Make-It-Monday: Take-Along Car/Transportation Play Mat

Looking for something you can toss in the diaper bag and pull out in waiting rooms or restaurants to entertain your toddler?  I saw a neat idea for a Kids Car Game on Pinterest, and put my own little spin on it.  Here is what I came up with (I made 2 different sizes):

All rolled up and ready to go!

Ready to play.  There are 6 pockets on the larger mat and 5 pockets on the smaller mat.  I plan on putting cars in most of the pockets, and maybe some small yield, stop, or other traffic signs in a pocket.

TUTORIAL:
Sorry, there are no pictures, but it is a pretty easy project so hopefully you'll be able to figure it out.  You can use whatever dimensions you'd like, but I'll share with you the dimensions for the larger playmat just to give you an idea.  I will probably make a few more of these and will try to remember to take pictures to update this with.
Material you need:
* 15"x20" piece of material with cars and roads on it (I found this at Walmart).  You could sew on your own roads/landmarks using scraps or felt.
*15" x 20" piece of coordinating fabric
*15" x 20" felt or filler material
*15" x 5" piece of coordinating fabric for the pocket
*4 - 15" x 3" strips of coordinating fabric for the ties (this was probably a little long.... 11"x3" should be fine)

Directions:
*Fold each of the four strips in half lengthwise (right sides together).  Pin or iron and sew a 1/4" seam allowance around one short side and the long side (leaving the one short side open for turning).  Turn and press.  Repeat for all four strips.  You know have your four ties.
*Place cars fabric on top of felt (right side facing up).  Place the pocket material (wrong side down, right side facing up) on top of the cars fabric (lining it up at the bottom).  Pin everything in place.
*Mark vertical lines along the pocket material at even intervals (or as even as you can get it, accounting for seam allowances.  I used 2 3/4", 5 1/4", 7 3/4", 10 1/4", 12 3/4").  Sew along the vertical lines (going  through all three layers).
*Pin the ties where you want them along the top (open side towards the top, and the rest should hang down towards the pocket... it's the opposite of how you think it should go, but remember you are going to flip the material).  Baste the ties in place.
*Place the coordinating piece of fabric on top of the cars fabric (right sides together).
*Sew around outside, leaving room to turn.
*Turn and stitch (whip stitch, blind stitch, or even machine stitch if you wish) opening closed
*Stuff pockets with cars and trucks and enjoy!

Boats, Bubbles, and Driftwood

Sorry, no Frugal Friday today!

Grandparents and Great-Grandparents

 Boats, Bubbles, and Driftwood!

Tot School Tuesday - 3. 2. 1. Blast Off!!!

TRANSPORTATION

ROCKETS and SPACESHIPS

Bible Verse:

"Praise Him, sun and moon; praise Him, all you shining stars" ~Psalm148:3

We sang this verse to the tune "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" like this:

"Praise Him, praise Him, sun and moon

Praise Him, praise Him, all you shining stars"

Let's build a rocket ship and blast off!

 Final inspections and preparing for launch...

3-2-1- BLAST OFF!

Even "R" got in on the fun!

We used the Astronaut Preschool Pack from Homeschool Creations.

 ASTRONAUT PUDDING!

I got this idea from 365 Preschool Crafts & Activities.  We learned that Astronauts cannot eat food as we do on Earth because there is no gravity in space.  So we made some pudding in a ziploc bag and then cut a hole in the corner of the bag to eat it.

 When out tummies were full we painted galaxies with our pudding.

SPACE SAND

Space sand has hydrophobic properties just like the sand on Mars.  It never gets wet!!!





"M" loves to paint with her hands, so I came up with this idea.  We used the ASL Signs for the numbers 5 though 1 to countdown to our blast off (which is a whole bunch of handprints).

OUR VIDEOS AND BOOKS THIS WEEK

Tot School Tuesday - transportation review

This week ended up being an everything transportation week.  I did not plan for it to be that way, but "R" was sick the entire week.  I did not get to the library to get out the books that I wanted, and between doctors visits and lack of sleep I had no time to plan.  She is on the mend though and today we kicked off our Space Shuttle & Rockets portion of our Transportation Unit, so you can tune back in next week for pictures of that.

Here are a few pics of what we did do this week:

Built the Freight Train as we read Donald Crews' Freight Train book

More painting with cars

 

First time working with clothes pins!

Sample boat I made for her

"M" got a little frustrated at first and it took some time for her to figure it out, but I just let her play casually with them until she got it.

Coloring her boat.

We also spent a LOT of time outside this week enjoying the beautiful weather.

Tot School Tuesday - Boats

We continued our Transportation Unit but focused mainly on Boats this week. 

Bible Story: Jesus Calms the Storm

Matthew 8:23-27

Bible Verse: "Be strong and courageous.  Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." ~Joshua 1:9

Craft: Painting

 Boat and the Sea

To make these fun brushes, fold a few pages of newspaper in half, cut slits across the bottom of the paper, roll and fasten with tape or a rubber band.

For the boat, cut a milk carton in half.  Use a popsicle stick and half a piece of construction paper for the mast and sail (sorry, I failed to take a picture of the finished boat).

We painted a blue sea for out boat to sail on.  Told numerous bible stories using the boat and sea, including Jonah and the big fish, Jesus walks on water, and Jesus calms the sea.

PRINTABLES:

We continued to use the printables from Homeschool Creation's Transportation Pack.  We normally choose about three of the activities each day to focus on.

FUN:

I actually still had this puzzle away in the closet and "M" reminded me that we had it and asked me to get it out.  We watched the cars go round and round for hours.  "R" even joined in on the fun!

FOOD: BANANA BOATS

This was a lot of fun and very tasty!  Great for fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination as well!

Peel a banana and slice it lengthwise (Mommy did the slicing).

Spread yogurt and flax (or any toppings you want).

We then added some blueberries for people.  Mmmmm....

 

WATER TABLE:

We used a giant roasting pan as our water table.  We constructed a boat using a paper plate, a blob of playdough, a popsicle stick, and a piece of construction paper.  We experimented with how many beans the boat could hold before it sank, what happened when you blow on the mast or make ripples in the water, and more!  At clean-up time we practiced using the sponge to wring water into a bowl. 

INTERACTIVE BIBLE STORY:

We filled up the jacuzzi tub and used a bin to represent a boat.  When the storm came up we turned on the jets which made the "boat" thrash about.  But when Jesus commanded the waves and the wind to calm, we turned the jets off and instantly it calmed.

SENSORY BIN:

"M" did a lot of creative play with her sensory bin.  Here she is making a "choo-choo" out of the black beans.

NUMBERS:

Mommy finally found time to do some sewing and crafted these numbers using the pattern downloaded from .  I had a lot of fun making these, and "M" had a lot of fun playing with them.  She watched the DVD Meet the Numbers and held up the corresponding quilted number as she watched.

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