Cloud Dough

The Owlets and I made cloud dough today.  I have seen it in several different places and thought it looked like something the kids would enjoy!  It was super easy...8 cups of flour and 1 cup of baby oil, mix it together, and tada a super sensory activity!  It feels soft and like flour in your hands but you can mold it!  Along with the cloud dough I provided scoops, cookie cutters, spoons, and cups.  You can also keep it in a sealed container and use it again and again! 

Fire Prevention Week Kick-off

It's Fire Prevention Week...we have had a couple of rocky days around here with all the Owlets being sick with a nasty fever virus...finally, today we were able to start our routine again!
 In group time we did a little fill in the blank story about firefighters.  I used it last year, so I wrote the poem out on poster board, had it laminated, I also colored and laminated the cards to use with it.  I laid the cards out on the floor and read the sentence then asked the Owlets to find the picture they thought should go in the blank.  They did a really good job of picking out the correct pictures!  The smallest Owlet really liked the picture of the dalmatian, so she kept picking it up and trying to put it on the poster! 
I added flame cutouts to the block area and a toy fire engine, the Owlets built houses and added the flames and then sent the fire truck to the fire!  I cut out flames, wrote /F/ on them, and added them to the water table.  The Owlets were encouraged to squirt the flames with water bottles to put the flames out!

Our Firefighter poem chart...I found this at www.themailbox.com.

Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf

We read Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert.  I love to share this book with my kids each fall.  In it, it discusses putting out treats for birds when the snow comes.  I used this page of the book as an intro into our special activity for today, making bird feeders!  We used bagels, peanut butter, and bird seed.  One of my little Owlets enjoyed eating the bird seed, an activity that I did not encourage!  Once they were put together we tied a piece of string through them and hung them on a tree!  We noticed a little later that only the flys seem to enjoy the treats, so we moved them to a tree with thicker branches, so hopefully now the birds and squirrels will feast on them! 

A Delcious Fall Treat

Yesterday was cooking activity day at The Owl's Nest!  We were going to make tree treats, but I found this totally adorable acorn treat on www.pinterest.com, so we had a change in cooking plans!  They could not be easier to make too and that is always a plus! 

What you need:

Doughnut Holes
Chocolate Sprinkles or toffee chips
Chocolate Chips
Mini Pretzel Sticks

What to do:

Melt the chocolate chips in a bowl, dip the end of the doughnut hole in the chocolate, roll it in the sprinkles or toffee chips, and stick a mini pretzel stick in it, then enjoy your fall treat! 

My Owlets pretended they were squirrels while they ate their acorns! 

Intriguing Leaves and Dramatic Play

Dramatic Play

Intriguing Leaves

My dramatic play area was giving me a time this week...what could I do for fall?  I thought about adding fake leaves and plastic rakes and having the kids rake the leaves...maybe adding plastic fall vegetables and having the kids make a fall meal...then it hit me...Farmer's Market!  So last night after giving my little Owlets a bath I made pumpkins out of paper bags, newspaper, and orange paint.  I moved the bench to my dining room table to the dramatic play area to serve as the table, added the pumpkins, the apple cider jugs and apples from our apple theme, and some pretend fruits and veggies.  The Owlets had a great time serving up apple cider and selling fruit and vegetables to each other! 
Our art activity for the day was pretty simple, but created a unique masterpiece.  I cut out leaf shapes from magazines and my hubby drew a simple tree shape on paper.  The kids glued the leaf shapes onto the tree! 
In group time we played a color matching game, I drew a tree (a very pathetic looking tree) onto poster board labeled it with yellow, brown, red, and orange dots, and had it laminated.  I took it to Office Depot because my little laminating machine that I love and am so glad I have will not handle poster board..the nice lady there laughed at my sad little tree!  Anyway, I cut leaves out of red, yellow, brown, and orange construction paper, laminated them, and cut them out.  The Owlets picked a leaf and taped it to the coordinating dot.  When all the leaves were on it, it was beautiful and not as sad looking! 
I added colored pencils and paper to the writing area along with some cards with fall words and matching pictures on them. I encouraged the Owlets to try and copy the letters off the cards or to draw a picture of what was on the card. 

There are more fall adventures awaiting us tomorrow...hopefully a nature walk to look for leaves, acorns, and pine cones for our discovery trays if the rain goes away!  :)

Field Trip!

Stretching the dough

Spreading the sauce

Her cheese pizza before baking

Eating her yummy pepperoni pizza

The FCC took a field trip to my absolute favorite pizza place...ever!  Yes, we went to Mellow Mushroom!  The kids got to make their own pizza, take a tour of the kitchen, and then eat their finished product.  All the kids had a great time and what a perfect excuse to get covered in flour and tomato sauce!