Madly Making Materials! - Sound Cylinders and Smelling Cylinders

A. and I are visiting Grandma and Grandpa T for a few days and it's been the perfect opportunity to run around shopping for supplies. On the drawing board are:

1. Teen Board

2. Ten Board

3. 2 sets of Lg. number cards

4. 3 sets of Sm. number cards

5. Lower case sandpaper letters (print)

6. Sandpaper Numbers

7. Number cards for number rods

8. Red rods

I've purchased 1/8" birch plywood and 4- 8 foot lengths of 11/16" square trim to make all of these items. Grandpa T. is right now inputting all of the dimensions into a free wood cutting layout program to get the most efficient use of our wood and then he'll start cutting! Thank-you Grandpa T! Then it will be Sand, sand sand and more sanding on my part. I'll keep you posted on these items as they come along.

Last night I put together the Sound Cylinders and Smelling Cylinders. Here's what I used:

24- film canisters (free from the drug store film developing lab

1 roll of wood look Mac Tac (drawer liner)

6 each of round red, blue, green and yellow stickers

4 cardboard boxes with lids

(See Below)

Sound and Smelling Cylinder Supplies!

We would all love to have the beautiful wooden cylinders with their matching boxes I'm sure, but reality doesn't always cooperate soooo.... At least these will look like wood and not film canisters! I cut strips of the MacTac to stick around the canisters, put a matching color sticker to differentiate the different cylinders and then covered the boxes to match. The MacTac was a little fiddly but after a few I got the hang of it so that they didn't look too ragged. I think they look pretty good considering the faux-ness of it all! The best part is that both of these activities together only cost $5!

Now, what to fill them with?!

My ideas for the sounds are: rice, mung beans, popcorn, sand, small rocks and kidney beans

My ideas for the smells are: lemon juice, mint oil, vanilla, cinnamon stick, oregano and basil

I'd be interested to hear what other people put in their cylinders. Would it be weird to put one or two yucky smells in there?! It might be fun and then to take photos of the child when they smell each one and do some emotion recognition! A. is very interested in what I'm making. I think it helps build anticipation for the activity when they can see it being created. She keeps asking when she can use it but I think we'll wait until we're home in our environment so that we can formally "Open" her school with a little celebration to make it fun and exciting! That idea just popped into my head now while writing. What am I doing, making more work for myself! Am I complaining, NO that's what I live for nowadays and it's just as fun for me crafting materials, learning new things and sharing this learning experience with A. girl. My life couldn't get much better than this!