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Colored Rice and Pasta

Colored rice and pasta!  The kids love to scoop and pour it, pick it up with tweezers, and do art projects with them!  I colored them with liquid water color from http://www.discountschoolsupply.com

Playing with the pasta noodles!

Books About Fire Safety

(October is Fire Safety Month)

Fire! Fire! by Gail Gibbons

Super Truck by Mara Conlon

Dinofours: It's Fire Drill Day! by Steve Metzger

A Visit to the Firehouse by Dan Elliott

Firebears The Rescue Team by Rhonda G. Greene

Fire Truck by Peter Sis

Firefighters by Norma Simon

Flashing Fire Engines by Tony Mitton

BArney: Go to the Fire Station by Mark S. Bernthal

Curious George and the Firefighters by H.A. Rey

Cutaway Firefighters by Jon Kirkwood

Books About Halloween

The Little Scarecrow Boy by Margaret Wise Brown

Winnie the Pooh's Halloween by Bruce Talkington

Arthur's Halloween by Marc Brown

Little Ghost by Vivian French

Boo to You, Winnie the Pooh!

What a Scare, Jesse Bear by Nancy W. Carlstrom

Clifford's Halloween by Norman Bridwell

The Best Halloween Ever by John Speirs

Go On A Ghost Walk by Stan & Jan Berenstain

My Working Mom by Peter Galssman

A Costume for Bear by Kiki Thorpe

Thomas the Train: The Monster Under the Shed

The Halloween Play by Felicia Bond

Happy Halloween, Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt

Franklin's Halloween by Paulette Bourgeois

Dinofours: It's Halloween! by Steve Metzger

I Spy: A Scary Monster by Jean Marzollo

Inside a House That is Haunted by Alyssa S. Capucilli

Froggy's Halloween by Jonathan London

Dora's Costume Party by Christine Ricci

Barbie: Hooray for Halloween! by Diane W. Landolf

T-Rex Trick-or-Treats by Lois G. Grambling

Halloween Howl by Suzzane Collins

Spiders by Claire Llewellyn

Pooh's Happy Halloween by Ann Braybrooks

Halloween Rescue! by Cynthia Stierle

Maisy's Trick-or-Treat by Lucy Cousins

Clifford and the Halloween Parade by Norman Bridwell

Pooh's Halloween Parade by Isabel Gaines

Mouse's First Halloween by Lauren Thompson

We're Off to Find the Witch's House by Mr. Krieb

The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle

Books About Pumpkins

I Spy: A Pumpkin by Jean Marzollo

Bear's Bargain by Frank Asch

Dinofours: It's Pumpkin Day!

Pooh's Pumpkin by Isabel Gaines

Sixteen Runaway Pumpkins by Dianne Ochiltree

Pumpkin Patch Puppy by Danielle Denega

The Biggest Pumpkin Ever by Stephen Kroll

Five Little Pumpkins by Dan Yaccarino

The Prize Pumpkin by Stan & Jan Berenstain

Pumpkin Day, Pumpkin Night by Anne Rockwell

Pooh's Fall Harvest by Isabel Gaines

The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin by JoeTroiano

It's Pumpkin Time by Zoe Hall

The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons

The Pumpkin Patch by Elizabeth King

Books About Leaves

Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert

Pooh's Leaf Pile by Isabel Gaines

Dinofours: It's Fall! by Steve Metzger

Clifford's First Autumn by Norman Bridwell

Fall Changes by Ellen B. Senisi

Why Do Leaves Change Color? by Betsy Maestro

Fresh Fall Leaves by Betsy Franco

The Falling Leaves by Steve Metzger

Fall Leaves by Mary Packard

When the Leaf Blew In by Steve Metzger

Books About Apples

Little Mouse and the Big Red Apple by A.H. Benjamin

Ten Apples Up On Top by Theo LeSieg

Apples by Gail Gibbons

The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall

Dappled Apples by Jan Carr

A Busy Year by Leo Lionni

How Do Apples Grow? by Betsy Maestro

I Am an Apple by jean Marzollo

Dinofours: It's Apple Picking Day! by Steve Metzger

A Fun End to a Great Summer!

Magic Bead Bracelets

The beads are white until....

You put them in the sun! 

Shell Collage Wall Hanging

Shell Collage Wall Hanging

Make sure to coat the aluminum pan with vaseline and lay the piece of yarn in the pan before pouring in the plaster.

Place the shells where you want them and sprinkle in some sand.

It will start to harden after 30 minutes, but I let it sit for a few hours before I took it out of the pan.

Sand Dough Recipe

Sand Dough

You will need:
1 cup sand
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 tsp. alum
3/4 cups of water


Stir together sand, cornstarch, and alum in saucepan.  Add the water and stir until it is smooth and cornstarch has dissolved.  Cook dough over medium-low heat stirring occasionally.  The dough will start to thicken within a minute or two.  Scrape mixture from sides of pan while stirring.  After 3 minutes the dough will be the consistency of playdough.  Remove from pan and let cool.  The sculpt away!  The clay will take about a week to completely dry.

I used white sand and brown sand.  I had the older kids sift their own sand to make it more of a process.  They added all the ingredients to the pan and then I turned on the stove and they brainstormed what they were going to make!  Make sure to use very dry sand, otherwise it will be really sticky!  These are our sand sculptures!

Marshmallow Masterpieces

We used toothpicks and marshmallows to make cool shapes and towers!  This kept them busy for a long time!

Summer Fun with Bugs!

Making Bugs in our Creepy Crawler Maker

The Wild World of ROCKS!

Collecting Rocks

Washing Them Up

Painting Rocks for our Rock Garden!

The Bug Station

Our Bug Station

The kids like to use the magnifying glasses to look at the fake bugs, and the real ones too!

Bug Updates!

Posted Below

Ocean T-shirts

Ocean T-shirts

I usually make these every year with the kids.  However, we didn't do it this year so I used one of the five that my son has made!  I used their handprints and fingerprints to make the fish and octopus.  The sand at the bottom is gold glitter.  I used fabric paint, and I have the kids bring in their own t-shirts.  Sometimes they bring white sundresses, or shorts and t-shirts.  I have made some pretty cute clothes with this idea!

This is the ant farm below!  The ants aren't included, you have to order them through the mail or online.  They come really fast!  This farm is refillable!

The Ants are Here!

This is a gel ant farm.  They are much easier than a traditional ant farm.  The gel is their food and water and you don't have to do anything!  With the other ant farms, it is very easy to overfeed and give them too much water.  Believe me!  I know my ant farms!  The ants come separate in a little vial.  You put them in the fridge for a half hour before putting them in the farm.  It slows them down....way down.  Then you don't have to worry about them biting when putting them in!

There is a light you can buy (separately of course) to go under the ant farm so it glows!  This is the start of a tunnel just a couple hours after we put the ants in!

These are tunnels about 6 hours after the ants were in the farm.  They start tunneling and never stop!  It is so cool to watch!

This happened overnight!

This is the end of the second day!

This is two weeks later!  They have been busy!  It says the ants are supposed to live for 1 to 3 months.