Glass Gem Compilation

Glass gems have been a staple in our playrooms since our children were 6 months old.  We love how one "toy" can become so many different things.  Below, you can see some ways that we have explored them.  

Glass gems can be purchased at any craft store, Dollar Tree, Walmart, Target, etc.
**They present a choking hazard and should only be used with young children under close supervision.**

Most of these pictures have a blog post with more detailed information.  To see the entire post, click on the links below the pictures.  

Creative Play

Use gems with our letter/number templates.
LETTER/NUMBER TEMPLATES

Enlightening Math
ENLIGHTENING MATH

Sorting

Sensory Bin
SENSORY BINS

Illuminated Ornaments
ILLUMINATED ORNAMENTS

Color Recognition

Creative Play on the Light Panel

Great Big Giant Tree of Light
TREE OF LIGHT

Glass gems on a mirror.


Framed mirrors can be purchased at Dollar Tree.  

Glass Sculptures
GLASS SCULPTURES

Window Art
WINDOW ART

Glass Gems on clear plates. 

Clear plates can be purchased at Dollar Tree in a pack of 8.
Great for classrooms!  

Glass Pumpkin
GLASS PUMPKIN

Exploring Spacial Patterns
EXPLORING SPATIAL PATTERNS

Exploring Spacial Patterns on the Light Panel

Lately my son sees letters, numbers, designs, and patterns in everything from the clouds in the sky to the pine cones on the ground.  I love seeing the world through his eyes.  I wanted to offer him an open ended invitation to explore designs, symmetry, spacial patterns, etc that I once used in my classroom.  I used google images to search for random designs, and then printed those designs onto TRANSPARENCY SHEETS.  I set up the invitation and it was a bigger hit than I anticipated.  He was very engaged in this for almost an hour....and even asked me to print more designs (which I let him choose).

The Invitation

The "zig-zag" was his favorite.

LOVE!!

"Mommy, I made a zebra."

- AK (MESE, MECD)

Invitation in Green

This summer we struggled to maintain enjoyed the benefits of a bountiful garden. We had more summer squash than we knew what to do with, so we gave a lot away and made a lot of squash muffins (think "zucchini muffins" but with squash...yes, it works, but it's not the same). We also had a lot of okra - yum! And we soon discovered that it was better to pick small okra in the morning because by evening they were too tough to eat (seriously, they grew THAT fast). Anyway, one day we had some giant okra, so I decided to create an invitation in green. We'd already done the Yellow Invitation using the squash so it made sense - why not?!

 I set up an invitation on the light table after collecting a number of green tools for measuring, cutting, writing, and general exploration. Lately Addi shows interest in having a variety of collected items to create with, so I really did include a a lot (last year this many items would have overwhelmed her, so it's important to research your child's individual interests and needs when setting up an invitation).



Addi immediately took the lid off the homemade light table and brought it to the ground along with all the supplies; she always knows just how she wants to play, lol. Then she set to work pouring the paint into the translucent cups.  She noticed the cups with paint were now opaque and explored how to completely cover all the cups...the green popsicle sticks worked well.

"I can see through these, but not that one. Can you help me? Oh, I got it."

This summer her interest in letters grew, so I try to include them in most invitations. I didn't know how she would use them in her work; she started off by painting around them while singing a song from one of her favorite books (Chicka Chicka Boom Boom).

"Weeee said D to E F G I'll beat you to the top of the coconut tree."
"K is out of bed & this is what she said, dare double dare you can't catch me..."

And she painted her hand, around her hand, and made a hand print.



"I'm painting my fingers, not your fingers. Is that cool?"

Luckily there was quite a lot of paint on the ground because Addi LOVES to spray and wipe up...well, she loves to spray. And she likes knowing she can get her own cleaning cloths out of the closet.

I make my own cleaning products, so she's welcome to spray away!

Researching our children's interests can be a fun challenge as long as we don't set ourselves (or our children) up for failure. There are several ways to do this:

• Does your child work more deeply with a few items or many?
• How does lighting affect his/her play?
• Include your child's favorite colors
• Include an object your child visits often (lion, letters, etc.)
• Consider a theme: color, animal, letter, medium (art, sand, water, etc.)
• Give yourself a pep-talk before setting up a potentially mess-making invitation, "This is going to be messy and fun. The more mess the more learning. I will ignore the mess until after dinner if I have to, even until after bedtime." If you start to panic, focus on the sheer joy on your child's face!
• Keep your sense of humor and playfulness.
• Follow their lead: if they want you to play you can whisper, "what should I do?" Otherwise you can simply enjoy the show.
• Jot down their reactions and responses. Their facial expressions and words can bring new and deeper meaning for everyone.
• Let go of how you want the materials to be used and instead notice how your child chooses to use them - become curious! "Why did he paint the cup rather than the paper? Interesting: she took apart the light table before using the other materials! I wonder why she included the horse?"

Raising children is full of magical moments when we are able find within ourselves the time and space to watch and listen. I hope you'll find some today...or tomorrow!

Jack-o-Lantern on the Light Panel

My son really enjoyed the Magnetic Jack-o-Lantern invitation I created for him a few weeks ago.  Today I created a similar invitation for him on the light panel.  While he already know shapes and colors, this would be a fun opportunity to not only create funny faces, but also talk about colors and shapes.  He's never limited to the materials I present to him.

MATERIALS:

TRANSPARENCY SHEETS

MOSAIC TILES

Print a picture of a pumpkin onto the transparency sheet - done. 

(I just used clip art)

THE INVITATION

Adding ears

- AK (MESE, MECD)

Imaginary Adventures (with an overhead projector)

My son loves going on imaginary adventures - particularly on airplanes and boats.  It usually just involves my bed or his bed....and some pillows.  He prefers to just imagine things rather than bring objects into his play, which I love.  Yesterday we went on a trip that looked something like this:

We went to Oshinatu, where we sat on a nest of eggs and watched in awe as 4 baby ducks and 1 baby turtle were born. Their names were Stainer, Rainer, Mainer, Crainer, and Scrainer. The ducks sat and kissed my arms. Just as they were about to take their first swim, we noticed there were alligators in the water.........

Today I thought I would help him delve deeper into his imaginative play.  I printed some pictures onto transparency sheets using my LASER printer.  This did not work with my ink jet printer when I tried it a few months ago, but you can take pictures to places like Kinkos and have them print them on transparencies for you....and I think there may be transparency sheets specifically for ink jet printers.  I would love to make these available to everyone, but that would be A LOT of ink and A LOT of postage for me.  

We have an overhead projector that I purchased from Craigslist for $30 a few years ago.  I simply projected the pics onto a white sheet hung on the wall and let the fun begin.  This was a HUGE, HUGE hit!!  I think the airplane was by far his favorite.

Wanna play in the forest??

An invitation to explore in an imaginary forest.

An invitation to sail on the ocean.

The "boat" and accessories.

Ocean Adventure

The box boat tore, so he made a boat with his blocks.

Invitation to FLY!!

His "controls"

He LOVED this one!!

The controls are something he made back in April.  Today he added an apple slicer to steer.  Love it!!

Controls - picture from April, 2012

CLICK HERE

for a video of him "flying" today.

MORE FUN....

Fly to - and walk on - the moon.

Swim (take a bath) with dolphins.

The possibilities are endless with this.  I also have a construction site picture and an under the sea picture for future play.

For more projector play, click HERE.


-AK (MESE, MECD)

Suminagashi

We saw this extremely cool marbling technique over at The Artful Parent, but she credits the original post back to Inner Child Fun, so we would be remiss not to link it to her as well.  When we saw it, both RL and I knew it was something we wanted to offer to our children.  RL bought two marbling kits and she was kind enough to let me have one of them.  Something I really like about the kit is that a little ink goes a long way.....something that I didn't like about the kit is that it says "for children ages 6 and up".  HA!  Another gross underestimation of the abilities of toddlers.  ;) 

My son, who is typically not a huge fan of artsy activities.....LOVED THIS!!  He thought it was "so cool" when the paint brush touched the water and the colors dispersed, and the prints were "fantastic".  We did this on the light panel because it made the colors easier to see.  We also gently blew the colors around to swirl them as classical music was playing in the background....that really got us into a swirly, whimsical kind of mood.  LOL

Dabbing on the ink with a paintbrush

Putting card stock paper on the surface of the water to absorb the inks

SO COOL!

Pretty!

I think he liked this activity.

We've done this activity several times since we first purchased the inks.  I'm sure this will be a long standing favorite in our house.  Both my girls (3.5 years and 2.5 years) loved this as well.  

We took a little bit of a different approach.  I asked my girls if they wanted to drip the ink on out of the bottle or use a paint brush.  The decided to squeeze it right out of the bottle.  After seeing the way my 2.5 year old uses food coloring my first thought was "She is going to squeeze that until there is nothing left!"  I explained beforehand that she only needed a drop or two of each color to create her design and it was never an issue.  

Directions will come in the box.  You basically fill your container up with about 2 inches of water and start creating!  These little white circles came with the ink set.  You drop the ink on the paper and it disperses in the water.

Above is my 2.5 year old.  She loved chasing the little paper circle around to drip her ink on.  

The design

Placing the paper on.

"Look!!  I made a print.  Do you see all the colors?" - 3.5 years

"Oh, I love the way you mixed orange and blue.  The orange goes all the way around the blue.  That's cool."  - 3.5 years

Here my oldest is gently blowing on the ink.  

After numerous attempts at this I found it is best to place your prints between two pieces of paper towels and lay something heavier on top.  We did this while they were still wet and let them sit over night.  The first time we did this we just let them sit out and the edges curled up quite a bit.  

Here are our finished prints.  The top print is done with watercolor paper and the bottom with card stock.  They give you different effects.  

We plan to cut these to note card size and use them as thank you cards after my oldest daughter's art party.  

The kits can be purchased HERE.