Fall Leaves Plaque

Addie's Fall Plaque!

 

I made a half batch of salt dough, and cut it into circles.  Addie, Tana and Joey pressed leaf cookie cutters into the dough.  I baked the plaques at 225 degrees for 2 hours and then let them cool.  Addie and I mixed orange paint with sparkly gold glitter and then Addie, Ty and Joey painted their Fall plaques! 

Olympic Medals!

Olympic Medals! 
We made our own version of Olympic Medals.  I mixed up some salt dough and added blue and red glitter to the mixture.  Next, I rolled the dough into balls and flattened to make disc shapes for the medals.  Then I let the kids decorate their medals with gems, and sparkly stones!  I used a straw to make a hole in the top for the ribbon to go through.

Materials Needed:  Salt Dough recipe, yarn or ribbon, gems or sparkly stones, glitter

Shell Plaque

I found the original idea for this project in the August 2012 issue of Family Fun Magazine.   We used sea shells and rocks instead of pebbles
Addie's Plaque                                                                    Ty's Plaque

Directions: Mix up the salt dough - 3 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt, 1 1/4 cups of water (plus up to an additional 1/4 cup as needed). Use an electric mixer on medium speed to beat the ingredients together until a ball forms. If the mixture is still crumbly, add more water. Knead the dough until it's smooth. Divide the dough into three balls. Place each ball on a piece of foil and flatten it into a disk. Press shells (the magazine used pebbles) into the dough to create a design. Heat the oven to 275 degrees. Transfer the  and dough onto a baking sheet. Bake the plaques for 2 hours, then let them cool completely.
                                                               Connor's Plaque

Sprouting Seedling Cupcakes!

This adorable treat comes from the April 2012 issue of Family Fun Magazine. 

Directions:  Bake cupcakes in paper liners and frost them with chocolate frosting.  Crush chocolate cookies -(we used Chocolate filled Oreos) into crumbs and dip the frosted cupcakes into them.  Use a toothpick to make a hole int he center of each cupcake top.  To make the sprouting seedling, roll a green fruit chew candy ( we used green Airheads.  I ripped the Airhead into pieces.  The magazine used Jolly Rancher Fruit Chews) into a cylinder and taper the ends.  With a toothpick, make a line down the center and fold the cylinder in half and shape it to make a v shaped seedling.  Then insert it into the cupcake.  The magazine put the cupcakes, in clean 2 3/4" wide terra -cotta pots.  I didn't have any, so we didn't do this. 

Materials Needed:  cupcakes, chocolate frosting, chocolate cookies, cupcake liners, green chewy candies, toothpick

Turkey Cookies!

I saw this recipe for turkey cookies in a Taste of Home cookbook.  I modified the recipe by using malted milk balls instead of chocolate covered cherries!

Directions:  Attach malted milk balls - or chocolate covered cherries to fudge striped cookie with frosting.  Position the other cookie perpendicular to each base (the cookie with the malted milk ball on it).  Attach candy corn to the front of each malted milk ball with chocolate frosting.

Ingredients:  fudge striped cookies, chocolate frosting, malted milk balls or chocolate covered  cherries, candy corn

Marshmallow Witch!

Day 3 of the week - The theme this week is Halloween. The letter of the week is R, r and the number of the week is 16.

Project/Treat - Marshmallow Witches -My sister e-mailed me the the link to this recipe. She thought it would make a cute Halloween treat - and she was right. Connor and Lauren had a blast making these tasty witches - and they were easy too! Here is the link to the detailed recipe/directions. I changed the recipe by using Halloween Oreo Cookies (the orange and black ones) for the bottom part of the witches hat. We only used Hershey kisses for the top part of the hat(we eliminated the miniature peanut butter cup). They turned out great! I let Lauren and Connor assemble the whole treat all by themselves! They had a good amount of frosting on their hands and faces, but it was worth it. http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Marshmallow-Witches Materials Needed - 1/2 cup vanilla frosting, 36 miniature semisweet chocolate chips,12 large marshmallows, 1 drop green food coloring, 1/4 cup flaked coconut, 12 Halloween Oreo cookies, 12 milk chocolate kisses

Learning Activities - I have been using the workbook Everything for Early Learning Preschool workbook. (I purchased it at Wal-Mart)
Today's Activities:
The letter R,r - recognition, and beginning sound
The number 16 - recognition and writing
Number Review - recognition, counting, following directions, cutting and pasting

Aut-yum Leaves!

Day 3 of the week - The theme this week is Fall! The letter of the week is N, n and the number of the week is 12.
Project/Treat - Aut-yum Leaves - I found the recipe for this treat in the November 2008 issue of Family Fun Magazine. http://www.familyfun.go.com/ under Aut-yum Leaves. Directions - Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Whisk one egg with a tsp of water and set aside. On a floured surface, roll out a prepared pie crust. Use a large leaf-shaped cookie cutter to make as many dough leaf pairs as possible. (we made 3 pairs). For each pocket, spread about 4 tsp of chocolate peanut butter chips on a leaf, leaving a 1/2 - inch margin at the edge. Brush egg wash onto the edge, place a 2nd leaf on top, and press the edges to seal. Brush the top with egg wash and sprinkle it with sugar. Bake the leaves on a parchment-covered cookie sheet until their edges are just beginning to brown, about 12-14 minutes. We used a little leaf cookie cutter to make cinnamon sugar leaves out of the scraps. Ingredients/Materials - store-bought pie crust dough, chocolate peanut butter chips, flour, egg, water, sugar, basting brush

The chocolate-peanut butter filled leaves

Learning Activities - I have been using the workbook Everything for Early Learning Preschool workbook. (I purchased it at Wal-Mart)
Today's Activities:
The letter N, n - beginning sounds, following directions
The number 12 - recognition, writing, counting, following directions
Tracing Lines - fine motor skills, following directions

Scarecrow Cookies!

Day 3 of the week - The theme this week if Fall! The letter of the week is M, m and the number of the week is 11.
Project/Treat - Scarecrow Cookies - I saw these treats in the October 2005 issue of Family Fun magazine and I have been wanting to make them, but I wanted the kids to be able to actively participate in the treat making. Here are the directions. 1. Frost the top of each cookie 2. Cut a wafer cookie in half. Add a dollop of frosting to the top edge of the round cookie and stick a wafer half to it for a hat top. 3. Place a whole wafer cookie just below the hat top for a brim. 4. Press chocolate sprinkles into the frosting for hair - around the hat. 5. For the face, press on a candy corn nose, mini-M&M eyes, and a chocolate sprinkles stitched mouth. You can find the step-by-step instructions on the http://www.familyfun.go.com/ - search for Sweet Scarecrows. Ingredients - round cookies, white frosting, assorted sugar wafers, candy corn, mini M&M's, chocolate sprinkles. (I substituted ingredients - the original ingredients used mini chocolate chips - for the eyes and Bran cereal - for the hair)

One of Lauren's Cookies'

Connor and Lauren decorating the cookies

One of Connor's Cookies'

Learning Activities - I have been using the workbook Everything for Early Learning Preschool workbook. (I purchased it at Wal-Mart)
Today's Activities:
The letter M, m - beginning sound
The number 11 - counting, recognition, writing, following directions
Rhyming - following directions, recognition
The concept between - recognition, following directions, cutting and pasting