Monday, April 1, 2013

French Toast Breakfast For Two Please!

It was eerily quiet one Saturday morning. We all know that quiet, when it's too quiet with a three year old in the house. I came down to see what Curly Shirley was up to, and she was playing with a little baking soda I had out from baking. What was such a pleasant surprise is that besides the small mess, she had created the most beautiful and creative play scene. Play french toast with pretend powdered sugar on top! Since we had hosted a few out of town guests recently, we had our specialty breakfast treat, french toast. Something I often incorporate into dramatic play areas is real bottles, and boxes that used to contain food. This means more to children since it's real, but also because it helps them learn to read. Children learn to read by seeing pictures first, and using pictures as support. Children will recognize a box of Cheerios for example by the print and pictures and "Read" the box. This is called environmental print. I will do some follow up posts on this topic later.




Sprinkling pretend but "real" powdered sugar.


"Our environmental print and recycled bottles at use in play."

Making a shopping list.

After all the pretend play, we had worked up an appetite for the real thing! We went to the kitchen to make real french toast.  A great cooking activity to do together.

Monday, February 25, 2013

Pink Princess Play Dough!


I was inspired by several posts on other blogs to make play dough scented with extract. Little Shirley is in full princess mode, so it was only fitting that we make pink princess play dough. We had some extract from the holidays left over peppermint extract. This added just the right touch of an added sensory element. Last we added a little glitter, and prompts to play and away she went. 

Pink PRINCESS play dough!


 I set out jewels, a paper crown from a cereal box and necklaces and the fun continued. I always keep a bag of play dough toys available when we play with play dough. Cookie cutters, candles, rolling pins and cupcake liners are among some of our favorite play dough props.

 You can see our end result. We will continue to enjoy this playdough for at least two months. What endless possibilites with pink play dough!