Easy Homemade Playdough

About twice a year I'll make up some playdough at home and bring it for a craft.When the kids are done playing with it, they put their pieces in plastic bags and take it home. It's very easy to make, and cheap, but you do have to have cream of tartar to make the chemical reaction work. You can find it in the grocery store with the spices. It's a white powder used in baking.

Here's the recipe:

Homemade Playdough

2 cups water
2 Tablespoons cooking oil
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 cup salt
2 cups flour
few drops of food coloring

Mix all the ingredients together in a large saucepan. Add the food coloring to the water if you are making one color of playdough. If you want to make more than one color, mix in the food coloring after it is cooked, when you knead it. Heat ingredients on medium setting, stirring constantly. It will set up quickly. Playdough is done when it holds together and pulls away from the side of the pan. Turn it out on a plate or cutting board to cool. Knead when cool enough to handle, and have fun!

Journey to Japan

Today for after-school storytime we went on a journey to Japan and learned how the Japanese celebrate their biggest holiday of the year---New Year's Day.

This year is the Year of the Rabbit. How did the years get their animal names? There is a story that explains how there was a race between the animals that decided the order of the animal zodiac cycle.

It's a Chinese story known throughout Asia. Rather than a book, my version is on story cards known as kamishibai. This was actually the first time that I have used kamishibai. I don't have a wooden theater to slide the cards into, I just hold them on my lap. Each card has part of the story on the back, so that the storyteller can read the story while the children look at the card. It worked very well.

We talked about New Year's customs in Japan, including this fellow---he's a daruma. A daruma is the image of a famous old monk, the founderof Zen Buddhism. He sat so long in meditation that he lost the use of his legs, and developed such great wisdom and virtue that he became a buddha, and can answer prayers. A daruma doll comes with his eyes blank. It is customary to buy a daruma at the beginning of the year, make a wish or set a goal, and paint in one eye. Then when the goal is accomplished, or the wish granted, the other eye is painted in.

Finally, as an activity, we did some origami. We folded paper balloons, a traditional origami model. It was kind of hard for most of the kids, since they were mostly under 6, but with some help from the moms they all ended up with a balloon to blow up and take home.

Stories and Songs for a Rainy Day

Well, it's not really raining outside right now, but it did yesterday and it will tomorrow.

We read Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy, which is a simple. repetitive doggy book, and In the Rain with Baby Duck, a sweet and satisfying story about a little duck who doesn't like the rain, until she gets boots and an umbrella.

We sang a bunch of songs: Five Little Sausages, Two Little Blackbirds, Hands on Shoulders, and Shake My Sillies. We sang Pop Goes the Weasel with flannelboard pictures.

I meant to sing Rain Is Falling All Around, but forgot. But it's a good one for a rainy day, and can easily be changed to "sun is shining," "leaves are falling," etc. Here it is on YouTube:

This little video has nice pictures, but doesn't show the actions for the song. But the actions just follow the words. Wiggle your fingers while you drop your hands down for "rain is falling." Form a roof with your arms for "on the housetops," and bend right over for "on the ground."  You get the picture.

Rain is falling all around,
On the housetops, on the ground.
Rain is falling on my nose,
On my head, an hands and toes.


YouTube is exceedingly useful when it comes to children's songs and fingerplays. If you only have the words for a song and don't know the tune, or don't know the actions, YouTube may well have it. 

Our craft was umbrella pictures. I got the idea from www.notimeforflashcards.com, one of my favorite sites for kids' crafts. This one is really easy---just cupcake liners, pipecleaners, paper, and glue.

Welsummer eggs

My two Welsummer hens are laying this winter, since we put a light out in their henhouse. The light---just a 60 watt incandescent bulb---is on a timer, and goes on 5:00-7:00 a.m. and p.m. This keeps the chickens laying one or two of these lovely brown speckled eggs a day.

One of the hens lays lighter colored eggs than the other, and one is named Kit and the other Felicity, but I don't know which is laying which.

2011 A'Comin'!

New Year's Eve and New Year's Day don't have anywhere near the impact on children that Christmas does---those holidays don't have presents and they don't have the readily grasped mythology of Santa Claus, reindeer, and Christmas trees. Not to mention that I can't think of any good New Year's songs. So our New Year's Eve storytime was actually a grab bag of vaguely related items.

For post-Christmas Day reflection, we had this poem by Marchette Chute, with felt cut-outs on the flannelboard:

I wanted a rifle for Christmas, I wanted a bat and a ball, I wanted some skates and a bicycle, But, I didn't want mittens at all. I wanted a whistle And I wanted a kite, I wanted a pocketknife That shut up tight. I wanted some boots And I wanted a kit, But I didn't want mittens one little bit. I told them I didn't like mittens, I told them as plain as plain. I told them I didn't WANT mittens, And they've given me mittens again!

Then we read The Mitten by Jim Aylesworth. This is a familiar story that has also been done by Jan Brett and Alvin Tresselt, but I like the illustrations in this one by Barbara McClintock. 

We also read How to Be, by Lisa Brown, and Chicken Soup with Rice, by Maurice Sendak.

For our craft, we made mittens.  I cut out the mitten shapes, and the children decorated them with crayons and stickers. I also printed out pictures of the animals that squeezed into the boy's mitten: squirrel, rabbit, fox, bear and mouse.  I used pictures from MS Word clip art, and printed them in grayscale, so that the kids could color them (and so that I could save money on printer cartridges.) 

The kids cut the animals out for themselves, or their moms did it. Then we punched holes around the mittens and laced them together. The kids did a good job of lacing.

All in all, this activity involved a lot of different fine motor skills: coloring, cutting, punching, and lacing. I provided blunt-tip tapestry needles for those who wanted to try them, but some did their lacing with scotch tape on the end of the yarn.

Christmas Fun

Today we read Max's Christmas and Minerva Louise on Christmas Eve. Our flannelboard story was the Christmas one from Frog and Toad All Year. We had some seasonal songs and rhymes, and ended by singing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I have a Rudolph puppet that can hide down in the chimney and then slowly come up as the children sing, which adds to the fun.

I am always looking for good puppets. I noticed that my Rudolph, and also the similar Jingle Bear (which can be pulled down inside a gift box) were made by Dakin. Unfortunately, this company, which made lots of stuffed animals and puppets, is now defunct. So I'd better take care of my irreplaceable puppets!

Hope you have a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Christmas, Christmas Time Is Here - - - -

The Northstate Library System sent me a huge bin full of moose puppet show stuff. Not only the Morris the Moose puppet show that we are presenting tomorrow, but a bunch of related items. This included a small moose puppet and all the flannelboard props needed for telling If You Give a Moose a Muffin.  Today at preschool storytime I did Moose/Muffin and the kids really liked it.

Our books today were Snowmen at Christmas and Santa's New Suit.  We sang SANTA, to the tune of BINGO.

I know a man in a furry red suit, and Santa is his name-o---
I know a man with big black boots, and Santa is his name-o---
I know a man with a long white beard, and Santa is his name-o---
I know a man with eight reindeer,and Santa is his name-o---
He comes down the chimney on Christmas Eve, and Santa is his name-o---
S-A-N-T-A,  S-A-N-T-A, S-A-N-T-A, , and Santa is his name -o.

Another fun song to sing and act out is "I'm a Little Pine Tree," sung to the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot":

I'm a little pine tree, tall and straight  (stand tall and hold out your arms like branches)
Waiting at Christmas for you to decorate.
Don't forget to put a star on top  (hold one hand on top of your head with fingers spread out in a star)
And please be careful that the balls don't drop.  (make two fists and lower them close to the ground, then clap)   POP!

The thing about the balls breaking takes a bit of explanation for some children. Some kids are not familiar with glass ornaments. But they all like clapping loudly.