I can't complain about chocolate week. It smells delicious and provides plenty of activities to go along with it that the kids are kept busy all day every day. There were chocolate treats, chocolate play dough, chocolate goop, chocolate "snow." I typically do chocolate paint, but skipped it this year in favor of the ever favorite sensory bins. Chocolate goop was the real winner of the week. So much so that the kids started this week, regular ol' Valentine's week, off by asking, rather begging for it. To me, that screams success!
We actually began the week with a non-chocolate related activity. The kids loved the mural painting so much that I've decided to incorporate more mural drawings/paintings in our weekly activities. This week we used Do A Dot markers and easel paper. I gave the kids two choices: I could hang the paper from the sensory corner walls again or I could tape it down to the table. They wanted to try out the table, so I covered nearly all of it in the paper and set the markers out. The kids have a tendancy to continue dotting in the same spot over and over again until the paper rips. I reminded them at the very beginning, dot where the white is. They wound up dotting the entire paper! They asked me to join them, so we spent an hour of our morning "dot marking" and chatting away about things like Disney movies, songs they like, how they don't like to wear socks, what color everyone's underwear was, how to wipe when going to the bathroom, and many other wonderful secrets from their worlds.
After we were done "dot marking" we made chocolate covered strawberries (apparently I failed at pictures of this one) and ate them with lunch. One little said, "we don't have chocolate strawberries at my house. Can you tell my mom about them?" Little comments like that crack me up!
Monday was also Caucus Night in Iowa (you might have heard about that. You can read about our experience here). Our extra late night meant the minis were home on Tuesday to rest. Of course, they didn't rest too much....they excitedly participated in truffle making, storytimes, and coloring.
Wednesday was chocolate salt dough all day. Literally, all day, minus snacks, meals, and rest time. The kids love this stuff, especially when I let them get the play kitchen utensils involved.
Two boxes of corn starch, water, cookie cutters, and play "cutters" (also known as knives) was Friday's big thing. I've made goop plenty of times before, but for some reason, this time they LOVED it!
Curious George Goes To The Chocolate Factory was the perfect book to read for the week! We also read Love Monster And The Last Chocolate to go with our Valentine's chocolate theme. If you're curious about some of our other go-to's for Chocolate Week, read Chocolate-y Sensory Play and Chocolate Day. As usual, a good part of our days are spent being reminded to use words, potty breaks and diaper changes, hugs, and snuggles...and eating. Someone always seems to be eating.