Criss-Cross Applesauce

Earth Day Suncatcher

2012-04-24T14:11:00.002-04:00

My tot and preschooler really enjoyed making Easter themed suncatchers, so I thought we would create new suncatchers in honor of Earth Day. My preschooler knew the Earth was made up of land and water, but when looking at the blank coloring page she wasn't sure which was which. So we started by discussing where the land and water was located then she was ready to start! Here's our version of an Earth Day suncatcher.

Materials

Earth coloring page (I printed one from the Internet)
green and blue craft tissue
red construction paper
clear contact paper
paper clips
pencil
scissors

Steps
1. Trace half a heart on a folded piece of red construction paper. Cut out the heart and set aside for later.
2. Paper clip a sheet of clear contact paper to the Earth coloring page (sticky side up).
3. Use the blue and green craft tissue to cover the water and land on the Earth.
4. Place the cut out heart over the tissue.
5. Use a second sheet of clear contact paper to cover the globe, sealing in the tissue and heart.
6. Use scissors to cut out around the Earth.
7. Hang and enjoy!

Flower Mosaic

2012-04-19T14:43:00.000-04:00

Last week we ate lots of hard boiled eggs and egg salad sandwiches for lunch. With Earth Day just around the corner I hated to see all those beautifully colored eggshells thrown out. So instead I decided to turn what would be trash into a handmade treasure. I found an eggshell mosaic craft at Teaching Tiny Tots and adapted this idea into the prefect Earth Day/Spring project. My preschooler and tot used our colored Easter eggshells to create beautiful flower mosaics.

Materials

colored Easter eggs
flower picture (I printed a flower coloring page from the internet, but you could draw your own)
glue
small dish
paintbrush

Directions

Peel eggshell from egg. Break eggshells apart into small pieces.
Pour glue into small dish and use paintbrush to spread glue onto flower picture.
Place eggshells onto glue.
Shake off any excess shells.
Let dry.

I love how this craft ties in Easter, spring and recycling!

Easter Crafts

2012-04-13T14:24:00.002-04:00

I know this post is a little late, but here are the Easter crafts my tot and preschooler worked last week.

We made paper plate Easter Bunnies. This was a quick project that required only a few supplies. My preschooler enjoyed creating her bunny while my tot simply enjoyed squeezing the glue!

We used clear contact paper, tissue paper and construction paper to make "stained glass" crosses. There was a little bit of prep work involved in this project, but my preschooler was happy to help! I love the way the crosses came out and look forward to making more suncatchers for other themes. If you're looking for a great tutorial on how to make these crosses check out Kinder-Craze.

We used an egg shaped cookie cutter, beads and boondoggle to make playdough Easter eggs.

And yes we colored Easter eggs! Nothing fancy here. Just a classic Easter egg decorating kit bought from the grocery store!

April Learning Trays

2012-04-11T15:38:00.002-04:00

Here are the April learning trays I set-up for my preschooler. These trays are all Easter themed. Each day I pull out a few trays for my preschooler to work on. Sometimes we work together on these activities and sometimes (when I'm confident she understands the task), she'll practice these trays by herself.

Jelly Bean Pattern Mats
Source: Criss-Cross Applesauce
Skills Practiced: building AB, ABC, ABB, AAB and AABB patterns using manipulatives (jelly beans)

Missing Number Eggs
Source : Kindergarten At Heart
Skills Practiced: identifying and reading numbers 1-100, finding missing numbers 1-100, using the terms before, between and after for numbers 1-100
Rather than write the missing numbers on this printable, my preschooler placed plastic number tiles on the missing number egg. We have a large canister of plastic number tiles, from which I pulled out only the numbers she would need for this task. So Instead of worrying about how to write the numbers correctly, she was able to isolate the task of identifying and reading two digit numbers.

Egg Themed Syllable Sort
Source: Kinder Kids Fun
Skills Practiced: breaking words down into syllables
Learning how to break words down into syllables is an important prereading skill, so I was excited to come across this free syllable sort download from Kinder Kids Fun. My preschooler identifies a picture and says the word aloud while clapping the syllables. Then she places the card under the correct category - 1, 2 or 3 syllables.

Fill the Easter Basket
Source: Criss-Cross Applesauce
Skills Practiced: color identification, turn taking, addition/subtraction readiness, reading color words

Skip Counting
Source: Criss-Cross Applesauce, printable available HERE
Skills Practiced: using a hundreds chart, skip counting by twos, identifying number patterns
The first couple times we did this tray, I mixed up the skip counting cards and had my preschooler put them in order, skip counting by twos. This week when we use the tray I'll have my preschooler use the cup of beans to mark off the numbers on the hundreds chart that would be used to skip count by twos.

Graphics by Scrappin Doodles

Bunny Hundreds Chart

Source: Lil' Country Kindergarten

Skills Practiced: identifying numbers 1-100, coloring, understanding a hundreds chart

My preschooler loves this activity! Last month we worked on the leprechaun hundreds chart from Lil' Country Kindergarten. Though she was familiar with numbers 1-100, it was her first introduction to using a hundreds chart. These coloring activities have allowed her to practice reading two digit numbers in a fun way.

Easter Poem
Source: Poem from CanTeach, printable from Criss-Cross Applesauce available HERE
Skills Practiced: reading sight words, comprehension, creativity
This month I chose a repetitive Easter poem for the poetry tray. We'll read this poem many times, each time focusing on different literacy skills. First I'll read the poem to my preschooler and ask her to close her eyes and imagine the things she hears me read. Next we'll read the poem together and circle any words she is already able to read. Then I'll pick three sight words to introduce using the Montessori three part lesson. After learning the sight words she'll locate them in the poem and color them using colored pencils. When she is able to read the poem by herself (some actual word-by-word reading, some memorization) she will glue a copy of the poem into her poetry notebook and draw her own Easter pictures.

Bunny Graphic by Scrappin Doodles

Easter Sensory Tub

2012-04-09T14:54:00.001-04:00

Here's the Easter sensory tub I created for my preschooler and tot. I kept this tub very simple and used items we already had from past Easters.

Easter Sensory Tub Materials

Easter grass

Plastic Easter Eggs

Tongs

Egg Carton

Plastic Egg and Bunny Figurines

Speckled Eggs

Small Easter Basket

Egg Noise Makers

The egg noise makers could be used purely for fun, but they also had a learning component inspired by a post from Living Montessori Now. I paired three pink eggs with three blue eggs. I filled each pair of eggs with a different set of items (macaroni, coins, dried beans). As my kids played with the noise makers they matched the eggs by sound.

Jelly Bean Color Game

2012-04-03T14:50:00.000-04:00

Last month I created a game called End of the Rainbow that ended up being one of my most popular posts! This month I created a similar game with an Easter twist!

To play all you need are 20 jelly beans per player and a copy of the printable materials below!

To grab a copy click the image below or click HERE!

Graphics by Scrappin Doodles

Directions

1. Shuffle cards and place them in a pile face down.

2. Each player takes a game board and places 20 jelly beans (various colors) on the corresponding colored jelly bean on their game board.

3. Players take turns choosing a card and placing the correct number/color of jelly beans in the Easter basket. If a player draws a blank card he skips his turn. If a player draws an Easter Bunny card he chooses any color jelly bean to put to his basket.

4. The first player to fill their Easter basket with all their jelly beans wins!

Variations
Start with all the jelly beans in the Easter basket and play the game in reverse. The first player to empty their Easter basket wins!

Meeting the Needs of Learners
I created this game for children able to read color words. The cards for this game include only color words and are not actually colored in. If your child is not able to read color words yet, this game can be easily modified. Simply help your child color in the jelly bean cards before playing.

Skills Practiced

Reading color words
Counting numbers 1-20
Comparing quantities
Sorting by color
Addition/Subtraction

I link-up at these great parties!

Jelly Bean Pattern Mats (Freebie!)

2012-04-02T13:39:00.000-04:00

Are you ready for Easter? I have a few Easter freebies to share with you this week. Today I have two jelly bean pattern mats to share. These mats will help young learns practice the following patterns: AB, ABC, ABB, AAB and AABB. I laminated a set of mats so my preschooler can practice these patterns using real jelly beans and I also printed a set of mats for her to use with crayons.

Click on the image below to grab a copy or click HERE.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for another Easter themed freebie!

The Montessori Moveable Alphabet

2012-03-20T14:36:00.001-04:00

Last month I shared how I made a DIY Montessori Moveable Alphabet for my preschooler. Today I am going to share how my preschooler uses this alphabet box as a writing tool.

My preschooler is at the beginning stages of writing. Often during her quiet time she finds an empty notebook or stack of post-it notes and fills them with special notes and messages disguised as scribbling. To an outsider this might look like a mess or a waste of paper. But it's not! My preschooler is just showing her readiness to write. She has so many ideas that she wants to express with written words, but the act of writing letters, words and sentences is a VERY labored process right now.

While reading Montessori Read and Write: A Parent's Guide to Literacy for Children I discovered a straightforward approach to teaching reading and writing. First my preschooler learned letter sounds and formations using our DIY Montessori sandpaper letters. Then she progressed to using the Moveable Alphabet to build words.

After she practiced finding each letter's "home" in the Moveable Alphabet box she was ready to build words! Here's the process we use...

1. Choose a topic
I know my preschooler will be more invested in this writing activity if she chooses her own topic, but if she is unable to think of a topic, we talk about her day and I lead her to a topic that I know will interest her (birthday parties, school, lunch, grandparents, etc.). On this particular day we spent the morning playing at the playground. My preschooler was very excited about spring, so writing spring words seemed like a natural connection to our day.

2. Start with one word
After we choose a topic, we start by building one word. Our conversation goes a little something like this...

Me: What is the first spring word you'd like to write?
Preschooler: birds
Me: Oh that's a great spring word! What sound does that start with?
Preschooler: "b"
Me: Great! Can you find that letter?

After she finds the first letter in the word. I'll continue the conversation by asking her for the next sound and so on until the word is complete. Sometimes my preschooler is unable to determine the sound/letter that comes next. If she is unable to find the sound/letter even with encouragement, then I simply tell her the letter. I want this to be a positive experience that is quick and effortless. I don't want her to get frustrated or shut down just because she is stuck on one letter.

3. Continue building words
Each time we bring out the Moveable Alphabet my preschooler builds 3-5 words. I try to encourage her through prompting to pick words that are short and easy to spell phonetically (i.e. sun), but often she'll choose longer, more complicated words (i.e. birds, playground). When my preschool spelled the words birds and playground incorrectly I did not correct her mistakes. I simply encouraged her to continue. I know her spelling will continue to improve as she learns digraphs, blends and other writing conventions.

4. Write down the words
After my preschooler has completed her word list, I read them to her and then write them down on piece of paper (spelled correctly). Sometimes I simply jot down a quick list of the words, but other times we'll make a card for a family member or mini-book out of the words. When I'm done writing the card or mini-book, my preschooler will read the words and add illustrations. On this particular day she chose to make a mini-book and illustrate each word.

This is just the first way we've used the Moveable Alphabet. In the coming weeks, we'll also use the Moveable Alphabet to practice writing word families and sight words.

St. Patrick's Day Learning Trays

2012-03-15T14:30:00.000-04:00

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Here are the St. Patrick's themed learning trays I set-up for my preschooler. Each day I pull out a few trays for her to work on. Sometimes we work together on these activities and sometimes (when I'm confident she understands the task), she'll practice these trays by herself.

End of the Rainbow Game
Source : Criss-Cross Applesauce
Skills Practiced: color identification, turn taking, addition/subtraction readiness

Lucky Charm Graphing
Source: Mrs. Shehan's Full Day Kindergarten
Skills Practiced: creating a graph, interpreting a graph
This is a great math activity for my preschooler! After she uses the Lucky Charm marshmallows to create the graph, she counts up the number of marshmallows in each category and writes those numbers at the top of the graph. Then I ask her questions about the graph using math comparison words (i.e. Which type of marshmallow had the most? Which type of marshmallow had the least?).

Lucky Dog Math Game
Source: Criss-Cross Applesauce
Skills Practiced: identifying/naming numbers 1-20, turn taking

Roll and Color a Rainbow
Source: Criss-Cross Applesauce
Skills Practiced: turn taking, color identification, reading color words, coloring, creativity
After playing this game a couple types my preschooler was ready to switch things up a bit. She came up with the idea to make a backwards rainbow, starting with the color purple. She thought this was pretty silly and had a lot of fun with it!

Leprechaun Hundreds Chart

Source: Lil' Country Kindergarten

Skills Practiced: identifying numbers 1-100, coloring, understanding a hundreds chart

This is another great math activity! This activity tray is my preschooler's first introduction to the hundreds chart. I would really like to make a DIY Montessori Hundreds Chart for my preschooler, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I figured since she able to identify numbers 1-100 there was no reason not to give this activity a try, since I would be working 1 on 1 with her and we could work on a little each day.

Spring Poem
Source: CanTeach, printable available HERE
Skills Practiced: reading sight words, comprehension, creativity
I couldn't find a St. Patrick's Day poem that was exactly what I was looking for, so instead a picked a spring themed poem! We'll read this poem many times, each time focusing on different literacy skills. The first time I'll read the poem to my preschooler and ask her to close her eyes and imagine the things she hears me read. Then we'll discuss what she imagines. Next we'll read the poem together practicing sight words and words she is able to read using picture clues. Then when she is able to read the poem by herself (some actual word-by-word reading, some memorization) she will glue a copy of the poem into her poetry notebook and draw her own spring pictures.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Roll and Color a Rainbow

2012-03-12T15:40:00.000-04:00

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Here's one more St. Patty's Day freebie!

There are so many different versions of this of game floating around the web. I've found Roll and Draw a Turkey, Roll and Draw a Ladybug and most recently, I included Roll a Leprechaun in last week's St. Patrick's Day High Five round-up. For my Roll and Color a Rainbow version, all you need are a die, a set of crayons or markers and a copy of the printable materials below.

Click the image below to grab a copy or click HERE.

Directions
Players take turns rolling the die and coloring in their rainbow according to the instructions. If a player rolls a color that has already been colored, then that player skips his turn. The first player to color all six colors of the rainbow wins!

Lucky Dog Number Game (Freebie!)

2012-03-06T16:29:00.002-05:00

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Here's a math game for St. Patrick's Day!

Graphics by Scrappin Doodles

This game is very similar to the Let it Snow game I created for a winter theme. This game helps children practice identifying numbers 1-20. To play all you need are a box of Lucky Charms cereal and a copy of the printable materials below!

To grab a copy click the image below or click HERE!

Directions
1. Shuffle the cards and lay them in a pile face down.

2. Player 1 draws a card, reads the number aloud and uses a Lucky Charm to cover up the corresponding four leaf clover on his board.

3. Players continue taking turns, drawing cards and covering up four leaf clovers.

4. If a player draws a number card which he has already covered up on his board then that player skips his turn. If a player draws a blank card he skips his turn. If a player draws a “Lucky Dog” card he may choose any number on his board to cover up.

5. The first player to cover up all their four leaf clovers wins!

Skills Practiced
Identifying and naming numbers 1-20

Have a lucky day!

One Lovely Blog Award

2012-03-02T14:00:00.000-05:00

I am so honored my blog received the One Lovely Blog Award from Sierra at H is for Homeschooling.

Be sure to check out Sierra's blog! She writes a fun homeschool blog and shares many clever ideas for toddler/preschooler activity trays. Now onto the rules of this award...

One Lovely Blog Award Rules:

1. Link back to the one who gave you this award.

2. Pass the award on to 15 other lovely bloggers.

Here are the 15 bloggers I am passing this award on to (in no particular order)

Repeat Crafter Me

Mom is the Only Girl

Lil' Country Kindergarten

Reading Confetti

Happy Little Munchkins

JDaniel4's Mom

Our Country Road

Inspired by Kindergarten

Enchanted Homeschool Mom

Tippy Toe Crafts

i Heart Crafty Things

Joyfully Weary

Mama Mia's Heart 2 Heart

Fun Frugal Mom

The Princess and the Tot

Each of these wonderful blogs has inspired me in my parenting, teaching and/or blogging. The women who write them are so creative and generous. Please check out their blogs and see the wonderful things they have to share!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

2012-03-01T14:27:00.000-05:00

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Tomorrow, March 2nd, is Dr. Seuss's birthday! To celebrate this creative author's birthday we read many silly Seuss books and incorporated several Seuss inspired projects into our week. Here's a look at a few of our favorite projects...

We filled our sensory tub with "Oobleck" a gooey, sticky substance inspired by Bartholomew and the Oobleck: (Caldecott Honor Book) by Dr. Seuss. To make Oobleck combine cornstarch, water and green food coloring. Then mix until you have a consistency something between a liquid and a solid. At first my tot didn't enjoy getting his hands dirty, so I grabbed a few utensils from the kitchen and he had at it. Eventually he warmed up to this strange texture and and got as messy as his sister!

We read Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories and made our own turtles from paper plates and construction paper. This was a simple and easy craft to prepare. My preschooler cut out legs a head and tail for the turtles and taped them onto the front side of the paper plate. Then we turned the plates upside down and my preschooler and tot glued ripped pieces of construction paper to decorate their turtle's back.

My preschooler's favorite Seuss book is There's a Wocket in My Pocket! After reading this book many times we created "wockets" "nellers", "bofas" and several other silly creatures out of playdough. I gave my tot and preschooler a basket filled with craft supplies (googly eyes, feathers, beads and pipe cleaners) and let them create Seuss inspired creatures. Tomorrow we'll read If I Ran the Zoo and use our playdough and craft supplies to create unusual zoo animals.

How will you celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday?

M&M Rainbow Game (Freebie)

2012-02-27T15:36:00.003-05:00

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Here's a fun M&M game with a St. Patrick's Day theme!

This game is very similar to the Christmas M&M game I created back in December. This game helps preschoolers practice sorting colors, counting and taking turns. To play all you need are 20 M&M's per player and a copy of the printable materials below!

To grab a copy click the image below or click HERE!

Directions

1. Shuffle cards and place them in a pile face down.

2. Each player takes a game board and places 20 M&M’s (various colors...no brown) on the rainbow on their game board.

3. Players take turns choosing a card and removing the correct number/color of M&M's from the rainbow and placing them in the St. Patty’s Day pot.

4. The first player to fill their St. Patty’s Day pot with all their M&M’s wins!

Variations
Start with all the M &M's in the pot and play the game in reverse. The first player to sort all their M&M's onto the correct colors of the rainbow wins!

Skills Practiced

Reading color words
Counting numbers 1-20
Comparing quantities
Sorting by color
Addition/Subtraction

I link-up at these great parties!

Presidents' Day Snack

2012-02-22T13:55:00.001-05:00

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After learning about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in our coin storing tray, I thought it would be fun to extend our learning about the presidents by making a mini version of Abraham Lincoln's log cabin. We simplified the log cabin I found Martha Stewart's website, making it the prefect project for a preschooler!

Materials

peanut butter, graham crackers, pretzels sticks, small candy, tin foil, board book

Step 1

Wrap the board book in tin foil. I used tin foil and a board book for our base, but a piece of wood or cardboard would also make a good base.

Step 2

Spread peanut butter on the outer sides of the pretzels and build the walls of the cabin by stacking the pretzels on top of each other. For an alternative to peanut butter, frosting could be used to "glue" the pretzels together.

Step 3

Add a roof and door by "gluing" the graham crackers onto the pretzels. We also added a piece of candy for a door handle.

This was a quick project that required very few materials (all of which I already had!). Plus this mini-log cabin made a tasty snack!

Happy Presidents' Day!

2012-02-20T16:47:00.002-05:00

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Happy Presidents' Day! This holiday is pretty exciting where we live because students are off from school for the entire week! While my preschooler is home from school, we'll have plenty of time for playdates, relaxing at home and of course I'll sneak in a little learning time too! This week's preschool activity trays are a bit of a hodgepodge....a Presidents' Day activity, a snowman poem, a Valentine's Day book, letter writing practice and polar region animal cards. As you can tell we're playing catch-up on a few activities we ran out of time for earlier this winter! Here's what our preschool activity trays look like:

Presidents' Day Coin Sort
I kept this tray simple and only included sorting pennies and quarters since this is my preschooler's first money activity and first time learning about the presidents. You can download a copy of this printable HERE.

Poetry Tray
I have wanted to set-up a poetry tray for some time now and finally got around to it! Last week we had quite a bit of snow around here and we were finally able to build a snowman! So I picked a cute snowman poem from CanTeach and set-up this poetry tray. You can download a copy of this poem HERE.

I Love Pets! Emergent Reader
My preschooler is so anxious to read! The only problem is she only knows a handful of sight words making reading even the simplest Ready to Read books a bit too challenging. So I created this super simple reader all about pets. It's repetitious and only includes a few sight words! You can download a copy of this reader HERE.

Letter Writing Practice
This week we'll group letters into families by the way they look and by the way they are formed (tall letters, round letters etc.) and practice writing a couple letters from one family group. In the picture I show the lined side of the dry erase board, but I think we'll most likely use the the backside of the board without lines so my preschooler doesn't get frustrated trying to stay in the lines.

Polar Animal Match-up Cards
Last month my preschooler used these 3 part "Montessori" cards to match-up animal pictures and learn the names of each polar animal. This time I plan to review the names of the animals and play a memory match-up game with her.

Preschool Valentine Cards

2012-02-15T15:10:00.001-05:00

This week one of my preschooler's favorite activity trays was a Valentine card making tray. This tray was filled with a variety of craft supplies including colored pencils, scissors, glue stick, doilies, stickers, construction paper, scrapbook paper and a heart tracer. When I presented the tray to my preschooler she was eager to begin making homemade Valentines for family members!

Valentine card making was a great way for my preschooler to be creative while practicing fine motor skills. There was quite a bit of tracing, cutting and gluing...all important tasks for preschoolers to practice!

In addition to the craft supplies on this tray, I also printed out several small photos of family members (and pets!) and labeled each photo with the person's name. These photos gave my preschooler ideas on who to make cards for and allowed her to write the person's name independently without worrying about spelling. It turned out to be a great reading and writing activity!

We worked on her first couple Valentine cards together, then several days in a row she chose to make Valentines independently for her "choice time". She also loved placing the finished Valentines in the mini-mailbox all ready for delivery!

Preschool Valentine Trays

2012-02-13T15:13:00.001-05:00

While my tot naps I work one-on-one with my preschooler on one "learning" activity a day. Last week (for the first time!) I planned all my preschooler's activities ahead of time! All the activities I picked are Valentine themed. Once my preschooler has a good understanding of each activity (after we've worked together at least once), they become "choice time" activities she can choose to work on by herself.

Activity: Candy Heart Patterns
Source: Pre-Kinders
Purpose: Finishing AB, ABC, and AABB patterns using manipulatives

Activity: Candy Heart Sorting
Source: Pre-Kinders
Purpose: Sorting by color, counting numbers, writing numbers, reading color sight words

Activity: Symmetrical Heart Painting
Source: The Chocolate Muffin Tree
Purpose: Tracing, cutting, painting, making a symmetrical design, creativity

Activity: Heart Bead Decorations
Source: Pinterest (photo uploaded by user)
Purpose: Fine motor, patterning, creativity

Activity: Valentine Card Making
Source: The Work Plan
Purpose: Fine motor, tracing, cutting, reading names, writing names, creativity

Activity: Colors of Love Game
Source: Criss-Cross Applesauce
Purpose: Reading color words, matching colors

Activity: Hershey Kiss Addition

Source: Making Learning Fun

Purpose: Adding two numbers using manipulatives (sums to 10), fine motor

Colors of Love Sight Word Game (Freebie!)

2012-02-08T15:47:00.001-05:00

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Here's a fun Valentine game for young learners!

This sight word game helps young learners practice reading color words. To play this game all you need are 8 game pieces per player (we used clear glass pebbles) and a copy of the printable materials below!

To grab a copy click the image below or click HERE!

Directions
1. Shuffle cards and place them in a pile face down.

2. Each player takes a game board and 8 game pieces.

3. Players take turns choosing a card, reading the word out loud and covering up the corresponding colored heart on their board.

4. The first player to cover all their hearts wins!

Variations
Start with all the game pieces on the board and play the game in reverse. The first player to clear their board first wins!

Meeting the Needs of All Learners
I included two different sets of cards with this game. The first set of cards has color words with colored hearts...great for little ones learning to match colors. The second set of cards has just color words...great for learners practicing sight word reading. The first time my preschooler played this game we used a combination of cards since she was able to read some color words (red, yellow, blue, green, white), but some of the words were a little tricky or new to her (orange, black, brown, purple, gray, pink). Each time we played she was able to use fewer and fewer colored heart cards, until she was able to read all of words independently!

Skills Practiced
Identifying colors
Reading color words
Counting numbers 1-8

I link-up at these great parties!

DIY Montessori Moveable Alphabet

2012-02-06T08:00:00.000-05:00

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Check out our DIY Montessori Moveable Alphabet!

Once my preschooler worked her way through the sandpaper letters and could identify most letter sounds, I knew she was ready to start writing words. The Moveable Alphabet is the perfect tool to help her write words without having to worry about forming letters with pencil and paper. I had the fleeting thought of buying a Montessori Moveable Alphabet, but I figured for our purposes here at home I could forgo the expense and make a DIY set instead.

Materials

Utility Case (JoAnn Fabrics - jewelry section)

Large Dried Lima Beans (Dollar Store)

Permanent Markers

Print-Out of Lowercase Alphabet

Step 1
One night on Pinterest, I came across "alpha-beans". "Alpha-beans" are simply dried lima beans with the alphabet written on them (one letter per bean). Sara from Creative Jewish Mom created a letter match-up game using "alpha beans". I knew "alpha-beans" would be the perfect manipulative for our DIY Moveable Alphabet!

I set the lima beans up in the same direction and wrote a lowercase letter on each one. I love how the beans fit together perfectly and by facing them all in the same direction I hope to eliminate confusion on whether a letter is a p/d/b or u/n. I made 5 of each letter, but I'll probably make more as my preschooler learns to write longer words and messages. I wrote the consonants in black and the vowels in red, (traditional Montessori Moveable Alphabets have red constants and blue vowels). Sara from Creative Jewish Mom, recommended spraying the beans with a coat of acrylic varnish because they have a tendency to chip, but I skipped this figuring I could always go back and do it later.

Step 2
I printed out a set of lowercase letters from the computer, laminated them and taped them to the bottom of the box. This helps my preschooler know where to put the letters back.

Step 3
I filled up the utility case with the alpha-beans!

This DIY Moveable Alphabet was quick to prepare and cost less than 5 bucks!

Before using the letters to write words, my preschooler and I played "I Spy" (using sounds) so she could become familiar with finding the letters quickly. Then she started writing!

In an upcoming post I'll share how my preschooler uses the Moveable Alphabet to write lists, notes and short messages!

If you're looking for more ideas on how to make a DIY Moveable Alphabet, check out this recent post by Living Montessori Now! Montessori Monday: Inexpensive and DIY Movable Alphabets

Penguin Fishing Game (Freebie!)

2012-02-01T15:32:00.000-05:00

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I am so excited to share my latest board game!

To play this fun game all you need are a few handfuls of Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Crackers (red, orange, yellow and green) and a copy of the printable materials below!

To grab a copy click the image below or click HERE!

Graphics by Scrapping Doodles

Directions
1. Shuffle cards and place them in a pile upside down.
2. Each player takes a game board and places 20 Goldfish crackers (various colors) in the water on their board.
3. Players take turns choosing a card and removing the correct number/color of fish from the water and placing them in the correct fishing bucket.
4. The first player to catch all their fish wins!

Variations
Start with all your fish in the buckets and play the game in reverse. The first player to throw all their fish back into the water wins!

Meeting the Needs of All Learners
I included two different boards in this game. One board has just color words on the buckets (great for kids learning to read) and another board includes colors and color words on the buckets (for preschoolers practicing color identification).

Skills Practiced
Counting numbers 1-20
Identifying colors
Sorting by color
Reading color words
Addition/subtraction readiness
Comparing quantities

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Sensory Bin: Mashed Potato Playtime

2012-01-30T14:51:00.000-05:00

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So what do you do with an expired box of mashed potato flakes? You cook them up and let your kids play with their food!

I found an expired box of mashed potatoes flakes tucked in the back of the pantry. I didn't want them to completely go to waste, so I boiled some water (didn't bother to add milk or butter since we wouldn't be eating these), let them cool, added them to our sensory bin and let my tot and preschooler have some messy fun!

First they used their sand toys to make mashed potato sculptures.

Then they created a winter wonderland using miniature polar animals. (This was the same set of animals from our Polar Region Sensory Bin.)

It was a little messy, but a whole lot of fun for my tot and preschooler. And now I feel a little less guilty for letting the box of mashed potato flakes expire!

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Montessori for the Closet

2012-01-25T10:49:00.000-05:00

Reading How To Raise An Amazing Child the Montessori Way, by Tim Seldin, inspired me to create a more kid-friendly environment at home. All the ideas in this book are so incredibly simple and sensible! This book does an excellent job of teaching parents how to implement Montessori principles at home to encourage children to be helpful, happy and independent. The first thing I reorganized at home was a kitchen drawer. Then I moved onto tackling the clutter in the front closet. I took all my kids' things out of the closet and moved them down to a pint sized level...

a low coat rack for jackets and book bags

a basket for mittens, gloves, scarfs and hats

a stool to sit on

clothespins to clip together shoes

These simple changes have saved sooooo much time and stress when heading out the door. My preschooler can independently get ready to go (she just needs help zipping her jacket). And gone are the days of her asking if her shoes are on the right feet!! My tot knows right where to go to find everything and can follow simple directions like, "please go get your sneakers." And when we come home, my tot and preschooler can put away their own things, saving me just a little cleaning time!!

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The Perfect Board Game Pieces!!

2012-01-24T15:15:00.002-05:00

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Have you noticed more and more FREE teacher materials on Pinterest? Some of my favorite Pinterest freebies are teacher created board games I can play with my preschooler. Once I print a game I scramble around the house to find something to use for game pieces. I usually use small candies, foam squares, old board game pieces or any little trinkets I find lying around the house. Well now I have a new item to add to my game piece list...SQUINKIES!!!

My preschooler received her first set of Squinkies in October for her birthday. It was the first time I saw these mini squished up toys. My preschooler found them adorable. I could not agree with her less! All I saw when I looked at these toys were a terrifying choking hazard! I couldn't imagine why my preschooler would choose to play with them. They are less than an inch tall, the only accessory they came with were a couple of tiny plastic containers and she owns so many other toys that (in my opinion) are much better for imaginary play. But play with them she did. She enjoyed her first set of Squinkies so much that when Christmas rolled around, Disney Princess Squinkies made their way to the top of her Christmas list.

It wasn't until last week, when I figured out an education purpose for Squinkies, that I finally gave in and became a fan of these collectible toys. Squinkies make the perfect game pieces for all those teacher created games I've pinned and printed from Pinterest!! They are the perfect size for game boards, they stand up and they come in a wide variety...pets, babies, sports players and cars just to name a few.

Last week while I prepared for my faith formation class (I teach a 1st grade religion class once a week), I gathered up a collection of my preschooler's Squinkies. My preschooler graciously offered me use of any of her Squinkies, "expect her favorite princess ones!"

Before the lesson began, I told the class they would each get to choose a Squinkie at the end of the lesson to play a quick board game. I used good behavior as an incentive for choosing the Squinkies (those students who were attentive and participated would get to choose their Squinkie first). The class loved it! It was great motivation and added a little extra fun to the game!

I didn't have my camera with me in class, but when I got home I played the game with my preschooler and took a few pictures.

Now my head is spinning with ideas for all the different preschool games I could create using different Squinkie sets! And not only do Squinkies make the perfect game board pieces, they will also be a great math manipulative for my preschooler to use for counting, addition, subtraction, measurement, geometry and so much more!

I might just have to start collecting Squinkies right along with my preschooler!

What educational ways will you use Squinkies???

The Phonetic ABC Song

2012-01-20T15:00:00.001-05:00

Do your kids know their phonetic ABCs??

Last week I stumbled across a link for a FREE MP3 download of the Phonetic ABC Song from Maitri Learning. This version of the classic ABC song sings letter sounds instead of the letter names. Since I started working with my preschooler on pre-reading activities, I've seen first hand how important it is to teach children letter sounds. Singing the phonetic version of The ABC Song would be a great way to build phonemic awareness (knowledge of sounds/symbols) in the youngest learners.

Photo by Peter Galbraith