Water Patterns and Giveaway

My kids love to play with water. Any activity seems like more fun if there is water involved. This week I decided to change up our patterning activity and do water patterns.

 
Using colored water and a medicine dropper, I had my daughter create an ABA pattern. This activity  not only helps with pattern recognition, but also helps strengthen those finger muscles which will help with writing and other fine-motor skill tasks.

First we did a dropper full of each color in the correct spot. I would have her tell me what color was coming next.

Then I had her go back and try to fill in the whole spot with the colored water. Her finger muscles got a great workout! :)

This activity was a big hit and she worked at this for quite awhile. Then little sister came along and knocked over one of the water bowls (I knew it would happen—something like that always does.) But no worries here---the totally awesome black dish drying mat I placed the activity on absorbed all the water! It seriously sucked it all up. It wasn’t a dripping mess either, like wet towels can be. It worked so much better than a tray or a plastic mat where water just rolls. I aired it out (it dried quickly) and the mat was good as new. This is my new must-use-when-doing-water-activities mat! It would work well as an activity presentation mat for many other learning activities too. It’s portable and easy to store since I can fold or roll it up and put in a drawer.

I know you want one too, don’t you?

Yes, they work awesome for dishes too! I was happy to toss out our gross plastic dish drainer and use my pretty red dish mat. Just toss in the wash to clean!

Are you interested in winning one of these dish mats?  You’ve got plenty of chances!  I’m giving 3 of these dish mats away in coastal blue.  Yes, 3 of you will win one coastal blue dish mat! ( You can check out the swatch colors by visiting Envision Home’s website.)

GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

Please leave a separate comment for each entry. Please make sure there is a way I can contact you.  

Mandatory: 1. Leave a comment below: If you won, who would get this dish mat and why?

2. Tweet about this giveaway: Get your #dishmat @SpellOutloud http://bit.ly/dL6qFD

3. If you follow or subscribe to Spell Outloud give yourself an extra entry.

RULES: Spell Outloud's prizes are open to continental U.S. residents only. Must be 18 yrs or older. Giveaway ends on Thursday, October 20, 2011. Rules must be followed. Winner is selected using Random.org and will be notified via email and given 72 hours to respond. In the event of no response, prize will be forfeited. By entering this event, you agree to have read these rules.

 

But wait---there is a whole group of bloggers each offering a different color dish mat and showcasing different uses for the mat. If you don’t want blue, check out the list below and enter the giveaways at the corresponding blogs:

A Slob Comes Clean --Coastal Blue
Spell Outloud -- Coastal Blue
Many Little Blessings --Sage Green
Finding Joy -- Sage Green
Jimmie's Collage – Gray
Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers – Gray
Raising Arrows –Red
Crispy Not Crunchy – Black
Feels Like Home –Red
An Oregon Cottage – Cream
Mama's Learning Corner -- Black

DISCLOSURE: I received free dish mats for this review and was compensated financially for my time.  The experience and opinions are 100% mine.

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