Lid Art Magnets

My almost 5 year old and I made some super cool and one of a kind magnets for my mom as a Mother's Day gift. We are often bringing the kids art projects over to her house to adorn her fridge, but she only has a few magnets so we thought she could use some specially made by us, that double as mini art pieces as well!


I raided our lid collection, got some of our crafty bits out, a few glue guns, and some magnet rounds. After we glued our bits and pieces into the lids, I hot glued the magnets to the back. Easy peasy! I didn't take many pictures of the process because I was carefully watching and helping L with using the glue gun. He did surprisingly well..only a few glue gun burns, but that didn't stop him from making more and eventually he really got the hang of it. He felt like a "big boy" using mommy's craft tool.

**
You could also use regular white school glue, but they will just take a whole lot longer to dry.
However, if you have smaller kids, this could be a better option.

I just love them! 
Think we'll have to make a few more for ourselves :)

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Black Light Sensory Bin

I made a fun Black Light Sensory Bin for the boys just shortly after we did Black Light Painting which was SO.MUCH.FUN! I knew I wanted to do sensory bin too while we were still on the black light kick.

Black Light Painting

I used the neon aquarium gravel that we used in our Rainbow Sensory Bin, some glow in the dark aquarium rocks, glow sticks, a moon and star projector tap light, and other random things from around the house that were neon colored or white, or just that I thought would pick up the light well. Some things worked better or  brighter under the black light than others but the whole thing together glowed wonderfully and it was such a neat experience for the boys!

I set up a lamp (uncovered) with a black light bulb on the living room floor.
I put the bin on a sheet for easy cleanup.

The camera doesn't really pick up how much the neon aquarium rocks glow, but they were much brighter than what you see in the picture! 

Both boys had lots of fun! I didn't spend any money on materials. 

We already had the black light which we purchased from Lowe's fairly cheap. 

To see ALL of our Sensory Bins, 

Click the photo below!

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Peter Rabbit Small World Sensory Bin

Lawson loves "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" and we have the version illustrated by Lisa McCue. 

Because this books a favorite around here, I've been collecting items here and there to create a small world sensory bin where L would be able to re-create the story, and then expand on it with his own imagination as well. I tried to fit as many elements of the story into the bin as I could and just work with what I had at home already and a few things such as the watering can and the Peter Rabbit bowl are things I found at Goodwill over the last few weeks. 

-green split peas and mixed dry beans for the filler

-some of our fake fruits and veggies for farmer McGregor's garden

-craft foam cut into a semi circle for the pond, 

complete with the cat (a mini toy tiger) that Peter's cousin told him not to talk to. 

-watering can (which peter hides in in the story)

-miniature fence

-a small cardboard house with removable roof to serve as the farmers house

-"fir trees" made of a cut in half paper towel rolled with some hot glued felt leaves, where Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton Tail, and Peter's Mother live. These trees were originally made for our Apple Picking Sensory Bin, which you can see HERE.

Some of the items I threw in that bowl you see above were a chamomile tea bag (because Peter's mother gives him chamomile tea at the end of the story), a simple coat and shoes for Peter (that he loses in the story), and an extra bunny... just because lol. 

I read the story slowly several times whiles L acted out the scenes as we went along. 

I'd stop for him to elaborate on things if I could see he was really into it. 

L LOVED acting out the story while I read, but later played with it on his own and 

Peter Rabbit had even more adventures in the garden. 

The reason why I used beans as a filler for this small world bin,
was so that my youngest (21 months) could play with it afterwards as a sensory bin.  

To see ALL of our Sensory Bins and Small World Play,

click the photo below! 

Do check out these other awesome Peter Rabbit Sensory Bins!
from Handmade by CJ
from Make, Do and Friend via Toddler Approved
from In Lieu of Preschool

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Color of the Week: Pink

Welcome back to the 

Color of the Week Series 

here on Play Create Explore!

In our 2nd to last week in the Color of the Week Series, we explored the color PINK! 

I'll admit that I was pretty darn excited for this week :) 

Pink Objects Exploration Bin

As always, the first thing we do on the first day of our color themed weeks, is walk around the house and gather a bunch of our toys and other objects for the color of the week. This serves as a bit of an introduction to the color of the week and we also explore this bowl all throughout the week. I keep it right on the dining room table and we often go through this bowl and talk about the things in it during breakfast, lunch or dinner. For my 20 month old, it serves as a great way to identify and verbalize new objects, experience different shapes and textures, as well as different shades of our color.  For my oldest, it's a great tool for encouraging language and communication.

Pink Themed Sensory Bin
Our pink sensory bin was filled with some of our pink objects and also some pink and light pink dyed rice. It was also bubble gum scented! To see how I colored and scented the rice, click HERE.

Pink Mixed Media Collages
I gathered some of our pink craft supplies, some pink shredded paper, some of the pink rice we used in our sensory bin, and some pink colored glue, pink paint and pink glitter paint to make really cool pink collages. 

Pink Styrofoam Mini Beads Sensory Bin

I found this big bag of pink styrofoam beads at our local Goodwill for just $1 and it's been one of my favorite sensory materials because it's just so unique! They are almost weightless, they can be poured into containers, but some of them also stick to the sides of the bin and your skin. Pretty neat stuff!

Pink Lemonade Themed Bath

This easy peasy pink lemonade bath I set up for the boys was so much fun! It included a spouted jug filled with water and quite a few packets of Duncan Hines Frosting Creations Pink Lemonade Flavored Powder. (To see other fun ways we've used the Frosting Creations, click HERE) This not only colored the water pink, but it also smelled like pink lemonade! The spouted jug was the best part because the kids could pour their lemonade for their "customers" (me) and the more they poured, the more PINK their water became! I also added some plastic cups, fake plastic ice cubes, and some pink lemonade bath paint! 

Pink Lemonade Bath Paint

Shaving cream plus one of the Pink Lemonade Frosting Creation packets made a 

fun and yummy scented bath paint for the boys!  

Pink Shredded Paper Sensory Bin
We have a paper shredder and I've been using it a lot in these color themed weeks to shred construction paper and make color specific sensory bins. I save it all afterwards because I can always reuse it as a sensory material or even as an alternative to Easter Grass. 

Pink Baking Soda and Vinegar Eruptions
I mixed baking soda and another another frosting creation packet (bubble gum flavor I believe) in some little glass jars which I put into a plastic container, so we could pour in the vinegar and make eruptions. We've done this so many times, many different ways, but it never gets old! For my youngest, I put the baking soda mixture on a small plate and he helped me pour a little bit at a time onto the baking soda to make it fizz. He loved it and kept yelling "bubbles!" I think the most fun we've ever had doing this though, was
when we made a FIZZY RAINBOW!

Coloring Pages
For each of these color weeks, i've been printing off simple color themed coloring sheets to give to the kids during dinner prep time. To see where we usually get our coloring pages, click HERE.

What else did we do?

Here are a few other very simple ways we focused on "pink" this week

--We identified brown ALL over the place. If something was pink, frequently I identified it and said it outloud. "The flower is pink."  "A flamingo is pink." "What color her dress? Her dress is pink!" You can never have too much repetition! However, we didn't leave out or ignore other colors though. In our everyday play I still identified other colors, I just put a lot of focus on pink specifically!

We checked out these PINK ANIMALS , and then I remembered I had a picture of the pink caterpillar we found in our yard last year. It was so neat!

We read our books with pink covers, themes, or characters...which meant LOTS of "Elephant and Piggie" books, by Mo Willems. 

-We listened to THIS  pink color themed kindergarten song on Youtube.

We googled and then swooned over the delicious PINK FOODS

We played with our homemade Bubble Gum Scented Pink Play Dough

You could also
Make Scented Pink Waterbeads for Sensory Play

Awesome ideas from others

Strawberry Playdough from Sunhats and Wellie Boots
Pink Ideas for Tot School from You are the Roots
Beautiful Pink Sensory Bin from My Crazy Blessed Life
Handprint Flamingos from Red Ted Art
Paper Plate Pink Pigs from A Bunch of Keys

Join me here next Monday as we continue with Grey!

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