Valentine's ... Take Three

What You'll Need:

 

Dad's Clothes

 

Some Sounds Makers-make them laugh, not just smile

 

A Bed Sheet Backdrop

My favorite Photo Shoots are with my own kids...it's true. We just have so much fun, and they really love being in front of the camera.

 

Being a photographer, I love capturing every smile and coming up with new ideas of how to catch them in their age.

 

Dress Up + Sneaking into Dad's closet was super fun, although I managed to pick all his newly pressed shirts. Oops.

 

 

The outtakes were much better as well!

Flattened Sushi

Yummy!

Sushi Rolls:

Bread (flattened)

Lettuce

Cheese
Meat

Dipping Sauce
Chopsticks

 

 

 

 

This was not fun to eat, but fun to make. Kids loved just smooshing their bread to a flattened pancake. Using chopsticks (kid friendly) and trying to use the dipping sauce (mustard) was great luncheon entertainment.

Classroom Connection:

This would be fun to do during a unit on different cultures, food, and celebrating diversity.

Road Trip

 Snack Necklace:

Pretzels
Fruit Loops (or similar)
Gummi Lifesavers

Plenty of healthy alternatives.

Sew Much Fun:
Cardstock
Printables
Hole Puncher
Yarn

Melissa & Doug Sew kits

 

Magnet DesignCookie Sheet
Magnets
Vent Cover from Home Depot color and cut into shapes


His Road Traveling Robot Design
Cookie Sheet was used for their mini tables as well.

A Roarin' Good Time

 

 What You'll Need:

 (in our case, an awesome zoo:

Brookfield Zoo Hamil Family Play Zoo)

Plastic Dino's/creatures

Sticks/Mud/Clay

Bins for mud/water

 

 

 

I love our zoo, for too many reasons to count. But, one area is the sheer fact that we can get down and dirty on someone else's turf! Their smocks, their mud, my fun! This would be such a doable project to bring into your own backyard or classroom.

A large bin of wet clay/mud mixture + A large bin of warm water to place the dried up finalized designs into for future use.

My dino lovers, were able to escape the present and really get into creating a 3D model of what the ancient creature lived in. Their created trees, knocking them over, nests for Raptors to destroy, and drinking pools for their family of triceratops.

This was one cool project!

 

Classroom Connection:

27.B.1 Know how images, sounds and movement convey stories about people, places and times.

 

 

 

 Side Note:

 

And can't forget this cutie,

 eating his fossil finding brush, and tossing his TRex to the ground to do so.

My fossil finder, and eater...this does not surprise me, so yes, I took the picture



Keep Your Sanity

Although I love coming up and sharing new projects and ideas, I also need support.
I love these sites, and they are printer friendly.


Preschool Worksheets and Printables

(you need to create a log in to print single sheets, you can also pay minimal fees to access as a teacher and print collections from text)

PBS Kids

Nick Jr.


(both pbs and nickjr sites have great preschool friendly games, as well great printables and craft/recipe ideas)

The Busy Budgeting Mama

(Love~Love~Love this site, great ideas for DIY projects, great links for online classroom gift printables, great recipes, and just overall inspiring mama)

100 Days of Real Food

(Because entertaining, teaching, loving your kids is not enough...you need to feed them too. This site has THE BEST whole chicken slow cooker recipe, and about 1,000 more healthy choice recipes)

Kids Activities (Sent To You)

(Sign up and receive many ages of fun filled activities, great ideas!)

Mr. Roboto

What You'll Need:

 

Any leftover cardboard ANYTHING

Tape

Markers

Pipe Cleaners

Hole Puncher

I have to search to find the final image of our dearly loved robot. This project would be great for all ages. Creating a life form from inanimate objects and working on proportions using toilet paper rolls was quite an experience.

We just added box and roll after roll until we had a somewhat of a "human" like robot. This would be a great experiment for 3D design with students. My favorite part was after completing the actual structure of our robot, my kids made them their own with their details. My son gave his robot a huge heart and LOTS of buttons that do all sorts of cool tricks, like making a hamburger. My daughter wanted yarn to make long hair on top of her robot and gave her face a very sweet smile instead of the robot teeth my son marked on his.

This could be great to study 3D sculptures and create recycled sculptures of different life or architectural forms.

 

Classroom Connection:

26.B.3d Visual Arts: Demonstrate knowledge and skills to create 2- and 3-dimensional works and time arts (e.g., film, animation, video) that are realistic, abstract, functional and decorative.

 

One to Two, is supposed to be hard, but Two to Three...Oh you have NO idea

 

I'm not going to say three is hard or stressful, because as a wise friend has taught me 2 things that I repeat daily,

"It's all relative"  & "Just be good-enough"

But, I will say from  my own point of view, I haven't touched this blog in over a year.

This was my outlet, and one I very much enjoyed.

I finally and I mean FINALLY feel like I may actually have a grip on things.

I would never change a single tiny step of my life, and I am truly grateful for being blessed with not 1 but 3 healthy children.

But, I am a real person, and will tell it as it was for me, this was (and still is) an adjustment.

 

But, this smile, this huge, no teeth smile, makes this day-to-day obstacle race so well worth it.

Real Life Connection:

This is life. We are all handed a different deck. Enjoy playing. Take moments to just breathe and be "just good enough".

Cut It Out

 

 

What You'll Need:

Cookie Cutters

Apples or Sturdy Fruit

Bread/Sandwich

 

 

Really I'll find anyway to make a small smile for my kids. But, also I like to find ways to get kids interested in using fine motor skills.

 

Really you could use this for many educational plans.

Using sturdy fruit or vegetables (apples, cucumber, carrots, pears, potatoes) or other foods (sandwich, cheese, meat, lasagna noodles).

 

Kids like fun shapes...who doesn't! I have a cookie cutter set of over 100 cutters with alphabet, numbers, symbols and signs.

 

For early education teachers, this would be a great way to teach basic math symbols, and allowing students to eat their subtraction skills.

Classroom Connection:

26.B.1d Visual Arts: Demonstrate knowledge and skills to create visual works of art using manipulation, eye-hand coordination, building and imagination. Introduce other tools (cutting) with easily manipulative mediums like breads/cheese/etc.

 

Game Day (Slash) Nap Time

What You'll Need:

Cups (Any Kind/Any Amount)

Markers

Pom Pom Balls

Straws

Tape

It's nap time in our house (which is like precious gold!), so we've come up with some stash away games. These can be played any where, at any time. We started this game to practicing counting and using our coordination.

We created a score sheet, and keep Joe Joe's on hand for all participants.

 

This could be used for a classroom ice breaker, with just counting, or put a piece of paper in each cup which students have to answer questions about themselves or entry level questions about the class.

 

 This next game was their favorite, and was inspired by...lunch. Adding a straw to any meal makes life in general more exciting when you're 4 and 5! We still had our Pom Poms from a project we were doing. Adding a few markers on the ground with tape and having a straw race was pretty fun to watch and participate in.

 

This could be used for all ages and at table level. Great introduction to matter and weight. Using different light or objects that appear to be light to try and move with air. As always a great ice breaker for classrooms as well.

 

 

Classroom Connections:

Solving Problem: Recognize and investigate problems; formulate and propose solutions supported by reason and evidence.

Communication: Express and interpret information and ideas.

Working on Teams:Learn and contribute productively as individuals and as members of groups

And...This is 3

One to Two, is supposed to be hard, but Two to Three...Oh you have NO idea

 

I'm not going to say three is hard or stressful, because as a wise friend has taught me,

"It's all relative."

But, I will say from  my own point of view, I haven't touched this blog in over a year.

This was my outlet, and one I very much enjoyed.

I finally and I mean FINALLY feel like I may actually have a grip on things.

I would never change a single tiny step of my life, and I am truly grateful for being blessed with not 1 but 3 healthy children.

But, I am a real person, and will tell it as it was for me, this was (and still is) an adjustment.

 

But, this smile, this huge, no teeth smile, makes this day-to-day obstacle race so well worth it.