play dough

If there is one recipe I master during this quarantine, it is not banana bread or sourdough bread, it is play dough. After years of trying play dough recipes, I think I stumbled across the best one! It involves glycerin, cooking it on the stove and unfortunately, more dishes to wash. I am pretty sure everyone who is sticking to the safer at home rules are tired of washing dishes during this time but if it gives me an extra hour of kids playing peacefully, then I think it's worth it.

This is an activity I included as part of our ocean unit.

I didn't write down the source of this recipe but if you Google "play dough glycerin," you should be able to find it. Here is the informal recipe I jotted down:

2 cups of all-purpose flour
3/4 cup of salt
4 teaspoons of cream of tartar
2 tablespoons of oil (I used grape seed oil)
1/2 teaspoon of glycerin
2 cups of hot water
gel food color

- Heat water
- Add food coloring, mix
- Add glycerin and oil
- Add flour, salt and cream of tartar
- Cook over medium heat, do not overcook - it will get too dry
- Let it cool down
- Place in an air tight container

LA skid row hand washing stations

I would like to say a special thank you to our dear friends, Tricia and Shelly, for including us in their partnership with the LA Network Community Action Networks' skid row efforts to help build and create hand washing stations for the homeless. We decorated a washing station so they can wash their hands with soap and water during this Coronavirus pandemic. 

For more information about the washing stations and to check out the awesome designs people made, visit their Instagram page @skidrowpower and www.skidrowpower.com.

homeschool resource | education.com

Education.com has been one of my go to resources for homeschool worksheets. I have the basic membership, which is free, and I am able to download a certain amount of material. Since schools are currently closed all over the country, they are also providing weekly boosts and independent study packets for each grade level (preschool to 5th grade).

I found this little sight words bingo game for my preschooler and it was a hit! Trying to get 3 in a row was too easy so we changed the rules so that the first person who gets the entire card filled, wins the game. Since my 1st grader knows all the words, I also had her call out the words so I could play the game and even my husband played along too. I printed the game pieces on cardstock paper for a little more longevity and plan on continuing to play this game to help my son learn his sight words.

intro to volcanoes unit

Last week, we finished our introduction to volcanoes unit. Here's a look at some of the work we did:

Layers of Earth pattern and Parts of a Volcano - Stephanie Hathaway Designs (love her designs!)

Volcano Experiment - kit from Lakeshore Learning

Book - The Earth Book: A World of Exploration and Wonder by Jonathan Litton

We also used video resources from:

Mystery Science

Scholastic's Watch & Learn

My kids have been really enjoying Scholastic's Watch & Learn. They're concise videos that provide basic information for my 6 year old and 4 year old. They also provide worksheets you can download and print out for kids to fill out after viewing the video. I also love that they provide Spanish versions, which is great for my 1st grader.