Simply Fabulous Blogger Templates Giveaway

For the past few days, I’ve been thinking about changing my blog layout again and I decided on a winter theme. I was searching around this morning and found some neat winter Blogger templates from Simply Fabulous Blogger Templates. I tried using a couple of the Christmas themes and settled on this one. I’m sure in a couple of months, I’ll change the layout again and I’m pretty sure I’ll go back to this site. These templates are some of the best I’ve seen.

Simply Fabulous Blogger Templates is having a big giveaway. I had already decided to use one of these templates and after looking around on the blog, I found a post to this giveaway. Here are the prizes.
The grand Prize is a full custom template. It comes with a blog button, post/sidebar custom font, social networking icons, page dividers, and post signature. (ARV $150)
Other prizes:
Two custom Christmas photo cards (ARV $30 each),
Two premade templates (ARV $5 each),
and one custom blog header (ARV $80).

I’d love to win a custom template for my blog. I’ve been struggling with finding something unique and that reflects what this blog is about. I thought I’d share this giveaway with my followers as well if any of you are interested in updating your blog design. Click on the link above and follow the instructions to enter. Good luck!

Arctic Ice Fishing

Here’s an ice fishing activity that I made to go with my Antarctica theme.

What you’ll need:
1 container,
Water,
Food coloring,
Rubber or plastic fish or other objects that you want to freeze,
Spoons, Plastic or wooden hammer or Anything else to break the ice with,
Snow cone maker, (optional).

First, I filled the container about half full with water. I used a plastic Tupperware container. I forgot to take pictures as I was making it. I added four drops of blue food coloring. Then added a few rubber fish that I bought at the Dollar Tree. I know that most of these fish don’t live in Antarctica, but they are the closest thing I have on hand. Next, I put the container in the freezer. I didn’t want all the water to freeze so I kept checking on it. Some of the water spilled so I had to add more which is why it ended up filled almost to the top. It took about three or four hours for the top half of the container to freeze. With the water underneath cold, but not completely frozen, it makes it easier to make holes in the ice. Some of the fish froze upside-down which I didn’t plan on either. Well, maybe they were diving!

Once the top was frozen, I took it out and tried to poke it with a spoon. It was a little hard, but doable. It would be easier with a hammer or something else to tap with. That’s part of the fun, the kids can experiment and figure out what works best to get the fish out.







Next, I added snow! I used an inexpensive snow cone maker I bought from Walmart. I used about a cup of ice cubes which doesn’t make much snow, but enough for a couple little snow banks or a layer of snow on the top. It melts quickly so making a few cups and freezing it might work better especially if you have more than one child doing this activity. I thought it came out well and think it’d be fun to try with the preschoolers.

Weekly Favorites: November 28, 2010

Here are a few favorites from this past week. the list is shorter because there weren't as many posts over the holiday break.

Make an Octopus from Bubble Wrap and Paper
A cute octopus craft and experiment.

Balloon Inflating Experiments
Neat science experiments with balloons.

Frozen Soap Bubbles: Winter Fun for Kids
I never thought of doing this with soap bubbles, but it looks fun.

Little Cloud Puffy Paint Craft
A cloud craft to go along with the Eric Carle book, Little Cloud."

Sorting and Counting Snack

I got some random food together and put it on a plate for counting and sorting. Kids can learn about healthy and unhealthy foods, sizes, shapes and textures of foods, food groups etc. I put the platter there for an easy sorting tray. Since Thanksgiving was yesterday, it's a good time to make a post about food.

What’s on the plate:

1 role,
2 apple slices,
3 candy corn,
4 pieces of celery,
5 coco puffs,
6 marshmallows,
7 grapes,
8 pieces of cheese,
9 raisins,
And 10 pieces of blueberry granola cereal.







healthy foods in the top sections and unhealthy foods in the bottom.


hard, Soft, rough, smooth, crunchy etc.


Round coco puffs, rectangle pieces of cheese, oval grapes, etc.

I made it so that each food had a certain number from one to ten. This platter only has five sections so here it is with just five foods.

You can add toothpicks to all these foods to make any creation or design. Here's a simple one with a grape, apple slice and two marshmallows. Using toothpicks with marshmallows is always fun and it works the best because they stick.

Find the Leaf

Find the Leaf

Materials:
Leaves of different shapes and sizes from different plants,
Construction paper,
pencils and crayons,
tape, (optional)

Preparation:
Collect a variety of leaves and show them to the kids

Ideas:
Go for a walk with your children and see if they can match the leaves to the plant they come from.
Allow your children to do leaf rubbing.
1. Put the leaf vein side up.
2. Place the paper over the leaves.
If the paper moves too much try taping it down.
3. Rub over the paper with the side of a pencil or crayon.

Look up the leaves and their trees. Learn the names ( Internet/library).
Put together a book of all the leaves.
Compare with friends from other areas of town, country etc.
Take digital pictures to remember this experience especially if you are making a book.
Compare leaves from the same tree/bush from different times or seasons of the year.


Good For:
Classifying,
Identification,
Vocabulary Building
Fine Motor Skills,
Learning about nature.

Idea from the Play-activities.com E-mail newsletter.

Happy thanksgiving!

I want to wish all my followers a happy and safe Thanksgiving!
If you don't live here in the US, have a good day as well.
Enjoy all the food!
Things for the kids to do while waiting:

Numbered Pie Matching

Matching Pies to Foods
Turkey Baster Painting

Reflection and Light Sensory Tub

Everything in this tub is shiny, transparent or mirror-like.
What’s in the tub:
Two types of clear stones,
Shiny colored stones,
Tiny round beads,
Flat round beads with designs,
Tiny jewels of different shapes,
Shiny stars and circles,
Various balls,
Blank CD,
Fake crystal bracelet,
Plastic circle covers,
Clear plastic,
Stainless steal bowl,
Transparent cup,
Spoons,
Plastic compact mirror,
Flashlight
And the tub is lined with tin foil.



I got all the stones, beads, shiny stars, circles and jewels in the craft section at Walmart. The shiny plastic crinkly ball and the other ball with tiny circles on it are both cat toys that haven’t been used yet. The bouncy ball with the horse inside, I found on Ebay a few years ago. The little bowl is Diamond’s from when she was a kitten. The two shiny circle covers are for the back of headphones. They don’t really look shiny in the picture, but they are and some of the beads and jewels can fit into them. The rest of the stuff was found around the house. I’m sure there are more things you can add that are shiny or reflective that I didn’t have. I included the flashlight so they can see how light reflects off some of the things and how it goes through others.

For a bigger tub, I’d probably just tear the tin foil in pieces instead of lining the whole thing so that not so much foil is wasted. Of course, I’d add more flashlights for more kids. This is for children over three. To make it for smaller children, put larger objects in the tub. I hope you enjoy this idea.

Mini Winter Sensory Tub

Here’s a mini winter sensory tub I made this morning.
I’d prefer a bigger tub and more cotton balls, but I used what I had on hand.
What’s in it:

Cotton balls for snow,
Shiny stones for ice,
Small polar bear, (Arctic animal fun in the snow)
Small penguin,
He didn’t fit with all the other things so I had him next to the tub.
A cup and bowl for pouring,
A shovel for scooping, (shoveling snow)
A snowball,
It was a dog toy that we bought, but we decided it’d be better that he not chew it up.
A snowman’s hat,
It came from a Bath and Body Works snowman bottle from years ago.
Small fuzzy white ball, (another snowball)
It’s a cat toy that was also never used.
The shovel and cup came from a snow cone making set that we have.

Weekly Favorites: November 21, 2010

Here are my favorites for the week. There were a lot of great posts.
Turkey Baster Painting
Here's a new way to paint and since Thanks Giving is coming up, it fits in with the theme.

Cinamon Sparkle Play-dough
This play-dough came out really neat and I like the idea of giving it as a gift.

Coffee Filter Snowflakes
A cute snowflake craft. They are good for winter decorations.

A Light and Dark Den
A great post about building a different type of den for the kids. they can experiment with mirrors, reflections, lights and shiny objects.

Painting Pancakes
A fun way to get toddlers and preschoolers involved in cooking.

Snowman Game
A cute homemade snowman game.

Toasting Marshmallows with Children
Toasting marshmallows is a great science activity to do with kids.

Bubble Bath Paint
Some bubble bath paints to bring creativity to bath time.

Edible Winter Sensory Tub
A neat winter sensory tub.

Bath Time Sensory Tub
Another creative and fun sensory tub made by Counting Coconuts!

Magic Play-dough

Magic Play-dough

Materials:
Basic Play-dough Recipe:

1 ½ cups flour
- ¾ cup salt
- 1 tablespoon cream of tartar
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 ½ cup water
- Wooden spoon
- 2 medium sized bowls
Red, yellow and blue food coloring. Or powder paint.

Ideas:
Make up the play-dough.
Divide the play-dough into six balls.
In the middle of each ball, hide some food coloring or powder paint (two balls of each color).
First give them the yellow ball and red ball. As they play, the colors will appear and will appear to form orange
Later combine red and blue to make purple.
Combine blue and yellow to make green.
All the balls combined will form brown.

Good For:
Color Recognition,
Recognizing same and Different,
Recognizing changes,
Fine Motor skills.

Place play-dough in a plastic container or ziplock bag and refridgerate to make it last longer.

Activity found from the Play-Activities.com E-mail Newsletter.