Friday, September 29, 2017

Free October Preschool Calendar Cards

Aren't these cards the cutest?!?  Use these for your preschool calendar or counting activities.  The possibilities really are endless.  

The cards alternate 3 different graphics and is a great way to teach patterns during calendar time.  My little one likes to guess what the next picture will be.




There are in a convenient pdf download at the end of this post.  Just print  and cut!  I suggest cardstock or laminate for durability.  They are size at 3"x3" and may fit your pocket calendars.  If not I added the .jpeg version of each card to my exclusive download folder.  You can download and size the cards to your needs.  These are for personal use only please.  You can access it by signing up for my newsletter over on the sidebar.


Here's how we use ours.  Its not fancy but it works great.  (find details here)

Download your free cards calendar cards here.

Old Window Wreath or Photo Display

A little white ago I found a 2 old windows/maybe cupboards (not really sure what they were.)  But they are full of old, chippy paint goodness.  This one is long and huge with no glass.  So I stapled some chicken wire to the back.  You can leave it as is or add a cute wreath.
 It's also perfect to clip pictures or image Christmas cards!  


 However you style it it will be amazing!  


If you don't have something old like this check out this post and build your own frame!

Thursday, September 28, 2017

Updated General Conference Note Cover Page

It's that time of year again!  General Conference seriously snuck up on me this time.  In april we had a lot of fun with our Conference basket and Hide and Seek game that I'm doing it again. You can find all the details here!

The only thing that might now work is the date on the little note taking book.


It's really cute so I updated the cover page only.  It comes in the floral pictured and a minty green stripe color (I think that's what you would call it).  Both option have one with a date (October 2017) and one with out. Just click on the links below to download the copy you want.

Mint options
Floral option

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

B is for Body Preschool Theme

The next couple of letters will be mini themes.  We are a part of a mommy preschool group meaning we rotate houses and it won't be my turn to teach for a little while.  I still like to do a few fun activities on the days she home.  During our letter B week we focused on how our bodies work and the really cool things it can do.  We also played with barbies, blocks, balls, and bubbles all week!

We read this book from Usborne.  You probably know someone who sells these or I did find it on Amazon. (Affiliate link)  I was surprised how much my 3 year old loved this book.  We spent a couple of days on it and would discuss each page.

Letter B Poster! Also comes in black and white and is perfect for a coloring page.

My Letter B book.  Print, cut along the black center line, and staple.  Your little ones will have fun coloring and reading their little book.

I can...is a fun activity that focuses on the letter B and the cool things our bodies can do.  Print the page (there is a boy and girl option) and get started.  After each activity is completed let your little one cross it off.  If you are using it to teach the letter B I like to say something like "I can read a book b b book" (not quite sure how to write that but you will be saying the b sound).


 The activities include: Read or look at a book, hit a balloon, blow bubbles, ride a bike, bounce a ball (or throw), balance on one foot, & bend my knees and elbows.  You can do all of them or just pick a few.

Head Shoulders Knees and Toes
Coloring page from here. Cut along the lines and practice and use it as a puzzle.  We love this song and did it slow and fast.

Trace Body-I had this on my list but was so happy when she did this at preschool.  If you don't have large paper (like me) head outside and use sidewalk chalk.

Baked Blueberry Muffins from a Box.  Crazy hair not required :)



I hope you found some fun ideas and you can find more Letter B ideas on our Pinterest Board.

Friday, September 22, 2017

Ideas to teach the Number 2

Here are some fun ideas to teach the number 2.  I mentioned in the #1 post that I find it easier to teach numbers in a set like 1-5 then add numbers up to 10.  You'll find lots of those activities in our preschool letter/theme posts.  This is more about recognizing what the individual numbers looks like and its value. I'm going to try and add activities specific to the number in the post but many can easily be adapted to any number. Here are some fun ideas I thought of and found for the number 2.

The number poster I created for our preschool board.  It was visible all week. Every poster comes in color or black and white.  Save on some ink and color yourself or use it as an adorable coloring page for your kids.




Download number poster here



Sand writing: here

idea found here.

The next 2 cute ideas were found here
Two Color Paper Chains: Make a paper chain by rotating two colors. For example, red, blue, red, blue.

Noah’s ark: This would be a great time to share the story of Noah’s Ark, emphasizing how the animals marched two by two.
-Some additional ideas to go with this theme: pull out the stuffed animals (or stickers, figurines, etc.) and find a match.  Line them up two by two. 
-Animal crackers for snack and line them up two by two.
-Cute free printables to retell the story found here.
  
-I love this adorable preschool pack found here.  She has a lot of cute pages that you can use to count to the number two.  I liked this one below.

Another fun theme would be pointing out all of the body parts that we have two of...ears, eyes, arms, etc.  Have the kids draw a self portrait.



You might recognize some of these from my Number one post but they are great learning tool:
Number Tracers worksheets from here


and this fun I spy activity found here


Number Rhymes that teach formation found here


.


Print this number two template and add two stickers

I'll be adding to the number poster download and sharing some more ideas to teach individual numbers as we go.  Also check out our preschool themes for more counting and math ideas.
You can find our number of the week posts here.


Thursday, September 21, 2017

A is for Apple Preschool Theme


We had so much fun with theme!  I have to apologize, I did a terrible job at taking pictures this week.  We did so many activities and when I went to upload pictures for this post I realized I forgot to take pictures of half of them.  Don't worry I'm still share everything we did.

Our letter A poster used on our preschool board.  We talked about lowercase and upper case letter A and drew both in the air.  We practiced the sound and pointed to each picture saying "a a apple" or "a a alligator."  (download at the end of this post)

Letter A apple tree.  To make the apples I clipped a cotton ball on the end of a clothes pin.  The idea was to use it to make polka dots.  The girls thought it made a great paint brush and most of their tree and paper turned red.  I think they enjoyed it.
Their very favorite activity was "making apple pies."  Its homemade cloud dough with a little apple pie spice.  We added cookie cutters for a little extra fun.  You can find the cloud dough recipe here and a ton of other great apple ideas.
Apple Person Craft.  I wanted to practice using glue and maybe a little cutting for this activity.  I had a basic apple shape, leaf, and stem cut out.  I gave them some wiggly eyes, markers,  and construction paper. I showed them the general idea of where things went and told them they could decorate their apple person however they wanted.  They went crazy cutting their apple with the shape scissors and some of them ended with not much of an apple left.    
Apple Hunt:  Sorted by size and color.  Apples are included in the download at the end of this post.  
The apple baskets are not needed but so cute and found this cute pack from Teaching Differently.  I printed and laminated 3 of them.  
I actually printed the entire game. Its a great way to practice following directions, colors, and sizing. The kids loved it.


Match game:  We  play a match game after we read a book about Johnny Appleseed that I found in this adorable Johnny Appleseed pack from Royal Baloo.  Its in the prek pack page 3.  Print 2 on cardstock.  
What color is my apple coloring book:  Also from the same pack-prek pages 11-21

Apple Muffins-Recipe from Simple as That
We made an apple volcano (sorry I didn't get any pictures of this one) but we found and followed the directions from this post.

Letter A Book (download at end of post).  Print, cut a long the center line and staple.




Finally we walked through an apple orchard.  



A is for Apple is such a fun theme and there are so many ideas that I wish we could have spent another week on this theme.  You can find lots more ideas on our Letter A Pinterest Board


Tuesday, September 19, 2017

17 Gorgeous Fall Decorating Ideas

The weather has quickly changed in the last week and I could be more excited.  I love the change in season (especially to fall).  There is something so cozy about sweaters, pumpkins, and the leaves changing.  I've been slowly pulling out my fall decor and it had me searching pinterest for a little decor inspiration.  Here are some favorites that have been added to my to do would love to get to list.


This printable!  I love the colors and the leaves.  Its perfect and can be found here.  It's free and available in 2 sizes.
The Idea Room has a tutorial for this amazing sign and those super cute white pumpkins.

I know this isn't decor but how sweet would this be as a gift.  And anything pumpkin bread can be added to any post.  Cute tags found here.
This whole set ups is so pretty but any thing Liz Marie touches is magic.  Oh I really need that sign!  Mantle found here and tutorial for sign found here.
Some pretty inspiration found here.  So many things to love in the set up.

Gorgeous centerpiece found here

Find this beautiful free engineered print and tutorial for frame here.

Awesome tutorial to paint your own bucket found here.  I love the rustic look.

This is such a cute sign  (found here)

This can be used as a wreath or a sign.  Tutorial found here.

Another gorgeous print.  This one is on etsy. 

This would make a beautiful centerpiece.  I love the tiny white pumpkins.  Found here

These are super cute!!!  Found on Etsy.

Another amazing farmhouse sign.  This one is on here etsy 
I love dollar store crafts and this one is pretty amazing.  Find the tutorial here.

This one has a free printable (its even editable so you can add your own town!) and a unique tutorial to make your own sign. Find both here

There is so much to love in this post.  She has a great tutorial to paint pumpkins (don't you love the colors!)  and a link to that amazing printable.  Find all of it here.