Homemade Fun

First Activity: Popsicles

Who needs those fancy schmancy popsicle molds when ice cube trays and cut-up straws seems to work just as well? ;)

Popsicle Ingredients: Plain Greek yogurt, banana, strawberry, apple sauce, pinch of sugar, FUN

Second Activity: Oobleck

I remember making oobleck as an elementary school student, and I guess it must have corresponded with a reading of Dr. Seuss' Bartholomew and the Oobleck. Funny thing is, I have no recollection of the book...all I remember was the fun I had playing with goopy green stuff, and its name--oobleck--certainly stuck. Needless to say, I was blown away when I found Bartholomew and the Oobleck at the library a while ago--there was actually a book about this slime! The other day I put together a singing time visual aid that involved cornstarch and food coloring (I just got called as primary chorister; you can see a small description of this activity on a blog I created to document my singing time activities).  So anyway, since I was all cornstarch-y and food coloring-y, I decided to show the kids the wonders of oobleck. If you've never played with oobleck, it's definitely a trip. At times it almost seems solid, but then it melts into a liquid mess. Weird! Oh, and Rose actually remembered the oobleck book we had read a couple of months ago. :)

Third Activity: MOCHA (Museum of Children's Art, Oakland)

We went here on June 23rd because we reserved a free pass through the library.  The kids actually had quite a nice time.  The theme that week was "archaeology/paleontology," so they made bugs-in-amber, fossils, etc.  We also met this awesome Algerian/French woman and exchanged contact info with her.

Fourth Activity: Vegetable Collages

Rose wanted to do "pasting," an activity we've done a couple of times since reading the book Don't Want to Go! by Shirley Hughes (synopsis: a little girl's mom is sick so she reluctantly goes to a babysitter's house and pastes magazine cut-outs into a book; she ends up not wanting to leave).  This time we decided to cut pictures from our old heirloom seed catalog.  I originally wanted to have the kids make a sort of "cookbook," choosing vegetables that go together (e.g. salad ingredients, vegetable soup ingredients, etc.).  However, they pretty much just wanted to glue bright, pretty vegetables wherever they saw fit.  So that's what they did.  I love looking at these beautiful veggie collages.

Fifth Activity: Playdough

A total fad at our home lately.  We have been using some homemade playdough (flour, water, salt, oil, food coloring), but mostly the store-bought kind.  I don't have pictures of the kids playing, but just come take a walk in my house and you're bound to step in little balls of playdough.