Dollar Store Turkey Handprint Plate

I LOVE the dollar store. Sadly, it is probably my favorite place to shop. I am a sucker for a good deal! I wanted to make a Thanksgiving craft with my daughter, and this is what we came up with:

This was so easy and inexpensive to make!
Materials:

• Dollar store glass plate
• Colored paper (I used construction paper without thinking about the fade factor- if I were to do this over, I would definitely use scrapbook paper!)
• Tissue paper cut into small squares (I happened to use an old sewing paper, but any tissue paper will work!)
• Mod Podge 
• Foam Brush
• Scissors 

1. First, trace your child's hand on 5 different papers. These will be the turkey's feathers.

 2. Cut out a brown oval, orange triangle, and white and black circles for the turkey's body. And cut a red squigly shape for the wattle (is this the right word?) Wattle not shown in picture- I forgot about it until a later step :). Glue the face together.

 3. Your turkey parts are complete! Glue the little guy together. Wattle shown.

4. Now for the fun Mod Podge part. I am seriously impaired when it comes to this gluey stuff! Turn the plate over so you are working on the back. Flip the turkey over and place on the plate. Mod Podge like crazy to get the turkey to stick to the plate. 

Once the turkey is on, add your tissue paper squares to fill in the gaps. I would add a layer of Mod Podge, then stick on the tissue paper.

My mind is spinning with the possibilities of plate projects- you could make one for every holiday using different handprint art. These would be fabulous christmas presents for the grandparents! Heck, I even like them for myself!

Happy crafting with your kiddos!

Our Fall Apothecary Jars

I love this time of year! I decorated my apothecary jars with some fun fall items- this is a wonderful way to display all those autumn treasures you and your child find on walks! I have to be honest... my items were all found at craft stores... BUT  I love the thought of a happy mother/daughter harvest nature walk versus walking up and down the aisle with a screaming child at Michaels! :)

Happy Holidays!

Cultural Activities- More on Montessori

I started writing a series of posts on Montessori and only recently realized that I had never finished...oops! I was originally going to do separate posts for Science and Culture and I don't remember why. From what I remember from David Gettman's book Basic Montessori: Learning Activities for Under-Fives culture includes science (please correct me if I am wrong.. it's been over a year since I read the book!)

David Gettman suggests the following sequence for teaching culture. Included in the list are some activities that I have found online. Enjoy!

Period One:

• land and water presentation- download land form cards from montessorimom.com, download water form cards from montessorimom.com and make your own land and water forms from Shannon's Sharings

Period Two:

• land and water exercises
• first maps
• places classified pictures- classification pictures (scroll down to see some Places cards) from montessori materials
• preliminary work for classification of a leaf- some great ideas for leaf projects and simple classifying from montessori preschool at home

Period Three:

• all maps- map printouts from montessori mom links of the day and there are some GREAT map apps HERE
• places picture folders- Life is Bella shared her continent photo folders and Montessori Materials has continent animal cards
• past and present
• stories about the past
• air
• water
• magnetism
• classifying animals- Montessori Materials has animal classification labels. These would work great as 3-part classification card activity!
• classifying leaves  leaf shapes  and leaf forms 1,2, and 3 from montessori materials and for the advanced child- check out this incredible pdf of leaves from Temple of Ganesha- everything from a bazillion different leaf shapes to leaf venation. Wow.
• parts of animals- Montessori Materials has some animal anatomy cards
• parts of leaves- Montessori Materials has a great pdf on the learning the parts of leaves and ETC has another well done pdf on leaf parts

Period Four:

• gravity
• sand
• optics- Montessori Mom shares a list of different light, color and optics activities
• places artifacts- continent boxes from montessori for everyone

Period Five:

• plant life cycles- online tutorial for kids on the plant life cycle- from seed to dispersal. Youtube also has several different time lapse videos of seeds growing that are pretty cool!
• time line

Period Six:

• reading classified cards in geography, nature studies, and history 
• fact books from the library

Period Seven:

• definition stages of classified cards in geography, nature studies, and history
• field nature observation work

You must check out this detailed scope and sequence of geography pdf. It is amazing!
Happy Teaching!

Gift Opening Practice

Like many of you, I want my daughter to be gracious and kind. Especially when given a gift. To avoid any potential acts of ingratitude during her birthday party, we practiced opening presents. It was a totally fun game and it provided my kiddo with the learning experience I desired! This would be a fun activity to do with your kids right before a birthday, Christmas, or other times of gift exchanging!

My daughter had a surprise party with some of her stuffed animals in attendance. Each animal brought a gift (misc toys found in her playroom).

Some gifts were good- like her favorite dinosaurs or pillow pet.

the "good" gifts

Others were not so good- rolls of toilet paper and random food storage items from our pantry.

the "not so good" gifts

We sat in a circle and one at a time each animal would give their gift. Boo would open the present, say one thing she liked about the gift, and "thank you". Even when the gift was not so good.

I love Boo's facial expression when she received dry soup mix from her unicorn!

The day of the birthday party came- and my daughter got lost in the excitement of all the presents- but I think she was as gracious as a 4 year old could be with a stack of so many fun toys to play with! This is one reason I LOVE opening gifts throughout the entire day instead of one fast paced session. :)

This unhappy tiger was tuckered out from opening gifts.

Happy Teaching!

Muddy Buddies

Want to make a yummy snack with your kiddos? Muddy Buddies are simple and oh so scrumptious!

Ingredients:
9 Cups Chex Cereal
1 Cup Chocolate Chips
1/2 Cup Peanut Butter
1/4 Cup Margarine/Butter
1 tsp Vanilla
1 1/2 Cups Powdered Sugar

Directions:
1. Pour Chex into a large bowl.
2. Combine chocolate chips, peanut butter, and margarine in a separate bowl. Microwave on high 1 to 1 1/2 minutes until smooth, stirring after 1 minute. Stir in vanilla.
3. Pour chocolate mix over cereal, stirring until all pieces are evenly coated.

4. Pour cereal into large ziplock bag with powdered sugar. Seal and shake until all pieces are well coated.

5. Spread on wax paper to cool.

 You can then just pick up the ends of the wax paper and place it into a bowl. Easy clean up!

Enjoy!

Birthday Party Planning Pages

Confession: I am addicted to planning. And I just can't make mental plans or jot ideas in a notebook. I crave the organizational high that I get from seeing all my ideas and itineraries printed out on well designed forms and placed in a folder or binder. Here is one of my latest organizational creation: birthday party planning pages.

Click here to download the planner from our wiki. Enjoy!

DIY Christmas Ideas: Reposts

As I am starting to compile my list of homemade Christmas gifts to make this year, I thought I would share some of our favorite gifts we have made from the past. Just click on the name of each item to be redirected to the instructional post! Have fun!

 Family Yahtzee

No-Sew Fleece Blanket

 Jingle Bell Tu-Tu

Christmas Tree Popsicle Stick Ornaments

 Handprint Reindeers

 Nativity Blocks 

We LOVE these blocks!

 Second set had the bible and book of mormon nativity blocks

 Nativity Dice

Enjoy!

Spooky Safari Halloween Birthday Party

My daughter's birthday is on Halloween- it's so fun! We try and have a Halloweenish birthday party for her every year. We had an "ABC's of Halloween" party when my daughter was into her alphabet, and a "Bibbety Bobbety Boo" princess Halloween party when she loved Cinderella. This year we went with a safari theme since my Boo is totally into animals! She loves the weird animals no one has ever heard of- like the ibex and the okapi. Boo even wanted to be one of them for Halloween- but poor Mom had no idea how to make either - and luckily for me she ended up choosing a tiger costume. Phew!


The Invitation
Simple and fun! I got the clipart from Shannon's Digital Scrapbooking.

The Guest List
When asked who to invite to her party- my daughter told me "everyone".  We opted to just invite some close friends, family, and friends from her church class and preschool.


The Food
You can't just have pizza and salad on animal safari! We braved it up and ate predator pizza, safari salad, and skeleton bone breadsticks. Drinks were found at the water hole, and although I forgot to tell people the official name during the party- we had ibex ice cream sundaes. 
Treat jars included tiger eyes (eye ball candy from the Dollar Tree) and okapi brains (gunny worms).

The Decorations
Green and black streamers gave us the scary jungle feel. We listened to Halloween music- including Halloween background music that actually sounds like a haunted forest so it was PERFECT for our spooky safari! I hung skeletons and Halloween decorations from the dollar store. The kids table had little Halloween pails with animal crackers. There were signs for all the food- as well as a welcome sign and animal footprints leading guests to the party room(since the party was held at our church).

The Games
Every year we read a story at the party. Two of the years I actually made books! This year I was lucky enough to find the book Jungle Halloween. It was a perfect book for the young audience (3-5) and it went so nicely with our theme!

After the story, we went to the gym and played hippos in mud (similar to musical chairs but kids walk around in a circle and try to get stuck on brown pieces of construction paper-aka mud). 

We also had a jungle frog jumping contest with frogs bought at the dollar store. This was a riot! The frogs were also part of the party favors for the kids to take home. 

On your mark...., get set....., go!

After the frog jumping contest the kids huddled together and played with the frogs :)

We played a short game of animal charades. I had pictures of different jungle animals folded up in a basket, and guests would pick an animal and act it out  while everyone else tried to guess.

We took a short cake/ice cream/open presents break, then it was time for our final game! The kids went on an animal safari to three different parts of our spooky jungle- the snake pit, the haunted forest, and  bugs & bones land. Each room had plastic creatures (animals/snakes/bugs/skeletons....based on the theme) that the kids could hunt for. I had purchased what I THOUGHT was a bag of little spotting scopes for the kids to take with them on their hunt- but they ended up being little noisemaker whistles (why do some party stores not label their favors!) So if I were to do anything different- i would have made sure that the kids take a scope or toy binoculars to take with them! The kids had a blast with the safari and it was a great culminating activity before the kids went home.

Happy Teaching!

Book Themed Baby Shower

I had the most wonderful opportunity to host a baby shower for my brother in law and his wife. I LOVE planning!!! (Check out my post on Baby Shower Planning Pages). And I just couldn't resist hosting an educational based party. After looking around the internet (and my new favorite site Pinterest) I found adorable book- themed baby showers. What an inspiration! Two sites that I gleaned the most creative juices from is Aesthetic Nest and Bowtied's Etsy shop. Guests were encouraged to bring their favorite book as a gift. (I made a cute Dr Seuss-ish invitation but I don't have a pic to show. Included in the invitation were bookplates so baby would always remember who gave her each book)

The setup with my cute mother in law in the background. She was kind enough to host the big party at her lovely home.

Banner made out of an old book- I am thinking this would be cute to hang in my daughter's playroom. Yay for multi-purpose crafts!

Each guest picked a letter and designed their own alphabet page for baby's first ABC book. It was SO fun!

Side table decorations- I couldn't resist putting the "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish" sign next to a jar of swedish fish. There are also extra bookplates for guests in case they lost the one included in their invitation 

The "Snack Snack Eat a Snack" sign didn't motivate enough people to eat the treats- but it was still cute!

Cupcakes made by my cute sister in law with the book toppers from Aesthetic Nest.

I love sneaking in learning and literature in any activity! :) For more inspiration, check out my Party Board on Pinterest.

Enjoy!