we need to interrupt service

I am on hiatus for the week, but don't you worry next Wednesday I will be picking up where I left off!

Sorry to leave you hanging without notice.  My little sister is finally getting married and we are flying to Cali to party!  Maybe I will post a picture of her, maybe I will post a Boredom Buster that I whip out like Macguyver or is it McGruber? at the wedding...who knows?

Have a depressing week without me...I know I am the only one on your blog list who consistently blogs and you just have to check! Haha Just kidding.

Take this time away from me to make a batch of cookies, then send me some! :)

Healthy Kids Activities - Taste #2

We had a SALTY lunch!

Bugles, Pretzels, Peanuts, Popcorn, Ramen and Buttery Toast!

Delicious right?

We rated everything on a Salty scale and it was unanimous that the Ramen was the saltiest.  Must be that delicious MSG! Hehehe.

Healthy Kids Activities - Taste #1

Stick your tongue out and look at it in the mirror. Have you ever noticed all the tiny bumps that it is covered in? These are called taste buds and they tell you whether your food is sour, sweet, salty or bitter.

That’s because there are taste buds in different parts of your tongue that can understand all the different tastes. But, that’s not the only job that your tongue does. It also helps us to form words, and is therefore a very important organ in helping us to speak.

I printed out this chart HERE
Then we talked about the different tastes..Salty Sour, Sweet and Bitter.  Since they didn't know what bitter meant that is where we started out!


Bitter.  This one was particularly fun for me.


I grabbed 2 squares of baking chocolate. One unsweetened, one semi-sweet.


I put them on the table and asked the kids what they were.  Of course they knew it was chocolate.

Then we talked about what bitter is, and where it is located on the tongue.  They didn't care they just wanted chocolate, so I chopped it up a bit and let them have at it because they thought they knew it all!

Heh heh heh.

Then it hit them!

Then they finished the semi sweet, hahaha.

Healthy Kids Activities - Eyes #3

We finished up our eye unit with a silly snack.  I peeled some grapes and told the girls we were eating eyes for snack.

L didn't believe me and B laughed and laughed.  I had them feel the grapes and asked them if they were wet like our eyes.  They said yes.

Then we bit them in half and talked about how grapes and eyes are the same.  Look the inside has a circle like the pupil...etc.

Then they devoured about 2 cups of grapes. Peeled and unpeeled.  It was fun.

Healthy Kids Activities - Eyes #2

Today we talked more about the eye and how it works.
The little dark circle in the center of each of your eyes lets light in. It is called a pupil. If you are in a dark place where no lights at all are on, can you see anything? No, you can't because our eyes need light to be able to see! Once the light goes in, it hits a part inside at the back of your eye that is very sensitive to light. This part is called the retina. When light touches the retina, it makes an upside-down picture of whatever you are looking at. A large nerve called the optic nerve carries the image to your brain where it gets turned around so that you see it the right way instead of upside-down!

Then we talked about how some people who can't see are called blind.  What does that mean?

How do they read?
Then I went to THIS site and printed the Braille Alphabet.
To make the letters raised like Braille, put a drop of white glue over each black dot. When the glue is dry you will be able to feel the raised dots with your fingers. We also turned it upside down and poked holes so the raised parts were on the top.

Then we went to Old Chicago and asked to see the Braille Menu and we had the kids guess what each item was.

It taught them that even though we look alike all of us are very different inside. There was a girl there in a wheelchair and L asked me if she had broken legs, we then talked about how we need to learn about handicaps! :)

Healthy Kids Activities - Eyes #1

We switched over to Eyes!

We talked about eyes.  We read The Eyes Have It by Melissa Stewart, Sight by Annalise Bekkering, and Eyes by Shannon Caster. There were lots more at the Library but these were the ones I chose.

My daughter B was so happy to have her friends A and N over again!

Then we made a project that I got from another book that I can't post, but if you email me I can send it to you! valeriewitte@yahoo.com

A knew that her eyes were Blue and B's were brown.  They colored and colored and colored.

N, A's twin was into it for a bit.

We talked about all of the things our eyes can see. Like Flowers and Trees and stuff like that.

Then we put them on!

Everyone seemed to like the project!

You should do it too!

Healthy Kids Activities - Ears #2

Today we talked about sounds and how our ears and brain determine if they are loud or soft. 

I made up a Sound Scavenger Hunt and then we went for a walk outside and then hunted in the house for the rest of the items.  The kids had a blast.

HERE is our list if you want to do this too

Since I don't own clipboards, I taped their sheets to books.

A little video.

The dogs scared my little one.

We went everywhere to look and listen to things around us.

It was a good chunk of our day.

Healthy Kids Activities - Ears #1

So this week is going to be about ears and eyes.  I am combining the 2 so I can move on to better stuff next week.  So it will be brief but good! :)

You need playdoh for this activity.  You also should print this Diagram on the EAR HERE.

We stamped everyone's ears with playdoh then we discussed what each part of the ear does.

The Books we are reading are from the Library.  We liked...Hearing by Sharon Gordon, The Ear Book by Al Perkins, and My Ears by Lloyd G. Douglas. I am sure there are more out there, these are just the ones I picked up.

Outer Ear - These are the bits we can see, and also the ear canal. They act like a funnel to catch sound waves and direct them to the ear drum.

(A canal is a pathway for water, but the ear canal is a pathway for sound)

Middle Ear - This is a small air-filled space on the inside of the eardrum.

There are 3 tiny bones called ossicles in this part.

They are called the hammer, anvil and stirrup (because that is what they look like).

When the sound waves move the eardrum, these bones move and pass on the vibration to the very much smaller oval shaped window of the cochlea (the bit that looks like a shell). The hammer is touching the ear drum so it shakes when the sound comes through, and the movement goes right through the anvil to the stirrup, which is touching the cochlea.

Because of the difference in size between the eardrum and the oval window, the middle ear is very good at changing vibrations in the outside air into vibrations in the watery fluid inside the cochlea (you can tell, if you put your head under the sea, pool or bath water, that sound does not usually pass very easily from air to water).

Inner Ear -The cochlea has fluid in it, which moves and bends hairs on the outside of cells. There are about 17,000 hair cells in each ear, so they really are tiny. They are not like the hair on your head

Some of these hair cells (the 'inner hair cells') create an electrical impulse(signal), which is sent along the auditory nerve to the brain. Most of them (the 'outer' ones), however, are like tiny muscle cells, which react to the vibrations in the fluid by trembling and shaking; in this way they work like high quality amplifiers and make the vibrations much stronger and clearer for the smaller number of inner hair cells.

The brain then works out what you are hearing.

	The semi-circular canals in your inner ear contain fluid too.
	They send messages to your brain to help you keep your balance when you move.

(all of this information is from...Children and Womens health services.

Healthy Kids Activities - Teeth #5

No pictures today just awesome stuff.

Today I let me kids play a game on the computer all about teeth.

HERE IT IS

There is a lot of cool stuff on it about teeth!

We also ate snacks that were good for our teeth, like apples and cheese and made a little feast of it.

We went over the teeth one more time I like THIS chart.

Then I taught them 2 silly songs about teeth.

Here they are!

Ahem. Sorry I needed to clear my throat.

Sing to "Do Your Ears Hang Low!"

Are your teeth clean and white?

Do you brush them every night?

Do you brush them in the morning?

Do you brush them right?

Do you brush them side to side?

Are your teeth clean and white?

Do you floss them good

To remove the bits of food?

Do you floss them every day?

Like you know you should?

Do you take good care of

The teeth that are there?

Do you floss them good?


I made up silly hand gestures for this one.

and one more for good measure...



Sing to "Row, Row Row your Boat"


Brush, brush, brush your teeth.
At least two times a day.
Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning,
Fighting tooth decay.
Floss, floss,floss your teeth.
Every single day.
Gently, gently, gently,gently,
Whisking Plaque away.
Rinse, rinse, rinse your teeth
Every single day.
Swishing, swishing, swishing, swishing,
Fighting tooth decay.


This week was fun, any suggestions for the following weeks?

Healthy Kids Activities - Teeth #4

Its a snack day! 

You need: A Red Apple, Peanut Butter and Marshmallows.

Can you guess where this is going?

A mouthful of teeth! Hahaha.

Be careful a lot of laughter will result in this snack.

Cut the apples and let them slather peanut butter over the apples, top with marshmallow teeth!

My 14 month old with 2 bottom teeth would not be left out of this activity!

Watch out, apple dipping in the peanut butter will occur! Lucky for me my kids have their own peanut butter jar in the house! :)

Healthy Kids Activities - Teeth #3

Today was all about the why.

***************************************************************

Why are teeth important?

Teeth bite and chew food so that it is small enough to be swallowed.

Teeth help you to form words so that you can speak properly.

Your first teeth are called deciduous teeth (dee-sid-you-us)
	They are called deciduous because like the leaves of a deciduous tree you lose them.
	You have 20 deciduous teeth and they start growing into your mouth from about 6 months of age.
	All 20 teeth have grown into your mouth by about two and a half years of age.
	From about 6 years of age until 12 years of age you start to lose them, BUT that doesn't mean you don't have to look after them.
	They are there to keep a space for your second lot of teeth (like saving a seat for someone – if they don't save the place the second teeth can't fit very well!). Your second teeth are called permanent teeth You will have 32 permanent teeth. They are called permanent teeth because if you look after them you can have them for all of your life. They begin growing through your gums from about 6 years and all 32 have finished growing into your mouth by about 18 – 25 years. The permanent teeth push out your deciduous teeth as they grow into your mouth. ******************************************************** Now to our Activity!  Different teeth do different jobs. Incisors (in-si-zors) are for cutting. Canines (cay-nines) are for tearing. Molars and pre-molars (say mow-lers) grind up food until it's small enough to swallow. Each type of tooth has a special shape so that it can do its job. Print THIS chart I drew what I thought to be each shape of the tooth. Then we made a chart and counted how many of each tooth we all had. This took about 10 minutes because they had mirrors and were really making sure thats what was in their mouth. Then you need to get an orange. Peel it and put one slice into each bag.  I have 2 kids so each kid got 3 slices, so 3 bags each. Give them a plastic spoon and tell them that is their teeth. so... Inscisor Cuts, so cut the orange with the "tooth" spoon. Next up Canine tears, so tear with "tooth" spoon or hands on the next bag. Then the Molar, which grinds and mashes, so use the "tooth" spoon to do it with the next bag. We were very into this activity. when we were done, we tried to eat orange slices only using our back teeth, then front teeth, then canines. Be careful, lots of juice drips from their mouths as they laugh from not being able to do it!  Hehehehe.

Healthy Kids Activities - Teeth #2

Today before we get into what types of teeth there are (that is for tomorrow) we talked about how many teeth we have.  I explained how many there when we are little, and when they fall out how many permenant teeth there will be.  

I let the kids count my teeth, and it tickled but they thought it was so cool.

Then we played a game that involved counting and teeth! :) Well marshmallow teeth :)

Here is the game its called SET OF TEETH

Print your own game and play it with your kids. I would say its for 2 and up. You have to know how to count so if you have an incredibly advanced 1 year old, go ahead and try it!

You need a copy of the game for each player, a die, and marshmallows.

The number you roll is the number of marshies you put on the circle.

If you knew me you would know that my son is more like me and my daughter is like no one else...notice the marshmallow placement.

The first to 32 teeth wins!

Then count how many you can fit into your mouth at one time. 

This step is optional.