News with Naylors

Don't forget to check out how we made Frozen Dinosaur Eggs in our  10 Days of Dinos  unit! I want to start by saying how much fun my boys (ages 3, 1) had playing with icy insect eggs!  NOTE : You'll need to prepare these a day in advance as it takes time for the eggs to freeze. It's snowy and cold outside, so we decided to do this activity in the bath tub. I placed all the eggs in a plastic bin and my boys tried to get the insects out with their hammers and tools, salt and warm water. The colored eggs colored our tub water, which just added to the fun. Don't forget to check out our other Letter I Activities !   Supplies:  12 Plastic Insects (I found ours from The Dollar Tree).  12 large water balloons Food Coloring (optional) Salt (optional) Directions: 1) Place the insect and a drop of food coloring, if desired, inside the water balloon. I found it was easiest to put my index and middle fingers inside the balloon and sli...

We love making elephant toothpaste! My two loved watching the "toothpaste" ooze out of our water bottle. The reaction produces heat, so it's normal for the foam to feel warm. My two couldn't wait to touch the foam and play with our toy elephants. He insisted on doing more and more colors, until we ran out of ingredients. Here's what you need: 1 teaspoon dry active yeast 2 tablespoons water 1/2 cup  Salon Care Clear Developer - 20 volume  (I bought ours for around $5 at a local beauty supply store. I always handled this, as it contains hydrogen peroxide). Dawn Dish Soap (do NOT use anti-bacterial) Funnel 15 oz. plastic water bottle, emptied Optional: food coloring, cookie sheet, toy elephants and scrubbers Here's what to do: In a small bowl, mix 1 teaspoon of yeast and 2 tablespoons of warm water together. Mix well and set aside. In your water bottle, add 1/2 cup of the Salon Care Developer (I used a funnel for this part), any food colo...

Have you ever tried dying beans before? If you haven't, you need to try it! I was hesitant, because I didn't want it to spend much on ingredients or time. Luckily, neither were true. These took me less than ten minutes to dye and you only need three ingredients: Dried White Beans (I bought four packs), Food Coloring (we used neon colors), and a pinch of Cream of Tartar.  Step One: Color the beans one color at a time. I placed one bag of beans in a gallon-sized ziplock bag and added around 20 drops of food coloring. Shake the bag until all the beans are coated. Add more food coloring if needed. Repeat with remaining colors. Step Two: Lay the beans on wax paper to dry overnight. When I checked our beans in the morning, they were still sticky and the color would rub off onto my finger. Here's what we did to help. Step Three: Use a large spoon and scoop the beans into a new ziplock bag. I added two colors at a time, because I didn't mind if our colors mixed. ...

Y is for Yak Craft from Proverbs 31 Women: A simple cut and paste activity. Review the Letter Y and hang on the fridge when you're finished. Y is for Yuck! from The Measured Mom: All you need are two simple ingredients for this sensory play! You'll need colored water (or plain water) and cornstarch to make Oobleck. Oobleck is so neat, because it's a solid when it sits and a liquid when it's played with. My two really enjoyed it! Make Oobleck: We added 4 cups of cornstarch and 2 cups of plain water together (2:1 ratio.) My two helped me mix it.  We added toy kitchen items and a few other items to enhance the sensory play (spoons, measuring cups, funnels, play pots, Letter Y's, etc.) After some time, we added blue food coloring to the oobleck. It was like we created a new sensory activity, just by adding some color. My two loved when I'd scoop up the oobleck and pour it into his hands. This is a must try!

One of Easton's favorite (possibly very favorite) sensory activities during our letter of the week series are  Water Beads . While learning about Letter R, we made a  Rainbow/Rainforest Sensory Bin  with water beads. The beads come in a little pouch and if you put the beads in water, they more than quadruple in size (first picture below). The beads are slippery, squishy, transparent in water, and even bounce! Below are a few activities we did with Water Beads while learning about Letter W. Water Bead Painting : I drew a Letter W on a piece of white paper and placed it in a cookie sheet. I squirted some paint and placed some water beads on the paper (first picture). Easton explored for a little while before adding the cookie sheet cover. We moved the cookie sheet back and forth and watched the beads roll around in the paint (second picture). Once the paint dried, I cut out the Letter W and glued it onto black construction paper. Water Bead, Water...

Watermelon Craft : I found this  Watermelon Craft  on Counting Coconuts. I cut two letter W's - one red and one green out of construction paper. Easton dipped his finger in black tempera paint and made seeds on our red W (see first picture below). When the paint dried, we glued the red W onto the top of our green W, making our letters resemble a Watermelon. Then, we glued our watermelon onto a piece of white card stock (see second picture below). Watermelon File Folder : I printed and made our  Watermelon File Folder  from Preschool Printables. To make this more fun, I hid the watermelon pieces (with seeds) around the room. Easton found a watermelon, counted the seeds and placed it on the corresponding number. Watermelon Cloud Dough : I found a tutorial for  Watermelon Moon Sand  on Growing a Jeweled Rose. However, I bought the wrong kind of sand, so this didn't work for us! I improvised and decided to try a version of Watermelon Cloud Dough....

Worm Painting : I saw the idea of painting worms with noodles  on lasting thumbprints. Instead, I had a bag of gummy worms for our other activities this week, so I thought it would be fun to paint with gummy worms! I drew a "Letter W Worm" on a piece of paper and had Easton dip the gummy worm in washable tempera paint and onto his worm. Easton really enjoyed this activity. Growing Worms : I remember going to restaurants when I was little and loving to make "worms" grow. For this activity, you'll need: A straw with a wrapper, water, and a pipette. Gently slide a straw wrapper down to the bottom end of a straw. The wrapper will look like a spring or accordion.  Remove the crinkled straw wrapper from the bottom of the straw. Use a pipette to drip a few drops of water onto the wrapper, and watch the worm grow. Worm Sensory Bin : I saw an  Ooey Gooey Worm Sensory Bin on the Measured Mom blog, and decided to make a similar one using gum...

Vegetable Letter Garden : This was a fun way to review the alphabet as a whole! I had dirt (which I found at the Dollar Store) left over from our underground sensory bin last week. Click the link for a detailed  tutorial  from no time for flashcards . Here's what you need for this activity: Plastic Container (I bought ours at Walmart) Dirt  Orange Pool Noodle (dollar store) - Carrot Body Green Ribbon (dollar store) - Carrot Leaves Permanent Marker - to write the letters  Toy Garden Set Letter V Songs : Wow, we loved all of the  Letter V Songs  from the measured mom blog! Easton learned about volcanoes and veterinarians today through song. He's been talking about volcanoes all day reminding me that lava is hot. Letter V Handprint Art (Vulture) : Easton learned about vultures today through craft! Handprint crafts will never get old to me, I love them. I'm saving all of his Alphabet Handprint Art to put in a book at the end of our Lette...

EASTER SCIENCE. I found so many fun Easter Science ideas from Little Bins for Little Hands. A few of them we've done in the past - including the oobleck, slime and egg eruptions. My boys loved them. Easter Oobleck . You can add so many different Easter themed items into Oobleck. Easter eggs, easter themed cookie cutters, stretchy bunnies, slinkies (one of our favorites!), etc. Photo Credit: Little Bins for Little Hands Easter Egg Slime . Little Bins for Little Hands is the best website to find tested and GOOD slime recipes. There are a bunch of different versions to make - foam slime ,   fluffy slime , liquid starch, borax OR saline slime . Surprise Egg Eruptions . Mix baking soda and water together to form an egg and hide a little plastic toy inside. Dry the eggs overnight. Have your children drop the eggs in different colored vinegar to reveal a surprise. Super fun and bubbly! Photo Credit: Little Bins for Little Hands Plastic Egg Races . This would be f...