Wow, it has been so long! I have taken a small (or maybe semi-too long) break from blogging, but I haven’t taken a break from education and planning and thinking about what to do with this site. Although I’ve been thinking about what to do with this site, I don’t really have any answers.
Of course at a time like this, no one has the answers. It’s such an uncertain time, and we’ve all in one way or another stepped outside of our comfort zone, whether it be not working or homeschooling or just going to the grocery store. For some or maybe for everyone, life is very uncomfortable right now. All we can do is stay home (for those who can stay home) and focus on the things that make us smile. For me, that’s family time, and spending time with my child who is now a teen!
But also at a time like this, our children need activities, and with so many of the Egg Hunts and bunny sightings postponed, we have created some Easter activities for you. 
This packet includes:
– A disguise the Easter Bunny sheet. Once your kiddos have made the bunny unrecognizable, you can e-mail it to our Macaroni Kid Amherst/Northampton site, where we will showcase all of the bunnies on our Facebook page because many people are homebound, but we still need community!
– Egg Hunt Game Cards. This includes 24 cards (six solid colored egg cards with six bunny cards instructing children what color egg cards can be found, as well as, six multi-colored egg cards with six bunny cards).
– Egg Hunt Match Game Cards, which consists of the numbers 1 – 10.
– A Mini coloring page.
– Our Alphabet Egg Race Game with upper case and lower case letters.
– Mini Bingo Sheets (four different sheets with calling cards).
– “Egg Coloring” Cards Four small (approximately 2.5″ x 3″) cards.
– Improv Eggs. This includes 7 cards with Easter themed Improv games that can be played with as few as 2 people.
You can get our Easter packet here.
Stay safe and healthy and kind!
Tea Party Printable Game
We’re currently in the midst of redesigning our website. Not sure how or when or why, but it’s in process. We really want to do some different things and make our website a place worth coming to all the time.
Of course, I believe our website is a place worth coming to all the time, but it’s hard to get that out there especially when you’re so busy with work and school and life. So I hope that you will help by sharing our website and facebook page with everyone you know (or at least the people who you think have an interest in what we’re sharing). But who wouldn’t have an interest in our Tea Party Printables.
This printable includes 39 pages and consists of a teacup color matching game (three options), an alphabet bingo, and a number match (numbers 1-6).
You can find out more about our Tea Party Printables here, but hurry it’s free for a limited time.
Farm Theme Alphabet Game
Do you recall our last post on October 13th when I said, I’ll be backson (I mean … BACK SOON) with our Farm theme? Well, I’m back with one printable. Ooh, let me rephrase that … ONE FREE PRINTABLE! Just for you, for being such a good sport because our Farm theme was full of revisions, and we didn’t get it completed when we wanted to, and most of you are probably not working on your farm theme still. But I wanted to share at least something because my word is good! : )
We created this alphabet game with A – Z cards. You look at the upper case letter, then determine which one is the lower case letter. We played the game where we placed the cards face down. Each player chose a card, then determined which letter was the matching lower case letter. They would then clip a clothes pin to the correct letter. You could also play using mini erasers because those seem to be the hot new thing.
We’ve also included an alphabet visual aid – a small poster that students can look at while playing the game.
We had so many ideas for our Farm theme, but many of them didn’t work out like expected, but it’s just a great reminder that sometimes the best-laid plans don’t work out like expected, just go with it. Every day is an experiment. As long as you’re having fun and learning through all the bumps in the road, you’re doing great!
Keep doing great!! And just for doing great, download our Alphabet Barn game here.
Googly Slime
Happy October! It’s hard to believe that it’s almost Halloween, and we haven’t done any Halloween activities, except for this very googly slime.
We used the same recipe from here. We used clear glue, and added googly eyes to it towards the end. I would have liked to have had more googly eyes, but I couldn’t find any, which is so rare in our eyes, I mean house (don’t you just love a typo that just works). We always have googly eyes.
To make our beautiful purple color (I guess it’s really not that spooky), we used red and blue food coloring (3 drops of red, 1 drop of blue).
It’s a really pretty purple!! Next time MORE EYES! : )
We’ll be back soon with our Farm theme!
Apple Themed Art
The weather is so fall-like where I am, even though Summer is not over (seriously, we went to a pool party yesterday …. brrrr), the weather is really nice and cool and perfect for an outdoor project.
This project is messy because we created art using apples and the colors of apples (red, yellow, and green paint). Although your students can do this activity individually, we paired students up, and they made an art project in teams. The main reason for the groups is because (a) I just like group projects even with children as young as preschool and (b) It’s just how we roll, because we dipped the apples in paint and rolled the apple to our friend. They could dip it in paint as well and roll it back. So instead of doing this individually and watching the apples roll away, working in pairs was much more successful.
We used poster board sheets (11 x 17), and each team got only one apple. They had to share the apple. They had to take turns, and they had to work cooperatively with their team.
Some students wanted an apple for each color (no), some wanted two apples in their group so they could roll at the same time (definitely no), and some didn’t want to participate as the apples got painty, slippery, and with little pieces of nature on them. : )
If you have students who really don’t like messy, you may have to coordinate this project so that they roll the apple first (when it’s the least messy) and then have a backup plan if the apple gets too messy, and you still want each person to have a partner. You could also have students work individually if you have something that they can roll their apple in so that the apples don’t keep rolling away.
All in all this was super fun and painty!! : )
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Apple Stand Dramatic Play Printables
It’s the season for everything apple (well actually everything pumpkin), but we’re falling for apples at the moment. And to go along with our falling for apples theme, we designed some printables for your apple stand dramatic play.
Included in our packet is:
– A sign for your apple stand hours
– An Open and Closed sign
– Job tags – with a tag for the cashier, chef, customer service, and customer.
– Pick Your Own signs: There are two signs with an arrow to the left and an arrow to the right, depending on where your apple trees are.
– Menu and Pricing: The items on our menu are: apples, applesauce, apple pie, apple juice, and apple cider.
– Item Labels for apple cider, apple juice, applesauce, apple pie, and apples.
– Order forms and blank signs.
Here is a sneak peek:
Fun sneak peek, right? Well, you can get an idea of what’s in there, but it’s free, so is a sneak peek really necessary? Maybe, but check it out in full here.
Apple Themed Math and Literacy
Have you heard the saying, an apple a day keeps boredom away? No??!! Well maybe I just made that up, I’m not certain, but if so, it’s true! We’ve designed some apple themed math and literacy printables and have been having so much fun with them as we get ready for back to school!
Our packet consists of:
Pick the Color, where students choose the correct color of the apple by attaching a clothes pin to the color word. There are a total of eight cards (three with a red apple, three with a green apple, and two with a yellow apple). The color words are in random order on the cards and all the red cards have a red border, green cards have a green border, and yellow cards have a yellow border.
Complete the Apple Pattern, where players choose the colored apple that completes the pattern. There are 10 pattern cards similar to the one below. Again, we used green, yellow, and red apples and included smaller cards that students can place in the empty spot to complete the pattern.
The first four cards include the color word in the blank space, so if students are just beginning to learn their colors, this is a helpful way for them to find the correct apple by matching the color of the apple to the color of the color word.
Number Match Game with the numbers 1 – 10. Players count the dots to see if the number of dots matches the number. We used red, green, and yellow colored apples in the match game. You can use all 10 numbers, or start with only a few as developmentally appropriate. There are different color borders on the cards, and they are not the same color as the apples (as in the above game). If two cards are a match, they will have the same color border, but there are also other cards with that same color border. Phew, not sure that’s all very clear, but I don’t know how to make it any clearer. It sure was a mouthful : )
Letter Match Game with the letters A – Z similar to the number match game. Again, you don’t need to use all the letters at once, and you also don’t need to go alphabetically (even though that’s how I set it up). You can always print the entire alphabet, but use just the letters that you’re working on.
Alphabet Race Game with an uppercase and lowercase letter game sheet. You will need a die to play the the alphabet race game. Students roll the die and move that number of spaces, saying the letter that they land on. Most of the apples in this game are red. I did include a couple yellow and green apple spaces, in case you want to play where if they land on a green or yellow apple, they can take another turn (completely optional, though).
We’ve also included a bonus activity, a pre-writing sheet where students can practice their writing skills by drawing a line to the apple tree.
There is so much fun in this 39-page apple packet. And you can download it here!
If you haven’t started school yet, where you are, I hope it’s a smooth transition. It sure was a quick Summer! Here’s to a happy school year!!
Bee Themed Art Project
We definitely left you hanging on our bee theme (what’s new, right)? But we’ve been working on preparing our lessons, which has been a time consuming project! Even though we love it!!
Our bee themed art was painting with flowers (sunflowers, in fact) that we’ve been growing in our own garden. We really haven’t had a lot of sunflowers bloom as of yet, but we did get one, which is fine because one was all we needed for this project (having only a few children, we were able to share the flower for our paintings).
I don’t make a habit of removing flowers from their space, but having the opportunity to touch the sunflower and talk about how bees get food from flowers was a great lesson for our bee theme.
For our art project, we made some beautiful paintings using the sunflower as a paint brush. First, we put paint on the paper.
Then we very gently used the flower to create beautiful paintings.
So gently that our flower paint brush is now sitting in a vase of water.
Happy 4th of July!
We wanted to hop on and wish you all a happy, healthy, and safe 4th of July!
We’ve been super busy working on updating some of our printables, creating more lesson plans, and attending different events in our community, which has left this blog in the dust! But I assure you that we are working on a regular schedule (I need a schedule) and a lot of fun stuff for this blog. Be sure and like our Facebook page for posts in between posts (did I just write that? …. how about this? … Be sure and like our Facebook page for updates in between blog posts? : )
We do have a printable for you. It’s a quick Fourth of July I-Spy game. So please print, play, and share! But most importantly please play and have fun!!
The clipart for this printable is from Whimsy Workshop Teaching.
For more fun themed activities, please like us on Facebook, and be sure and check out our selection of creative and diverse children’s books, by clicking here.
Bee Themed Math Activity
Here we are, back with our Bee Theme. I’m not sure why life is so busy, but we’ve been so busy working on stuff (some stuff for this blog) that we’ve (I’ve) completely ignored this blog. But I’ve thought about it. Really, I’ve thought about it every.single.day! We’ve also thought about the Barefoot Books Summer Reading Club every.single.day, and how you should really sign up (if you have interest).
On to bee math (is there anything sweeter)?
Our Math printable consists of two different games. The supplies you will need include: our free printable, clothes pins, and dice. Our first game includes 6 cards with the numbers 1 – 6. Players count the dots on the cards, then clip a clothes pin to the correct number.
You can also print two copies of the cards and use them as a matching game, or use an actual die. Players roll the die, choose the correct card, then choose the number. We’ve also included these jars of honey so players can place the cards next to the correct jar.
Please note that our printable does not include that amazing purple background, but with a little construction paper or cardstock, you could add it if you love it as much as we do.
Our next game is our standard alphabet board game. I’m including this with Math, as it uses a die and counting, but it’s also great for Language and Literacy.
You can download our Bee Math Games here. And remember, The Beeman is such a great book to use with these activities.
We’ll bee back soon with more bee themed fun! : )
Little Booktique 