Sunday, October 24, 2010

discovering ladybugs

If you are from the Midwest you can expect two things on unseasonably warm fall days: yellow jackets and lady bugs.  While the bees stayed away from our deck, the lady bugs were swarming. J wandered around running toward me as fast as his little legs would carry him when I would shout, "Look! Lady bug!" He would repeat "D-Ug!" and squeal in delight.



I would have loved to snap a photo of every lady bug we found but by the time my camera phone would take a picture our little winged friend had fled. Which makes me sad as I would have loved to make a submission to the Lost Ladybug Project. Oh well, there is always tomorrow!

beans and funnels

I set two containers on J's high chair/work station. One contained dried garbanzo beans and the other contained a funnel. Garbanzo beans (like anything you put in your mouth) could be considered choking hazards. I made sure he knew they were not for eating (or tasting) and obviously supervised throughout. 

This activity would have worked without the funnel, too, but I felt it would be enticing. I was going to use one of my husbands empty sports drink bottles which had a thinner opening at the top but it was a little wet inside from washing so I used a mayo container instead.

After J dug his hands in the beans to get that initial sensory experience I showed him he could drop the beans into the funnel:


He quickly got down to business:


He had to stand up and lift off the funnel to get a really good look at what was happening (the beans were coming out of the bottom of the funnel and into the container). 


Until finally with a squeal of delight he picked up the containers and threw them onto the floor. Ah, children. So predictable. He then got down and helped me put them all back in. Then tossed them back out. Then helped me put them back in again, etc. etc.

The end! 

Sunday, October 10, 2010

found objects at the park!

While at the park the other day, we discovered someone had left a whole bunch of matchbox cars on the slide. When J approached the top of the slide, I showed him how to roll them down.





He enjoyed this gravity activity for about 20 minutes!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

play-dough impressions

It looks like this is becoming a play-dough inquiry. I set the play-dough out and rolled it flat for J. I offered him a variety of objects and showed him how to make impressions in the dough. I then re-rolled the dough so he could work with a fresh slate:





All finished: 


In all this activity lasted about 5 minutes, but he enjoyed it while it lasted. 

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