itty bitty love

peep, peep!

2011-04-24T09:26:00.001-06:00

Happy Easter,

friends!!!

recycled egg crown tutorial

2011-04-22T13:25:00.013-06:00

We wanted to celebrate Earth Day AND Easter, so we decided to make some festive eggs crowns using materials from our classroom recycling bin. It was sort of a fusion of two projects I'd seen on the Crafty Crow: Sew Together's Easter Egg Crown and El Hada De Papel's Easy Yarn Easter Egg Tutorial. The children LOVED making these eggs. Sometimes I feel like crafty projects require a little too much adult assistance, but this one was just right for the 3 to 4-year-olds in my classroom. Anyway, anyone who's anyone around here wants one of these crowns, so I decided to put together a little tutorial. Here it goes!

What you'll need:

broken down cracker boxes
old catalogs, magazines, paper, etc. {we also used unclaimed child artwork}
sissors
glue
marker

DISCLAIMER: I keep forgetting to take photos at school, so I put this tutorial together at home. At school, we used a glue stick rather than Elmer's and we most definitely DID NOT use a Sharpie marker for tracing!

Draw an egg-shaped oval on the inside of the box. The one above is free-handed; at school, we used a stencil.

Cut up magazines and paper into strips. Our strips were all 1/4 to 1 inch wide. It doesn't really matter how long they are - it's kind of fun if they're different lengths.

Cut out the egg-shape and apply glue to one side.

Stick paper strips to the egg-shape until it's entirely covered.

At this point, the children were pretty curious about why I had covered up the egg-shape...

They were SO excited to see that the egg was on the other side - it was a little like a magic trick! Love them!

Cut around the egg-shape, using the edge of the cardboard as a guide.

Turn it over, and now you have a lovely paper egg! Oooooooo! Aaaaaaahhhh!

AND, if you are so inclined, staple, glue, or tape several of these eggs to a longer strip of paper attached at the ends, and you'll have a fabulous crown!

I picked Hubs up from work wearing the crown and these sunglasses, and he was definitely impressed!

Happy weekend!

chicks {real ones coming soon...}

2011-04-18T19:11:00.002-06:00

We saw lilla a's cute, felt chickies over on The Crafty Crow this morning, and just had to make some. Not only are they fun to put together and sweet to look at, but they double as fab finger puppets, too! Check out lilla a for the photo tutorial.

peep,

peep!

busy hands

2011-03-04T08:10:00.004-07:00

the ridiculously popular

bead work lesson,

in action

building towers

with the knobless cylinders

skip counting by eights

{can YOU do this?}

building and writing a useful word

with the moveable alphabet

{useful words are words that get used frequently,

but you can't quite sound them out - the, is, of, are, was....}

exploring objects from the

"l" drawer of the alphabet box

{explore OUR alphabet box here}

clip-on koalas

2011-02-25T08:01:00.002-07:00

Are you tired of strengthening your fine motor control

with those same old clothespins????

We have been loving these cute little koala clips! When you squeeze their backs, their arms and legs open and you can clip them onto lots of things. We have been clipping ours onto this wooden spice rack. These koala clips are the perfect challenge for the child who is working to strengthen his pincer grip AND build coordination and control of his movement. They are not easy to open - you really have to have strong fingers - but they are so much fun, even the littlest hands in our classroom will manipulate them all morning long.

I remember having lots of clip-on animals like these koalas when I was growing up. The 80's were just rad like that, I guess. I found some koala clips on amazon, but they seem a little on the spendy side to me. Click here if you want to check them out.

Does anyone have any other ideas where you can find animal clips?

We want more!!!

busy hands

2011-02-20T19:15:00.004-07:00

grading color tablets from

darkest to lightest

writing and illustrating

a story

building and writing

short vowel words

counting spindles

{Wrapping each quantity with a colorful rubber band

makes this lesson a hit!}

scrubbing chairs and tables

{This is one of our FAVORITE afternoon activities!}

All you need to get scrubbing

is a bucket of water, soap, and few brushes or sponges.

Hope everyone has a great week!

little smudge art

2011-02-16T18:48:00.005-07:00

We have been loving the book Little Smudge by Lionel Le Neouanic. Have you read it?

Little Smudge asks a group of colorful shapes if he can play, and they reject him.

{WARNING: Their rejection is brutal. Depending on my audience, I change the wording to be less negative.}

When Little Smudge goes home disappointed, his parents show him a few tricks that totally win the other shapes over.

When I read this book, the children are always shocked by the rejection scene.

They get all like,

Are you kidding me?!

Don't those other shapes know that EVERYONE is included?

Duh!

{"Everyone's included" is one of our school rules, and most of the children believe it to be universal. Wouldn't THAT be something if it was?}

This book leads to meaningful conversations, and some pretty fun art, too!

First, we made our own little smudges on heavy paper with finger paint.

After the paint dried {this took an hour or two}, we turned our little smudges into other things...

...people, dogs, insects, transportation systems, smiley faces, etc.

We experimented by drawing with markers AND ball point pens.

The children were very proud of their creations, and they want to make more!

For more fingerprint art, check out 5 Orange Potatoes. I think we're going to try their project next!

L-O-V-E

2011-02-14T13:34:00.002-07:00

according to preschoolers...

Love is kisses.

Love is my family.

Love is giving a hug.

Love is the moon.

Love is living with my parents.

Love is my heart.

Love is petting your dog.

Love is my blankie.

Love is something that you give away.

Happy Valentine's Day!

busy hands

2011-02-12T21:07:00.002-07:00

squeezing pink water from a dropper

into a heart-shaped ice cube tray

{when all the hearts are full,

use the dropper to suck the water back up

OR just stick the tray in the freezer}

constructing with

the pink tower AND the broad stair

using the 100 board to count to 100

on the 100th day of school

{yes, that IS a muffin tin holding the number tiles}

writing and illustrating

a book of planets

painting a wooden bead

with liquid watercolor

two friends wearing their hand-painted

valentine's day necklaces

{we can't wait for v-day around here!}

happy birthday, hubs!

2011-02-11T08:30:00.004-07:00

Let's go skiing!

100 days of love

2011-02-10T18:48:00.011-07:00

Today was our 100th day of school! Yeee haw!!!
{it goes by SO fast}

One activity we did to celebrate this special day
was make this lovely heart mosaic...

As you may know, I love mosaics.

Cutting snips alone strengthens fine motor control.
But, if you combine YOUR snips with all your classmates' snips
and make a giant mosaic,
you strengthen the whole community.

TLF, ya know?

First, you need a simple outline of a heart drawn on a big piece of paper.

Then, you need to gather these supplies:
scissors
glue
paint swatches {we wrote the numbers 1-100 on ours}

Have everything? Now cut and glue!

Three children worked on the mosaic at a time.
They were sometimes the most unlikely trio, too.
{I love when that happens!}

This mosaic was finished in one morning work period,
and now it hangs by the snack table for everyone to enjoy.
The children love looking for "the 100."

counting valentines

2011-02-09T18:42:00.010-07:00

Sung to the tune of Michael Finnegan {listen to Michael Finnegan here}:

1 red, 2 red, 3 red valentines
4 red, 5 red, 6 red valentines
7 red, 8 red, 9 red valentines
10 red valentines!
10 red, 9 red, 8 red valentines
7 red, 6 red, 5 red valentines
4 red, 3 red, 2 red valentines
1 red valentine!

I love using felt manipulatives to go along with the songs we sing at line time, and counting these felt hearts has been quite a hit! In the past, I only used the manipulatives at line time, but now I make them available for the children to use during the work period, too. As you can see, they LOVE singing the song and moving the hearts all by themselves!

The hearts were cut from red felt. I numbered and decorated them with fabric paint and sequins. {This was my favorite part!} If you wanted to be really profesh, you could glue on the same quantity of sequins as the number on the heart. {the 4 would have 4 sequins, etc}

After the decorations were dry, I hot-glued magnets to the back of the hearts. The magnets I used are almost too burly for the felt - smaller magnets probably would have worked better.

At the beginning of the song, I stick the magnets to the back of a baking pan. As we count up, I bring each number to the front of the pan, and as we count down, I move each number to the back of the pan. When the song is over, the children always beg to see where the hearts are hiding on the back of the pan!

busy hands

2011-02-04T10:42:00.019-07:00

grinding up chunks of dry bread

{a new twist on the ever popular bread grating lesson}

The child in this photo is 4, but this lesson is perfect for 3 year olds, too.
This activity helps develop organization, fine motor control, and problem solving. Children love the grinder and the sound the dry bread makes as it's being crunched up.

What does one do with a bag of bread crumbs?

Here are our most favorite uses:

feed them to the birds
sprinkle them on a salad
nibble on them - straight out of the bag - at the snack table

{That last use makes me laugh at least once or twice a day!}

Read more about grating lessons here.

a display of spheres

The children often use the geometric solids to go on shape scavenger hunts around the classroom.

Other shapes include:

cubes
cones
cylinders
rectangular prisms

This activity is enjoyed by all ages in our classroom, especially the 3 and 4 year olds.

Buy geometric solids here or make your own set {I bet you could!}.

reading 3 letter words

The word is on the front and the picture is on the back, so the child can challenge himself AND double check his work.

To play the game:

The first child reads the word on the top of the stack. If she's right, she keeps the card and passes the stack to the next child. If she gets the word wrong, she she puts the card back in the stack and tries the next one.

The children in this picture are 5 years old and just beginning to develop accurate word recognition. We play LOTS of word games before we present readers with books.

Find awesome reading materials and info here.

clipping carabiners together

This lesson builds concentration and strengthens fine motor control.

Ta da!

The 3 year olds cannot get enough of constructing this chain. I think you can find inexpensive carabiners at most sporting good stores.

Have a great weekend!

Edit: The grinder used in the bread grating lesson is a nut grinder I found at the thrift store. Ebay has several, too. Here's the link!

excuses, excuses

2011-02-02T21:08:00.009-07:00

Hello out there! It's the long lost itty bitty love - alive and well.
{Thank goodness, right?}

Some of you have noticed it's been a YEAR since I've last posted.
{Really? A whole dang year? That's crazy.}
I'm not really sure why I stopped blogging...

I guess it was due to a combination of things -
LIFE itself being the biggest.

I'm sort of an all or nothing kind of gal,
and I once I started putting my all into other things,
I lost track of the itty bitty love blog.
I just couldn't get back into it.

I told myself,
It doesn't matter.
I let all my bloggy relationships go.

If I let myself dwell on the fact that I'd abandoned itty bitty love
AND all of my friends,
I felt SO SHEEPISH,
I just kept on hiding out.

But I want to come back!!!!
I love to write and take pictures and share ideas and
geeze louise, I want to keep blogging!!!

SO, please forgive me for being a jerk and going MIA for a year.
I don't think I'll be posting as much a I once was,
but I just don't want to feel like a stranger in my own house,
if you know what I mean.

I hope YOU are all alive and well, too!

♥

PS: Hubs is just as great as ever - he's the one who took all the glamor shots of me in my new hat!

busy hands

2010-01-23T18:18:00.005-07:00

using tongs to transfer "ice cubes"
between a bowl & an ice tray

bead work
A brief description of bead work:
The child arranges the tiny beads on a peg board shape.
{Some children just fill the board,
and others select certain colors to make patterns.}
When the board is full, a teacher irons it -
the beads melt together, holding the shape.
I can't emphasize enough how much the children LOVE this work!
Check beads and peg boards out here.

using a screwdriver
to screw bolts into a board
Check the slotted bolt board out here.
{I'm sure you handy types could easily make a homemade version!}

tower built with The Pink Tower & The Broad Stair
{No extension cards were used in its construction!}

balancing marbles on top of golf tees
{idea courtesy of the lovely Pink & Green Mama
and Jo A Bit of This and A Bit of That}

Hope you're all enjoying your weekend!
It's been snowing here!
{Yee haw!!!}

cracking nuts

2010-01-21T18:51:00.010-07:00

Nut cracking is the thing to do around here lately!

Not only do the almonds, walnuts, and hazelnuts taste delish,
but their shells split open with a satisfying "CRACK!"

Unlike apple slicing and lemon juicing,
there aren't a lot of steps,
so even the littlest ones are able to take a turn.

All you really need is a little elbow grease!

The materials:

a dish for holding the nuts
a nutcracker {I've seen them at thrift stores, too.}
a dish for serving the nuts
a crumber for sweeping up broken shells
an assortment of nuts
{Before doing this lesson, we made sure NO children had nut allergies.}

Because it's a food lesson,
the child washes his hands and puts on an apron.
Then, he chooses 4 nuts from a basket near the lesson on the shelf.
{There's a little sign on the basket that says "4."}
He sets his materials up on a mat and starts cracking!
The meat the child picks out of the shells is placed in a dish.
After the child has cracked all 4 nuts, he sweeps up the shells,
and puts the lesson back on the shelf.

At this point, the child can either serve the nuts to the other children,
or eat them himself.
The older children tend to choose serving,
and the younger children tend to gobble the nuts up themselves!
{This is slowly starting to change as they discover
the joy of sharing food, though!}

a penguin experiment

2010-01-19T19:11:00.009-07:00

The idea for this experiment came from Chelsea
over at Preschool - What fun we have!

Do you ever imagine
diving into an icy ocean like a penguin?
{AND staying warm and toasty?}

Personally, my fantasies tend to be more on the sunny beach side...
but, the children in my classroom have a special place
in their hearts for arctic mammals
{like penguins, polar bears, and seals}
so we decided to give Chelsea's experiment a try.

First, we plunged our bare hands into a tub of ice water.
{No one was able to keep their hands in long enough for a photo!}

Then, we put on rubber gloves
and gooped our hands up with A LOT of animal fat.
{The gloves saved us all from a seriously huge mess!}

With the fat caked on our hands,
the icy water suddenly felt much warmer...
almost tropical, really.

Not only was it a fun sensory experience,
the children made their own meaningful connections
between fat and warmth.
{I barely said a word!}

hello friends!

2010-01-08T09:36:00.009-07:00

What started out as a small blogging break,
quickly turned into a looooooooong holiday/crafty/lazy hiatus!
I've missed you!!!

Here's a little peek at my biggest distraction...

Yes, it's a sweater! {My first sweater, FYI.} AND, it was knit on size 4 needles. I can't even begin to explain how much time I've obsessively devoted this project. {It's my biggest excuse for not blogging.}

Anyway, the children are back at school this week. {It's been so busy, I've barely taken any pictures!} Busy AND cold. Today is warmer, but below zero weather kept us cooped up inside for most of the week.

Since we couldn't go outside to play in the fresh snow, we brought the snow inside!

I'd seen this on other blogs, and had always thought,
Bringing tubs of snow inside is cute and all, but it's not for us tough Montanans.
If real Montana kids want to play in the snow, they get bundled up and go OUTSIDE!

Anyway, playing with snow inside turned out to be a HUGE hit!

In hindsight, I should have filled bigger tubs,
but I had no idea that EVERYONE would want to get in on the action!

As a solution, the children ended up scooping the snow
onto their own trays.

Overall, it was a delightfully wet and wild experience.
{Thankfully, most of the kids chipped in on the mop-up!}

Happy Friday, everyone!
Enjoy your weekend! Here's where I'll be! :)

oh baby...

2009-12-07T18:56:00.006-07:00

...it's cold outside!

Yes, that thermometer says -10 F, and it's not measuring the windchill.
brrrrrr....

We have been a bit stir crazy around here, if you can imagine.
{It's supposed to be colder tomorrow, too.}

To blow off steam, we've been doing some Brain Gym exercises.
I'm not even close to being an expert on Brain Gym,
but I do know that it's healthy for your brain
to do activities where you cross the midline of your body.
{The children love doing them, too!}

This one is called cross crawl.
Lift your knee and reach across
to touch it with your opposite hand.
Repeat with your other knee and hand...
almost like you're walking in place.
Want to make it more challenging?
Try doing it with your eyes shut!

This one is called hook ups,
but we call it the pretzel.
Put the backs of your hands together.
Then, reach your right hand over your left
and lock your fingers together.
Bend your elbows and twist your hands up against your chest.
More challenge?
Cross your legs, too!

It's perfect to do at line time
because it improves your concentration.
I always tell children they can put their hands
in their laps, on their knees, or in the pretzel.
They usually choose the pretzel. :)

I added a weather widget to the right column of the blog,
so you can see just how cold we are!
Right now, it says -29 F.
Yikes!
Frost is growing on our bedroom wall...

busy hands

2009-12-06T10:47:00.005-07:00

lacing a construction paper stocking

ta da!

numerals and counters
{holiday edition}

pouring red and green rice

poking holes with a corn cob holder

constructing a maze
{with the red rods}

carefully walking out of the maze
{Ring the bell when you get to the center!}

sweeping sequins
These little shimmery disks get spilled A LOT!
{Good thing they're fun to pick up!}

gift wrapping 101

2009-12-04T13:05:00.002-07:00

As you probably already know,
I LOVE practical life lessons.

For one thing, there is a never-ending supply
of practical skills that one can learn.
{We're never short on inspiration when it comes
to putting together PL lessons for the children.}
Another thing I find fabulous about these lessons
is that they give the children so much independence!

My lovely co-teacher Christy came up with this
present wrapping lesson
that debuted in our classroom this week.

The children think it's genius.

First, a child chooses an ornament.
You can't tell from the photo,
but there's a variety of boxes and wrapping paper squares
for her to choose from, too.

The child carries the materials she will need
{ornament, box, wrapping paper, scissors, tape}
on a tray to a table.

Then, the wrapping begins.

The children have been very successful
with the taping...

and with the folding, too!

After the present is wrapped,
the child places it under a wreath in our classroom.
{We're hoping to acquire a tree soon!}
At line time, the children take turns unwrapping the presents
and hanging the ornaments on the wreath.
{We're using a list of names to keep it fair - VERY important!}

What has impressed me the most about this lesson
is the problem solving skills I've observed the children using.
This child is carefully cutting off the excess paper...

and this child is adding paper.
Having too much or not enough wrapping paper
is a problem that most gift wrappers encounter, right?
{I love seeing the different ways the children deal with it!}

At first, some of the children were frustrated that they couldn't
bring their carefully wrapped presents home...
but now, they've actually embraced the idea
of giving a gift to their classroom!

Hopefully, they'll take these skills home
and wrap presents for their friends and families, too!

dressing a snowman

2009-12-01T18:16:00.006-07:00

Introducing our new felt board friend...

His snowball circles, mittens, scarf, and hat are cut from felt.
{I added the details to the mittens and hat with fabric paint.}
His eyes are beads and his mouth is a bent pipe cleaner.
His arms are tiny twigs from the playground.
His buttons are from a lovely button stash.
And, oh!, I wish I could tell you where his mini carrot nose is from,
but I honestly have no idea.
{It's small enough to be dollhouse food.}

The snowman is fun, but this spinner is the best part.
{The idea for this came from Melissa at Chasing Cheerios.}
I made mine on a circle of white paper, glued to a circle of red paper.
I sketched the quirky little pictures and laminated it
along with a little red arrow made from paper.
I pushed a brad through the center of the circle,
and used a hole punch to cut a circle in the arrow.
{It spins pretty easily!}

The child spins the arrow...

...and outfits the snowman accordingly.
Whether it was done individually or with a partner,
the snowman was dressed over and over all day!

I hope you are all enjoying the holiday season!

busy hands

2009-11-23T18:50:00.005-07:00

sorting objects by their beginning sounds
a, f, c, m, p

turkey matching

grading colors
from darkest to lightest

apple slicing

making a Montana animal book

something we think is really fun...

2009-11-19T19:05:00.011-07:00

building a "campfire" at line time

Here's our favorite campfire game:

Lying in my sleeping bag, I couldn't fall asleep...
the wind began to blow and the bugs began to creep,
so I roooolled to the left {roll hands and point to the left with thumb}
and I rooooolled to the right {roll hands and point to the right},
and I heard every sound you can hear at night! {we whisper this last part}
{from Chants, Fingerplays, & Stories by Bev Bos}

Then we take turns saying what we've heard
and repeating the sound that whatever we've heard makes.

A sampling of what we've heard:

wolves
bears
the campfire crackling
grasshoppers
mice
volcanoes erupting
deer
tigers
sharks

Our campfire is made out of stones, sticks and tissue paper.
{A flashlight tucked underneath creates the glowing effect.}

Sometimes we lay by the fire and read books like

'Til the Cows Come Home
and
Cowboy Small

Oh, and did I mention it snowed?
A lot?!

{enough said, right?}

a short vowel word game

2009-11-13T15:59:00.009-07:00

Who lives in the house of "at?"

Why, bat, hat, mat, rat, and cat, of course!

When doing this lesson,
the child puts all the "at" cards on the house first.
Then she puts the beginning sounds in place,
sounding out each letter combination as she goes.
If she's a writer, she can make a book with the words she's built.

The children can choose from several sets of cards...

"an" {c, p, f, r, m}
"ap" {c, m, n, s, t}
"et" {j, n, p, s, w}
"en" {d, h, m, p, t}
"it" {s, f, m, h, p}
"in" {b, f, p, t, w}
"og" {b, d, h, j, l}
"op" {b, h, m, p, t}
"ug" {b, h, j, m, r}
"ut" {c, g, h, n, r}

I bet you can think of even more short vowel combos, too!

The house part of the lesson is made from felt,
and the cards are hand-written on squares of paper, then laminated.

Someday, when I have a little more time and motivation,
{oh, if only!}
I'd love to post some tutorials on the felts we use for language lessons.
Not only are they useful, they make the lessons so appealing
to little hands!