DIY: Dot Dabbers

I've been on a hunt for a Do-A-Dot Marker or a Dot Dabber for months now, it is not widely available on stores here in our country, and when I finally found it on one bookstore, the price is way out of my budget. I checked online stores too but it's expensive as well. So I wonder if I could possibly make my own Dot Marker. I'm looking for an empty bingo dauber bottles online but most of them requires a minimum pieces of order, since I only need a few pieces for this project buying from them is not practical. Until I found a bottle of clear glue which has a sponge like applicator head at the school/office supplies store near my workplace for 10 php each. Good thing the bottle caps comes with 3 different colors that is perfect for this project, I bought 3 pieces of it as I was planning to make the primary colors only.

Aside from the bottle with sponge tip you'll be needing paint also, I have left over poster paint that was use during the children ministry activity on our church. It is a washable poster paint that is perfect for toddlers.

I mix half part of paint to 1 part of the clear glue, yes, I used the clear glue that comes with bottle. You can use water if you want, I tried mixing it with water but the consistency was too watery, so I decided to make use of the clear glue instead.

Mix it up and pour back the solution on the glue bottle, screw back the sponge tip applicator, do the same with the other colors and your DIY Dot Markers are now ready to use.

My Li'l Lady Bug immediately tested it with the printable Do-A-Dot worksheets we found from these generous sites.

http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2012/12/a-z-do-a-dot-worksheets.html
http://overthebigmoon.com/full-alphabet-letter-identification-printables/

I think the consistency was still runny that if you will hold it in an upside down position for a long time the solution is coming out of the sponge tip even without squeezing it. So I'm thinking of either changing the solution's recipe or do something with the sponge tip. If you have other ideas regarding this, please comment away. I'd love to hear from you.

DIY: Pasta Beads

I have been planning this beading project for weeks now, I have already accumulated all the materials needed but can't find time to do it because we're pretty busy at work now plus all the stuffs and preparations we need to do for our Christmas party. Finally I was able to do it last week since I was on my 1 week Christmas leave.

These pasta beads are actually easy to make, but will need several hours to let them fully dry.

Materials:
-macaroni pasta
-food coloring
-plastics/ziplocks

Steps:
Put about a half cup of macaroni pasta (uncooked) inside a plastic, one for each color you want to make. Add 10-15 drops of food coloring, or you may mix alcohol with the food coloring first before pouring into the macaroni, I guess it will be easier to dye the pasta this way.

Seal your plastic and shake until all pasta is fully dyed. Yo may ass more dye if you want a brighter color.

Open the plastic and allow them to sit for  awhile.

Then lay them out on a tray lined with plastic to let them dry fully.

Beading activity is a great fine motor skill activity. I have been engaging Jashley with this kind of activities lately to help her refine her movement. I love that even her concentration skill is developing with this activity.

We use colorful fuzzy pipe cleaners with these DIY beads for our beading activity, you may use strings or ribbons tied on one end for older kids.

We have used this also on one of our sorting and counting activity, that will help her building her math skills.

That's it for now. We're looking forward for more activities using these colorful pasta beads.