Fruity Cheerios Sorting

Last summer I saw a cute blog post with a printable mat for sorting Fruit Loops.  I purchased a box of Fruity Cheerios on sale at the grocery store this week and was reminded of that printable.  While I seldom purchase sugary cereals, I think these two can provide a fun and different way of practicing colors.  That being said, Fruity Cheerios have different colors than Fruit Loops, so I decided I would make my own printable for the Cheerios.  

The original idea (and her Fruit Loop printable) is available here.

You can click on my printable below and print it landscaped onto standard size paper.  I laminated mine, but you could also use contact paper or leave it plain.  Super Tot had a wonderful snack activity today for Tot School, which he enjoyed very much.

I have a printable Fruit Loop Graph & Chart available here.

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1+1+1=1

Montessori Monday

Sun Scholars

No Time for Flashcards

Preschool Corner

Mom to 2 Posh Little Divas

Our Country Road

ABC & 123

Homemade Crayons

While homemade crayons are nothing new to the blogging world, we had a wonderful time making our first set!  

We purchased this cute silicone mold back in February just for this purpose!  We are doing a rainbow week in Tot School, so I thought this would be a fun time to make the crayons.  We started with old crayons, removed the papers & broke them into small pieces.  I mixed them up and grouped like colors to make a set of 7 (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and pink).  Then I did two RAINBOW crayons and a few miscellaneous ones.  We put them in the oven on 350*, turned on the light and watched them melt!  It took about 10 minutes.  We took them out and swirled the bottoms with a plastic knife.  Then, we placed them in the freezer for about 10 minutes and popped them out of the molds!  They are beautiful and we couldn't be more thrilled with how they turned out!  

The slowest part was taking the papers off of the crayons.  About halfway through, I decided to use a craft knife, which worked perfectly.  They came right off and took a matter of a few seconds!

We will absolutely be making these for gifts in the future!

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Rainbow Sensory Bin

Sensory Bins have become a staple in our Tot School!  We all love them and enjoy exploring them several times each week.  Our St. Patrick's Day Bin has been out for almost 3 weeks, so it's time to change it out.  We have found that 2 1/2 - 3 weeks is just about the right amount of time for each bin.  

With St. Patrick's Day happening this week, I wanted to kind of keep with the theme, so we are working with RAINBOWS this week in Tot School!  I knew I wanted to do a Rainbow Sensory Bin, so I decided to carry that theme throughout our week.  Be sure to check back on Sunday for my Tot School post showing all of our fun activities!

This was a very easy Sensory Bin to put together, as I already had everything on hand.  It was just a matter of collecting the items from various other places and throwing them all together in the bin!

Some of the Sensory Bin contents sorted by color.

As I mentioned earlier, I already had everything on hand.  What's in the bin?

Various wooden shapes that I have painted for Tot School

Painted popsicle sticks

Painted clothes pins

Lacing beads & a wooden dowel

Colored feathers

Animals from our Animal Train

Foam pencils from a puzzle

Colored clip magnets from The Dollar Store

Colored bean bags

Paint swatches glued to cardboard

Set of rainbow washcloths

Pipe cleaner rainbows

Colored coins from Super Tot's Laugh & Learn Piggy Bank

White pompoms to represent the clouds

2 metal pails from Target's Dollar Spot

Colored sorting bowls

This Sensory Bin is a big hit and I know Super Tot will enjoy it for the next couple weeks!

Here is an "AFTER" picture of the bin.   

Here are a few other Rainbow theme Sensory Bins I found on the web:

Counting Coconuts

The Picky Apple

Camp Slop

Nature Loving Kids

Rockabye Butterfly

To see lots of other fun educational ideas, click below:

Color Bags

I saw these bags at our local craft store and immediately knew I wanted to make "Color Bags" for Super Tot.  The contents can be changed out, but here is what I have in them right now:

Painted clothes pin

Painted popsicle stick

Large button

Painted wooden cube

Plastic color tile

Painted wooden star

Foam pencil from a colors puzzle I got for $1 at a drug store

Paint swatch I cut out and mounted onto cardboard

Colored train from our counter set

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