Day: June 16, 2016

Letter Find

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Letter Find (1)

The rice in our rain stick project this morning reminded me of a game I’ve played with Travis a few times before, one that’s well worth setting up again! Your child will absolutely love the tactile play with dry rice; meanwhile you’ll sneak in a little early learning with letter and word recognition.

Bury alphabet magnets in the rice and have your child dig through and discover which letters are “hiding.” A great first word to play with is his or her name. Travis correctly identified all the letters, and when I placed them in order, he was able to tell me it said Travis.

Letter Find (4)

We played with a few other simple words as well, like DOG and CAT, but after that Travis was more interested in pouring handfuls of rice in and out of the tupperware container. Fine by me, except that I didn’t want rice all over the kitchen floor!

Letter Find (2)

It turned into a great reminder of why I love signing with Travis. I pointed out that rice on the floor was a “no” and rice on the newspaper was a “yes,” saying and signing the words. He quickly latched on to the concept, and we had much easier clean-up that way!

Letter Find (3)

Rain Sticks

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Rain Stick (3)

Travis and I woke up to a rainy morning – so what better activity than to make a rain stick? You only need a few household items to put this craft together.

Start with a paper towel tube, and let your child decorate any way they like. I drew a few blue raindrops as prompts and told Travis we were drawing a stormy day, so he was very excited to use blue for rain, black for storm clouds, and white for lightning.

Rain Stick (1)

Close up one end of the rain stick with a sheet of aluminum foil, and secure with masking tape. Parents, I learned through trial and error that a double (or triple!) layer of foil is a safe idea here, so you don’t get any pesky holes.

Next, shape a pipe cleaner into a loose coil, and have your child insert into the tube. Can I be honest? I have no idea what the pipe cleaner is for. To give the rice inside the rain stick something to fall down around, perhaps? Ah well, I followed instructions, so in goes the pipe cleaner.

Rain Stick (2)

This next step was Travis’s favorite part. Let your child help you pour dry rice into the tube. Make sure you don’t add too much (in which case the rice can’t shake around enough); a 1/4 cup felt like a good amount. Seal up the other end of the tube with foil and tape, and your rain stick is ready for shaking!

Travis had some fun with the imaginative task of “raining” on flowers we have here at home..

Rain Stick (4)

…after which he made it rain over his barn and animals.

Rain Stick (5)

No matter what the weather, rain sticks make great instruments, so tuck this project away until the next time you and your toddler have a music-making session.