Corn-on-the-Cob Cupcakes

These are a fun & sweet tooth satisfying activity to do with the kids on a quiet afternoon.  I saw the idea in the cookbook 'Hello, Cupcake!' and just had to try it.  All you need is some Jelly-belly type beans in two different shades of yellow, cupcakes, white icing, and some yellow starburst candies.


The jellybeans look much more authentic if you align them in rows perpendicular to the direction of the cob (as you can see in the picture) - trust me - I tried it both ways!  The starburst can be flattened to look like a dab of butter with something so simple as a rolling pin.


I also used clear sugar sprinkles for 'salt', and wished I had some black ones on hand to add that 'pepper' effect.


The only other thing that would have made these cuter are those little plastic cobs you stick on the end to hold hot corns.  But I couldn't find any.  Certainly would have gone better than the wooden shish-kabob skewers.


Definitely a festive autumn treat!

Burlap Starfish Wreath Craft

I saw this adorable wreath on the DIY Showoff Blog and had to try it out for myself.  It proved to be an easy and engaging craft using low cost craft materials.  Even the kids got into it, though supervision is a must whenever a hot glue gun is on in our home.  The starfish brought up a lot of scientific curiosity, and quickly became a theme of study for our preschool program.  I love it when projects bring out educational tangents!

 The craft is simple:  It requires a straw wreath, 4" squares of burlap, a starfish, some hot glue, a screwdriver, and about an hour of time.

Fold the squares of burlap once, then once more.  Using the screwdriver, push them into the straw wreath till the whole surface is covered.  After each square, add some hot glue and the base.  (The burlap is pretty secure if you really twist it in there, but just for endurance, the hot glue will help)

When the wreath is covered, position the starfish to your desired position and secure with hot glue.  Add a ribbon and hang your work of art!

If you can bear to part with it once it's complete, it also makes a lovely gift! 

Edible Math for Preschoolers

 

Introducing math to preschool age children is not necessarily about worksheets or flash cards.  In fact, these are likely to dissuade kids from wanting to learn about mathematical concepts.  The best approach to teaching children math skills is to work on improving their 'number sense', at term that is becoming wildly popular in educational circles.  The concept is to encourage children to think about and explore numbers, shapes and patterns.

One of my favorite things to do is use high quality children's literature to teach math concepts.  I am working with my four year old boy on shapes right now, and I found this fantastic new book:  Lots of Dots, by Craig Frazier.  It inspired me to pull out the M&M mini candies.

We had fun exploring the different circle concepts in the book.  We matched colored candies to colored dots, compared sizes, made patterns with the M&M's to match or change patterns in the book, and then had a chocolate treat as well! 

How can flash cards ever compete with chocolate?

Fireworks Fun!

Who doesn't love a good fireworks show?  (My husband captured this amazing picture - please don't reuse without permission).  It's the perfect opportunity to turn inquiring young minds to the science of light.  After the inspiring display, we pulled out the glitter glue and black construction paper and designed a show of our own.

Kids love getting their fingers into things, and glitter glue is no exception!  Keeping wet wipes nearby will also appease mom and make clean up simple.  The great thing about fire work art is that it doesn't fade as quickly.

This year I took it one step further - I saw this on a blog once (that I can't find now - anybody know?) and so I used the glow sticks we love to take when watching fireworks and threw them in the water table.  The kids could not get enough of this!

 (This picture shows the toys in a better light - dark photography is difficult "Phew")