Toddler STEAM: Red, White and Pink

Valentine's Day is over, but the color scheme works so well for a lot of things - and I have been too lazy to take the decorations out to the shed. So, red, white and ink STEAM it is! Fortunately, just about any STEAM project can be made to fit a color scheme! 

Our messiest centers are always next to the sink. We now have these handy-dandy tablecloths to make clean-up easier, too! I put them on our Amazon wish list a while back, and two patrons have each purchased one so far. This one just arrived yesterday, in perfect timing! You can find there at this link (I am not an affiliate and do not get anything if you buy one!)

Fizzing Hearts

Good old baking soda and vinegar takes an artistic turn when you add liquid watercolors. I prefer liquid watercolors to food coloring, because it is less likely to stain, but I use both. Not pictured: old adult-sized t-shirts to slip on over kids' clothes first.

Of course, while this young lady was very precise, many kids just poured on the liquid. No big deal to dump the trays, but that created a traffic jam at the sink. 

Next time I will put out a dump bucket and rags to dry with in the other direction.

Sweetheart Slime

Slime is always a hit! I add red food coloring to the water from the start, for less mess (if there is such a thing as less mess when it comes to making slime).

The table didn't stay that clean for long! Neither did the chairs. Or the floor...

I usually mix up some Borax and water in a cup for the stubborn ones that just won't gel, and keep it out of kids' reach. A little drop of that, and everything starts setting up nicely!

We Love Bubbles

Every time we use bubbles I see this guy from Finding Nemo:

Even before Covid, I made sure everyone had their own straw, because: ew. 

You might station a trash can nearby just to make sure they don't get picked up and reused.

MY BUBBLES!

Rolling Along

You did remember to save all those tubes from your wrapping paper, right?

Of course any sort of ball works, but I had these pearls for some as-yet-undetermined-purpose and thought they were just special enough to go with Valentine's Day.

I Ran Out of Cute Names Balance Center

Anything with candy is going to be a hit! For this one you just need two kind that have different weights. Of course, you'll want to watch what goes into mouths - anything with tiny pieces I make sure to put on tables, so it isn't automatically in baby reach.

Does having the same number (ooh, counting practice!) on each side balance it out? Why do you think that is? How many red hots do you need to balance out one hard candy? (ratios and fractions at 3 years old!)

Tower Time

Simplest center ever. We use these tiny cups throughout the year to hold small craft items like sequins or googly eyes. Great investment.

I Suppose I Could at Least Have Called it Pretty Patterns or Something

Pony beads are always a hit (parents seem to like to play here, too!) They do go everywhere, which means keeping an eye out and scooping them up before the crawlers do.

Many kids just liked stacking them on the skewers, which was fine - still getting that fine motor practice in!

Sweetheart Sort

Again, very simple center, just grab everything red, white or pink you see in your craft stash. Sorting and classifying are huge in both math and science, and there are so many ways to build vocabulary here!

We had a lot of fun, and those tablecloths really helped with clean-up! What are your favorite crafts or activities to do with Valentine's Day?

Toddler STEAM - Be My Valentine!

Our first Toddler STEAM of the year was all about the pink and red!

Fizzing Hearts

Miss Cheryl cut out 80 million white paper hearts for us. Kids were instructed to sprinkle some baking soda on the with the spoon, then add a drop of colored vinegar with a pipette. What kid doesn't enjoy that combination?! 

What happens if you add another color and let it mix? I had another newspaper-covered table available for drying, so kids could take their creations home.

Sweet Sorting

In which Miss Ami gets to show off her chopsticks skills! 

I really need to start video taping. Right after I snapped this, she got it! She picked one up with the chopsticks and dropped it in the right bowl!

We do this program twice in a week, so I used a different bag for each day. Kids will inevitable eat a few, and this way I knew they had at least not been handled prior to that session. In a couple weeks they will be used by the teens and tweens for a craft project, so no waste!

Patterns in Pink

And purple, red, and white. 

Heart Homes

Engineering, talking about what types of homes animals need, and of course fine motor skills. 

The kangaroo looks confused.

Crowns are cool, too!

I like how we are all pretending we don't see that lion staring at us.

Again, a new bag of marshmallows for each session.

Cup Stacking

I love these tiny cups I grabbed at Walmart - perfect for portioning out craft materials as well as STEAM projects!

The grown-ups liked this one, too!

Bubbles!

This was a last-minute addition, after I found the sets of cookie cutters for just 98 cents at Walmart. At first I thought about clay, but this was much faster to throw together. Centered on a couple big rugs to hopefully eliminate slippery floors. You can use the straws to blow bubbles inside the hearts, or pick the hearts up and blow bubbles through them (why doesn't the bubble come out in a heart shape? Hmm...)

Pink Pool

Sliced up pool noodles to string or stack

or sit in!

Red, White and Pink Rice Bin

In the pool to keep it from scattering (who am I kidding?!). We were using it for a craft project last week, and all my buddy Ian wanted to do was sift through it, so I promised him we would play with it this week! Somehow I did not get any pictures of kids playing with this center, but believe me, everyone hit it at least once. Of course some scattered, but a quick pass with the vacuum got it up.

Thanks for coming and playing with us, everyone!

Toddler STEAM - all things pink and red!

Valentine's Day a-cometh, and just the color selection alone lent itself nicely to some STEAM activities! This week was a particularly messy one, so in addition to having big t-shirts available to put over clothing, I had some plastic food handling gloves. As parents know, it doesn't matter how washable something says it is, red NEVER comes out.

As always, I had the more baby-safe things on the floor:

Rice bins are always good for lots of time sifting and pouring. This was 20 lbs of rice colored with red food coloring.

A few exploration questions to get things going:

But they really didn't need it.

FYI, the rice is actually easier to vacuum off a rug than it is to sweep off the floor, because once it hits the tile it goes EVERYWHERE.

I sliced up a million pool noodles last year, and they all happened to be pink!

Stack them, string them, balance them on your head. You can even toss them at each other with no real repercussions.

The weekend before was Sheridan's Nutcracker birthday party, so I brought the leftover sugarplum play clay:

On top of a vinyl tablecloth and WELL away from the carpet. This was everyone's first stop!

Up on the tables it got messy fast!

fabric softener, dish soap, oil, corn syrup, water, and hair gel, to make your own

The food coloring wouldn't even mix into the oil, so there was our first science lesson! Vinyl tablecloth, plastic under the table, t-shirts and plastic gloves. I cut the bottoms off empty soda and juice bottles for the mixing. The dish soap was a bad choice on my part, as it cut through the oil and made everything mix nicely. They still had fun!

A little tamer:

I just rummaged through the storage room and prize box, and found plenty of pink and red in no time at all.

Back to the messy:

We need more measuring cups! For now I just marked styrofoam cups at approximately the half cup line. Bonus: I can just toss them when it's done.

It's funny how some don't like to get their fingers in it, and others go right to town.

Last but not least, good old coffee filter art - but cut into heart shapes first!

So pretty!

Between the dough and the love potion, the room smelled REALLY good by the time we were done! Happy Valentine's Day, and Happy Mess Making!

Where My Heart Is

I love you all! Happy Valentine's Day!