What could be better than learning about space and sending off our own rockets? Learning about DOGS going in to space and helping send THEM up in to “space”! Today’s brief storybook-inspired science project found us learning about two stray dogs and their incredible journey into space. Then, we designed our own doggie rockets and tested how far we could send them upwards!
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When the kids come inside from playing in the snow, I always let them have some hot cocoa to help them warm up. I decided to sneak a tiny bit of learning in on a day when it was too yucky to go outside! We practiced “marshmallow math” at the kitchen table. Marshmallow counting was perfect for a preschooler. Marshmallow addition (and subtraction) keeps my older child busy.
Continue readingWe created our own mail center in our schoolroom and play room because my kids love getting the mail. They love to send letters to friends, teachers, and grandparents. They love to send and receive mail. I made some monster post cards to help us practice writing, addressing, and sending mail. Of course, these aren’t post cards for the US Postal Service: they are for our own homemade mail box!
This week’s Thematic Thursday is all about space, and I’ve chosen to focus a bit more on the moon.
(Yes, I realize that it is no longer Thursday, but we do what we can, right?!)
We studied the moon and space about two years ago, when my son was starting his kindergarten year. His grandma sent him a solar system set that we painted, and we read a lot of books about space. We will be doing space again this year for our science at co-op and I look forward to revisiting the subject. (I love astronomy!)
Here are some of the best moon picture books and educational activities about the moon. (Note: Affiliate links are provided for your convenience.) Continue reading
What do you do with an interested preschooler while you are trying to give her older siblings their homeschool lessons?
This is the question I’ve been wondering all summer as I’ve pondered how to jump back in to homeschooling come the end of August! My daughter simply loves to be a part of everything. I’ve got to find a workable solution. Since I love busy boxes and busy bags (for on the go), I am so excited to put some together for learning our ABCs right here at home.
My ABC Matching Game Clothes Line is based on the Clothes Line Busy Bag I found at Money Saving Mom. While my preschooler readily recognizes the uppercase letters, the lowercase letters are not as familiar. I decided to adapt the Clothes Line Busy Bag into an early literacy letter recognition activity.
Continue readingOne of the fun things I have done for my kids this summer to keep track of our summer fun was create a simple summer activity passport for her! It’s a way to keep track of the fun we’ve had this summer as well as encourage the kids to decide which activities we want to make sure to fit in this summer.
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When I think about summer, I think of the sudden increase is dirt and mud everywhere! Baths are a frequent necessity. Strawberry and Kitty love to dig, apparently only encouraged by their brother, who is on a new emphatic hunt for “rocks” hiding beneath our lawn and play set.
The only way to get by is to embrace it, I know! I knew the perfect picture book to go along with dirt: I’m a Dirty Dinosaur! by Janeen Brian and Ann James.
One thing I love about I’m a Dirty Dinosaur is that as the dinosaur gets progressively dirtier, he spends time relishing in the mess: first his messy feet, then his messy hands, and then his messy tummy, and so forth. Strawberry loves to act out the simple rhythmic pages for each messy part of the Dino.
The most clever part of the simple art in this book is that the dirty brown that covers this adorable dinosaur in each picture is actually mud! To extend the fun, we decided to make our own mud paintings.
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Part of the hilarity of P.D. Eastman’s Are You My Mother? lives in the fact that the baby bird wonders if his mother is an airplane or a “Snort.” Even toddlers will be quick to giggle at the ridiculousness of that! Strawberry and I also enjoy reading this classic together because she loves to pretend to be my baby bird. Yes, she’s a big girl, ready to do everything herself! But sometimes, just sometimes, she comes to me for a cuddle. Mother-Baby Matching activities are just what my baby-loving big girl loves.
Are You My Mother? lends itself well, then for two different types of activities. First, we used the book as a starting point for a discussion on what things have mothers and which things do not. The book also suggest the activity of matching babies and mothers together. My daughter loves mother-baby matching activities! Mothers and babies just belong together.
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There is stage each of my kids has enjoyed, between two and three, when they truly loved Pete the Cat’s I Love My White Shoes! Since it is so fun to sing the song and toddlers are just starting to recognize colors, it’s a perfect stage for beginning color recognition and color matching.
I was amazed by my daughter’s speaking one day when I overheard her singing to herself in the back seat of the car at a very young age.
“Shoes!” I caught. Then “White!” It was clear as a bell, but she was wearing Buster Browns. What was she talking about?
After a few moments, I recognized the song: it was Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes!
Do you know that song? It is this one:
She loves shoes, she loves Pete the Cat, and she loves singing that song! It’s a perfect picture book and story for a toddler-aged learner. It provides a story about shoes that change from white to red, to blue, to brown, to white again. It shows a character being positive, even when things happen (like walking in something!).
Now it’s my third child who is bursting in to song when she sees her shoes!
I thought I’d make up another fun game for my toddler: this time featuring all colors of cool shoes! Here is the Shoes Color Matching FREEBIE for you too.
The Shoes Color Matching game has ten pairs of shoes in ten colors. Put the shoe pairs pages on the two sides of a file folder and then cut out the individual shoes and laminate them. If you want, attach hook-and-loop tape (Velcro) to the bottom side of the shoes so you can attach them to the pairs page. My daughter loves the sound when she pulls them off!
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Free Color matching file folder game
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If you want to do more color matching, or if you want to sort colors in Spanish, check out the more extensive color matching centers set! In this, each color gets a half page. Kids can match the items to pages, or (if you prefer) print the color pages without the images on them and have the kids sort the items into the correct pages. It’s perfect for a center!
If you wanted the entire Color Matching File Folder Game and Center set, get it from the Line upon Line Learning Shop. You can also purchase it at TeachersPayTeachers.
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Today we were all about rainbows! My toddler “Rainbow” busy box includes a cut-and-paste craft, color sorts, rainbow books, and other fun items related to rainbows!
My main activity for my toddler was a simple cut-and-paste rainbow color sort craft using paint chip squares and images in all colors of the rainbow. This is such a simple activity, but my daughter loved that she had “made a rainbow” all by herself.
To begin with, I had a pile of paint chip squares, so I used those to make an accordion book, held together simply with tape.
Then, I found some clipart of items of a variety of colors. You can have a search through a shop catalog or magazine for items of a variety of colors.
My girl enjoyed cutting out the items and gluing them on the correct page. This was a perfect small motor skills practice activity. There was no pressure to cut “on the line.”
Picking up the paper and sorting it on to the correct square was also a perfect challenge for a young preschooler or older toddler. It takes good finger control in order to pinch paper. Glue is always fun.
The whole activity was just a great chance to try an activity by herself, from cutting to glue. And then she had a beautiful rainbow “accordion” book at the end of it!
Colored puff balls are such a fun soft manipulative for the little ones to play with. I love that, even if they are thrown, there is no harm done. Because they are so light, they don’t go far either.
For this activity, I cut down some toilet paper tubes to three different heights: from 1 into to full sized. then I wrapped each tube in construction paper and labeled them with number stickers.
You could also use thicker colorful paper and do away with the toilet paper tubes all together!
Then, I include the correct number of puff balls in the busy box to allow for one to fit in the smallest, two in the next, 3 in the next, etc. the goal is for the correct number of puff balls to correlate to the color of the tube.
The first time we played with this, my toddler did not understand. The next time it came out, she figured it out and enjoyed it!
Here are the other activities that fit in her rainbow busy box. The items below link to Amazon, for which I am an affiliate.
See more rainbow and color products in my store!
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