M Day: Monkeys, Magnets, Marble Mazes, and Milk Mixing

Today for M day, I introduced the letter M by reading the book Five Little Monkey's Sitting in a Tree. It's one of Lincoln's favorites right now and he can sing along with the whole thing. Then we played a simplified version of Barrel of Monkeys. I had tried to teach Scientist the regular version earlier in the week, but he didn't seem to have the coordination for it yet. So, instead the boys took turns seeing how many monkeys they could chain together. They both did really well. Then they each got to color their own monkey.

After that, I got out Scientist's Mag-Neato set, which is basically just a bunch of big toddler sized magnets. I explained how magnets stick to some things that are metal. Then I gave each boy a magnet and brought out a pile of different kitchen utensils. They boys took turns picking a utensil and deciding if the magnet would stick to it or not. We made one pile of magnetic things, and one pile of non-magnetic things.

Next we went into the kitchen and made marble mazes. I got the idea for those here. I decided that the boys would be less competitive if they each had their own maze, so we made two small ones instead of one really big one. And, due to time constraints, we did not decorate ours like they did in the example. But the boys had a great time with the mazes. I think it was their favorite part of the day. If I do it again though, I'll try and find something better to catch the marbles in, since I think I still have about 30 marbles back behind the washing machine. :)

For our snack we "mixed milk", meaning I poured normal white milk for the boys, and then showed them how to make it chocolate milk by letting them mix in some Ovaltine. I think they enjoyed their snack, but once they were finished they went right back to the marble maze. I think we're going to have to do that one again one of these days.