Favorite flashbacks: Alphabet Activities, Letter R

Revisiting some of my favorite posts and projects...

Alphabet Activities: Letter R

Munch and I had "R Day" a couple of weeks back...or is it a couple of MONTHS now? We did the usual routine of making the letter with wood pieces and practicing writing it, but the fun part was making the rainbow cookies. The cookies themselves tasted just okay and I might tweak the dough in the future, but the best part was how sturdy it was and its texture lent itself well to lots of handling. This activity was particularly fun because Munch and I could revisit primary colors and color mixing as well. I got the recipe from the DLTK's Sites: Growing Together, which has been my resource for a lot of the great alphabet activities Munch and I have done together. The original recipe calls for forming the dough into one large rainbow, from which kids can break off pieces, but I like our smaller rainbows better.

Rainbow Cookies
1 c. sugar
1 c. butter, softened
2 c. flour
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
food coloring- red, blue, and yellow

In a mixer, beat together the sugar and butter. Scrape down the bowl before adding the egg and vanilla. Mix well to combine. Add the flour and mix well. Turn the dough out onto a board and divide dough into three balls. Add a different food coloring (red, yellow, blue) to each ball until dough is desired color. I kneaded in the food coloring before handing it off to Munch to finish just to be sure the color didn't ooze out and stain the work area.Divide each ball of dough into three smaller balls (I actually broke each ball of dough in half to start, then one half in half again, if that makes sense since I knew I would be combining colors). Leave the large dough ball its original color and use the remaining smaller two to mix with the other primary colors. Here's Munch kneading red and blue- it made the strangest grey-ish purple so added more coloring to it to make it more vibrant- it ended up fine once I baked it, not grey at all.Next we took each of our six colors and flattened it into a long rectangle.Then we stacked/layered the colored rectangles, beginning with purple at the bottom-I sliced the dough thinly, about 1/3-inch or so, then passed them to Munch to shape into a rainbow curve.After putting them on a parchment-lined baking sheet, we baked the cookies at 350 degrees for 9-11 minutes, until they just began to turn golden at the edges. This batch is all ready for the oven!

Flashback Favorites: Alphabet Activities, Letter M

Revisiting some of my favorite posts and projects...

Alphabet Activities: Letter M
I feel terrible about posting so infrequently lately. Munch has kept us on the move with her busy social calendar every weekend. It's been a lot of fun getting to meet her new friends and their families have been really nice. I was relieved to have a day off for the holiday, even though AudioDad had to work. Munch and I decided to get back to our letter activities, so we tackled M,m today. We started off making the letter M with wood pieces and Munch was delighted to discover she had made the word "moo". Of course, I got sound effects to accompany the word making:Next, we moved on to her alphabet workbook. Munch found the stickers with M words and practiced writing the letter-before beginning her letter collage onto which she glued some dry macaroni-We had a puppet to assemble- and Munch loved making her monkey-
I was really excited about our super cute, super easy food project after getting the idea off the web. I melted some pink candy melts while Munch stuck marshmallows onto lollipop sticks. The marshmallow pops got a dip in the pink candy then sprinkled with decorations The only tricky thing was where to put them while they cooled and the coating dried- they were too top heavy to stand in a tumbler. In the end, I propped a cooling rack on a few cans which worked perfectly!Munch got to enjoy one as part of, what else? A muffin tin meal! I filled it with bunny mac & cheese (Munch's favorite), meatballs, macadamia nuts, mandarin orange segments, and a marshmallow pop- all washed down with a glass of milk-After naptime, which gave me a chance to clean up, Munch and I finished up her mermaid craft. Earlier in the day, she painted some tissue paper (a la Eric Carle) with green, teal, and blue dot markers
After it dried, she glued squares of her painted tissue paper onto a mermaid shape and decorated it with sequinsI cut it out for her and we glued it onto a water-scene background done in glitter glue-Last activities for the day were a batch of "hide and seek" muffins to go with dinner (the cherries she pushed into the center of the batter sink into the center of the muffin during baking)and some exploration with magnets.

Alphabet Activity Wrap-Up (Letters S, Q, K, and X)

Last summer we started our "letter of the day" study. It's taken us a while, but we finally got through the remaining letters of the alphabet so that I could assemble the collage pages into a book. Munch has gotten fairly proficient at writing her upper case letters, so I added some practice with lower case letters.

Letter S,s- We used rubber stamps and stapled on straws to decorate the collage page.Today's craft was a directed drawing/painting of fruit using scented "paint"- I mixed Kool-Aid packets with just a tablespoon or so of water."Froot by V-"Sniffing the finished painting before enjoying a snack of strawberries

Letter Q,q-Lunch was a quesadilla, of course! Collage page with quinoa and q-tips attachedGluing squares of decorative paper onto a pattern of a bedthe finished bed and quilt with a kleenex-stuffed "pillow"

Letter K,k-For the letter K day, we headed out to fly a kite and Munch tried a new fruit-Kiwi!
Keys attached to the K,k pageKids can't resist sorting and exploring with keysOur kangaroo craftand making "kisses" cookies for a treat

Letter X,x- Our cooking project was to make pretzel x's using an illustrated recipe Munch brought home from preschool.I had a tough time finding something for our collage page, but finally settled on using plastic tile spacers-Munch has been interested in sewing lately, so we found a cute beginner's cross-stitch kit-

Bay Area Discovery Museum

It's been ages since I've visited the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Fort Baker/Sausalito, at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge.I actually volunteered at the children's museum back in high school. At the time, they were located in a shopping center and maybe took up one or two storefronts. I'd organize crafts in the art room, pick up all the Colorforms (love those!), and gather up all the fishing boat props strewn about by the kids. I remember helping prepare for the move to the new location, and unpacking once things were moved over. Opening day was my last visit, and at that time, I had no idea the museum would become as big as it is now.
The BADM is set up for children up to age 8 (according to the website). It's a beautiful place to visit and the exhibits/play areas are divided into multiple historic buildings with a courtyard in the center. We started our visit in the Bay Hall, a simulation of local ports, and which houses that big old boat I remember from way back when.
Next we moved on to the outdoor exploration area, Lookout Cove. This was my favorite area, with great trails and observation decks built into the hillside and numerous areas to play, build, and explore.
Although the Discovery Cafe was closed, there were numerous tables available for us to feed the kids before we took them to the art studio. Munch loved painting and squeegee-ing the windows while her friend painted-Last stop was Discovery Hall, which currently has a "Living in Space" exhibit. Most interesting display? The kiosk demonstrating using the toilet, and the "video targeting" technique, in space! (no photos of that!)