Little Pintesters: Bubble wands and Homemade Bubbles

Bubble wands and homemade bubbles

My little Pintesters were eager to try out these homemade bubble wands and bubbles. The bubble wands are made using pipe cleaners and plastic beads. They were fun to use on a pinch, but they soaked up a lot of the bubble solution so it was a little wasteful. 

Bubble wand score: 8 

why not a ten? Because they soaked up more solution than necessary which made my Little Pintesters and I all wet. 

The bubble solution:

4 cups water

1 cup dish soap

1/4 cup corn syrup

container

Mix the ingredients together in a container to store in such as a gallon jug. Pour the bubble solution into a shallow dish and give your little cookie cutters, water bottles with the bottoms cut off, and bubble wands to explore with. 

Now for the review: This solution was fun to play with the water bottles and cookie cutters. It made big bubbles that would not float away so it was not as useful for the bubble wands. The most that would come out of the wands were about 5 bubbles. 

Bubble Solution score: 8

Why? Because it did entertain the little ones for a good 15-20 minutes, but I would've liked for us to be able to use the bubble wands and produce lots of "floaty" bubbles to play with. 

That's our review for now! Have a nice day!

DIY Angry Birds

If your little ones are anything like mine they would love this angry bird game. My 4 year old loved tumbling down structures with his new homemade toys. 

Materials:

balls

red material

rubber bands or string

sharpie

Wrap the balls in red material and secure with a rubber band or string at the top. Draw an angry bird face on the material. Now you're ready for action!! 

We used our building bricks from a previous post, and they worked perfectly for this angry bird game. The pigs can also be made a similar way. 

Introducing. . . Little Pintesters!: Dying Rice and Pasta

Hi! This is Angela. We're starting a new kind of post on this blog. We will periodically write all about activities, projects, learning games etc. we have found on Pinterest (our favorite resource!). We'll have our little ones test them out so you won't have to! Then we'll rate the activity and how well it worked with our kids. And we'll give suggestions for improvement and whether it would work better or worse with kids of different ages. Your comments are appreciated!

 

Dying Rice and Pasta

I found this activity here: http://thebakerbee.com/2011/09/28/crafts-for-toddlers-rice-noodles/

 

You'll need:

rice or pasta

rubbing alcohol

parchment paper or foil (I used foil- it worked well)

food coloring

a large bowl (preferably one that will not get stained)

spoon for stirring

 

put a couple tsps of rubbing alcohol and 6-10 drops of food coloring into a bowl

add 2 cups of rice or pasta of your choice and stir until it is fully coated

 

set it out to dry on a piece of foil for an hour or two

 

Use it to do art projects, beading, sorting, or in sensory bins like my kids did here.



 



They seriously loved it!! They spent at least 30 min digging out little pompoms and beads and burying plastic dinosaurs and cars. After lunch they asked to play again for another half hour! It was huge a success!

 

I give this project a big 10 out of 10!

It is so versatile that it can work for kids of all ages. The possibilities are endless!

If you've had success dying your own pasta and rice please comment and tell us how your kids played with them.

 

Little Pintesters. . .signing out.



 



Sidewalk Painting

 What you will need: 

cornstarch, food coloring, water, tray or large lid to put paint on, painting tools or just your hands!

Mix together a couple tablespoons of cornstarch, a few drops of food coloring, and enough water to make your paint runny. Place on an large lid and have fun painting. 

 I took out fly swatters from an idea I found here, but they preferred just to use their hands. I would recommend changing your little ones into clothes that are okay getting dirty and possibly stained with the food coloring. Bath time was a must after this fun but messy activity. 

 This paint is liquid when you touch it but it can be picked up with your hands easily. When it dries it turns back into powder. The little ones had fun exploring with the consistency and getting all messy. 

ABC's , 123's Scavenger Hunt

I wrote the alphabet and numbers 1 through 9 on a small dry erase board. We walked around the block and tried looking for all the letters and numbers. Each time my son saw one he erased it off the board. We looked for letters and numbers on street signs, traffic signs, the mailboxes, on cars, on home security signs, etc. It was a fun outdoor activity. 

Music and Movement Ribbons

Materials: shower curtain ring, ribbon and/or string. 

Tie the ribbons and string to your shower curtain and enjoy dancing to the rhythm. 

I saw something like this on Pinterest. I don't even know the website because I didn't even pin it, but there are many other people that have done something similar. Just so you know it wasn't my original idea:) We sure did have fun with it however!

DIY Toy Building Bricks

Materials: Empty boxes (I used sturdy rice milk cartons), duct tape. 

1.Save clean sturdy boxes. 

2.Cover them with duct tape. 

3. Build!