Share It Saturday #10 and our Week-In-Review

Happy Weekend!!

 

We have hit another all-time record high with 146 links submitted to our Share It Saturday link up party!  We really look forward to Share It Saturday each week.  It is pretty amazing to see what each of you have been up to each week.  We are honored to have such creative readers!

 

 

Before we get to our features, we will share a little bit of our
 

Week-In-Review...

Big Sister showed us that she totally takes after her mother.  I came home after being out for a few hours last weekend to find her setting up for a St. Patrick's Day party.
 

 

We had a beautiful day one day this week and headed out to the zoo with a couple of the cousins.  We still needed gloves and hats, but the sun was shining and we loved checking out all of the animals.

((The Rhino seemed to have as much excess energy as these three did!))
 

 

Then the next day, we woke up to this:

 

 

We ended up with 6 inches of snow and a snow day with Pre-K being cancelled, so of course we had to get outside and play.

It was perfect snowman making snow!

(I'm not completely sure why this is a frowny face snowman. I do know that we also had another snowman who was the "Bad Guy Snowman" and was built completely so that Little Guy could beat him up with a shovel. Maybe this "Good Guy Snowman" was a little scared after seeing his buddy being smashed into snowball smithereens??) LOL!

 

 

Baby Girl took her first ride in a cardboard box around the living room. 

There were squeals of excitement :)
 

 

Big Sister is now officially registered for Kindergarten in the fall :( How do they grow up so fast??

Her quote of the day was: "Sorry, I can't go to Kindergarten next year. I'm going to college".

 :)
 

 

And NOW, Let's get on to our Favorites from Share It Saturday!!

We join the gals at Golden Grasses and Teach Beside Me as co-hosts in our weekly link up party...

Grab our Button if you would like to link up:

<div align="center"> <a href="http://www.sugaraunts.com" title="Sugar Aunts"><img src="http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll29/karyntripp/a119da4e-0481-4f70-b4df-f47151016cf5_zps4c637c1d.jpg" alt="Sugar Aunts" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

 

Be sure to stop by and follow the

Share It Saturday Group Pinterest Board.

You will find so many wonderful ideas there!

 

 These were our favorite link ups from last week.  We thought each of these activities would be absolutely and totally LOVED by our own kids.  I can see us doing any of these activities in our own homes and hearing CHEERS!   We may just be doing some of these projects in the near future...

:)

 

 

 

Gift of Curiosity made Magic Fizzing Shamrocks.  I know of several little children (and nieces/nephews who would LOVE to get their hands into this project!

Two-Daloo hosted a Messy Playdate/Language Stimulation activity all with the theme of COLOR.  You may know this by know, but we LOVE themed playdates and the messier, the better :)

Crafty Journal created super cute bunny treat bags. We have an annual Easter Egg Hunt in this family and I can totally see this being a crafty project for lots of nieces and nephews!

Stories and Children tells us some useful tips on using real tools with children.  This is something my Little Guy would go bonkers for! He LOVES tools :)

Artsy Fartsy Mama shows us how to create bracelets using popsicle sticks. Did you know you can boil popsicle sticks and make them bend? Big Sister and a few nieces I know would love everything about this project!


 

Do you have a great play/creative learning idea that you would like to share?  We would love to see it!  Here are the "rules" for the party:

• You may share any educational ideas, crafts, projects, recipes, etc.  (please no giveaways)
• Link up a few things if you would like (but please stick to new posts & no more than 3)
• Have a link back to this post if you are participating (on your blog or in your post)
• If you link up, click on at least one other link for each one that you share.
• You don't have to comment or follow, but we really do love both of those things! (A Lot
• Visit the co-hosts and say hello (follow along, too!)
                                                                HAVE FUN!
• Link up your posts with educational ideas, crafts, and teaching tips.  Please include a link back to this blog if participating.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Using Pipe Cleaners for Fine Motor Development

This was the invitation to play that I had set up for the kids.  A cardboard box with holes poked all over, and pipe cleaners. 

 

This was the end result :)

 

 

They all had so much fun creating a work of art with pope cleaners, all while working on their fine motor dexterity, tripod grasp, and eye-hand coordination.

 

(These two were pushing each other to get in there.  They are WAY more like siblings than cousins...)

 





 

Have you seen our recent post Pipe Cleaner Fun where we shared how to explore colors with pipe cleaners?  There are so many fun ways to use them for fine motor development with kids!
 

Improving Scissor Skills with Play Dough

 

Little Guy is just learning how to hold the scissors, how to coordinate both hands together when cutting, how to open and shut the blades of the scissors to cut smooth lines, and how to stay on a line when cutting. 

 

This little activity is perfect to work on all of those things.

 

Plus, he thought it was a ton of fun to Cut. Play Dough. With. Scissors.

 

(He thought it was Hil-arious!)

 

 

First, roll out the play dough into a "snake"...this is a perfect fine motor strengthening activity for little hands.

 

Mom, You then use the blades of the scissors to press lines into the "snake".

 

 

The child will hold the play dough snake with his assisting (non-dominant hand).  Using the helper hand in a coordinated manner can be tricky for the new cutter.  A fun way to practice (like this activity) is a real confidence booster. 

 

Holding the scissors in a vertical position is sometimes, a big part of the problem with accuracy of cutting paper along lines.  Cutting the play dough snake usually will automatically correct a horizontal or diagonal position of the scissors.  Practice will help to carry-over the positioning when cutting paper. 

 

The nice wide and short lines in the play dough snake are great for practicing line awareness and the "open/shut" motion of the scissors when cutting.  Plus, the slight resistance of the play dough really provides feedback to the child. 

 

Just be sure to do this activity with your child.  This shouldn't be an unsupervised activity...a little finger can get caught in the scissors easily.

 

 

This one looked like so much fun that Big Sister had to join in too :)