K-cups/Coffee related concoctions and Water Beads.

I saw a post from a page I follow on Facebook. The page is called Happy Hooligans, and this is the post I saw. I asked the always helpful parents in my class if they would save their K-cups, and they sure did deliver!

When I counted approximately  50 or so cups, I emailed and said that I have plenty of cups now! The synagogue also uses a Keurig and they're saving their cups for me too, so we're set! It took me about 45 minutes to go thorough each cup and extract the coffee; The Red Room smelled like a coffee house! My hands smelled like caffeine for hours! I got SO much coffee from the cups! 

The next day, I took the coffee that I had kept in the refrigerator over night and made Coffee Play dough using two different recipes. The first one was:
2 cups used coffee grounds
1 and 1/2 cups cornmeal
1/2 cup salt
water
flour
Mix all ingredients until pliable. Add water, flour as needed to achieve a working consistency.

That recipe made for a muddy play dough that crumbled easily and was more like sandy dough than play dough. The kids still thoroughly enjoyed using it, but the next recipe was much more effective at being play dough and not getting grounds on the children's hands.

• 2 cups of flour
• 1 cup of salt
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons of cream of tartar
• 1/2 cup ground coffee  
• 1 1/2 cups boiling water

• Mix well and voila, Coffee Play Dough!

The coffee play dough was great as a table top activity. The first K-cup sensory table activity we did was simply playing with the cups themselves. 

Another fun use for used coffee grounds is Coffee Sand. For this, I place the coffee grounds on a baking sheet that's lined with foil. I bake at 200 degrees for about an hour. Next I mix it with equal parts coffee grounds, corn meal and salt. We put it in the sensory table. It's so soft, but also feels like sand. As you can imagine, it smells incredible! 

We used water beads the next day. We put them in and let them sit in the water over night. Then we let the children explore them for about 30 minutes with just their hands. When it was obvious that they were just aiming to knock the beads on the floor, we took out the K-cups and let the children measure, pour, sort and of course, squish the water beads. 

We have the water beads in the table sitting over the weekend. On Monday, we will add shaving cream to the water beads to let the children explore two different textures. 

xoxo,

GG

Lemon Play Dough and Bells!

When I started this blog, it was intended to be a place to share what I do to tie my sensory bin to the Jewish calendar. Since then, I've started a facebook page, sold a few of the tables that my husband and I make, and sent 4 batches of play dough to my college best friend's mother for her surrogate grandchildren.

It's time to get back to what I set out to do.

For Sukkot this year, I made several batches of Lemon Play dough to smell like the etrog. I used the same recipe as I used to make the apple pie spice play dough. I experimented a bit between lemon extract and lemon oil. The lemon oil worked best, lemon extract has alcohol in it, and therefore dried the dough out and turned it crumbly.


To begin Simhat Torah I showed my  children the different parts of the Torah. When we got to the Rimunim, the bells at the top of the Torah, I was inspired. Therefore I  asked my director and assistant director to order some "jingle bells" from Amazon for us. We put them in the sensory table the kids had a blast! They shook their hands in the table so the metal hit different sides and crevices of the table and made different tones and sounds. Some kids gathered the bells in their hands and shook them to their ears to hear the sound. Others found it too loud, and that was okay too. Turns out, all that child needed was an oppurtunity to play with the bells by himself so he could control the sounds being made.

Xoxo,
GG

Gelatin Foam

 

I use Pinterest often. It has actually made me a better teacher and cook! I saw a sensory item the other day called "jelly foam" written by someone in England. I decided, instead of buying Jell-O to use one of the many packages of gelatin that I have in my cabinet. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will be 100% honest and tell you that I measured NOTHING. We were having a sensitive to sounds day in our class and since this experience calls for a blender, I did it with one child inside who I know isn’t afraid of the sound. My coteacher and our floater had the rest of the children up in music and since the child I was with was afraid of the piano and crying is contagious at this early time in the school year, we left.  I put in, what I’m guessing is about ½ a cup of dawn dish soap, a cup and a ½ of water with some liquid water color in it (heated up in the microwave) and a ½ of a packet of gelatin. I put it in the blender for about a minute and then poured it into the sensory table.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The foam looked so awesome. It was beautiful to pour into the table.  Once the kids started playing with it thought, it just liquefied. The photos on pinterest did not indicate that it would liquefy. Next time, I will follow the exact recipe, something that isn’t easy for me! Don’t get me wrong, the kids had a blast! We had them strip down into diapers and just go to town. Some kids rubbed the foam on their arms while others rubbed it on their bellies and backs as well. I had to stop one sensory enthusiast from putting the foam down her diaper. She said “but I’m just cleaning my tush!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

And there you have it!

Xoxo,

GG