Since the days are getting warmer, it might be a good idea to use something cool to make works of art. Here are a couple of ideas for Tuesday.

Ice Cube Painting

Painted Salt Sculpture

Yes, it takes a long time to dry but at least you don’t have to do anything but wait! We hope you enjoy doing art with your child for the next two weeks!

Feature Photo by Ian Williams on Unsplash

Drip Art

• Prop up your surface on an easel-you can use recycled materials like pizza boxes to make a makeshift easel.
• Provide your child with different colored watercolors or watered down paint as well as spoons or eye droppers.
• Allow your child to explore and experiment with the materials given.
• Encourage them to see what happens if they use their spoon or eye dropper to deposit color at the top of their easel and see what happens!

Splatter Art

• This activity can get messy so prepare yourself- though the messiest activities also happen to be the most fun!
• Prop your canvas or paper up on an easel or put it on the floor.
• Provide your child with paints, paintbrushes, spoons, sponges, and more! Let them experiment using different tools to splatter the paint on their papers.
• You can even get really crazy letting them throw it with their hands and turn it into a finger painting experience!

We look forward to seeing everyone on Seesaw the next few weeks trying out different art experiences!

– Team Yellow

• the juice of 2 lemons (1/2 cup lemon juice)
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/3 cup sugar
  • add ice cubes to chill

This recipe incorporates many senses, like smell, touch, and of course taste. Squeezing the juice from lemons is a great sensory exercise for the Yellow Room children to utilize their strong muscles and fine motor coordination while pinching the lemon wedges. This is also a great way to relieve any stress or frustration children may be feeling in this time of uncertainty, squeezing the lemons requires lots of energy!

As always, cooking incorporates several other important skills such as scooping, sifting, measuring, mixing and also promotes thoughtful discussion while predicting the outcome of each cooking ‘experiment’! She also discusses the beloved spring and summer past time of holding a lemonade stand! This could be an exciting new dramatic play opportunity for the Yellow Room children to hold a lemonade stand at home for their families, including the fun of creating their own currency and practicing number recognition as they sell some of their fresh homemade lemonade to you.

With many parents busy working from home during this time, this could also be an engaging outlet for children to feel responsible and in charge of an adult-like task. Dramatic play and the freedom of expression is an important outlet for children to process and control activities or emotions in their daily lives, and fosters important self-regulation skills at an early age. During this current time and always, we encourage all children to freely express themselves and use their brilliant imaginations to plan, create, and most of all have fun!

We hope you all have a great day and enjoy this tasty treat! -Team Yellow

I don’t know about you, but my family LOVES grilled cheese! We have it at least once a week. So when I was trying to think of what I wanted to do for a cooking project this week, it was clear to me that we would need to make grilled cheese! So I started thinking, hmmmmm what makes a good, no wait…a GREAT grilled cheese? Is it the bread? Is it the cheese. Is there anything else you can put on a grilled cheese? The answer is YES…YES…and YES!!! All of the above.

After doing some research I found to my surprise that there are actually hundreds of different recipes for grilled cheese!!! For instance, you can use wheat bread, rye bread, pumpernickel or my favorite white bread to make your sandwich.

There are different types of cheeses too. For example, swiss, cheddar, muenster, mozzarella and of course American cheese. Then we can get into the endless toppings to add to your sandwich. Some of my favorites include tomatoes, ham, pulled pork, and bacon…mmmmmm bacon!! (Chef tip: Bacon makes everything better). And that is just the beginning! Who knew there were sooooo many types of grilled cheese!

Tyler and I make our now famous three cheese gourmet grilled cheese! 

I guess we are not the only ones who love grilled cheese. Check out this video.

 -Brad & Team Yellow

It would be fun to make little ‘chef’ hats before children help cooking or baking with you. Below is how to make a quick chef hat. Also, added are two recipes for fruity and healthy homemade snack/dessert since the days are getting warmer.

Materials

• Tissue Paper (any color your child wants)
• Scrapbook paper (or any paper)
• Tape
• Scissors

Steps

• Cut 1-2 inch thick strips of scrapbook paper.
• Measure around their head and tape the ends together, so it’s like a snug headband.
• Lay the tissue paper flat, then take each corner and tape it to the inside of the headband.
• Take the remaining parts of the tissue paper that are sticking out, and fold them in.
• Tape them to the inside of the headband so they’re secure.
• Fluff the inside so it puffs up like a Chef’s hat.

We can celebrate Earth Day even at home. Here are a few activities that allow us to look at nature up close.

Make nature soup!

Find a bowl or bucket and large spoon. Walk around your yard or neighborhood and find interesting pieces of nature to add to your soup! Some ideas are: small sticks, leaves, flower petals, pine cones, pebbles, bark, and moss. Once you have all your ingredients, add them in one at time stirring with the spoon. You can also use a measuring cup toad small amounts of water and dirt to make a mud like soup. There are a few pictures below for inspiration.

Stick Letters!

While collecting for nature soup, you can collect small sticks to form into letters. Be sure to find straight and curved twigs/sticks if possible to help make the curved letters like B, C, O.

Rock Shapes!

You can use big or small rocks to make different shapes. This activity will help practice identifying and making shapes. You can draw the shape on paper or outside with chalk. Then used rocks (or leaves, sticks, pinecones, etc) to outline and trace the edges of the shape. Then you can fill in the shape. Maybe you can estimate how many rocks it will take to fill and then count the exact number. You might need to work on rearranging the rocks to fit, kind of like a puzzle! Below is a picture of an example of a heart made from rocks.

Take a walk!

In your neighborhood, take along one of the bingo nature boards attached below. There are many to chose from, such as bugs, trees, the Spring season, and you can challenge yourself to find all the items on the board.

https://www.massaudubon.org/get-outdoors/young-explorers/explore-a-sanctuary/nature-bingo

Read the two books about Earth and ways we can help everyday!

Color Run

Here’s a fun game that can be played either indoors or outdoors. Have your child run freely as you call out a color. Then, he/she has to run and touch something of the corresponding color. On your daily walk, you can encourage your child to find the specific color from nature as well. Here are some pictures of yellow flowers for the Yellow Room that Stella has captured on her walk!

Palatable Color Patterning

Give your child a string knotted at one end and a cup of colored cereal rings such as Fruit Loops. Encourage him/her to thread the cereal onto the string in a pattern. This activity will be great for fine motor practice, counting, patterning and to eat as a snack!

Yellow Collage

Find some small and light items that are yellow. Items may include buttons, paper, fabric scraps, pipe cleaners, plastic lids, ribbons, yarn, and beads. Have your child glue or tape them on a large sheet of paper to make a “yellow collage”.

Yellow Bath

Have some sensory fun in the bath with yellow water balloons and yellow bath water. To add color to the water, use food coloring or bath tablets. Also, throw in a couple of yellow bottle tops and/or yellow rubber duckies. Bath time will be more exciting than ever! Ideas for other colors – you can try mixing green food coloring and with eucalyptus and menthol oils, purple food coloring with lavender oil, orange food coloring with vanilla flavoring, pink food coloring with strawberry flavoring, or blue food coloring with peppermint!

Best, Team Yellow