Create an amazing outdoor art studio your creative geniuses will love.

If you are looking for creative craft ideas for your young children you need to know these super fun crafts for toddlers to create. These kids DIY crafts are perfect for your toddlers to start learning to craft and express themselves with art projects.

On this page, you will find 60 free jack-o-lantern and pumpkin coloring pages that are all free to download and print! Whether you are looking for a spooky Halloween craft activity, a Thanksgiving-themed art project, or even some simple pumpkin templates, you will find these all below!

Make a rainbow paper craft that changes colors as the paper is tipped back and forth in sunlight! Create gorgeous rainbow patterns and designs while teaching children the basics of thin film interference. Add this rainbow paper experiment to your list of simple experiments for kids and creative art and STEAM projects!

There are so many ways to approach self-portraits with children: observation, inspired by a particular artist, symbols of interests and activities, the list goes on. This time, I wanted to create an engaging, multi media

These coffee filter poppies are SO PRETTY! Transform a simple coffee filter into a beautiful flower in just a few easy steps. You only need a few simple supplies to make a surprisingly realistic coffee filter flower! This coffee filter craft is super easy to make, and it's also a great craft for Remembrance Day or Veterans Day. This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something we may earn a small commission which helps us run this website. DIY Coffee Filter Poppies These coffee filter poppies are SO PRETTY! They're a fun, easy craft for

Foster your preschooler’s creativity and love of art with these fun process art activities using both tempera paints and watercolor paints! Follow our Process Art for Kids Pinterest Board! Providing opportunities for kids to take part in process art activities can help children develop creative confidence, experiment, and make sense of the world around them. …

There are so many ways to make the moment you tell your parents you’re pregnant a memorable one. The look on my mom and dads face when we told then I was pregnant was priceless. It’s a moment you won’t ever forget and you can make it even more special with one of

We are beginning to move full swing into the holiday season and I have been planning the two weeks we will all be at home. With some down time I thought it would be a great chance to plan a few activities with my little ones, and since I do love all things Waldorf, I

Smart and creative punishments for kids for when time out no longer work. For when kids need consequences for poor behavior.

These handprint lilies are so beautiful and surprisingly easy to make! They'd make such a thoughtful handmade gift idea for Mother's Day if you make a small bouquet and tie them together with a ribbon. Or you could make a bouquet of handprint Easter lilies if you use white paper. Can Easter lilies be pink? I think they're just white? Either way, they're adorable for spring and they're a wonderful low mess craft to make with the kids! I had such an awesome helper when I made these paper handprint lilies! My spunky 5 year old loves crafts, and she

Creative ideas for sibling Halloween costumes. Dress your baby, toddler & big kids in these coordinating group costumes for an epic photo op (& extra candy?!)

You have seen the beautifully designed Pikler triangle and you understand its benefits for infant and child development. You are ready to buy one, make one, or you already own one, but then the concern comes about what if your child doesn’t want to climb,…

Searching for some totally sweet ways to tell your family you're pregnant? *Here* are my very favorite pregnancy announcement ideas for 2022.

Below is the recipe for the Mac and Cheese with Peas. The rest of the ideas are in the Notes section so you can have all of the inspiration in one easy to print place!

Research shows that giving toddlers and preschoolers quiet time can boost mindfulness, attitude, and your child's creativity. Here's how to get started.

Two Points: This is MY method, and not necessarily right for you, your teaching or care philosophy, your set-up, or your students. Curriculum participation by my students is VOLUNTARY. I invite them to participate, but if they choose not to, then that is fine. I usually offer them a choice of a few of the activities and let them decide where we start and where we go. An engaged child learns, a dis-engaged child rebels. The 3-year rotating curriculum is theme based. Some times we stick to the plan, but usually I observe what they are interested in learning about, what they are asking questions about, and suggest up to three different themes they can choose from for us to study. I make my own 3-year rotating curriculum for many reasons: Packaged curriculum is often only one year. Since I teach for 3 years, this would be redundant. Most packaged curriculum focuses on skills my students master early. My 2s count to 20, know 11 colors, know most of their phonics, uppercase and lowercase letters, 10 shapes and some of their numbers and I still have 3 years of curriculum to teach them. They often are worksheet intensive. My students usually are cognitively advanced from their fine motor skills. I have 4 year olds that still can't write well. If I had relied on worksheets for the last 2 years, there is no way they would have the skill sets they have. Worksheets are also not considered Developmentally Appropriate Practice [DAP] for children under the age of 8. We use them here for writing practice starting at age 4. [Yes, worksheet-intensive public schools are not using DAP for kindy through 3rd grade!] They can be expensive. If you are purchasing worksheets, why would you spend even $1 a week/$52 a year when you can purchase a 400 page Scholastic preschool workbook from Sam's Club for $8 that covers probably more material, is most likely aligned with the public school expectations, and is colorful. Colored copies are NOT affordable to make from packaged curriculum. Most [ALL!] preschool learning should be interactive. Pinterest is a better source for ideas. My students change every time I do a theme. I have to be able to tweak it to the interests and capabilities of those currently in my care. Plus, I'll find more interesting activities on Pinterest, have an idea for a new game, etc. It's a constant evolution to keep my curriculum relevant to our current group, situation and resources. However, curriculum planning and creation is very time consuming. Even with older curriculum I spend several hours going over it prior to teaching - updating, creating new materials, purchasing and setting new classroom decorations. While I have had my 3 year curriculum, this year I found myself wanting a more specific schedule to focus on specific skill sets for this particular group of children. Most of these skills can be incorporated into our themed curriculum, or they take 5 minute sessions to pop into our day. I have two groups, the younger preschoolers are 2-3 years old and the older ones are 4-5 years old, all at the same developmental and skill set level within their group. This makes it easier, as I can tailor everything to just 2 groups. If I were to have additional levels of children, then it would be tailored to each level. Children here are taught at their developmental level, not age. Asychronastic development is normal, so I may be teaching a child at various levels depending upon the subject matter. For the younger preschoolers, I came up with this structure. For the older pre-k students, I came up with this one. For instance, both of them have Measurement & Comparison on Friday for Reasoning. However, for the younger students, this would be a more/less, longer/shorter, big/little, etc. activity, while the older students would be measuring with rulers, yardsticks, tape measures, measuring cups, unit blocks, foot steps or themed units, and graphing the measurements to compare. Same skill set, differentiated at vastly different levels. Even this needs conditional tweaking. All the pre-k's know how to spell their last names now, so that is no longer a relevant skill activity for music and will be changed out. In another post I'll get into the curriculum components and the importance of each. For instance, how counting on Friday teaches 1-to-1 correspondence and creating method processes for counting groups of objects. CLICK PICTURES TO VIEW LARGER I use this MS Word template, available for FREE on TPT, for curriculum planning. Often, the daily skill sets above are either already incorporated, or can easily be incorporated, into the theme planning. For an example of a completed curriculum unit, check out our Owls Theme. Each monthly theme is broken down into 4 sub-themes. For instance: SPACE Astronauts & Rockets The Universe Our Solar System Aliens & Robots We also have a musical component, often classical, and an art component, often a master, and Spanish vocabulary component that we incorporate. This planning form may not include all games, file folder games, manipulatives, room-set up, etc. that I utilize. For those of you trained in curriculum creation, I do NOT do a full curriculum development for each activity. With having these children usually from infant to school-age, I keep an internal evaluation of progression and plan out only weekly learning objectives. Since I am creating the activities for my personal use, I do not need to create written procedures and evaluations. My curriculum is stored currently in file folders in a large office bookcase unit. I would like to get it into boxes so that I could have EVERY theme-related item, including dress-up, room set-up, manipulatives, etc. together for an easy pull. File boxes will most likely be the easiest, but they do take up a lot of space. In each file some of the things I probably have: Completed planning sheets All the books I own for that theme Flannel board Sentence and word walls File folder games Samples of previous crafts DVDs CDs Coloring pages Mini-book(s) Build-a-[theme item] game Curriculum creation is one of my great joys. I love the research and compilation, the creativity and excitement of bringing something fun and educational to my students. Learning is rarely linear. Children take developmental leaps, sometimes in odd directions. As a teacher, it is important that I keep each one challenged without pushing or inhibiting their growth, and that takes constant evaluation and a good eye for when those leaps happen so that we can move on to a higher level of instruction. When we do an activity, I constantly question if they WANT to do another round, another activity, and I usually cut them off while they are still engaged. I want them wanting more, and they will usually ask if they can continue. One of the most important desires and abilities I can instill in them is that of self-directed learning. So as they choose to go off with their rulers after we've spent several minutes doing a measuring activity, conferring between themselves as to procedures and what to measure next, I step back and let them. They know I am here as a resource, rather than an intrusive director. It is my job to ensure that when I invite my students to learn, they glow with excitement and anticipation of a fun, interactive, playful time. The results, so far, have been astounding. A few of my complete curriculum units are available through my TPT store. Apples Dental Ice Cream Penguins Rainbows St. Patrick's Day Valentine's Follow Connie -'s board Classroom on Pinterest. Tags: preschool, child care, pre-k, curriculum, development, teaching, education, homeschooling, homeschool, home, school, preschool curriculum development, planning

Teaching kindergartners how to cut – quick resources for teachers. Here are some bright ideas to teach how to cut for thoses that need it in your classroom.

Looking for that last minute Halloween costume ideas for siblings, twins or even three kids? Here you will find best collections of brother and sister matching halloween costumes, baby and toddler Halloween costumes. Easy homemade DIY ideas for cute and scary, baby and toddler Halloween costumes.

Create ideas and ways to display Kids' art throughout the home, on walls and fun project ideas.

Spice up the home living area with one of these fun & creative dramatic play ideas. Children will pretend to be chefs, pilots, doctors and more!

Hi friends! It has been a hot minute! I wanted to share Colton’s Halloween costume with you guys! We visited Zoo Boo at the Memphis Zoo and had so many people ask me where I got it from. I ma…

The best part about warmer weather is that we can now take our art projects outside..and the messier the better! Here are some of our favorite way's to get creative and a little messy with

There are so many fun pregnancy announcements to grandparents. Here are my favorite cards, onesies, coffee mugs, scratch offs and wine labels that are just pure genius or hilarious.

Printable playdough mats are the perfect way to help inspire creativity with very little guidance. We have created 5 PRINTABLE playdough mats for parents.

More than a dozen ideas to inspire creativity in kids who say they don't like to do art projects and activities. Get their creative juices flowing.

50 Fun Things To Do With Your Kindergartener At Home w/ resources for creative activities, and lots of learning fun too! Use what you have on-hand at home!

These cool science experiments for kids are easy to pull off, will help your child learn, and mostly importantly - they're fun!

Pipe cleaners are a versatile craft material easily obtainable if not already in your craft supplies at home. Kids can make all sorts of pipe cleaner crafts, and they're also perfect for learning activities such as STEM projects or fine motor activities. Kids can even make little toys to play with using pipe cleaners! Below

The best crafts keep kids occupied while helping them develop fine motor skills. Check out our 8 terrific (and cheap) tissue paper crafts that do just that!

Looking for some fun ways to announce pregnancy to parents? These creative and funny grandparents announcements are the best way to surprise!

Day sixteen of our Stay at Home, Screen Free Activities Programme is all about cool things to do with a big roll of paper. Cool things to do with a big roll of paper One of my daughters favourite things to do is roll out a BIG sheet of paper. There’s something about the scale which […]

You can transform your kids' bedrooms easily with these super fun IKEA kids' room hacks! You can enjoy having more fun with your entire family making these home projects from IKEA furniture while creating organized kids bedrooms in your home!

Here are some creative costume ideas that your kids will love. These homemade costumes from cardboard boxes are easy to make, cheap and fun. No need to box yourself in this Halloween - these costumes let you express yourself with little effort and money!

Whether you're drawing a foursquare court or your favorite flower, sidewalk chalk can be used to turn your outdoor space into a classroom. Get active with

Let your young learners practice essential fine motor and scissors skills with these Star Wars cutting practice worksheets. These FREE printable pages contain some of their favorite characters including R2-D2, BB-8, Darth Vader and help them master essential kindergarten skills without the giant mess when you let them cut p

Check out these Ikea Kallax hacks that can completely customize this classic white cube shelf into beautiful decor for any home or style.

20 Preschool thematic units with fun and creative activities based on books. Step-by-step lesson plans that are done for you and perfect to enhance your preschool curriculum!

Parents! This list of active indoor activities is the best we've ever seen, with fun Gross Motor games & creative ideas for high-energy kids. Perfect for Winter (snow days!), Spring (rainy days!) or for when Cabin Fever strikes. Awesome Boredom Busters and Brain Breaks for Toddlers, Preschool and beyond.

Summer is finally here and I am so excited to spend some time outside making family memories. My latest Pinterest obsession has been fun and unique ideas for outdoor kid’s play areas! John Woodford loves to be outside as much as possible and I can’t wait to put some of these ideas together! I can’t