'Tis the Season of STEM with Trae Bodge!
- Patria Lincoln Posted On Nov 12, 2018 | Science
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Strong fine motor skills are one of the first things you can encourage with your little one! Did you know that babies as young as 4-6 months are already working to develop these skills? I am constantly on the lookout for activities and fine motor skills toys that encourage my daughters to strengthen their little muscles and improve their coordination.
Although he may appear simplistic at first glance, I’ve found a ton of ways to incorporate him into learning activities for both my 3 and 5 year old girls. Spike has frequently helped us learn about counting, sorting, and color identification.
My youngest daughter enjoys simply placing and removing the chunky, peg-shaped quills. We’ve also begun to work on finishing color patterns as well. My oldest daughter loves practicing counting and matching the quills to a number I call out.
You can also have your child sort the quills into color groups, practice sequencing and patterns by color, or use the numbers printed on Spike’s back to identify the amount of quills they have added to him.
Once you are done playing with him, simply pop the top of his back off and place all of his quills inside! This makes him a wonderful “travel toy” that can be taken on the go without fear of losing his pieces.
I also love that Spike and his quills are made of easy-to-clean plastic. You can just wipe him down whenever need be! We can’t say enough wonderful things about this fun and engaging toy. I’m sure your family will enjoy Spike as much as we do!
Save it for later!
Strong fine motor skills are one of the first things you can encourage with your little one! Did you know that babies as young as 4-6 months are already working to develop these skills? I am constantly on the lookout for activities and fine motor skills toys that encourage my daughters to strengthen their little muscles and improve their coordination.
Although he may appear simplistic at first glance, I’ve found a ton of ways to incorporate him into learning activities for both my 3 and 5 year old girls. Spike has frequently helped us learn about counting, sorting, and color identification.
My youngest daughter enjoys simply placing and removing the chunky, peg-shaped quills. We’ve also begun to work on finishing color patterns as well. My oldest daughter loves practicing counting and matching the quills to a number I call out.
You can also have your child sort the quills into color groups, practice sequencing and patterns by color, or use the numbers printed on Spike’s back to identify the amount of quills they have added to him.
Once you are done playing with him, simply pop the top of his back off and place all of his quills inside! This makes him a wonderful “travel toy” that can be taken on the go without fear of losing his pieces.
I also love that Spike and his quills are made of easy-to-clean plastic. You can just wipe him down whenever need be! We can’t say enough wonderful things about this fun and engaging toy. I’m sure your family will enjoy Spike as much as we do!
Save it for later!
October marks the beginning of our favorite time of year! We pull out all of our Halloween decorations and transform our entire house for a month before we transition to Fall and finally holiday décor. Along with the festive setting in our home, I also begin themed activities to excite our girls and encourage them to get into the holiday spirit. One of their favorite Halloween projects is creating various types of spook-tacular slime! This is an incredibly low prep activity that results in hours of fun sensory play.
Liquid starch can be found in the laundry section of your local store and only costs a couple of dollars. As for the glue, you can use either white or clear glue. White will result in opaque slime, while the clear will be more see through. In addition to the base ingredients, choose any food coloring, glitter or add ins that match the theme! My girls chose orange and purple food coloring, various glitter, googly eyes and our beloved Beaker Creatures.
First, empty two, 5 ounce bottles of glue into a bowl. Once they are empty, fill the bottles with water and pour that into the bowl as well. Stir the mixture until it is smooth.
At this point, add in your food coloring. This is the only step you can do this at, so make sure you add enough! As you will see below, our first batch looked very orange initially, but I should have added more food coloring. By the end, it was a faint orange color (but the girls didn’t care).
Pour in any mix-ins – my oldest chose googly eyes and green + purple glitter. Stir until the items are mostly incorporated.
Next, add in 8 ounces of liquid starch and begin to stir. The mixture will begin to turn into a hard blob
.
At this point you can help your child and begin to knead the slime with your hands. If it’s pretty sticky, add in a little more starch. Knead some more and continue adding starch until the slime can be handled easily. It will still have some stick to it, but you should be able to pull it off the table in one piece. Depending on the brand of glue you use, the amount of starch will vary. I’ve found that 8 ounces is always the best amount to start with.
We added in our Beaker Creatures and the fun began! My youngest daughter also created a batch of purple slime from white glue. That batch made it’s way into the party as well.
My daughters will play with slime for hours! We store our slime for a few days of play in a Ziploc bag. If it’s a little sticky, just add some liquid starch again. We hope you enjoy this spook-tacular sensory activity as much as we do!
Save it for later!
October marks the beginning of our favorite time of year! We pull out all of our Halloween decorations and transform our entire house for a month before we transition to Fall and finally holiday décor. Along with the festive setting in our home, I also begin themed activities to excite our girls and encourage them to get into the holiday spirit. One of their favorite Halloween projects is creating various types of spook-tacular slime! This is an incredibly low prep activity that results in hours of fun sensory play.
Liquid starch can be found in the laundry section of your local store and only costs a couple of dollars. As for the glue, you can use either white or clear glue. White will result in opaque slime, while the clear will be more see through. In addition to the base ingredients, choose any food coloring, glitter or add ins that match the theme! My girls chose orange and purple food coloring, various glitter, googly eyes and our beloved Beaker Creatures.
First, empty two, 5 ounce bottles of glue into a bowl. Once they are empty, fill the bottles with water and pour that into the bowl as well. Stir the mixture until it is smooth.
At this point, add in your food coloring. This is the only step you can do this at, so make sure you add enough! As you will see below, our first batch looked very orange initially, but I should have added more food coloring. By the end, it was a faint orange color (but the girls didn’t care).
Pour in any mix-ins – my oldest chose googly eyes and green + purple glitter. Stir until the items are mostly incorporated.
Next, add in 8 ounces of liquid starch and begin to stir. The mixture will begin to turn into a hard blob
.
At this point you can help your child and begin to knead the slime with your hands. If it’s pretty sticky, add in a little more starch. Knead some more and continue adding starch until the slime can be handled easily. It will still have some stick to it, but you should be able to pull it off the table in one piece. Depending on the brand of glue you use, the amount of starch will vary. I’ve found that 8 ounces is always the best amount to start with.
We added in our Beaker Creatures and the fun began! My youngest daughter also created a batch of purple slime from white glue. That batch made it’s way into the party as well.
My daughters will play with slime for hours! We store our slime for a few days of play in a Ziploc bag. If it’s a little sticky, just add some liquid starch again. We hope you enjoy this spook-tacular sensory activity as much as we do!
Save it for later!