According to Becca, this activity was fun, but “sticky and pokey”… so “enter at your own risk.” HA! I saw this idea on a pin somewhere (now I can’t find it) and it reminded me of a project I had my second graders do at one point. When I bought our super cheap marshmallows and toothpicks, I bought the flat toothpicks, thinking we’d reduce the number of pokes. She still got poked… and the flat toothpicks don’t work very well for stabbing marshmallows. Live and learn. But, we had fun building a house and then “huffing and puffing” and trying to blow it down like the big bad wolf. Of course that didn’t work, so we resorted to tearing into it, and then she decided that they were spiders and had a ton of fun playing with her marshmallow spiders. You just never know where an activity like this is going to lead a little creative mind! 🙂
I’ve decided to add, at the end of each post, the total prep time required by me, and the amount of time she stayed occupied. Keep in mind that the way I introduce activities is that I do them hands-on with her the first (and sometimes second and third) times just to make sure that she understands the rules and that I can see if she is struggling. The goal is for ALL activities to become independent activities eventually, so that I can work on prepping/introducing new activities, and also because little brother will be coming along behind and I’ll begin to work with him and will need time when Boo is independently working beside us.
Total Prep for Mommy: maybe 3 mins (open marshmallow bag, dig around and find a throw-away small plate – the longest part of the process for me, pull out toothpicks, put all on a tray)
Total play time for Becca: 25 mins (Daddy got home from work. She probably was about done, though. Might have made it 30 mins.)
Butterbees and Bumbleflies 
Update! This idea was from The Artful Parent!
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