M might look like a mess

M might look like a mess... but then, we're talking about young children and learning, so there's a probably a lot of getting messy!  Not to worry, I have ideas for varying degrees of mess and mud, and you can always modify or skip things that don't appeal to you.

Let's start with mixing and measuring to make muffins - which combines math, life skills, motor skills and everyone's favorite - eating! My preschool kiddos and their parents love my pumpkin gingerbread muffins, and you'll love that they're moist, tasty and full to the brim with healthy pumpkin!  You can find the recipe here, along with a couple of other recipes that my students always asked for.

If your child wants to continue exploring the muffin theme, consider making a sensory bin.  For mine I put dried beans in a tub, added some empty spice and vanilla containers (they still smell marvellous!) and some plastic cookware and food, and the children had a fine old time!

Another fun cooking activity for letter M is to make "mud" for a treat.  Simply mix up chocolate pudding, crush chocolate cookies, then serve the pudding topped with the crushed cookies.  Mmmmm-mmmmm!

I like to have the children make this as a special treat on International Mud Day - yes, there really is such a thing - in June.  It's warm enough then (in the Northern Hemisphere anyway) to get in the mud and get thoroughly messy.  (We literally hose off outside afterwards.)

 

A much less messy way to enjoy Mm is with painted hand prints.  These are the ones we use, most of which I found via Pinterest, and have pinned to my Handprint and Footprint pinterest board.  The monkey was inspired by a post from Craftymorning.com, the mermaid from education.com, the mouse idea is from puttisworld.com and the mask from funhandprintart.blogspot.com .

 

If you haven't started talking to your children about money yet, this is a great time to introduce it!  (You know your child best, if they are likely to put coins in their mouth, don't offer them yet.)  I start by having children sort the coins - in the USA that means pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters.  This is a simple fine motor task that introduces children to the names of the coins and if you talk more about it, to their values. 

Here are a couple of other things you might want to add to your letter M studies:

- Take a trip to a museum (I've taken children as young as 3 to the science museum and as young as 4 to art museums.  Make sure you practice appropriate behavior ahead of time, and make your first visits short and sweet, build on them over time as your child develops the self control each situation requires.)

- Paint on mustaches.  We did this for pirate week, letter M, and circus themes, and these are some funny pictures you'll look back on years from now!

- Learn about mandalas, collect natural materials, and create symmetrical patterns - fun for math, exploring nature, and fine motor skills too.

What other activities for the letter M do you like to do?  Let me know in the comments! 

Until next week,

Paula