands over.)

A hole is a home for a rabbit. (make a hole with hands.)

And a house is a home for me. (Peaked hands like roof.)

Good Morning

Good morning world, I’ve had my rest (Stretch and rub eyes)

Cardinal’s waking in her nest (cup hands to form nest)

Bees wake up and fly away (flutter fingers up)

Bunny’s hopping out to play (hop hand on the ground)

One, Two, Three, Four, Five

West loves the anticipation of the fish biting his finger.

One, two, three, four, five, (hold up fingers one by one, while counting)
Once I caught a fish alive. (put hands together and wiggle like a fish)
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten, (hold up fingers one by one, while counting)
Then I threw it back again. (make throwing motion)

Why did you let it go? (hold hands out asking why)
Because it bit my finger so. (shake hand, as if hurt)
Which finger did it bite? (hold hands out asking why)
This little finger on my right. (wiggle pinky finger)

Roll Your Hands

West gets such a kick out of going slow then fast.

 Roll your hands so slowly, (roll hands)
As slowly as can be.
Roll your hands so slowly,
Then fold them just like me.

Roll your hands so quickly,
As quickly as can be.
Roll your hands so quickly,
Then fold them just like me.

Clap your hands so softly, (clap hands)
Softly as can be.
Clap your hands so softly,
Then fold them just like me.

Clap your hands so loudly,
Loudly as can be.
Clap your hands so loudly,
Then fold them just like me.

 

 

Where is Thumbkin?

Where is Thumbkin? (put both hands behind back)
Where is Thumbkin?
Here I am. (bring one thumb out front)
Here I am. (bring other thumb out front)

How are you today sir? (bend one thumb as if talking to the other)
Very well I thank you. (bend other thumb as if talking back)
Run away. (put first thumb behind back)
Run away. (Put other thumb behind back)

Repeat with: Pointer, Tall Man, Ring Man, Small Man.

 

 

The Nobel Duke of York

(sing to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell) We do this one as a 'knee ride'. I sit on the floor with my legs straight out and one of the kids sits on my knees then I bounce my knees up and down to the song.

The noble duke of York

He had ten thousand men

He marched them up to the top of the hill

Then marched them down again

And when you’re up you’re up

And when you’re down you’re down

And when you’re only half way up

You’re neither up nor down

Striking a Pose

(I couldn't get this picture to upload facing the right way, but you get the idea)

West has been very into copying people in pictures, striking a pose, if you will. So I went through some magazines and found people in interesting poses and glued them to some cards. It's great watching him try to figure them out, some of them are difficult.

Story cards

This 'deck' of cards is for story telling.

I cut out pictures from magazines and glued them to some card stock that I cut into cards. The story starts when you draw the first card and goes on and on as you draw more cards. You can have many story formats: one sentence per card, each person playing takes turns drawing cards and adding to the story, randomly choose 5 and make a story from only those cards, etc etc.

Painting newspaper with water

For a simple, no mess project, get a paintbrush or two, a bowl of water and some newspaper! So easy and so fun! Water color paints would be fun too since news print absorbs water so easily.

Window art easel

This large piece of paper was padding in a UPS package and it is perfect for coloring! It was just too big to use at the table; he couldn't reach all blank spaces. So taping it to the window let him reach it and gave a nice effect.

West has been very active lately and this was a nice way to color and expend some energy at the same time. Instead of sitting in a chair, he jumped from his pile of crayons to the paper and back again. Art is all about the process to him.

Plain old paper cups

Plain old paper cups are perfect for toddler and baby play!

West loved to scatter them and then restack them

Lula prefered to chew on them and knock down towers I built.

West decided to knock down towers with his nose!

A few of West's friends were over later that day and played with the cups too. The almost 4 year old asked to take some home because she thought they were so much fun. She did a great job stacking them in towers.

Funnels and plastic tubing

When West saw the contraption I made he said "ah, nice!"

It was cold out and I didn't want him getting soaked so I filled up a squeeze bottle with water and food coloring and let him go to town. This could easily be played with inside by putting the whole thing in a large plastic container to catch the water.

How to make it:

Clear, flexable plastic tubing of different diameters

funnels

metal garden stakes

zip ties

piece of wood

maybe some hot glue

power drill

I drilled two holes in the wood that were just slightly smaller than the garden stakes and hot glued the stakes in place. Then, I secured the funnels to the tubing. One piece of plastic tube fit in a funnel snuggly and the other fit over the other funnel. You can hot glue them in place if you feel like the tubes might slip off the funnels. Now, hot glue or zip tie the funnels to the top of the garden stakes and continue occasionally zip tieing the tubes in place down the stakes. And you're done! You can also at T's or valves to make it more exciting.

Paper punches

West loves using any sort of tool or utensil. These large paper punches are some of his favorite things to play with. I've found that the larger the punch and more simple the shape, the easier it is for him to use. He'll just sit at the table and punch out squares and circles out of construction paper. I also use a regular hole punch to add holes to the squares and circles. Then he strings them on a piece of yarn and hangs them from various places. Pipe cleaners are good for threading them on to as well.

Sensory balloons

I filled six balloons with flour, quinoa, sprinkles, Moonclay (from a sample I had), baby wipes or hand lotion. Each balloon has a very different feel. All except the one filled with hand lotion are somewhat moldable.

West's favorite is the one with hand lotion because it's the squishiest.

To fill them I used a kitchen funnel and pushed as much of the ingredients in as possible.

Obviously, playing with these requires close supervision.

This idea is from playathomemom3.blogspot.com

Things to do with a light box

low light = blurry pictures

Clear teething toys and balls. I would set them on the box and Lula would toss them off.

The hair gel and glitter ziplocks have a cool effect too.

Clear blocks are fun for stacking

Very sheer fabrics are fun too

Scarves are fun to layer.

The options are limitless!

This is fun on dark mornings when the kids get up early and it will be fun in the dark winter evenings.

chalk and water

West loves to clean anything, even chalk off of the patio.

There's something magical about how the chalk 'disappears' when water is added.

This time, he wanted me to draw and he wanted to 'clean.'

A squirt bottle is fun.

So is a paint brush.

But a squeeze bottle is the best, in West's opinion.

A pumpkin, a nail and a hammer

It's a bit early to carve pumpkins, but I couldn't wait to try this!

I poked the nail in a little bit and he hammered it in. We did this over and over. He loved it!

Lula enjoyed watching but is looking forward to next year when she can participate. West was really good at hitting the nail; great hand-eye coordination.

The finished pumpkin! He wanted to color on it so we used permanent marker (the only thing we had that would write on the pumpkin).