Pink Tutu Monday

We have gotten out of the habit of having calendar time every morning but now that 7 is able to sit up and play she can join us. Yesterday morning I put her in the sit and stand and we sang all of our songs, counted how many days we've had so far in the month of January, read the color pattern, guessed what color we would use tomorrow and examined the weather. 

5 was having a tough morning and I've learned that is often a signal that her sensory needs are not being met. She likes squeezy, squishy things. I think I've mentioned the unblown (is that a word?) balloons I have that are filled with rice, or playdough, or coffee beans, or flour. This little darling often carries one around and plays with it when she needs to. Over the holidays my daughter in law brought these wonderful water beads to my house and left some with us. I used them in the classroom but had not thought to have them here. I bought the ones for school on Amazon. They are often used in floral arrangements. One of the coolest things about them is that they go from hard beads the size of cupcake sprinkles to these soft, gooey, squishy beads by just adding warm water and letting them sit. If you let them dry out, in a couple of days they will shrink back to their original size. 5 loves them and playing with them for a while soothed her little soul. 

Did I mention that it was Pink Tutu Monday? The girls both have them (in all honesty, all four of my granddaughters have them, in many colors) so why not? This dollhouse has been played with every day since my husband built it from scraps of wood he had in the basement. I have furnished it with small boxes and box lids for beds, a rectangular box for a bath tub and plastic furniture I've found at second hand stores and eBay. I found people those same places. I think some of the dollhouse people were put into time out yesterday so the water beads were not a perfect cure. You have to love 5's outfit...diaper, tutu, T-Rex headband. She knows it is suppose to be teeth down but would rather turn it upside down and have it be a crown with eyes. 

Our dinosaur fun not only included the headband, but also color sorting the Mother Goose Time counting manipulatives from day 3, hatching the eggs, and sorting the babies. Day 11 activities had directions for making dissolvable dinosaur eggs around the babies but 5 does that several mornings a week in her dinosaur oatmeal so we made up our own game.