Learning how to make clay is so easy! This homemade clay recipe uses simple ingredients you probably have in your kitchen already, and it's so nice to work with! How to Make Clay - Only 3 Ingredients! Air dry clay is so easy and so inexpensive to make! Why spend tons of money on store bought clay, when learning how to make clay at home is so much cheaper and so much fun?! We tested a few different clay recipes and this one was the BEST! And you only need 3 ingredients - water, cornstarch, and baking soda! You don't
Our collection of Germany Crafts for Kids are ideal to help you learn about this amazing country! Perfect for German Unity Day and Oktoberfest!
What happens when we can't decide between two different art projects in Project: Around the World? Well... we end up doing two. We started with our Colorful Building Paper Collages and I thought that would
A blog about our first year in Full Day Kindergarten
Our family received an Amaryllis kit from Grandma for Christmas. Today, the kids and I planted the bulb and got ready for a little measuring...
A family’s rhythm with infants or older children will look different than a family with only preschoolers in the house. So I share our current daily rhythm only as a starting point to get you thinking about what would work best in your home. I am strongly passionate about giving children structure.
I just finished my second week of school, and we had our Open House for the students and their families on Thursday night. I think I am finally getting a handle on Open House and speaking to groups of adults (read: anxiety, heart palpitations, dizziness, here). This was the first time in 18 years I had no butterflies or nerves, at all. I really just had fun mingling and speaking with the parents of my new students. Here are some pics of some student work I had up for the parents to see. This "The Many Pieces of Me" Activity is available in my Tpt store, Here. I love these "All About Me" dolls. Now, I did not create the pattern for the dolls. I just happened to have the boy and girl patterns from something else I used to do, and thought they would be a perfect backdrop for this great writing project. But, what the kids do is write an "I AM" poem. Then, I type it up, and place the poem on the students' hearts. I love it! Here is the FREE writing template for the "I Am" poems. This writing template comes from my End of the Year - Countdown to Summer! Writing Journal, available in my Tpt store. Here is a preview of the template: I also have a couple of tips I thought I would share that have made Open House a success for me. 1) Incentives! Sometimes parent participation is lower at my school than we would hope for. When I was first teaching, I remember an OH that totaled 8 people....including myself! Sad. Very sad. Some easy "tricks" that just might get your families through the door are: No homework passes: Free, easy, and the kids love em'. If their parent shows up, they will have a No Homework Pass on their desk the next day. The promise of food and drink: In the past, I have offered juice boxes, small bottles of water, and plates of cookies. I like the "party" type atmosphere it created. However, the last couple of years, I have been reluctant to do this because of so many food allergies. So, proceed with caution here. Open House Raffles: I normally start OH with a Scavenger Hunt. The kids take their parents through the classroom and show them the important work and systems that we have created in our room. It takes up the first 10-15 minutes while we are waiting for families to file in. After the students complete the last task on the Scavenger Hunt, they are directed to bring their completed "hunt" to me. I, in turn, gave them a raffle ticket. In the past, I have raffled-off gift cards to Toys-R-Us, and had almost 100% attendance! Gift cards were anywhere from $15-$20 dollars. I know, I know...that is just us spending more of our own money. But, to me, it was worth it, because it gave me a chance to clearly communicate my expectations to parents right from the beginning of the year. However, this year, my budget was tight, because as you might remember, I decided to do a classroom mini-makeover. So, this time, I still gave kids tickets, but held the raffle the next day, with the prize being something from my Treasure Chest. Results? The kids were still very happy! My wallet was also very happy. This is a pic of the Scavenger Hunt (right). It's not fancy. But, you get the idea. (Update 2015: I use the most adorable, EDITABLE, and FREE one, from 3 Teacher Chicks! Check it out here.) First dibs at Conference sign-up: My colleague does this and the parents love it. She prints out conference sign-up sheets for our Parent-Teacher Conferences to be held in September, and lets parents who attend OH have first crack at their preferred dates/times. She has little slips of paper where the parent can write down their date/time and take it home with them. I didn't do this on Thursday, but will definitely try to do it next year. (Update 2015: Here is how I did this!) My parents love being able to sign up for conferences right at Open House! Here is a cute Conference Reminder Slip FREEBIE for you. Click below to download. 2) Babysitting! The last two years, a classified school employee has taken all of of the kids next door to watch a movie during the teacher presentation portion of OH. This year, she had some 60 kiddos in there. But, it works BEAUTIFULLY! It is so nice to be able to discuss standards, procedures, homework, etc... in a quiet, distraction-free, room. At our school, grade levels all choose different nights for OH. That way, parents are not forced to choose which class to visit. If your school does this as well, maybe you and your grade level can babysit for another grade level, who is having their OH on a different night. They can then return the favor on your night. You can make this work. You just might have to get creative. 3) Don't get trapped! Don't get me wrong. I love parents who want to know how their child is doing. But, I think we can all agree that OH is not the time, or place, to discuss this. I give myself an "out" by printing up a quick Conference Request sign-up sheet and posting it in the room. That way, if a parent starts to make personal inquiries, I can just direct them over to the sign-in sheet. 4) Make each child a star! I use my Flip Camera to take snippets of student-narrated video of our classroom routine/procedures. I always make sure each child is featured in someway. Every parent loves to see their child onscreen! It is also a nice 5-8 minute breather for me! Just a note. Make sure you have parent permission before you make your video. At our school, a Photo/Video permission form is included in their first day packet. This year, I only had one child whose parent has asked that their child not be photographed. 5) Make OH Prep easy! I have all my OH sign-in sheets, parent flyers, ideas, in one folder on my desktop. Most years, all I have to do is change a date on a document and I am ready! One thing that has been a real life-saver is my OH Powerpoint. It is my agenda, and I use it to make sure I cover everything. I have included my PPT below. I did not create the background or style. But, someone was nice enough to share it, and now I will pass it on. I do have duplicate slides translated into Spanish. But, I left the download completely editable. So, add and delete away. Hopefully, it will be helpful to someone. FYI: It has all of its original pages. The slides I don't use are just at the end after the "Thanks for Coming" slide. (If you would like a copy, leave your email in a comment below, and I will send it to you. If you want to keep your email private, click on the "Contact Me" form at the top right of my blog!) 6) Ask for Help: I discovered this system for asking for classroom donations from my daughter's Kindergarten teacher many years ago. My daughter is in 6th grade this year. But, I still use this great poster to ask parents to help out with things that we will need all year long. The basic premise is that 1) parents decide what they would like to donate 2) take a post-it reminder from that section, and 3) sign their child's name on the poster. This system makes it easy to know how much of each item I can anticipate. I have had a lot of success with this system. I hope you will, too. (Update 2015: The newest version of this chart is shown below. I tape a small mirror to the chart to ask for volunteers for the classroom. Then, I just clip a Volunteer Sign-Up Sheet right next to it!) 7) Update 8/7/14: One last thing! I made this Open House/Back to School Night Parent Flip Book to share with my parents. I LOVE it! I like that they will have all this information in one place! Great news! I have made this book EDITABLE, and it is now available in my store for grades K, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5! Click on any of the images to find out more. Here is how my flip book turned out. First, I shared a little about me. Then, I included all the ELA and Math Common Core Standards for 2nd grade. Then, I included a detailed schedule for our classroom. I chose a General Information page for my 4th tab! Finally, I chose to put a letter template at the end. I haven't decided whether students will write a letter to their parents, or if parents will write a letter to their child, rip it off, and then leave it on their child's desk for the next day. Looking for more back-to-school ideas and inspiration? Follow me on Pinterest! Ok, well that's all I can think of for now. I hope you all have a wonderful new school year. Until next time, Nicole
Learn how to get organized for the new school year using a home kanban board (e.g. advanced chore chart) for your family
It is important for children to understand the origins and meaning of Memorial Day. My family has always celebrated Memorial Day with barbecues (cook-outs) or grilling steaks and eating well and just hanging out together
These nature crafts and activities will have taking nature walks all season long! Check out our top 10 nature walk crafts and activities!
This week in tot school our theme is family. I will be separating the activities by day instead of type because I think that it will be easier to implement. *MONDAY- Family Activity- Family Tree
I'm linking up with Jivey for this week's Workshop Wednesday: Response to Literature! When I take reading groups, we spend a lot of time discussing the story (as much discussing a first grader can handle anyway!). I always remind them what good readers do and I model it for them. For example, I'll say a good reader thinks about what the author wanted us to learn by reading this story. Then I'll pick a story we've previously read and have say I think so and so wanted us to learn blah, blah. After, I ask the kids to think back and see what the story we're working on is about. I do this for setting, main idea, pretty much everything! I also have a little graphic organizer flip chart that I use in my groups. It's part of our Reading Street reading program and can be written on with Expo markers. It has a page for character, plot, beginning, middle and end of a story, and lots more. Many times, I will use these for the kids to show their understanding of the characters, setting, and the stories problem. They especially love the part where they have to answer how they would solve the problem in the story. :) My kids do a lot of written responses in their writing journals as well. Often times, I'll give them a sentence or question to get the started. For example, our first unit is about pets, so their journal prompts may be about how they would take care of a pet, their favorite type of pet, or if they could have any pet, what would it be....things that activate prior knowledge or make them think a little more about the topics we are reading about. :) How do your kids respond to literature? :) One more thing before I take a break for dinner!! Here's a little something special I made for my classroom this weekend! I found the idea on Pinterest (surprise, surprise!). I think it came out pretty good!! I brought it to school on Monday and my kids absolutely LOVED it!! Lately they've been feeling sad because I've been doing special "second grade" things with them and they don't want to leave first grade. I don't want them to go either! But I told them whenever they're feeling sad, they can look at this and remember what a super bunch of friends they have! :) Happy Wednesday!
In 2010, I wrote up instructions and took pictures of how I make a rug for a series on Day to Day Adventures. That series has been extremely popular So I took all the posts in that series plus some new information and Rags to Rugs was born. I've added more details an
Are you wondering how to make a lap book? Then you're going to love the ideas, tips, and resources presented at this blog post. Plus a FREEBIE!
This post will share many fun Dr. Seuss things we have done this week! We made the Big Book Cat In The Hat, Cat In the Hat, What do You See? You can see the finished book at the bottom of this post. Dr. Suess Big Book Click here for all the words Dr.Seuss Stations This year I had Dr. Seuss Day. I had four different stations with parent helpers. The activities lasted about forty minutes. I wanted three helpers and had eight! The kids did not have to go to every station. I also had parents Guest read each morning and gave them a Dr. Seuss book to read. Creature Creation I got the idea from this post here. We made Creatures and named them. You can check them out at the bottom of this post. We put them on plates and used colored Sharpies to write their names. Play a Dr. Seuss Game TPT by Donna M. Glynn called Dr. Seuss Pack. simplebooklet.com Dr. Seuss Bingo Great Bingo Games The MOST popular Oobleck. Recipe for Oobleck Drawing on the computer We worked on Kerpoof. Draw a picture of a favorite Dr. Seuss book. Favorite Color Day I got lots of great ideas from Mrs. Bell's a Place Called Kindergarten. We wore our favorite color to school and made a graph. I love how this came out. I was not planning on doing this graph, but a child said, "Mrs. Clancy we wore our favorite colors now what?" We also watercolor the Cat in The Hat which was another idea from Mrs. Bell Below is a Bridge Map. Next week we plan to do Green Eggs and Ham and The Cat in The Hat. here for stations and favorite sheet This is our published book Cat in the Hat, Cat in the Hat, What do you see? Below you will see pictures of our creatures too! simplebooklet.com Here are our Creature Creations! simplebooklet.com
The ultimate list of activities on the first day of school to make students feel welcome, excited, and ready to learn! Crafts, games...
How do I set up a schedule or routine? What should we do each day? Yay! Schedules and routines are great for kids, including our little ones, and they help us have a sense of order and control too.…
Genie Plus is a new helper at Disneyland. It is aimed to help families utilize the park better during their stay. You can also purchase Genie Plus and use it to "skip the line" using the lightening lane for a few attractions. Today we will share some tips to decide if it's right for you and to use it well if you purchase the Genie+ add-on.
A very dear friend of mine asked me to post our family list of Sunday activities that we do. Perhaps you may benefit as well. As we try to keep this special day holy, it's sometimes easy for the children to get bored if you only present a list of "Don'ts" such as: don't watch TV, don't go to parks, don't shop, don't play computer games, etc. My children didn't look forward to Sundays, so we had a family council a long time ago and drew up a list of approved Sabbath activities that they can look through when they can't think of ways to spend their time. I think it's so important to have our family look forward to this day, rather than dread it and see it as something to be 'endured'. The Lord sanctioned the Sabbath as a blessing and a strength to us, and I want to delight in His holy day. Our all-time favorite activity is to play a game we made up, it's called the Gospel Game. Anyone can play this, regardless of your personal religious views. It's perfectly applicable to any set of scriptures (such as the Qu'ran, Talmud, etc). First we set the stage by creating the game board. We place 10 wash cloths on the floor of our living room. They are set up to create a path of 'stepping stones' across the room. The playing pieces for the game are the children. The first child will stand at one end of the path of washcloths and I sit at the other end. I will ask them questions about the scriptures or teachings of modern prophets, and if they answer correctly they may step forward onto the next wash cloth. I try to make the questions appropriate for the child, so Sarah will be asked much more difficult questions than Daniel. I try to ask about the scripture stories we've been learning that week. I will also use the Gospel Art Kit and show them pictures of Bible stories, and I'll ask them to tell me what the names of the people are or retell the story that is being portrayed. After answering 10 questions correctly, they are at the end of the path and they get to pick a jelly bean from the bowl in my lap. I love this activity because it's completely free to create and can be played with merely a few wash cloths (or any other items that can be used to create the path on the floor- sometimes we've used hot-pads from the kitchen, or pieces of paper.) This game can be tailored to the needs of any family. The children love playing this game and each child usually takes a turn going through the path several times. Sarah's favorite activity is called Sunday Stations. She sets up different activities around the house that people can cycle through. She may set up art supplies on the kitchen table for drawing and painting. She usually has a reading station with the Friend magazines next to the couch, and several blankets and stuffed animals to cuddle with while she reads. She'll tuck the boys both into the couch and read to them aloud while they hug toys. Another station may be singing time, with hand instruments to play in beat to the music. Another station may be at the piano. She'll play Primary songs and have me try to guess what song it is. There are also games we like to play that have Book of Mormon characters printed on the cards, so we can play Go Fish, Memory, Old Maid, and Crazy Eight with those decks. Nathan likes to cook with the children, and they all look forward to that a lot. They REALLY get excited to spend time with Dad in the kitchen. Last week Nathan instructed Matthew how to make macaroni and cheese all by himself, and Matt was so proud about learning this new skill. They also like to cook desserts together, like cream puffs or cake, or make loaves of bread. We love to read educational books together, but our very favorite reading activity is to gather in the library room with blankets while Nathan reads a classic book or poetry aloud. The children relished reading the original Alice in Wonderland and Winnie the Pooh books. Some other favorites are The Little house on the Prairie, Mr. Poppers Penguins, and A Midsummer's Night Dream (although it did take some explaining to translate Shakespeare into modern English for them). We play family games together after dinner. I prefer games that aren't highly competitive. There is more of a spirit of collaboration than competition in our games. I try to emphasize that it doesn't matter who wins since it's merely a game. The main point of the activity is to have fun as a family, regardless who the winner is. I try to train the children to wish each other luck before every game, and after every game they shake hands and say 'Good Game!'. Some of our favorite games include Rummikub, Uno, Blokus, Carcassonne, Mancala, and checkers. I try to make a dessert every Sunday, since we don't often have desserts during the week. When I don't have time or energy to make a 'real' dessert, we do "Sundaes on Sunday". We set up a sundae bar with ice cream and all the toppings then we let the children choose what toppings they'd like. (Editor's update: we have now changed our Sundaes on Sunday tradition. Children are rewarded with ice cream for their behavior in church. They get one scoop for being reverent in Sacrament Meeting and one scoop for participating well in Sunday School. They also get to choose one topping for each song they sang with the congregation during Sacrament meeting. This system works very well for us! Our kids usually sing every song and are eager to participate reverently in their classes.) On the first Sunday of each month, the children really look forward to doing PPI's with Nathan. (That would be a Personal Priesthood Interview) They beg him to do PPI's often. They each have a turn to go speak privately with Nathan. They first pray together, then they talk about thier week, concerns they may have about the family, what they are learning that week, and set goals. After the interview they get a small piece of chocolate or other candy. We sometimes take nature walks to enjoy Gods beautiful creations. There are lots of greenbelts around, so we pick one and drive to it. It's surprising how secluded the green belts in Austin feel....often we can't see or hear anything to indicate we're anywhere near civilization. I love it. I used to go on drives into the mountains on Sundays when I was little. I loved the feelings in my heart when I'm away from the noise and bustle of the city and surrounded by trees. I love listening to the birds in the trees and the buzz of insects. We always call grandparents or other relatives on Sunday. Nathan and I love chatting with our siblings and parents, especially since we haven't seen most of them for a couple of years. I would feel so isolated from my extended family if it weren't for our weekly chats. I love hearing of their adventures, concerns, trials, and triumphs. I don't feel like we're a thousand miles away, and it always lifts my spirits to share in life's delights with my favorite people. Developing talents is encouraged, so we sometimes practice music or create art of various forms: painting, drawing, embroidery, sewing, etc. We also do a ZIP meeting. (Zion ImProvement) We meet for a family council where we discuss any family concerns and set family goals. It could be goals on family struggles we'd like to overcome, or new talents we'd like to explore, or something we'd like to learn about or go see. I have a family binder with our goals. There is a page for each person so they can choose their individual goals to work on. We can review how the previous week went and decide what changes would be good to improve things. We also can talk about the schedule for the upcoming week and talk about the needs each person has so we can address them. We REALLY love playing the Compliment Game. For this game we pick a family member (for example, Daniel) then everyone has a turn to say something they admire about Daniel. After we all share compliments with Daniel, we move to the next person and everyone expresses particular things they like about that person. We do this until each member of the family has a turn. We try to be specific in our comments. Instead of just saying, "She's nice" we focus on details such as, "I like how she played with me and read me a story, that was nice." Often we do this around the dinner table. It provides such great conversation! It's uplifting for everyone and brings such a sweet spirit into the meal. Sometimes the children prefer to play this on the floor. We sit in a circle, and one person has a ball. They pick a family member to compliment. After expressing the kind words, they roll the ball to the person they picked. The new person compliments a new person of their choice and rolls the ball to them. This continues until everyone has received the ball several times. It's surprising how much they love this game! It's so simple, and it's so great for building family unity and love. Nathan loves making music as a family on Sundays (well, he does this everyday). He'll play the guitar or piano and we'll sing hymns together. Sometimes he'll accompany Sarah on the piano. The boys like leading the music with large wooden spoons to wave in the air. It's really fun to sing together. Earlier this year we hosted regular music nights in our home. We'd invite other members of the congregation to come sing twice each month and we'd serve refreshments. It was so nice to have our home be a gathering place for such wonderful people. I loved having them in my home. We will often read the Illustrated Scriptures together with the children. After each chapter they can choose to answer three trivia questions about the story.When they pass off 3 correct answers they can choose a jelly bean. I adapted this idea from Jewish history. In my studies a few years ago I read that teachers would give children honey on their tongue to savor while they listened to the words of the Talmud. It trained them to associate the scriptures with a physical delight until they were old enough to enjoy scriptures for the intrinsic rewards. A new goal for the summer is to introduce a new Sabbath activity. As part of the home school curriculum, each person will have an individual writing journal and we will all be writing in them during the week, whether it is a fictitious story, journal entry, poetry, etc. On Sunday evenings we will make popcorn (or some other snack) to enjoy while we take turns sharing something from our weekly writings. This way the children will have more exposure to public speaking and sharing their creations, and we can all encourage each other's efforts. I'm really looking forward to this activity! Sometimes we just have a quiet day and everyone cuddles together for a refreshing nap. Our choice of activities usually is dependent on the parental energy level. If it was an exhausting day at church (like teaching a rambunctious class of very active children), we opt for quiet activities like reading or painting or cuddling for a nap. See more ways to honor the Sabbath with kids here. I hope these ideas help you enjoy this special day each week with your family! What works in your family? Please share your ideas in the comments below!
Create surprise watercolor heart art for Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, or just to say I LOVE YOU any time of year!
These ideas will help your child appreciate and love the Earth especially....
Grab a free copy of the Pictionary words to create your own game cards for kids to play at home or in the classroom!
Hi folks! So, if you were paying attention during our Mr. Moose post last month, you might remember that a few weeks ago I shared that my family had got me a day long book binding course for my bir…
tabletop surprises: simple, summer learning fun
When my oldest was 4, I decided I would teach him preschool at home. As scary as it may seem to you now, you can learn how to homeschool preschool! You have what it takes to get your kids ready for kindergarten. Although my kids were learning through play, they weren't learning some things yet
When many of us count our blessings, we often start with our own families. After all, those in our immediate and extended family are usually the people we are with the most, through small moments a…
DECEMBER 31–JANUARY 6: We Are Responsible for Our Own Learning Preparation Picture of the Savior Picture 2-24, Calling of the Fishermen Stapler Glue Sticks Scissors Copy of flip book for each child…
A blog with ideas to aid us on our life's journey to perfecting ourselves and our families. Crafts, Printable Pages, LDS lesson helps and more.
Crying at school drop-off got you down? Check out 12 simple yet effective tips to help kids cope with back to school anxiety for a stress-free school year!
Fun kids worksheets for the Olympics Opening Ceremony in London. Have your kids play BINGO while watching the opening ceremony!
A Tutorial On How To Turn Your Pictures Into Watercolor Art Work. Create Meaning In Your Home Decor By Making Water Color Art From Your Every Day Family Photos.
How to turn a lazy susan into a piece of "spin-able" art!
Lent is just a few days away. I have rounded up a few activities for our family to do. I planned each week with a gospel account of Je...
One of most elementary teachers' favorite fiction books, Our Class is a Family, by Shannon Olsen is the perfect book to read on the first day of school. This cute book teaches social-emotional skills, social skills, and just how to be a good human in general. Read on to find 10 classroom-building activities and help create a class family; fostering positive relationships and cultivating a sense of classroom community right from the start of the school year!
Discover your family's past with this free Family History Kit. The fun activity sheets help you learn about your ancestors and celebrate your family traditions.
Over 25+ of the best Mothers Day Crafts for Kids. Lots of homemade crafts and gifts kids can make for Mother's Day. Handprint crafts, cards, and keepsakes Mom will love!
Using a loop schedule for our homeschool has taken away stress and allowed us to enjoy the learning process together.
Khan Academy is our first recommendation for homeschooling families. We're sharing the best Khan Academy courses and how we use it every day with our kids!
