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Some Pretty Cool Activities

We have a huge tub of crayons in the kitchen that the kids use to color and draw... inside that tub are tons of broken crayons that the kids just don't use and so thanks to the many awesome ideas out there in the blogosphere, this is what we did:

First, place them in a cupcake tin, I divided them into like colors, but you can mix them, either way is fine...

Put them in the oven at 400 for 10 minutes... only after I put them in the oven did I wonder if this would be a problem in the Kosher department- but I found out that since crayons are not food and these are non-toxic, that it is fine. Feel free to ask your own Rabbi if its okay to put wax crayons in your oven.

After 10 minutes, I took them out- they were completely liquid and marbled so I carefully put the tray of crayons in the fridge to harden. After about 15-20 minutes, they were hard and I pushed them out of the molds... and VOILA!

My 4 year old daughter has claimed them as her own, she piles them on top of each other, colors with them, traces around them- yes, it was a hit and I am looking for Alef Bet molds to make our next batch of crayons with. If anyone know where I can get them, let me know!

Okay, now this next little Science project we did was absolutely awesome.

It is all about Density in Liquids.

We took 4 liquids:

Honey

Dish Soap

Water with red food coloring

Oil

We poured the honey, then the dish soap, the water then the oil and this is what we got:

Note: we did it very carefully so not to mix the dish soap and the water. After a day the water started seeping into the dish soap. Someone suggested we try rubbing alcohol on top of the oil as it is less dense then oil and would rise above it. If anyone tries it, let me know, we didn't have any in the house.

Have a good one,

Parshas Chayei Sara, Alef Bet and more...

Here's a great book to go along with this weeks Parshah, all about how kind Rivkah was at the well:

Keeping my 2 year old busy while we work... using large beads and pipe cleaners, he made necklaces and bracelets just like Rivkah received from Eliezer:

We made our own well with real water inside and a bucket the kids could use to retrieve water. They used little mentchies and animals to reenact the story or what happened at the well, they played with this for a while:

The more advanced version of Rivkah's jewelry for the bigger kids to make (smaller beads):

Some hands-on Alef Bet activities--

Creating letters using shapes, hammer and nails:

Creating letters with the Geo-board:

We used the Montessori Red Rods to create the letters of the Alef Bet:

Using the Sandpaper Hebrew letters, they traced it with their fingers then traced it in the sand:

This is Avraham's tent from last weeks Parshah, Parshas Vayeira:

A pretty awesome Science experiment we are doing- get 2 stalks of celery and slice the bottoms giving the water direct access to the veins. Place them in 2 different colors of water (using food coloring) and watch how the water goes through the veins in the stalks to the leaves. It took a few days but the kids loved checking on it every day:

And thats what we've been up to~

Wishing all a great week,

Parshas Vayeira- Bikur Cholim and Hachnosos Orchim

Here are two Mitzvah Activity Packs in connection to Parshas Vayeira- click on the TEXT to download:

My Hachnosos Orchim (welcoming guests) Activity Pack

My Bikur Cholim (visiting the sick) Activity Pack

Here are some great books and puzzles in connection to Bikur Cholim and Hachnosos Orchim:

A great a week to all~

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Parshas Lech Lecha- Transportation Activity Pack

In connection to Parshas Lech Lecha and travel, here is a little Transportation Activity Pack

Click Here to download

Enjoy~

Parshas Lech Lecha- Stars and Transportation

Here are a few things we have been doing in connection to Parshas Lech Lecha:

Aside for My First Parshah Reader, we are reading A Little Boy Named Avram by Dina Rosenveld.

We printed some coloring pages from Chinuch.org and Munchkin colored them and stuck on star stickers while we were talking about how Hashem promised Avraham that his children would be as many as the stars in the sky.

Then, using Star cut-outs which I got at Walmart for $1, I cut them up to make little puzzles and stuck a magnet sticker on the back of each piece. We took all the pieces, mixed them up in a basket and the kids used a magnetic cookie pan to put the stars back together again. The nice thing about using the magnets is that the puzzle pieces stay in place once put down.

Here is a math activity using the Montessori beads. Pretty straight forward. You can make your own beads using pipe-cleaners and colored beads.

A great counting activity, stick the correct amount of Star stickers as the number written on each star. My Munchkin (3.5) LOVES stickers, so anything with stickers is an instant winner with her.

Creating a night sky with different types of star stickers, some foam, some glittery and all different sizes. She actually made a pretty awesome sky, overlapping stars, mixing colors. It was very cool:)

Simple beading with star beads.

After working with stars, we moved on to Transportation- "Lech Lecha", Avram and his wife "traveled" to Canaan. So we are learning about all things connected to modes of travel.

Cutting activity with cars using the Kumon Cutting Workbook.

Transportation Sensory Tub, using black rice we picked up from the local Health Food store in bulk. We put in some Lego street signs and Toob Cars. This was SUCH a hit with my 2 year old, he sat there for quite a while burying all the cars then trying to find them.

Then what started as a simple sorting activity, turned into this:

Taking the idea from my little one, we used the sensory box to hide all the cars, planes and boats and the older kids would search for them and once found, place them in the correct section.

Then using big blocks, cars, street signs and little people, they each designed there own roads.

Using chalk, they drew streets on black construction paper and used these transportation stickers to create a whole scene.

This was a kit we got and they made boats, trains, cars and planes.

Here is where you can get some of the products we are working with this week:

A great week to all~