WIRED - DIY Bead Maze!

Wire is something that is always available in our playroom.  I found this particular floral wire at the Dollar Tree.  Wire is a great medium to explore, create, and manipulate.  Its great for strengthening the muscles in the fingers and hands - improving fine motor skills.  My initial thought was to make a DIY Bead Maze, like one of these:

 

I decided to let the activity remain a little more open ended than that.  But making a bead maze is definitely an option for those of you interested.  You might need a sturdier grade wire, though.

For this activity we used floral wire, styrofoam block (found at Walmart), wire cutters, and pasta wheels (we already had the colored pasta wheels.  You can use anything - beads, pasta, whatever has a hole in it).  My son actually helped me set up the invitation, and the pasta wheels are what he chose.

The Invitation

sticking the wires into the styrofoam

(somewhere along the way, he turned the board over.  I left the wrapping on the contain the potential mess)

 putting on pasta wheels - great for fine motor

 an extra LONG wire...he thought this was fun

 "Its like a roller coaster, Mommy"

- AK (MESE, MECD)

DIY Activity Table

We converted our train table into a light table a while back.  Since then we have added many different elements to the table.  This is great for people who do not have a lot of space.  There are so many options with just one table.  The best part is... the table only cost $40.00 on Craiglist! You can customize it to your own children.  Here are some of the things we created...

LIGHT TABLE

For DIY instructions on how to convert a train table to light table click HERE.  

GEOBOARD

For DIY instructions on how to make a Geoboard click HERE

LIGHT BRITE

We cut 2 pieces of peg board the size of the train table boards.  We purchased Light Brite pegs on ebay.  I think they were around 5 or 6 dollars.  Just lay the panels on top of the light table and you have yourself a DIY Light Brite!  The pegs fit perfectly.  

WHITE BOARD/DRY ERASE

You can use the white plexi glass top to the light table to draw and paint on.  Here it is with the light on.

White board with the lights off.  

BLACKBOARD

We painted one side of our train table boards with blackboard paint.  Blackboard paint can be purchased at Home Depot.  We used two coats. 

WHITE WORK SURFACE

Lastly, we painted the other side of the train boards white.  We use this surface for everyday play... playmobil, building, legos, etc.  I also glued two pieces of Lego base plates to one end for lego play... which you can see below.  

LEGO TABLE

I used 2, 15 x 15 base plates... they also sell them in other sizes and colors.  

These are just a few options but the possibilities are endless.  

RL  

The Teacher In Me (DIY Flanel Board Story)

Im all about child-guided play, but sometimes the teacher in me comes out.  LOL  I never force an activity onto my son, though.  I have tons and tons of DIY materials that I made when I taught children with autism.  This is a fun story we would read during the Halloween season.  We would typically do this during circle time.  It was a great way to learn colors, learn facial features, encourage communication, encourage participation, and encourage socialization.  I set up the invitation for my son and I think we read the book 12 times in one sitting!  Needless to say, he loved it - particularly adding the facial features and then taking them away.  I made this years ago when I was teaching, so I dont have step by step instructions, but its pretty easy.  I just traced from the book, cut out the pieces, laminated them, and then used velcro to put it all together.  Simple and fun!

ENJOY!

-AK (MESE, MECD)

GO AWAY BIG GREEN MONSTER

 The invitation

 starting the story with all the facial features mixed up and off the face

 adding the two big yellow eyes (as I read the story, he added the features)

 adding the nose

putting on the 2 squiggly ears

Play Tiles

We have a memory box from Discount School Supply (can been seen HERE) that you can open up and stick different objects inside.  My daughter loves it and is always looking for different things to add to the box.  She tried putting a couple pictures of her cousins inside but the pictures were too big.  It led to this...

DIY memory

We bought this package of wood slats at Michaels.  I think they were 3.99.  My husband cut them into 3 pieces.  I am sure they sell them in smaller pieces somewhere else but I didn't feel like making an extra trip.  These were 1/8th of an inch thick which I liked as well.  I put some Modge Podge on the piece of wood, placed the picture on, let it dry, and then took a razor blade around the edges.  After you cut them out put another layer of Modge Podge on top to seal them.  $5.00 and 15 minutes later we had our own custom memory set!  

\

While looking for the wood slates my brain was spinning with other things we could do with these.  We ended up making a bunch of different "Play Tiles".  The possibilities for these are endless!  You can see a few things we did with them below.  These would be great for travel, as a gift, and also wonderful on a magnet board or cookie sheet.  Just attach a magnetic strip or magnetic button to them.  

\

I purchased these letters also at Michaels (Buy 2 get 1 free this week).  I believe they were 1.99??  They come with both uppercase and lowercase letters.  They also had quite a few different colors but I wanted to stick with plain black.  

I attached them to these wood tiles.  These are different from the above picture.  I don't have a picture of the package because we already had these on hand at home.  You can find them with the wood crafting stuff at Michaels.  I am almost positive they carry them at Dollar Tree, too.  These are made by Creatology...  they are "Wood Squares".  I placed a letter sticker on each tile... uppercase and lowercase to make a memory game as well.  

You can also just use them for plain matching.  They would also work well for spelling for older children.  Again, they would be great on the magnet board.  

So many options!  Different shapes.  These are just stickers placed on each square.  

Colors.  I love the way these turned out.  I just Modge Podged different colored foam sheets to them (Dollar Tree).  You can use them for matching, patterns, memory, mosaics, etc.

RL  

DIY Story Telling Magnets

Here at Play at Home Mom, we typically provide activities that play off of the interests of our children, but this is something I did with my students when I was a teacher.  It encouraged verbalization, communication, storytelling, etc. 

I created these DIY STORY TELLING MAGNETS in hopes that my son might take interest……to inspire him.  I would say he enjoys them – and I love watching his stories and imagination take shape - but he’s way more interested in playing baseball these days….hours and hours of baseball. 

THINGS YOU NEED:

• ·         MAGNET SHEETS (and a printer)
• ·         SCISSORS
• ·         PICTURES – head to toe shots of friends and family, clip art, and/or pictures of toys or other items your child loves.

I used Microsoft word, inserted a 3x3 table, and then inserted a picture into each section.  This helped insure that all of my pictures were relatively the same size.  Lastly, I printed the pictures directly onto the magnet sheets and cut them out.

Playing with the magnets....everyone is riding a scooter or bike.  So cute!

 I plan to make more magnets – more friends and family, and more creative pictures that I know my son will love.

FOR MORE PERSONALIZED FUN - INCLUDING PEOPLE PUPPETS, CHECK OUT OUR  

FUN WITH FACES  

POST.

-         AK(MESE, ECD)

DIY Magnetic Jack-O-Lantern

We made DIY MAGNETS last year.  Today I thought it would be fun to use random things around the playroom to create more magnets for some jack-o-lantern fun.  The great thing about this is that all you need are some magnets and random things around the house.  Here is what I did....

• I printed out a pumpkin on a MAGNET SHEET and cut it out
• I drew some pumpkin mouths on a magnet sheet (with a Sharpie marker) and cut them out
• I used buttons, baby food jar tops, googlie eyes, nuts, container tops, etc to create eyes and noses - adhering the magnets to the back using a glue gun

The Invitation

There was a purpose for the extra noses....I just cant remember what he told me because it was a made-up word.  LOL

We took the emotion cards out to see if we could make pumpkins that have the same feelings as the pics.....fun!!

- AK (MESE, MECD)

DIY Language Magnets

I made these for my son when he was very young - before he could talk.  They are great for increasing vocabulary, promoting language development, strengthening communication skills, and decreasing frustration for children who are not yet talking.  I initially put them on my fridge and let my son explore them.  We talked about the pictures (I only started with a few at a time) and related them to the real thing when we could. Eventually I used them as a way to let him make choices at meal and snack time (when he wanted to) - great for instilling self-worth and giving them "control" over their choices (empowering them) at a young age.  I would set a few aside at meal/snack time and ask him to pick what he would like to eat.  He loved them.

(For older children they can also be used for sorting, categorizing, etc.)

All you need are MAGNET SHEETS from Office Max (and a computer and printer). 

You google for pictures you want, copy them into a word document, print, and cut them out.

After so many requests for our food magnets and grocery lists we decided to make them accessible to you.  We created a document (13 pages) that includes:

Benefits to your child (infant, toddler, beyond toddler)

Directions for both magnets and velcro (for those of you without magnetic refrigerator)

2 pages of fruit

1 1/2 pages of veggies

1 page of common foods

2 types of grocery lists

Click on button below for an instant download
Total Cost is $3.50

- AK (MESE, MECD)

DIY Rubbing Plates

For those of you that have tried the microwave puffy paint... 

http://playathomemom3.blogspot.com/2011/07/microwaved-puffy-paint.html

Here is another great addition to it... DIY Rubbing Plates!

We have been creating and experimenting with this paint a lot ever since we discovered it.   Girls love it.    

After they were done playing with the paints my daughter asked to color.  I can't tell you the last time she wanted to color... I was excited about this one!  We received some Soy Rock Crayons in the mail yesterday and she couldn't wait to get her hands on them.  The crayons can be seen here.  Perfect for Rubbing Plates.  :-)  

http://playathomemom3.blogspot.com/2011/07/pure-play-kids.html

I set up this invitation.  As you can tell my 17M old wanted nothing to do with this one!  LOL  

Microwave Puffy Paint Crayon Rubbings.  

It was nice to see some excitement about crayons again!  :-)  

She had a hard time holding the paper down and coloring....

So I taped it down.  She asked to do her animal plates for the next few.  

Also taped down the paper

"Look Mommy, it's a cow!"