The Water Cycle

Since this is the last day of April and I was telling Alexandra how April showers bring May flowers, I thought we would talk a little more about rain and the water cycle.

Cloud in a Jar

The first activity we did was the cloud in a jar activity that I found at Teach Preschool. Alexandra loved this activity. To set  up the activity you need:

shaving cream

a jar or glass of water  filled about halfway full

shaving cream

food coloring

paper towels

To begin, fill your glass up with water, about halfway full. Then squirt shaving cream on top of the water. This is your cloud. Then, Alexandra squirted the blue food coloring into the cloud. The blue food coloring represents the water droplets that are in a cloud. Once they seep through or get to heavy for the cloud to hold anymore it starts raining blue food coloring into the water. 

We had to use a lot of drops until it would go all the way through. I put a pretty thick cloud on top of the water. You can see on the left of the glass where it rained.

 More and more is seeping through as Alexandra watched intently

Water Cycle Model

Next , we made a model of the water cycle. We talked about it first and then we made a model to represent the water cycle. First Alexandra was rolling out blue fondant to cut out raindrops. I don't always just have fondant laying around but I am making a birthday cake for a friend of a friend's son this week. 

 Cutting out the raindrops (I didn't have a raindrop shaped cutter so we used a small flower cutter) They actually look like snowflakes.

 Now we're ready to put the model together. First I made a glue circle for the sun and Alex sprinkled yellow sprinkles on it. Anytime I'm using sprinkles I use a cookie sheet!

 Then, she added mini marshmallows for the clouds

 Next, I placed dots of glue on the paper and she glued the precipitation under the clouds

Then, we used glue and sprinkles for the bodies of water where the precipitation goes, and then more fondant cutouts for the evaporating water

Below is the finished product

While making the water cycle we watched a few you tube videos about it and we found a funny chipmunk song about the water cycle. 

Muffin Tin Monday: Earth Day Revisited

It's Muffin Tin Monday! 

This past week I pretty much didn't get anything done. My 1 year old started with a fever on Sunday and by Tuesday it was confirmed he had picked up Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease from another friend. So last Monday was spent with him in my arms either sleeping or crying. He got better but then Wednesday my daughter started with a fever. No Hand, Foot, and Mouth for her but she just wasn't feeling well for a day or two. On Wednesday I also picked up a sore throat and was totally out of commission because I felt like I got hit by a mack truck. Fever, chills, and throat so sore that by Saturday I went to an Urgent Care clinic to see if it was strep. Here it is on Monday and I am taking antibiotics and my throat is still slightly sore. But at least I have two healthy children now and I am able to get things done around here!

I had all intentions of trying to post last Monday about our Earth Day breakfast but it's very hard to type with a toddler in my arms! So today I'm going to share the breakfast we did last Sunday before any of the sickness hit!

So here is the breakfast I made: An earth pancake with a heart on top to show that we should love our Earth. The sun with mandarin oranges, a crispy flour tortilla tree, and the word recycle out of yogurt. Sorry that the picture is sideways...on my computer it was the right way and I can't seem to turn it around in this post.

To find inspiration for other Muffin Tin Meals visit Muffin Tin Mom

Coin Sorting

Through reading some blogs that I follow I found out that April is National Financial Literacy Month. Alex has had piggy banks since she's been born. She loves putting coins into them. She has three at home, one at her Nana and Papa's house, one at her Nona's house, and her Titi has an account for the kids where she deposits money for birthdays and Christmas for them. 

The other day I noticed the banks were really full and thought we should get out the coins becauseI wanted to count them. I was curious about how much she had in there. I know I can (and we will) take the coins to a bank that has a Penny Arcade and they will count the coins for us. I thought it was a neat lesson though for Alex to see how all of those coins that we give her when added together can equal a large amount of money. She's only 3.5 and already she'll see something on TV and say "I want that for my birthday or for Christmas!!" She's never had spending money of her own but as she gets older she'll continue to want certain things and my goal is to have two banks: a save bank and a spend bank. When I give her coins to put into her bank 90 percent of it will go into the SAVE bank but then she'll also be able to put coins into the spend bank so she will have spending money later. Of course my husband, who is an CPA said she should just SAVE but I think having some money of her own to spend will be good for her, especially if she ever gets an allowance (when she is older of course!!!) 

But for now, we just sorted the coins, compared them, and reviewed the names and how much they are worth by singing some money songs from Dr. Jean and ones I used to use in my classroom of first graders. 

In her banks she had a total of $103.56! I was amazed at how much had accumulated over the 3 years! Of course she has no idea just how much that is and that is why I am trying to teach her money sense now. 

In the Kitchen: Stromboli Balls

Alexandra helped me make several things the past few weeks but one of the kid-friendly meals she helped me make were stromboli balls. I make homemade pizza or stromboli once or twice a month, especially since I found a really good pizza dough recipe to make in my bread machine from Salad in a Jar. 

The dough makes enough to make probably two pizzas, two small stromboli's or one large one, and maybe 24 or so stromboli balls. 

To make the stromboli balls I made the dough, rolled it out and used a circle cookie cutter to cut out circles. Then, we rolled out those circles and filled them with pepperoni, some cheese, and a piece of ham. Next, I brought up the outer edge of the circle and bunched it together like a little coin purse, making sure to seal it tightly. Then placed the stromboli balls, seam side down, in a greased baking pan. I brushed the tops of the balls with some butter and sprinkled a little garlic parmesean mixture I concocted (it consisted of garlic powder, grated parmesean cheese, kosher salt, a little pepper, and oregano). I baked them in a 400 degree oven until the tops were golden brown (maybe 15-20 minutes or so). Serve them with a side of pizza sauce and dig in! 

A Bug Lunch

Happy Muffin Tin Monday! Today I thought that I would make Alexandra a bug lunch. She is, after all, my little bug as I used to call her and since we are seeing a lot of bugs with this warm weather we are having I thought it'd be appropriate. 

In her lunch she has: a banana caterpillar, ants on a log, "nectar" in a flower (apple juice), a butterfly, a ladybug, and a leaf all made out of cinnamon and sugar toasted tortillas.  Normally she loves the toasted tortillas and asks for more so I made her 3. And of course today she decided that she wasn't into them and asked me to eat them. No problem there! 

To find some lunch inspiration head over to Muffin Tin Mom!

Plastic Easter Egg Activities

This morning when Camden was napping Alexandra and I did some activities with plastic Easter Eggs. She really enjoyed all of the activities but when asked which activity was her favorite she said the egg sounds activity. I asked her why and her response was "I love listening to sounds". I thought the answer would be that one because she got to eat the goldfish and cheerios!

Here are some of the activities we did this morning:

Plastic Egg Stamping

We just took plastic eggs, split them open, put some paint on paper plates and used the eggs like stamps. Then I made a flower using eggs and Alex wanted to make one too. 

 My flower 

Alex's - not too bad for a 3 year old! 

 Indoor Easter Egg Alphabet Hunt

Last weekend when all of the area egg hunts were supposed to take place of course it rained! So, we didn't make it to any. That didn't stop us from having our own. Actually, we've been  having egg hunts all week in our house. Today I hid the letters of Alex's name in the eggs and she found them and spelled her name. Then she did the same for me but picked random letters and then I lined them up and made words like in Boggle. 

Egg on a Spoon

I had Alex try to carry an egg on her spoon and put it into a basket. After that seemed easy for her I showed her how I could do it with the spoon in my mouth. Of course she was up for the challenge and after a few drops she made it over to the basket successfully and even was able to bend down, keeping the egg on her spoon as she dropped it in the basket. 

Guess the Sound in the Egg

For this activity I filled 5 plastic eggs with the following items: Kosher salt, cheerios, rice, an ice cube, and goldfish. I explained that she would shake the egg and match it to what she thought was in the egg. 

Shake, Shake, Shake

For this egg she found the ice cube. She guessed it right away because as she picked it up she said "I think this is the ice cube because it's shivering and the snacks aren't shivering cold!" 

Here are her guesses....she was wondering if she got them all correct

She opened the eggs to find out

Yes! She got them all right!!I told her she could eat the goldfish and cheerios but she stuck her hand in the salt and started licking it. Ewww! 

An "Egg"celent Muffin Tin

Today is a special Muffin Tin Monday.

Since Easter is this upcoming Sunday I thought Alexandra would like an Easter themed muffin tin. Boy did she ever. She was in the living room when I put it together and I sat it down at the table and she comes out and says "Whooooooooooooooaaaaa. That's really good mom!!!!" I'm glad she liked it! Opening each egg was a surprise. Hidden in the eggs were grapes, string cheese, goldfish, animal crackers, ham, and a piece of a marshmallow egg. I've never seen her more excited for ham in her life. Then to top it off I cut out an egg shape in American cheese and left her my food writer markers so she could decorate her own egg. I'm really looking forward to doing Easter activities with her this week!! 

For more great Muffin Tin Meal Ideas go over to Muffin Tin Mom