February Tot Boxes

This year,

I have had a goal for the little I watch

to direct their playtime

with a little bit of learning using

Tot Boxes.

Here are the boxes I have had on hand for them

during the month of February...

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What's in the Hearts?

Since Valentine's Day is in February,

some of the boxes have a heart theme.

My littles love to open and close things,

so I filled several heart shaped boxes... 

...with different Valentine erasers, words, etc.

***

Measure My Love

I placed several Valentine erasers,

a couple of heart shaped ice cube trays,

and a set of heart shaped measuring spoons

in this box.

The kiddos played with this box like they
were baking up some cookies-
I wish i had gotten pictures of them playing
because it was so cute!

***

Stamping Up Some Love

Filling this box with scraps of paper,

a child-friendly stamp pad,

and...

...some toddler friendly stamps...

...led to some fun discoveries.

One of the biggest discoveries was...

...stamp pads CAN also stamp on your face!

Imagine that!

Play with this box also resulted in...

...some fun play in the tub!

:0)

***

Lovely Blocks

I got these foam shaped block a little while ago

(at the Target Dollar Spot, I think),

and I had no idea how much fun the littles-

AND big kiddos-

would have with them...

(Isn't he sweet?)

***

Besides Valentine themed boxes,

I also had a few Olympic themed one

in honor of the Sochi Winter Olympics...

Olympic Ringer

The idea for this box was for the littles

to throw the red pom poms

into the pipe cleaner Olympic rings.

This lasted for about-

oh-

1 minute.

Not a big hit with my littles,

but it might be for yours.

***

Olympic Ring Trace

I laminated a couple of pictures

of the Olympic Rings and placed them in the box

with some dry erase markers.

 These kept Pretty Princess Pants quite entertained

for a good 20 minutes or so...

***

Nice-to-Meet-You Nesting Dolls

The nesting doll is a symbol for Russia,

and since the Olympics were held in Sochi,

I thought these would be a fun addition to our

Olympic tot boxes.

I printed out these Russian Nesting Dolls

from Paging Supermom,

laminated them,

cut them out,

and pasted them onto toilet paper tubes.

This little was so expressive

while she played with them...

***

I do believe the tot boxes are a hit!

I hope to keep this up

so my little have new "toys" to play with

every month!

***

Linking up with

Preschool and Kindergarten Corner...

Welcome to the Love Lab

We celebrated this past Valentine's Day

with our Lemonhead Homeschooling group

by going...

...to the Love Lab.

I set up some several simple scientific activities

for us to do on a card table,

using test tubes and heart containers,

to get the kiddos in a "experimental" kind of mood.

Most of the experiments revolved around candy

in some way,

since V-Day often has us thinking about

chocolates and conversation hearts.

***

Activity 1: Death by Chocolate

OK,

it was really anywhere near death,

but I did torture the kiddos' taste buds

with THIS simple experiment

using Hershey Kisses and their mouths.

(Nice, huh?)

***

Activity 2: Floating M&M's

After placing some M&M's and Sixlets

into the bottom of a couple of cups...

...we poured water over them and waited.

Sixlets results

M&M's results

(I know it's hard to see, but we DID get a couple of floating

"M's" on top of the water.

You can read all about this experiment

and how it teaches water solubility

by clicking HERE. 

When the experiment was completed,

these two goof balls

dares each other to drink the

candy filled water...

Yum, yum.

;0)

***

Activity 3: Unsinkable Marshmallows 

Using mini-marshmallows...

...the kiddos tried to see if they could sink

them in a cup of water.

A couple of them achieved success,

after they did something to their marshmallows,

which you can read about HERE.

***

 Activity 4: Dancing Hearts

To make Conversation Hearts" dance,

all you need to do...

...is drop some into some Club Soda.

Here they are in action:

Read about why this works
by going HERE.

***

Activity 5:  Funny Putty 

I got these putty kits

from the leftovers of one of our Vacation Bible Schools

a couple of years ago.

The kiddos added a bit of water to the powder

and waited until they had putty.

***

Activity 6:  Awesome Apothecary Pouches

Using THIS tutorial,

the kiddos turned matchboxes

into little pouches they could carry

"medicinal treasures" in.

***

Activity 7: Mentos- the Fountain Maker

Using Diet Coke, Mentos, and

Steve Spangler's Geyser Tube,

we ended our

time in the Love Lab with a bang...

You can read why this experiment works the way it does
by going HERE.

***

I do believe we all developed a deeper affection

for science in the Love Lab!

***

Linking up with Science Sunday...