Enchanted Schoolroom

LightUp Edison Kit Review and Discount Code

2015-03-11T11:33:00.001-07:00

Have you tried the LightUp Kits? They are wonderfully innovative kits that introduce electricity concepts in a hands on way to kiddos!

I even love the pun on the names of the kits!

The kits are called Edison and Tesla, after Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla — both giants of electrical engineering whose innovations changed our lives. But Edison and Tesla were also famous rivals! Edison insisted his own system (DC) was superior, whereas Tesla thought AC was the technology to use. This conflict between the methods and their masters was known as the War of Currents!

Even the name of the kits are brimming with learning :)

So naturally, I decided to get them. The kits have wonderful reviews, and the LightUp App that is part of the kit intrigued me. I think the app is the first-ever interactive augmented-reality tutor app. Combine a real time app with electronics building blocks, and you have a winner!

I decided to start with the Edison Kit. Full disclosure: I was given a blogger discount, but I would have purchased the set anyway :) All opinions are my own.
And you, my reader, get a discount as well!!

With magnetic blocks that snap together, you can build circuit in seconds, truly. Download the LightUp Learning App and get ready for some fun (and learning!)

LightUp blocks included in the Edison Kit:
Rechargeable Battery, Red LED, Buzzer, Light Sensor, Momentary Switch, 50k Variable Resistor, 4 Wire blocks, and Micro USB Cable.

Note that every block is just ONE COMPONENT. The blocks are not higher level modules. So the kids start with the basic building blocks of circuits.

Let's get started with the first circuit, the Morse Code Beeper. Start your App.

The App is an interactive tutor that guides you through the process (all the steps, the components you need, why you need them, and how you connect them), checks your work, and helps you figure out what went wrong and how to fix it.
For this circuit, we needed battery, switch, buzzer, and wire.
This screenshot explains battery. Love the nice crisp explanation that kids can understand!

After you are done building the circuit, use the LightUp App to check your circuit. The boys were super-excited by this stage! Just take a picture and see what the App does.

LightUp Lens, the in-app augmented reality feature, gives the kids "X-ray" vision by letting them "see" the flow of electricity, and more importantly, helps them out when things don't work!

Spiderman is 5, and Batman is 7, so I did not have much in the way of expectations from Spiderman, but boy o boy was I surprised...
The kit intrigued them in different ways.

Spiderman loved making the circuit. He snapped the blocks, made the circuit stand up instead of flat on the ground, and used the Morse Code to signal everything he could think of! He is an expert at Morse Codes now!

Batman (who has worked with littleBits and Snap Circuits) was not as awed by the making of the circuit itself. He loved the Morse Codes as well. But he was most interested in finding out whether the App can detect mistakes in your circuit (which it totally can!!!)
He read about all the components, messed up the circuit to see what the App would detect, what corrections it would suggest and why!!

Both loved the "flow of electricity" in the App. The circuit animations are crucial to helping kids understand not just what pieces to connect together, but how the circuit works.

The kit is an impressive blend of learning, ease of construction with the magnetic blocks, and technology that holds everything together withe App that is sure to appeal to this generation of kids!

Projects you can make with the Edison Kit includes a Morse code buzzer, night light, dimmer switch, and lunch box alarm.
Concepts you learn from tinkering with this kit: circuits, conductivity, voltage, current, resistance, sensors, LEDs etc.

See the complete list of Edison Projects.

Once you have played and learned with the Edison Kit, upgrade to the Tesla Kit and work on projects that teach kids how to code. Batman has already asked me for the Tesla kit!

Now for the discount code!

Go to the LightUp website, use the code "taketen", and get 10% off.

I is for Incredible India, letter A

2015-01-28T15:03:00.002-08:00

Batman (7) is starting to read a lot of books about India, mostly fun mythology books, and epics (the condensed versions) and has lots of questions.It was his idea to come up with an A-Z book about India.

It's mostly aimed at the 7+ crowd (Batman's age).

Every week (or two), I will post about one letter. When the entire series is complete, I will put the whole thing in a pdf file. Till then, feel free to print out the images.

This might be a fun addition to your continent box for Asia.

India just celebrated it's 65th Republic Day (anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution) on 26th January with President Obama as an honored guest. I thought it was a good time to start the series!!

This week's post is about letter A.
But first, a quick introduction to India!

India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country with more than 1.2 billion people, and the the largest democracy in the world, with a civilization that is more than 5000 years old!

Spanning an area of 3,287,263 square kilometers, it is a vast country and includes dry desert areas, evergreen forests, snowy Himalayas, a long coast, and fertile plains. It also hosts a unique eco-system rich with vegetation, wildlife, rare herbs, and a large variety of birds.

Virtually every major religion of the world like Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Islam and Christianity are found here. The Sikhs, the Zoroastrians, the Jews (living in India since 600 B.C.), the people of Bahai faith, all are found in India in substantial numbers.

There is no such thing as the Indian language. There are over 200 languages in India (almost 1600, if you include dialects), with about twenty of them being very prominent ones. The Indian currency is printed in 15 languages.

Then there is diversity in clothing and attire, food habits, culture and customs to name a few.

It is such a complex nation, it is referred to as a sub-continent.

But the main theme of this culture is the unity which absorbs all the diversities. India is a perfect example of Unity in Diversity. Indians are bound by common cultural heritage and share basic human values. The rich and varied heritage happens to be one of the many sources of pride of the nation.

Print one or all three images for letter A! I had a hard time restricting myself to one, so I posted all three!

All images are from Wikipedia unless specified otherwise.

Leave me a comment if you want to read about something specific for a letter.
And I would love to read if you have something similar for a country!!

You might also like this post, which talks about a tradition in which we celebrate baby's first taste of rice...

Human Conductor Of Electricity

2015-01-26T16:30:00.001-08:00

My boys are in love with the Energy Stick from Steve Spangler Science!

It's a plastic tube about 7 inch long, and it has colored LED lights inside the tube. It also has two electrodes on either side of the tube.
When these two electrodes are touched at the same time and the circuit is complete, the tube buzzes and lights up.

I love the fact that it requires no setup, it's a great visual (and noisy - it's a bit surprising in its buzzing loudness and flashing lights!) aid, and very hands-on.

Energy Stick in the dark

It's a great simple tool to teach the kids the basics of electricity. like open and closed circuit, difference between conductors and insulators.

My 5 year old loves it - he understands that if mom, him, and his brother are all holding hands and holding the electrodes of the tube, the circuit or path is complete. He understands that instead of touching his brother's hand, if he touches his shirt, the tube will not light up because the shirt did not let the electrons pass through :)

So water conducts electricity. Hmm, so is it a good idea to touch electric sockets with wet hands?

Metals like steel also conducts electricity, or, they are conductors.

But legos (with which we cannot part even for a few minutes) are plastic, and they are insulators.

What else could you test?

The first graders in Batman's class loved it, they got a real "charge" out of it. Try it with 24 kids and see the hilarious results when they find out that they are all "electric"!

Montessori Object Boxes

2015-01-12T11:02:00.002-08:00

Both my superheroes have used their Montessori Phonetic/Alphabet Box extensively.

Please see my post about Phonetic Boxes for toddlers here.

You might think - why objects? Pictures work as well, and they are not nearly as expensive!

I personally think that the tactile experience of handling the three dimensional objects, and seeing miniature replicas of the everyday objects makes it more fun for the kiddos, and makes language work more exciting. And the possibilities with them are endless - you can extend them and get lots of mileage out of them.

To sum it up, it makes language work more fun and exciting!

Back to the boxes.
Initially, I had a few letters in each box. And I introduced the letters in this order, according to one Montessori Album.

r a m f

b i t g

p o n l

h u s c

d e x q y

z v w j k

The object box is introduced as a Phonetic Object Box, for the kiddos to learn the sounds associated with all the letters. That means short vowel sounds, and hard sounds for c and g.
My kids always manage to sneak in their toys, which is great! It shows that they understand Angry Bird starts with "a", or Dora and Diego start with "d", and McQueen starts with "m".

These pictures were taken when Spiderman was already confident of his sounds. After working on a few letters at a time, I combined all letters from A to M in one box, and letters N to Z in another box.

And for both Spiderman and Batman, I would ask them to sort all 13 letters at a time once they were conversant with it. I know my kids have the attention span for it. You will know your kids and students the best. So decide accordingly.

They had tons of fun playing with all the miniatures, their toys, speculating about the origin of some of the toys (wasn't this from the goody bag from xyz's birthday etc), and of course, reviewing the beginning sounds.

So they now know their beginning sounds. What next? The same collection can be used for tons of things.

Extend them. Create sensory bins with them - something simple, like just plain white rice, with some or all the letters and one or more objects corresponding to each letter can make the whole experience different and playful and fun!
Use then for pre-reading activities. Take a peek here.
Use the same objects and work on ending sounds.
Middle sounds are harder to identify for beginners. So pair the objects with the same middle sounds. Start with 10 objects, with one pair for each vowel (short) sound. Line up one of the pairs, and ask them to find the matching pair.
Rhyming Words - you probably already have quite a few pair. See bank and tank in the picture. If you are working on the pink series, look for objects like pen - hen - men, lid - kid, mop - top, bed - red (a piece of felt works). You can find more pictures here.
Use them with moveable alphabets for Pink, Blue and Green Series work.
Use them to introduce blends and digraphs and diphthongs. See my post here.
Extend them to teach doubles - vowels or consonants. I had an apple for a, book and ball for letter b, egg for e, green for letter g - you see where I am going.
For syllable count - ask the kids to sort them in 1 syllable, 2 syllable, 3 syllable words etc.
Work on compound words - for example, if you have a butterfly, or ladybug, or football in the collection, the kiddos can identify the components. Or if you have a pin, wheel, cow and boy, they can come up with the compound words - pinwheel and cowboy!
Once the kiddos have mastered the short sounds, use and extend the object boxes and go hunting for long vowel sounds in your collection. Have grapes for g? Teach them about the silent e in it, and how a says its name.
Similarly, extend and use them object boxes for soft c and g sounds.
If you look at the pictures here, you will see I have car, feather - use them to teach about r controlled vowels.
Use it for singular / plural work. For kids working on the pink series, instead of giving them the labels, you can get them to spell the words using moveable alphabet. If they can spell pen, pens is easy-peasy for them!
For Montessori grammar work - you can start with noun and article box. You already have everything you need. And if you have farm animals, you are all set for Montessori Grammar Farm.

And they are not just limited to language work. Use them to count and categorize.
Use them for math work.

They can be used to introduce the kids to living and non-living things, or perhaps natural and man-made, soft or hard, sink or float etc.

For older kids:

Present them a few things from your collection, and ask them to compose a story with the those elements. The results can be quite hilarious.
Provide the objects (nouns), and ask them to write down adjectives.
Categories for older kids: magnetic or non-magnetic, conductive or non-conductive, vertebrates or non-vertebrates.

Even more fun might be to give a collection to the kids, and ask them to categorize it.
Having two boys, I always have lots of transportation themed stuff. You could extend use them for Land/Air/Water Unit with vehicles and animals.
I also had quite a few animals. With one or two toobs of animals, I was able to do a categorization of the major habitats - grassland, desert, ocean, forest, polar-regions.

Here's a picture of Spiderman working on the pink series work with me...

Great places for scoring miniature objects:
Motessori Services
Tubes like the Safari Toobs
Hobby Lobby
Factory Direct Craft
Michaels, Dollar Store, stores that sell doll-house miniatures, other craft stores
Etsy stores like HighPie
Toy bins at home (you will be surprised at how much you have at home already)

For more ideas on the objects, how to use them, where to get them etc, please follow my Pinterest board: Montessori Language Arts with Objects

As you can tell, I love object boxes, and would love to hear how you are using them! Leave me a comment, or a link.

Teacher Appreciation Gifts and Printables - Thanks for helping me grow

2014-05-02T14:17:00.001-07:00

Teacher Appreciation Week is next week (May 5-9).
I think teachers most appreciate heartfelt letters of thanks and appreciation from the kids (and their parents). But that can always be supplemented with something small and fun, and something flexible like gift cards!
The kids helped me make these fun succulent terrariums as a big thanks for all their teachers last year. The reason for the delay? I wanted to make sure the plants survived - they did, I kept one of the fun planters for us, and I see some of the planters on teacher's desks at school!
It was a big hit with the teachers.

This is a project in which kids can fully participate. Their hands are smaller than mine, so it helped out. They decided on potted succulents. The kids potted their own succulents a while back, and were familiar with the process.

I had a hard time choosing containers, and decided to go with different kinds of planters, and loved them all.

In the pictures, you see tear shaped glass terrariums (Amazon) that can be hung (they are meant for air plants, but worked out perfect for my purposes), ceramic cups (Home Goods), wine glasses, and some hurricane lanterns (World Market) meant to be used with candles. Once we decided on the planters, I took the kids to Home Depot and got succulents to fit the planters.

Have these ready before you start.

Planter - something with wide opening will make it easier for you to plant and it is good for the plants - it won't accumulate moisture.
Succulent (or cacti) - the size of the plant will depend on the size of the planter
Gravel or small pebbles/stones
Sand (optional)
Activated Charcoal (Amazon)
Succulent or cacti soil mix
Glass beads, pretty stones and other accessories to pretty things up
Small paintbrush and straw if you want add sand as the top layer
Spray bottle

For drainage, I placed both gravel and activated charcoal. I think one or the other by itself will work, but I did not want to take a chance that the plants will rot and die! If it is a glass container, place colored gravel to pretty it up.
1 to 2 inch of gravel, followed by a layer of the charcoal. Place a layer of the soil. Get your plant, and gently loosen the rootball a little. Place it in the planter, and cover with soil as required.
After this, you can place colored sand, and create dunes or waves with the straw (blow the sand) and the brush. This will especially go well with cacti!
I figured with the kids, it might be better to skip this. We went for shells, pretty pebbles etc. Have your child write the teacher's name with a sharpie on a cork or a flat colored stone. For example, Ms. Grace's Garden. The surfaces were too small for my then 5 year old, so I wrote them.

Add a ribbon or bow, some pretty tags, and you are all done!

We used some fun tags like "Thanks for helping me grow" and "You are my cup of tea" for the tea cup planters.

Please feel free to use the tags. Click here to download.

Some tips - place your terrarium in a place where it gets direct sunlight for at least 3-4 hours. Don't water it often - check to see the moistness of the soil. When you do water, there should be about an inch of water at the bottom (with a glass container, it is easy to check the visible water in the gravel at the bottom!)

What are you planning for the teachers in your life?

Eggy Games - CVC Word Hunt and Crack the Code

2014-04-23T16:16:00.002-07:00

Prolong the fun with those Easter Eggs! Use and reuse them all throughout the year!

For the beginning readers, have a CVC Word Hunt with the eggs!

I hid the eggs with one letter in each with a good mix of vowels and consonants. Once Spiderman found them all, it was a hop to the finish line.

How many words can you make? Make it more challenging by giving them a time limit.

Make sure to have at least a few letter comibinations that are familiar to your word builder. Spiderman loves to spell fox. I was careful to include that.

He had a blast, he came up with tons of words, but sometimes did not have enough letters.
In my mind, I set it up as a CVC Word Game, but nobody passed that memo to Spiderman - his goal was to make words that are real.

So he came up with egg when he saw 'e' and 'g', but he had only one g. But at least he knows egg has two g in it!
He spelled frog, another bonus.
He also came up with sight words, which again I did not expect, like no, go, to and the.

So don't be surprised if your kids take the game to a whole another level :)

Batman wanted to play Spy while his brother was off making words. So I came up with a simple code (which turned out to be too simple).

Craft the code depending on the level of your cryptographer. Give him the code cheat sheet, and the first clue/code. He will find the first egg when he "cracks" the first code. The location of the second egg is inside the first egg and so on.

Although the codes were easy, I liked that he did not even have to complete the words to guess the location. So for closet, he only went as far as "CLO---", and guessed the rest. Same for microwave. He only went as far as "MICR------". His logic, it can't be microphone, it's short by a letter, and anyway you can't hide an egg in it. So it has to be microwave!!

I did not expect that bit of deduction!

Some of his clues were written in teeny tiny handwriting, and he had to use his magnifying glass to read the clue.

If you are having a spy/detective themed birthday party, this could be incorporated into the theme.

What eggy games are you upto?

Leprechaun Trap and Pot of Golden Words!

2014-03-14T15:57:00.000-07:00

Leprechaun trap for KG class project? Hmm....

The one that Batman came up with sounded complicated, with pulleys and levers and springs. He decided to ultimately abandon it. He was worried that the wily little fellow might get hurt.

So we decided to get some inspiration from Family Fun Magazine, and he liked the Hat Trap!
We put some cotton balls at the bottom of the trap so the leprechaun wouldn't get hurt, lol!

All we needed were one oatmeal type container, felt sheets (green, black, and yellow), and some pipe cleaners.
I had some green and gold coins from an older sensory bin.
And the sparkly green and yellow gems as well.
On a previous visit to Michaels, we collected some clover cutout and stickers, which were our embellishments.
Now all I needed was to remember where I put my glue gun.

So why a hat? Those who make it a point to stay on top of Irish legends (like our intrepid JoEllen from Family Fun) know that these guys might be little, but have big egos! A giant version of their hat will reel them in them for sure. And why the "DO NOT CLIMB" sign in my son's best handwriting? Well, they like to break rules, so another bait for them if you will.

Batman got to work. I cut out the rungs of the ladder, and he twisted the pipe cleaners while I held the sides for him. Some more pipe cleaners in the right colors, some twists, a few drops of hot glue, and voila, a pretty rainbow to tempt the leprechaun into climbing up.

The hot glue gun, being "hot", was handled by me. But Batman was the scissor master, snipping away at the felts to cover everything up. We decided to glue some feathers to ~~hide some rough edges~~ pretty up the hat!
Now for the bait, some shiny gold and green coins right next to the rainbow. Once the leprechaun climbs up and reaches for the gold, he will fall through (see the hole in the center) the green felt covering and land on the cotton balls we placed in the container.

We decided to add the sparkly gems as a path to the ladder, and for some bling! Can't have too much of it if you want to tempt a leprechaun!

Some lucky clovers, some more gold coins placed strategically, a few stickers, a pretty stand for the DO NOT CLIMB sign, and we are ready for action.

But while we wait for the trap to bear fruit, so to speak, how about a game of "Pot of Golden Words".

Get your free copy here.

Teachers, please see my TpT Store. This is for personal use only. The set is on sale till Monday, March 17th :)

It is part of a 8 game board package. Two boards are provided here for free.

The first one is to practice your blends, and the second one for digraphs.

The Level2 included in the package is more challenging. The kiddos will never realize they are learning to spell.

The rules for all games are the same. Collect the gold coins for that board, grab a partner, and roll the die. Make a word with the letters on the shamrock where you land, and find the coin with the matching picture. If you make a mistake, you lose a turn, and don’t get any gold coins. If you cannot make a word, your partner gets a chance to try, and gets to keep the corresponding gold coin if he/she succeeds. The one with the most gold coins wins.
You can use a timer – players have to come up with a word before time is up.

Do you have any plans for trapping some wee little leprechauns? Do let us know!

Happy Valentine's Day - Mustache Soaps and Game Boards...

2014-02-14T15:33:00.003-08:00

The day is almost over, but better late than never!

Please enjoy the free Valentine themed Game Boards for Short and Long Vowel Sounds at my TpT Store. You can find it here. It has two game boards with 20 cards each, so hopefully, the kiddos will get plenty of practice.

Here's an image of one of the boards,

and the cards to go along with it...

While on TpT, everything in the store is on sale till 17th. So hurry over!

I saw these wonderfully fun VDay 'Stache tags from +Jenae Jacobson (I Can Teach My Child), which appealed to the boys (& their mom!)

I decided to add these fun mustache themed personalized pencils from Oriental Trading, and conversation hearts eraser.

I was cross eyed from making 30 Valentines, and that was just for the younger child!

To go with the theme, for the teachers and other adults the kiddos wanted to give Valentines to, I decided to make some mustache soaps - a wonderful combination of goatmilk soap base, honey soap base, and ground oatmeal, basically, a soft creamy gently exfoliating soap fit for breakfast! The flecks in the soap are the oatmeal!

Then I raided World Market for some fun stuff to go with the theme - clips, pins, magnets, wine markers, beer bottle markers.............

.......... and made some fun labels, and gave them all homes!

Let me know if you have a 'stache theme going on as well!!

100th Day Shirt

2014-02-05T11:48:00.001-08:00

Happy 100th day!

Batman needed a t-shirt for school to celebrate this milestone. I suggested something like googly eyes(I have a stash with stick back, just peel and press on the fabric) - we could make monsters out of them, or add 1 in front and make a 100.

But of course, my Kindergartener thought that was too baby-ish!
He wanted tally marks. So I googled it, and saw this lovely post on tally marks t-shirt!

But I don't own a Silhoutte. And don't trust myself with "non-erasable" fabric markers.

So what to do....

Iron-on transfer paper to the rescue!!
A quick trip to Michaels, and I had the t-shirt and the transfer paper!
I made the tally marks in Word, printed it out on the trusty inkjet (just select glossy paper and print quality as high in the settings), and just ironed it on. Easy.

Here is the t-shirt still on the ironing board after I peeled the paper backing off...

The beauty of the tally marks is that you don't have to do a mirror image!
You can see the outline of the paper in the picture. If you don't want that, trim off the excess paper.

Here is the proud owner of the t-shirt on his way to school!

My only mistake? Not doing the whole thing after the kiddos were in bed!

Now I have requests for Ninja shirts, Star Wars shirts, Angry Bird Shirts..........

Did you decorate a shirt for this milestone as well?

Here is the link for the pdf file with the tally marks.

Merry Soap Making - gifts that kids can make

2013-12-19T11:09:00.000-08:00

I love making gifts that kids can help with, especially when it is for their teachers! I am not very crafty, so my usual method is to combine a homemade gift (preferably made with the help of kids) along with a gift card. Win win on both sides!!
This one is a special Bath and Body edition of gift making, lol!

I apologize for the pictures. Batman wanted to be in charge of them. It is not quite as easy as I thought it would be to have two energetic boys participating, and taking pictures!

I love melt and pour soaps. They are soo easy to customize!! You cannot really spoil them. And they are easy enough so my 6 year old and 4 year old boys can participate.

How about some Honey Oatmeal Soap, but with a holiday twist?

I used Honey Melt and Pour Base. I added oatmeal I had given a spin in coffee grinder (the smaller they are, the easier to suspend in soap). I added in some bigger pieces in the mold for some extra exfoliation.
I did not add any color, because the kids loved the natural color from the honey base. It has wonderful smell of Oatmeal Milk and Honey Fragrance Oil to go with the theme, although fragrance is totally optional.
We poured the melted soap in fun molds, spritzed them with alcohol (to finish the soap and break any bubbles on top of the soap), and popped them out in 3-4 hours! The kids put them in white fine muslin bags.

Now on to candy canes. Indulge in them the calorie free and guilt free way....

Warn people beforehand that these are NOT candy. Seriously.

Find the tutorial from uber-talented Soap Queen here: Soap Candy Canes

This was my first and only attempt. I found that I did not have time to fashion the head of the candy cane, they were getting too hard. So I just left the twisted strands straight.

I did not add any glitter. The house smelled UH-MAZING for a few days afterwards.I gave all the teachers in the preschool a small gift, more of token, with these candy canes. That's why mine are small in size...

Moving on to holiday pinwheel soap.

Find the instructions, and glorious pictures here.

I made them with whatever colors I had on hand....

Of course, Batman and Spiderman saved some for themselves...

And last but not least, here's a picture of some foot scrubs I made for party favors for the adults at Spiderman's b'day party (hence the name Spidey Scrub).
They are wonderful for your feet, especially in the dry winter time!!

2 oz Dead Sea Salt (fine grained) and 2 oz Epsom salt (for Exfoliating and Removing Dry Skin)
2 ml fragrance oil (I used a Rosemary Peppermint blend of Essential Oil and Fragrance Oil)
2 Tbsp Purple Jojoba beads (for added exfoliation and the nice color)
2 Tbsp Sweet Almond Oil
1 Tbsp Aloe Vera Gel and 1 Tbsp Glycerin (to moisturize your feet)

Just mix all the ingredients, and package in a cute container (I used a glass jar with a tight lid). Pretty it up.

Some of my favorite places to shop are

Etsy for the fun molds
Bramble Berry for the wonderful collection and blog posts for the wonderful ideas and tutorials
Whole Sale Supplies for their prices and free shipping!!

Follow along at my Pinterest Boards for more ideas, including the ones here.

I share at these wonderful places!!

Winter Cutting Strips

2013-12-05T11:54:00.000-08:00

Just like the Fall Cutting Strips, the winter ones are also themed for the three months of December (Christmas), January(New Years) and February (Valentine's Day). There are 6 pages for each of the months.

The one for December is free, please get it from here...
Please Note: This is for personal use only. If you are going to use them in a classroom, please get it from my TpT store.

Sneak in some fine motor control, Include them in discussion about seasons or writing prompts, pair them with a winter themed sensory bin, or place them in a cutting tray!

With Batman, I used these to talk about what causes change in seasons, and summer time fun in Southern Hemisphere when it is Winter in the Northern Hemisphere.

Let me now how you used them! Your comments make my day.

Nature ABC Walk and Case Files for Nature Detectives

2013-11-22T10:54:00.000-08:00

ABC Walk

After reading the book we are going on a Bear Hunt, Spiderman decided - it's a beautiful day outside, and we are going on an ABC Hunt!
Why not? We love going on walks. Short ones, long ones, on feet, bikes, or scooters. Alphabet hunt sounds even better! Batman was given the task of recording observations. We decided to start with our backyard.
Don't forget your camera or phone, and nature bags to bring home the samples.

A - apples, ants, acorns ~~(asphalt~~ - discounted by Batman as it is man made)

A for Apples!

Honeysuckle with Bees

B- bug, bee, bark, buds, birds, butterfly
C - caterpillar, crow, cloud, cat, ~~car~~, creek
D - dandelion, dog
E - earth, eggs (from a bird's nest), eagle
F - flower, fern, fly, feather
G - grass, green leaves, ~~gravel,~~
H - hummingbird, honeysuckle
I - inchworm, iguana (if we had spotted one)
J - jasmine
K - ~~kite~~, katydid (I don't think we spotted one, Batman did say that they are active at night, as he seemed to know something about it, I let it slide!)

L for Lizard

L - leaves, lemon, lady bug, lizard

O for Orange Leaves

M - mud, maple, mulch, moss

N - nest
O - orange leaves, owl (if we had gone out at night)
P - pumpkins (decorations for fall), purple flower, (poop - from dogs, lol!), pine cones, palm trees, parachute seed, plants

R for Rose

R - rose, rabbit

S for Snail

S - stones, stump, seeds, squirrel, sun, snails, spiders, sand
T - tree, twigs, trails made by above mentioned snails
V - vine

W for web

W - wind, water, weeds, worms, web
Y - yellow flowers

The kids hypothesized that if we had gone for a nature walk near the lake, we would have seen dragonflies, frogs, fishes, turtles, ducks, tadpoles etc. All true!

Spiderman's thought - we should have taken a nature walk in the zoo, mom, then it would be real easy to come up with something for all the letters!

Here is a great extension to the ABC Nature Hunt:Make an ABC Nature book

Nature walks are great opportunities to engage all your senses. Here are some extensions.

Sound Walk

Extend your nature walk to a sound walk.What kinds of sounds do you hear? You can leave it open ended, asking them to record/draw 5 sounds for example.
Or you can have a checklist -

Do you hear the wind?
Rustling of leaves?
Birds chirping?
Cars swooshing by?
TV blaring?
Dogs barking?
Cats meowing?
Leaves crunching?
Baby crying?

Sensory Walk

Feel the bark of the tree. How does it feel. Now feel the petals. Run through grass, wiggle your toes in the sand box, dip your feet in the creek, feel the sun on your back, and the wind in your hair...

Nature Detectives

We had so much fun, and Spiderman and Batman had so many questions to ask and observations to make, we decided to organize things a bit more for our next nature walk.
Presenting ...

Case Files for Nature Detectives

Space to record your ABC Nature Hunt from A to S - write or draw!
Sound Hunt
Two pages for Texture Hunt
Smell Hunt
Color Hunt
Color graph (see if their predictions match up with the graph)
Leaf rubbing page
Sorting - Plants or Animals
Venn Diagram - Living, Non-living, and Once-Living
A page to record the weather.

Download it for free, and have fun detecting and learning.
Please Note: This version is for personal use only. Teachers, please see my TpT Store.

The wonderful clip-art is from My Cute Graphics.

Trick or Treat - Spooktacular Giveaway!

2013-10-29T12:15:00.000-07:00

Win a treat everyday till Halloween - enter in the giveaway. I will choose one winner till 31st. Which one would you like?
I will send a mail out for the day's winner on the next day around 12 pm. Have fun!

Halloween Math More Or Less

Place Value with Haunted Numbers

Halloween Themed Poster Cards or Alphabet Cards

Skip Count by 2, 5, and 10

CVC Card Game

Long I Word Family Games

Stick-Em - Sticky Compound Word Cards

Halloween Adjective Noun Match Up

a Rafflecopter giveaway

2013-10-17T11:06:00.001-07:00

Reminder!! The Fall Fun Giveaway ends soon...

So head on over, and enter.
Thanks to everyone who linked up.

I have added some new products which are both Halloween themed, and will added to the list of printables for the winner of the Fall Fun Giveaway. We have 4 more days left...

Quick peek:

Place Value with Haunted Numbers

One of Batman's homework this moth - "play a board game". He has been having a blast with the Haunted Numbers - which includes 2 board games! He has been making spooky noises, and insists that he needs to don his Halloween costumes to get into the "spirit" of the game, lol!

Halloween Themed CVC Card Game

This one is more for Spiderman, so the game is called Spider Sort :)
He needs some practice with his medial sounds, so the cards are geared towards that....

Fall Fun Giveaway

2013-10-08T11:06:00.000-07:00

There is a giveaway, link-up fun, and a free printable in the post, so read on...
Please link your Fall themed Math activities, post and printables at the bottom, and enter the Fall giveaway.

To celebrate Fall, I have a fun fall giveaway. Just enter below, and win all of my Fall themed printables from TpT!
Just go to my TpT store, and under Categories, select Fall/Autumn.
That's 12 Math Centers and Literacy Centers printables, along with Fall Cutting Strips, and all the spooky Halloween themed fun stuff!

Here's a quick summary of some of the products.

You can read about the Fall Cutting Strips (part of the giveaway) here.
Fall Themed Skip Count by 2, 5, and 10
- Each of the three files is 14 pages long. Each one has a 5-in-a-row board game, puzzles and tons of printables.
Fall into Numbers Game
- Teaches students about the commutative property, and how to decompose numbers. It targets Common Core Standards K.OA.A.3 and 1.OA.B.3.
Halloween Math - Skip Count by 2, 5, and 10
Halloween Math More or Less
- Meets common core standards: K.CC.B.4, K.CC.B.6, K.MD.B.3, 1.MD.C.4, 1.NBT.B.3
- These Math Center Games gives students fun hands on practice on the concepts of more, less, equal to, most, least etc.
  The worksheets move from easy to hard. They work with numbers from 1 to 30. It will be hoot for students to finish the worksheets with these fun vibrant pictures!
Halloween themed A to Z Alphabet or Poster Cards

Halloween themed Long I Word Family Games
- Trick or Treat with 5 Long I word games! 36 cards can either be sorted according to their word family (witches' hat word family cards), or be used to play card games (with 6 gotcha cards). They focus on these word families: -ice; -ide; -ife; -ike; -ile; -ime; -ine; -ite; -ive; -ight
- The cross word puzzle, and placing the words in the correct boxes reinforce the same word families as mentioned above.
- The last worksheet with missing letters introduces kids to a few more families:-ipe; -ire; -y; -ie
Here is a free Fall printable of preschool concepts from my TpT store.

The worksheets teach visual discrimination, sequencing, estimation, counting (1 – 10), some fun handwriting practice, and letter recognition!
This is is free for a limited time only. Once the giveaway closes, it will be priced. So get it now :)
Some shots from the file:

Now for the giveaway, finally......
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Fall in love with Math!!

How I motivate and reward my kindergartener’s good behavior at school…

2013-09-26T09:23:00.004-07:00

Batman's KG classroom has a color coded behavior chart.

Pink – seriously awesome super duper job!

Purple

Blue – above expectations

Green - everyone starts their day here (if they come home with this color, it is all good!)

Yellow

Orange

Red – big no no!

So green is good. Anything above green is better! The problem is keeping him there with consistency, and motivate him to stay there.

He is the proverbial Curious George. He needs to know everything about everyone! So one of his challenge is not talking "too much". The other is the normal energy level of an active kindergartener, which is not conducive to sitting down for ~~long~~ any period of time quietly. The third is being ahead of the curve. He finishes his work early, but does not necessarily think it is a fun or complimentary to him if he is given challenge work. His point - why do I have to do it when no one else has to do it?

Strategies that I have come up with:

Humor - works great with boys - so what happened? Your butt got too fidgety, and would not stay put on the carpet? Tomorrow if it happens again, we will have to come up with a special booty dance, and we get to do it only if you manage to keep it parked in place correctly :)
Save your words at school, and you can use it all up on someone in the family when you come home - which pretty much means he gets to talk UN-interrupted for 10 minutes!
Little reminder notes in the lunch box and snack packs (write it out the night before)
Loss of one privilege if it is yellow, two if it is orange etc.
If he stays on green, he always gets to choose his snack (from a selection) for the next day.
Now to the motivation part. It is his job to stay at green. But if he does better than expected, we have decided to go on a date (on his half day at school, when Spiderman will still be in preschool). He needs 15 points for a date. Blue counts as 1 point, purple as 2, and pink as 3. He can choose to go on a date every 5 days if he gets all pinks :) I might have to make it 20 points as we progress through the school year.
Small treats from a special "treasure box" if he gets pink, purple, or blue in a row 2 or more times.

Suggestions are very very welcome. What has worked for you, and what does not work from experience from our collective mommy wisdom please :)

Indoor Fairy Play Invitation

2013-09-25T14:27:00.002-07:00

I made some furniture for the fairy garden outdoors. But the kids decided they wanted a chance to play with them first, inside.

They wanted me to "surprise" them. We went though the house together looking for some of the components together. And I set it up for them to play with some new things for the surprise element. Unfortunately, I could not resist playing with it myself, so there is no picture of just the components of the play invitation separately :)

This is what my two super-heroes came up with - an enchanted schoolroom in the middle of a magical forest. A moss sheet from Michaels, loose moss, fake flowers help set up the forest. The ceramic houses are candle holders. There's one for Spiderman, one for Batman, and one for me (my felted toadstool house)

The whole place is in a party mood. Batman told me we are having an "open-house" at the schoolroom. (Hmm, wonder where he learned it from). We have plenty of benches and wooden blocks for seating if you don't fancy the grass.

We are having a tea party. For seating, the super-heroes provided the guest with mushroom buttons, upside down flower pot, barrel, butterfly stones, and some low stools made of shiny smooth glass with small pebbles on the bottom. Batman made the stool with me.

If you don't like it picnic style on the ground, there is always the seating area. The chairs are the latest in style - smooth shiny glass pebbles hot glued on corks, with polished shell for back support.
(A tiny disclosure for others who are thinking of branching into fairy furniture: I made a few chairs with shells for both the seat and the back. Batman and Spiderman told me those look like "potty chairs". So use them for the fairy bathroom!)

There is a tiny book basket (a shell) with fragrant books made out of orange peel.
The table seen here is smooth polished river stone mounted on cork. Someone left some food on the table. There is a gazing ball near the seating area as well.

There is also a dance floor. The small tiles are glued together to make the dance floor. We have some lanterns for later in the night, and of course, some string light bulbs hanging from the branches.

As you can see, lots going on. Tinker Bell is visiting us, along with Bambi. There is a rose trellis (upside down, I think). We are still cleaning up, and getting everything ready.

Do join us for the party.

Fall Cutting Strips

2013-09-10T08:59:00.000-07:00

Happy Tuesday!

Does it feel like Fall where you are? Still feels like Summer in Southern California...

To get in the mood, I created some Fall cutting strips.

Spiderman wasn't sure what months are in Fall. He knows that Fall comes after Summer, but not the months. And the answer of course depends on where you live. But for the U.S., there isn't much confusion. So, some fine motor control, some learning about seasons and months, and lots of fun! These clip arts are great conversation starters, or writing prompts.
Spiderman told me it would be "awesome" to jump on a pile of leaves. He thinks he would like to gather them the first time. But after gathering, jumping etc, he would be "too tired", so I would have to gather the leaves the second time :)

The one for September is free. Get it here.
Please Note: This is for personal use only. Teachers, please see my TpT store.

The pictures inspired him to hunt down Pumpkin Soup , and Delicious , followed by Leaves (a wonderful book meant for a somewhat younger crowd. In my house, Batman reads it, and Spiderman turns the pages), and Big Pumpkin , with more books being gathered.

Spider-man's list (for right now):
1. From Seed to Pumpkin
2. Curious George Goes to a Costume Party
3. Quite a few Dora and Diego Halloween themed books
4. Spooky Bunny Tales (Max and Ruby)

Batman's list looks more like this:
1. Calender Mystery #10 - October Ogre
2. Flat Stanley and the Haunted House
3. Ready Freddy! #11: Pumpkin Elf Mystery

We are still adding to the list...

I had made Halloween themed A to Z Cards. After cutting the clip-arts, and taking a look at the cards, the two super-heroes were happily (read no fighting, screaming and whining) engaged in creating fall themed cards of their own...

For the other two months, take a look here. These are great to associate events with months. Halloween is in October, Thanksgiving in November etc. I will add more as the seasons change.

Find my post and other awesome ideas here.

Back to School We Go....

2013-08-20T16:43:00.001-07:00

I just came back from KG orientation! Seems like I am more anxious than my Kindergartener! Batman seems to be taking it all in stride!

But Spiderman is feeling a bit left out. So I created these fun patterns in back to school theme for him.

Please Note: The file here is intended for personal use ONLY. Teachers, please see my TpT store.The one in the TpT store has more patterns, and has more complicated ones, like ABCD patterns.

In addition to patterns, you can sneak in some fine motor skills. The child cuts the answer cards, and chooses one (or more card, depending on the pattern and the question) to complete the pattern. You can also laminate them or put them in sheet protectors, and have them write down the right answer, by getting them to write 1, 2 etc underneath the card in the right order!

You can see some samples right here.

Download the file from here. Have fun!

Ten Frames Fun

2013-08-17T17:53:00.000-07:00

Please check out my TpT sale on all products. You can net a 28% savings :)

Now on to some free and on sale stuff on the store....

Spiderman has gotten interested in ten frames all of a sudden.

Ten frames are great visual tools for helping students to not only "see" the numbers and count - connecting counting to cardinality, but it's great with quick mental addition and subtraction, gaining understanding of place value, start composing and decomposing numbers into tens and ones etc. All in all, good stuff, and aligned with the Common Core Standards!

So I decided to capitalize on this, and made some printables with themes I know he will like...
He has already played with the Pirate Themed Ten Frames previously, posted on my TpT store. You can read more about the fun "10 Doubloons" game it contains here. The game is fairly easy for Batman, so for him, it is purely a review. It also has the frames, of course. Spiderman has been working on his "spidey-fingers" by cutting out all pirate-y pictures to fill his frame.

But then he requested something "different". So I made the space themed ten frames, which are free to download from here!
It has an empty ten frame for 10 and 20, space-y pictures to fill up those frames with, and for some great scissor fun, and it has the numerals from 1 through 20, along with their spelled counterparts.

I also made some "I have-Who has" card games - three to be exact - for cardinal numbers and ordinal numbers, with the same space theme. Please find them here.

Batman has been making various jokes - about how he is 'having a blast with them', and 'these are outta this world mom'.

Well, at least all the jokes are complimentary. Spiderman does not get it yet....

The two games are definitely a bit of a challenge for Spiderman, and Batman is getting a decent amount of workout with these. Spiderman can't read yet, so he can't play the ordinal game. So please keep that in mind if you are downloading the games.

It targets the following Common Core Standards.

Counting and Cardinality

Know number names and the count sequence
Understand the relationship between numbers and quantities; connect counting to cardinality.

Number and Operations in Base Ten

Work with numbers 11-19 to gain foundations for place value
Compose and decompose numbers from 11 to 19 into ten ones and some further ones
Understand that the two digits of a two-digit number represent amounts of tens and ones. Understand the following as special cases: 10 can be thought of as a bundle of ten ones — called a “ten.” The numbers from 11 to 19 are composed of a ten and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, or nine ones. The numbers 10, 20, and 30 are composed of one, two and three tens and zero ones.

Game 1: I have – Who has?

This game helps your little astronauts review their numbers from 1-30. The numbers are made up of yellow “ones” units and “tens” units.

Game 2: I have – Who has?

This game helps your little astronauts review their numbers from 10 - 100, skip counting by 10. The numbers are made up of blue "tens” units.

Game 3: I have – What comes next?

The astronauts start with the first ordinal number, and have to find the card that comes next. Astronauts may also practice placing the cardinal number cards in order from first to thirtieth.

You can find the games here.

I am hoping Spiderman and Batman gain (and build upon) a strong sense of numbers with all these fun tools! It is an added bonus that they are working towards the Common Core Standards as well!
If your little pirates, or astronauts find these useful and fun, please do leave me some comments and feedback :)

Sanity in the car - backseat games

2013-07-30T16:17:00.000-07:00

Mom, he is kicking me.

He is being mean to me. No I am not.

He is being a baby….

I don’t want that song. I want to listen to the one that we just heard again….

Why does he always get his way? It’s not fair!

Ah, the joys of backseat bickering. Not that sibling bickering is limited to the car by any means, but in a car, there are no avenues for escape!! Anyways, deep breaths. In and out.

I am sure parents with preschoolers (or older kids) have this scenario playing in their head even while they sleep lol!

So how DO you keep your sanity in car rides?

On very long drives, I might succumb to electronic gadgets, but otherwise, I try not to...

When I pick up the kiddos from school, we talk about all the fun (not so fun stuff) at school. What was their best moment, worst moment, what new things did they learn that day etc etc. Or if I have some special expectations that day from them or vice versa. Negotiations for privileges usually not granted also takes place during that time.

Of course, it does not last the entire ride.

Being a working mom, I try to engage them in fun ways and sneak in some learning and teaching; reinforcing concepts never hurt!

Counting games generally causes more ruckus than not. If I say count all the white cars, one always misses something, and other takes great delight in pointing that out. Not very peaceful. If I have only one child in the backseat, then we do counting games with school buses, concrete mixers, and other fun manly stuff.

So I get my math fix other ways.

For 5.5 year old Batman: 5 ways to make 5. All odd numbers till 30. Or even numbers. Skip count by 5s. You get the gist.
Read the speed limits. What happens if you add 10, or take away 5.

For 3.5 year old Spiderman – it is simple word problems. If you have 3 candy, and you eat them all, how many is left? Of course, this only works if they don’t demand candy later, lol! Start with birds maybe, if there are 2 birds sitting in a tree, and one more joins them, or one flies away, yada yada…
What shape is the Stop sign? How many sides does it have? Can you look for a triangle sign? How about a diamond?

Other fun ideas:

Try to read all the road signs.
Or identify the makes of cars. Batman is getting better at it than me. Almost. Or play a game by trying to come up with makes and models of cars from A to Z.
Or try to pick up hybrids or electric vehicles.
Too difficult? Or maybe the kiddo is not into cars. Well, let’s go with stuff that we can find while on the road - A to Z. It is hilarious the way they try to justify some of their answers. Like refrigerator. How would you see one on the road? Well, if it was being transferred in a pickup truck, you could totally see it. How about ants? Well, just because we can’t see them when we are in the car driving does not mean it is not there…
Or 10 manmade stuff they see around them, and 10 from nature….
Same trend, living and non-living.
5 things/vehicles that go in land, air and water.
Identify the plants and trees around you.
Ask them to look for big landmarks on the way. And get them to draw a map with those landmarks later.
Names of animals. Start from A. Go. Spiderman made it to J in 6 minutes or so, with lots of hint for I from big brother. Ant, Bee, Crocodile, Dog, Elephant, Fish, Gorilla, Horse, Inchworm (he got lots of clues and hints) and Jelly Fish. We reached our destination by then. Added benefit – one engaged child, and one very empowered big brother who helped his little brother succeed!
One day, my two would not stop with potty humor. They are boys, what can you say? So we decided to make it more challenging my coming up (or trying to come up) with gross stuff/bodily functions from A to Z. Needless to say, we did not succeed, because Batman and Spiderman just could not stop laughing after every new word that came up with every 5-6 minutes or so in between their cackles and chortles and snorts….

My favorite game: Place a bubble in your mouth. Be absolutely quiet, so the bubble does not pop. Whoever keeps quiet longest, wins!!

Here’s to peace and quiet in the car.

What are your brain waves for sanity in the car? And no, ditching the kids don’t count.

Monstrous Fun with Hard and Soft C Card Game

2013-07-12T11:20:00.000-07:00

I love all the Pixar/Disney Animation movies, perhaps a tad bit more than my kids :)

Have you seen Monsters University yet? I am still trying to convince Spiderman that it is NOT going to be scary and super-fun. And of course, there will be popcorn. It is slow going so far.

In the meantime, to pacify Batman (who is starting to get the hang of Uno, and wants to play card games), I thought it might be fun to make a monster themed card game with some learning!

Hence our Soft and Hard 'C' Card Game. The monsters need some help with their C sounds at school. Think you can help them out? Well then, get ready for some "Monstrous Fun at School"!!

This is a a freebie. So just head on over to my TpT store and grab it. Just print on card-stock, laminate, cut, and you are all set.

There are 18 cards with hard 'c' sound...

18 cards with the soft 'c' sound...

6 cards with both soft and hard 'c' sounds...

12 gotcha cards that make you lose a turn or draw again...

and 12 empty cards.

And if your little monsters are not quite ready to read yet, no worries. The cards all have the pictures in them. So pre-readers and emergent readers are good to go. Everyone can join in the fun.

Long and Short Of It - Vowel Sorting Cards

2013-07-10T16:30:00.000-07:00

Spiderman has mastered the short vowel sounds. He consistently identifies the beginning sound, is nearly perfect at the ending sounds, and is getting quite good at the middle sounds...

I thought it might be fun to introduce him to the long vowel sounds, although it is a lot to remember for a 3.5 year old! I explained to him the concept of long and short vowel sounds. Then we decided to sort the cards by their sounds. Control cards made the column headers. If the vowel says its name, it goes in the column for the long sound. I was quite amazed that he took to the concept so quickly.

My most rewarding moment was Batman trying to teach Spiderman the concept of Bossy E. How the Bossy E makes the vowels say their name. It was hilarious, and quite rewarding...

For Batman (5.5), sorting the cards according to their vowel sound, long or short, was not much of a challenge. He wanted to make his own cards. So this set has empty cards for those who are up to the challenge. Batman was quite happily occupied drawing, coloring, and then figuring out the spelling of the words.

With 110 cards and 20 blank cards, it is sure to keep the kiddos engaged! There are 22 cards for each vowel, with 11 each for the short and the long vowel sounds, along with one card for each vowel sound. The cards have the vowels on them in the bottom left hand corner for easy sorting.

But the fun does not end there. There are over 20 cards with CVC words, great for beginning readers. There are some blend words, and plenty of bossy e/magic e words as well. It was a great exercise for Batman, trying to read the labels.

The set is great for pre-readers, because although the labels are there, you don't need to read them. Just say the word out loud, decide what vowel sound you hear, and sort!!

Check out the cards here.

I share at these great places.

Count, Rhyme, Repeat with Free e-books

2013-06-18T15:56:00.000-07:00

Or rhyme, count, read, repeat!!

One of Spider-man's current favorite is "Ten Little Ladybugs".

And recently, he has been reading "Ten Rubber Duckies" a lot as well!

They are really are a lot of fun, with tactile critters, magical countdowns, and rhymes all thrown into the learning mix...

Batman, inspired by the books, decided to come up with his own. Of course, he chose to do count-ups, and skip count.
This is all his effort, I only added the clip arts! Amazing how a good book can inspire us :) And what a great way to get ready for KG over the summer. Some of his rhymes are here as images. He started from 1, skip counted by 2, and stopped at 11. Simple. For this one, he decided to rhyme with the number. Start with 1, add 2, you get 3. So what rhymes with 3 that makes sense in the context of monkeys, forest etc, and off he went...

With its predictable ending, and repetitions, this makes a great simple reader.

Feel free to download the book here - Skip Count Up and Rhyme with Monkeys .

Come up with your own rhymes and combinations. Count up, down, or skip count.
Spiderman soon joined us, and in collaboration, we came up with three more books, which were a hoot. All three are available for free download as well - just click on the images.

Batman wants to share these with all his friends. I would appreciate if you 'like' us on FB, or follow our tweets, or subscribe to more of our fun ideas, or do them all - so the sharing circle is complete!

Take a peek at our other combinations...

Count up with spotted cows..

Count down with buzzing bees...

Skip count down with little fishies...

I would love to see if you have done something similar. Please leave me a comment. Have fun with rhymes!

Sharing at:
Tot School Gathering Place, Montessori Monday, Summer Fun for Kids, The Sunday Showcase, Link & Learn, Stress Free Sunday, Mom's Library, Artsy Play Wednesday

Things That Go Together Printables

2013-06-13T10:42:00.002-07:00

Spiderman loves our collection of miniatures. See this post for his comments and observations about pre-reading fun with matching objects.

I decided to mix it up a bit, and created some "mostly" new cards for more matching fun...

This is a great problem solving and matching game. It encourages your pint sized learners to develop critical sorting, categorization, thinking skills, all the while extending their vocabulary.
And all this when they are having fun!

I made 26 pairs of cards on a boatload of topics. So it is guaranteed to keep them engaged.
This set is Batman's and Spiderman's fave.

This next set gave them both a moment of pause! I could hear the gears turning :)

The set is free, and available for download at my TpT store here.A big shout out to the wonderful graphics at My Cute Graphics! I adore them. They are cute and free!

Shared at
It's Playtime, Artsy Play Wednesday, Mom's Library, Link & Learn