DIY Shavuos Flower Manipulatives!!

Wow! Har Sinai was so beautiful… all covered with flowers when Bnei Yisrael received the Torah. For the Shavuos Unit, we use these colorful flower manipulatives. They are extremely inexpensive, super easy to make and endless activities to do.

In order to do it yourself, you need to run to your local dollar store and get a FLOWER shaped swimming noodle. You’ll see they come in various shapes, colors and sizes. I picked up some with the flower shape in assorted colors. When the children are not around, using a knife and cutting board, cut the noodle about one inch apart. With just one noodle, you get so many manipulatives! I have them scattered all around the house… too many!

Here are some activities that you can do with your Little Ones and I’m sure you can come up with so many more!

Classifying - Color Sorting

I placed color tape down on the table making four boxes. I laid a different color flower on each box. Then, I gave my Little One a container full of mix colorful flowers and ask her to sort them according to the color.

Counting

On a piece of paper, I wrote numbers 1-3. Then, right over each number we piled up the corresponding amount of flowers.

Completing a Pattern

I started a pattern using two different color flowers and ask my Little One to complete it. We are just starting with patterns, but if your child is more advance you can use more colors and/or alternations.  

We are going to be using the DIY Shavuos manipulatives to make some crafts too! Come back and visit us to see what we are busy making! Im sure you wouldn’t want to miss out.

Have a Good Shabbos,

Wait! Don't Trow Away Those Macaroon Tins! (Part I)

I must admit we've been eating plenty of Matzah and Macaroons the past few days. When I was younger, we had chocolate and just plain macaroons and you either like them or like them because there wasn't much else that we could eat during Pesach. Well, not anymore! My daughters have the options to chose between Rocky Road Macaroons, Chocolate Chip Macaroons, Coconut Macaroons, Almond Macaroons, Banana Split Macaroons, Mint Macaroons..... Yes, quite a lot! Not I'm left with all these empty tins that are taken over the house! We decided to get working to put them in good use and create educational activities Now, go ahead and get your macaroon tin (I'm sure is somewhere) and get working! Here is Part I of "Wait! Don't Trow Away Those Macaroon Tins!"

Mr. Tzedakah Box

I finally have a Tzedakah Box that is adorable and perfect for a toddler. We want to make sure our kids understand the concept of giving Tzedakah, but don't necessarily have to be in contact with actual money. We removed the macaroon labels from the tin and made a little face using googly eyes, a pompom for a nose and mouth out of foam sheets. We then made two arms and hair out of foam sheets.

Instead of real money, we are using apple juice bottle caps that I grabbed from the bottle caps container I have. Here is my confession. I'm a bottle cap collector. I collect all kinds of caps and keep them in a separate container. We always try to incorporate them in some activity or other. You can hop over to DIY Aleph Bet Manipulatives to get another idea how to use bottle caps. Using a permanent marker, I wrote numbers: one, five, ten and twenty-five.

On the top, I cut out a hole the exact size of the caps. My Little Ones love feeding Mr. Tzedakah Box every morning and they like to sing the Tzedakah song too!

Wishing all of you a great week!

Hamentashen Shalach Manot

My daughter wanted to make some Shalach Manot to give out to her little friends. She attends a "Mommy and Me" group at the local library and already has formed some friendships. I was looking for something that she is able to make with supplies that we already had at home. I came across once this fabulous shalach Manot idea (I don't recall where...) and we started working right away! Shalach Manot can be very expensive, but this one looks adorable and really economical -1 cent a piece (you can't beat that!).

To make the Hamentashen Shalach Manot you need:

 1 paper plate

 Colorful Tissue Paper or Shredded Paper

  Brown Paint

  Paint Brush

  Stapler

We first painted on one side of the paper plate brown and left it to dry. We then placed all the items we wanted to give for Shalach Manot in the center of the plate. We also included these delicious Hamentashen we baked together. You can hop over to read more about it on "Get Baking Hamentashen... It's Educational" and print the Hamentashen recipe as well. Then, I helped my daughter fold the plate by bringing the three sides in and stapling on the top to make it look like a Hamentashen. She stuffed the center, jelly part, with shredded paper. When we finished, it looked adorable.

                                                                      Happy Purim!

Hey is for...Honey Nut Cheerios!

We started working on the letter Hey. We covered the entire letter with glue and then glued on the Honey Nut Cheerios one-by-one. Well, we started with more, but we lost some of them along the way… It was very tempting to eat some Honey Nut Cheerios while we did our work! We left it to dry on the side and then added another coat of thick layer of glue.

We placed our hand over the bumpy surface and were able to make the sound of letter HEY!! 

To work on the rest of the letters, read more about "My Aleph Bais Touch!" by following this link