These picture books for nature study are perfect to read whether you have a love for nature walks or simply enjoy reading living literature in your home.
When hot and humid air makes the weather unstable in July and August, it's the perfect time to study different types of clouds with your kids.
Easy DIY Word Family Activities Book, Perfect beginner reader ideas and activities, Early childhood education ideas, DIY Book for kids, word family list
Know anyone who has access to AAC tools but doesn’t yet use them throughout the day? Keiran has a new AAC app that is well-populated with core vocabulary. Gabbie has had an SGD for awhile but…
Celebrate the 4th of July with this fork painted fireworks craft! Use forks to stamp paint on paper, creating beautiful red, white, and blue fireworks. Then sprinkle on some glitter for a little extra sparkle! Have you ever used a fork to paint?! It's so fun to use an everyday household item to create art! Gather up a few simple craft supplies and spend a fun afternoon with the kids painting these beautiful and easy patriotic fireworks. This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something we may earn a small commission which helps us run
Celebrate Canada Day with this jingle bells craft the whole family can enjoy. Kids will love making noisemakers to ring in the special events on the national holiday..
Best science experiment for kids: a sparkly explosion!! Kids will love this colorful and exciting science project.
It’s important to have a collection of hello songs for your preschool music classes. They are a perfect way to start of a class and help your students transition into learning music. I try to rotate through several hello songs, but his is my go-to hello song that I use in many of my classes ... Read More about Hello Song: Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello by Nordoff/Robbins
Update: July 13, due to overwhelming interest (and overwhelming my email box) the full collection will only be available until Monday, July ...
Sweeter Than Sweets has a great game that she came up with using homemade dice. One die has different animals, and the other has different emotions. Your little one will love to impersonate what sh…
By David D. Burns, M.D., from The Feeling Good Handbook
A sneak peek into second grade
I am starting off this post with a wonderful inspirational quote my friend Betty sent me ( from her sweet sister BJ!). A thankful heart doubles our blessings and causes us to enjoy them twice; once when we receive them and again when we remember them. Lord, let me never take You for granted and daily remember to thank you. Starting this blog is something I am really thankful that I did- not because of the actual blog itself- but because of the connections it has let me make- you fabulous people out 'there' who are happy, encouraging teachers, loving to share ideas and build each other up! By the end of school last year, I was just not really myself. I felt like I would come home and complain, and I was really letting other people's negativity get me down and affect me. (Maybe I felt that way cause my husband told me that...hmmmm...) In fact, it was SOOO hot in the school and people (not even the kids...) got SO cranky, that my friend gave me this post-it pad. I just saw it in my desk the other day and smiled again... (yeah, it was bad... haha) I didn't like that at all. Seeing the problems and forgetting the blessings can become a habit if you let it. This summer has been completely different. I am so happy each day to read all the fabulous ideas and thoughts you all have, to share ideas I think of, and to comment and read comments and notes from the sweetest people. I have 'met' some real, true friends here, and I thank you for that. I have NO idea why I remember this, but when my kids were little, they would watch Rocket Power (a silly cartoon about skaters and surfers...) and I will never forget one of the characters talking about this group of people who didn't like them and saying, "Don't let the shoobies get you down. " NO idea why I remember that- but it stuck with my and is sort of my motto. How pathetic that my internal voice is a surfer-cartoon character ... but ... this year- no matter how much stress other teachers are under with tests, students, parents, RTI, APPR, SLO, LLI, RTTT, PTO, NCLB, or any other letters you can think of... Here is my advice- Just remember to be thankful. Enjoy your precious class of students who love and need the happy, caring, real you. DON'T LET THE SHOOBIES GET YOU DOWN! Stay as positive as you can. Do your thing. End of sermon! :) (I think the sermon was just for me to go back and read once school gets going.) On to Monday Made It! Thank you, Tara, for hosting this! Here are some things that I had fun making this week! Lots were from great Pins I saw and made to work for me. First- a couple anchor charts- (Please- art teacher friends of mine... don't judge. I would like to say I TRY to draw like a kindergartener so the kids feel better about themselves. Yeah, that's it. That's what I do!) (I have post-its cut in half all ready for when we do our labeling lesson.) Next, I made these little guys for each child to take home, once we learn about them and use them first in the classroom. I had these little wooden spoons that come from those ice cream cups you can buy. I made one side into a pointer for the children to point to each word as they read it, and also for them to remember to use their EYES to notice pictures in the story they are reading. Again- some had LOTS of attitude and personality to me and quickly became favorites...( You're probably thinking I could use some real human friends- I know...but look at those yellow eyes...either crazy, bored, or trying to be sexy. Not sure. ha!) For the back side of the spoon, I used the adorable spacemen from Sandy's (Kinder-Gardening) Sight Word Construction Packet , to help the children remember to use those spaces between words when they write. I also made some spacemen and eye pointers to use in the classroom before I send these home to use. I will write a note with these to the parents explaining just how both sides of the spoon are used- and hopefully it will be used at home for lots of practice reading and writing! Here are a couple counting activities I made and have ready to laminate. I have a big bin of colored glass dots that the children use for sorting and patterning. I think I will just include these fish right in that bin for another beginning year activity. I am going to keep my 4-leaf clovers in my extra little pot of gold with these gold counters- or maybe some of my "real" gold stones. (This isn't actually something I made to use- just the idea to remember to make for adding/subtracting using different color glass dots and a recording sheet.) I will leave you with this- (again- not "funny" at all to 19 year old sons. Whatever! ;) Happy Monday! :)
LD was itching to do some of his old science experiments this morning. We had all of the directions collected on a 3X5 ring (from when we did them a year+ ago). LD leafed through and chose several experiments. Here is the first one he and the girls did. It's been over a year since we last did this experiment, but it still had a real "wow" factor for all of us. The kids each took turns doing it (LD did it four times!) 1) fill a glass jar with water 2) put 2 Tablespoons of oil in a pitcher and add 3 drops of food coloring each of red, yellow and blue (not too much or the color will drop out of the oils when you pour it into the water) 3) stir the oil and food dye well to break up the dye into small droplets 4) pour slowly into the water and after a few moments you'll see the fireworks begin as the food dye slowly drops out of the oil suspension. You can see we had a bit too much yellow dye, but all the other photos turned out blurry. Here is an example from when we did this another time: We did a similar experiment with shaving cream that was just as spectacular! See this post: Shaving Cream Fireworks You may also be interested in these preschool science posts: Free Science Experiment Pack (at our new location, homeschoolden.com) Chemistry Experiments and Activities for Young Learners: You'll find a half-dozen chemistry experiments my youngest did during our chemistry unit (she's 7). Some of these make good science activities for preschoolers too even if they don't understand the complex science behind it! Animals Around the World Montessori Cards Preschool at Home: This link takes you to 20 or 30 of our preschool posts... everything from science experiments, math activities and games to letter activities, phonics games, activities for small more skills and more! You might be interested in these related posts as well: Science Activities for Ages 4 to 6 or so Beat the Cold with these Science Experiments about Ice, Blubber and More! Science Experiments: Water Molecule Attraction Summer Science Experiments – Tasty Lemon Soda Preschool Science at Home See you again soon! Remember our blog has moved to homeschoolden.com and we update our Homeschool Den Facebook Page a couple times a day during the weekday! ~Liesl
Wow the kids this summer and make fireworks in-a-jar !
Keiran has a new AAC app that is well-populated with core vocabulary. Gabbie has had an SGD for awhile but doesn’t use it as frequently as her team had hoped. Hudson is transitioning from PECS to a…
It's Sensory Awareness Month! And we're embracing all of the kooky, fun and unusual sensory quirks only someone with SPD will understand.
Update: July 13, due to overwhelming interest (and overwhelming my email box) the full collection will only be available until Monday, July ...
Outrageously fun pop rock experiment kids will ask to try over and over again. Use worksheet to record balloon science results!
Preschool science, curriculum, printables, crafts, homeschool, and education!
Black History Month is a fantastic time to spotlight some inspirational African American artists! These artists have all made important con...
Make this brightly colored chalk pastel fireworks art for a fun and easy art project kids will love! Perfect for New Years, the 4th of July, or Canada Day.
Wow the kids this summer and make fireworks in-a-jar !
Looking for some fun and unique summer crafts to do with the kiddos? Me too! School is almost over and I've got summer crafts on my mind! Today I'm sharing this fun twist on a God's Eye weaving craft. (Remember collecting sticks and making those in summer camp?) But, instead of making the traditional 2 stick version, we recently made a fun 3 stick version.... that also happens to look like a tiny baby turtle! (Aww, aren't they cute? My preschooler was in looove with these.) Weaving Cute Baby Turtles Using God's Eye Weaving Pattern This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support! For my full disclosure policy, click here. Usually I have a ton of related picture books to share.... but apparently we don't read very many turtle-themed books! (Know of any good ones?) The only ones that I can remember us reading (and liking) are the Franklin books. But, if you're looking for some great inspirational art books to get the creative juices flowing, here are Our current 20+ favorite art books: Colorful Dreamer The Iridescence of Birds Modern Art Adventures Mix it Up Press Here Any Ed Emberley Book The Day the Crayons Quit Beautiful Oops Dog's Colorful Day Too Much Glue Harold and the Purple Crayon Day with No Crayons Artist to Artist Artist Ted The House Baba Built A Blue Butterfly: A Story of Claude Monet Sandy's Circus A is for Art The Artful Parent This Bridge Will Not Be Grey Art Workshops for Children Ok. Let's get to weaving some baby turtles! Let's Weave Some Baby Turtles! First we painted 3 mini popsicle sticks with quick dry solid tempera paint. (I LOOOVE these paints because we can paint quickly and if the baby starts crying and we have to stop crafting... it's not a big deal. There's not much cleanup or setup needed!) Once our paint dried (ours dried in a couple of minutes) we drew on a face and some toes. Then, we hot glued the turtle together. Now we grabbed our colorful yarn and got weaving. First I tied on a piece of long yarn. (I made sure to leave a bit of excess yarn so that I could tie my last piece of yarn with my first piece of yarn at the end.) Then, we wrapped the yarn around our turtle (across the center), making sure to cover the middle portion. (I think I wrapped it around 2-3 times each time.) Ok. Then, we began weaving just like you would with a normal two stick God's eye pattern. We placed our yarn over a popsicle stick, wrapped it around once, and then placed our yarn over the next popsicle stick, and wrapped it around... and kept repeating that over and around process. And to change colors, we simply tied on another piece of yarn. Once we finished, we tied our last piece of yarn to our first piece of yarn. And that's it! I really hope you try this activity with your kiddos too. It's such a fun and easy craft that's sure to please kids of all ages. (When my 4 year old saw me making these, he immediately wanted to make some too. I got the first steps started for him, but he quickly caught onto the "over and around" weaving pattern!) And if you liked this activity, you can find more weaving crafts and more popsicle stick crafts on the blog! Let's Keep in Contact! Check out my Pinterest, Facebook, or Instagram accounts for more creative ideas! Happy making, friends!
Build your own zoetrope and create animation with this STEAM project. Give it some patriotic flair with red, white and blue designs for July 4th.
Roundup with lots of Montessori-inspired poetry activities for a poetry unit or for individual poetry activities at home or in the classroom.
Teach kids about temperature as they perform easy science experiments with hot and cold water and the our free printable.
Learn how to make a parachute by following a few easy steps. Post includes a list of materials can you try plus ideas for setting up a parachute experiment. Which parachute design is best?
¿ME ACOMPAÑAS? Ya está disponible mi nueva página de psicología y educación. www.psypuc.com En ella se abordarán temas de crianza respetuosa y educación emocional. Además, se ampliará el contenido …
You hear “sensory activity” and you think messy, right? Well, lucky for you, this kindergarten language development activity is mess-free but just as much fun as any other sensory activity! The purpose of this activity is to let your child explore an object using only their sense of touch, while using descriptive language to communicate to
