Valentine's Counting Practice (with video)

Our First Experiment

I have been meaning to incorporate more science into our activities, so when I ran across this on several blogs, I wanted to try it with S.  I had made these "hot" and "cold" laminated cards when S was about a year old to teach him the difference, but I brought them back out for this activity as a visual.  We filled an ice cube tray with water and food coloring drops (red for Valentine's).  When the water had frozen, I filled a bowl with hot (very warm) water and one with cold water and placed a few ice cubes into each.  S liked to explore the different water temperatures and we talked about how the cubes in the hot water were "small" and the cubes in the cold water stayed "big".  This was also a good activity to introduce the word "melt", which I'm not sure I've really used with S.  Our fun ended when he turned one of the bowls over, but he enjoyed it so much that I think we will do it again to reinforce the concepts. 

Thanks, April Flowers!

Heart Letter Search

I printed this blank heart mat from a site I just discovered (and love) called Prekinders.  Note:  I am adding it to my resource list.  I then added some letters that S is familiar with to create a "letter search".  We used a different color of dot marker to mark each letter.  I modeled this for him to begin (some of the S's) and then had him point to the letters before he marked them himself.  As you can see, his attention span did not last for the entire activity, so next time I will cut the mat in half. 

Thanks, Activity Mom, for the site!

New Felt Board

Today I finally got around to making S's new felt board.  The cardboard triangular one didn't hold up too well under toddler usage.  I used a cheap frame from Ikea and put a sheet of white felt inside over the plexiglass.  I have it propped up against the wall of our play room, but you could hang it low as well. 

I also cut out three varying-sized hearts to work on the concept of size (big, medium, small).  We're not quite ready for sequencing them, but this is a start.  S also likes to count the three hearts. 

Anyone have a good Valentine's felt board rhyme? 

Dot Letters

I have been wanting to print and try this activity with S for a long time now.  MakingLearningFun.com has printable letter magnet pages.  You are suppose to use them with little colored dot magnets, but I used them with our dot art markers.  S has completed "S is for school" and "V is for Valentines".  I plan to bind them together in a book when we finish all the letters.  I like that there are several choices per letter and they also have pages to go with Brown Bear, Brown Bear and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. 

Thanks, 1+1+1+=1!

3 Free Shutterfly Valentine's Day Cards

You can get 3 free 5x7 folded Valentine's Day photo cards from Shutterfly using the promo code 3FREECARDS.  You will have to pay $0.99 to ship them to yourself and another $0.08 for tax.  My total was $1.07 which is a lot cheaper than buying three greeting cards at the store.  You will have to enter the code into your account.  Freebies for Mom has good directions on how to do it.  These will be perfect for grandparents!

Coloring Pages

My sister told me about http://www.thecolor.com/, an online coloring book.  The pages are broken down by theme and they have lots of themes to choose from.  You can "color" online, but you can also print out blank pages which is what I have done with S.  You could also print out a whole theme and staple them together to make a coloring book.  Here are my favorites:

• 
  
  Numbers
• 
  
  Alphabet
• 
  
  Aesop's Fables
• 
  
  Grimm's Fairy Tales
• 
  
  Nursery Rhymes
• 
  
  Valentine's Day

Thanks, Kelly!

Target Dollar Bin Mailboxes

I thought some of you may be interested in these.  Target has these cute little tin mailboxes in the dollar bins.  I bought one for S to give him on Valentine's day with something inside.  But I thought they would also be great for pretend play.

Note:  They are small.  The above photo makes them look rather large.