Be-You-tiful Activity days

With school starting again and quite of a few of them entering middle school or in their last year of elementary school I knew I wanted to focus on positive self esteem and also building up other.    I love the phrases "be-you-tiful" and "be your own kind of beautiful."    That's the direction I took this activity and we also tied it into the 13th article of faith.  It can be used to pass of the first activity under preparing for young womens.  

To start I followed some of the discussion from this activity (it fits in with this theme perfect and gave me the idea for the rest of this activity-her activities for this theme are really cute too).  We discussed what they think it means to be beautiful and then moved in to the question "how does knowing you are a daughter of God change the way you see beauty or you see yourself?"  From here we went over some of the attributes mentioned in the 13th article of faith and some ways we can "seek after" these things.  There is a great quote that ties this in well in the link mentioned above.

After our discussion I showed the girls this video.  (If you are using this in an activity days setting I would suggest checking with someone to make sure they are okay with you showing it just because it's not a church video).  I remember the first time I saw it on facebook I had tears running down my face.  She is amazing and great example.  It fit in perfectly with loving and accepting yourself, being positive, seeinging your own beauty, and its really what's on the inside that makes a person beautiful.  It is also a great way to lead into the topic of being kind to others and seeing their beauty.  The girls were zoned in and grasped what I was trying to teach them.

I wanted to show this clip below but our church's internet wouldn't let me open it.  I was sad.  I think it will now be a family night lesson :)  It fits perfect.  I hoped to use at the end but it is a great option to open with as well.  For this age group I planned to show until about minute 2:06is.  The rest is amazing for older girls.  

After we taped a piece of paper to the girls backs. We had them go around the room and write a compliment on everyone's paper.  It could be something they admired, thought they were good at, etc. The girls loved this activity and really liked seeing what others wrote about them.  With this age group you may want to give them a few ideas before you set them loose.

We then gave them this worksheet below to fill in and color.  They filled in the "me" letters with the compliments from their friends and I asked them to add a few thing they liked about themselves or thought they were good at. (idea from here.  I ended up making my own page to add "I am")   Download your worksheet here.  I printed them on cardstock.

Our final project was painting a frame to hold the cute printable I found here.  To size I saved to my computer and opened into word.  I was then able to size it fit the frame and print multiples on one sheet.  The frames were $.97 from walmart. Every frame turned out bright and colorful but different.

I wasn't sure how this activity would go.  It wasn't elaborate and there was a little more discussion then I normally do but I was very impressed how involved the girls were in each part of the activity. As a mom of 3 girls (2 that are getting older) this is something I worry about.  I hope they always can see their potential and that they are their own person and that's what makes them special and beautiful.

Rustic Fall Sign with Metal Letters (Tutorial)

This sign is quick and easy.  I found a metal banner at Hobby Lobby for $6 and knew it would make a fun sign.  To start I found a board large enough to fit all the letters.  I didn't realize how big this would be.  I ended up using a 1x12 board that was cut to 32 inches.  I would have loved to spread them out and done one line but this was the longest board I had so I made it work.  

Stain your board and cut, stain, and build your frame.  (You can find a quick tutorial to build a frame here).  To attach the letters I used Gorilla Super glue.  You just need a little on each.  

I decided to leave the twine on my letters for some texture but you can pull it out and some nails would be cute.  I cut and hot glued the ends into the corner of my board.

 That's it.  Other then drying time it was really quick and full of rustic goodness.

 and my little one wanted to join in.  This show how big this sign really is.

Free Elephant Themed Baby Shower Games

Last weekend I helped throw a baby shower for my sister-in-law.  We wanted some games that would be fun but not take a lot of time.  These worked perfect.  I had them set up in the front with some pens and as people came they could grab a set and work on them as they visited.  We went with an elephant theme and I think they turned out so cute.  I had to share them with you and you can find all the games for free below.  Click on the download links below.  The watermarks will not be on your downloads.

Each games comes with 2 on a page to save on some ink and paper.  The first game is your basic matching game.  The person with the most correct wins.  Don't worry answer key is included for this one.

 This game we did at the same time.  We raced to see who could come up with a name for each letter first.  It went really fast.  If you want it to take a little more time you could see who can come up with the most names in a set time or play more like scatagories and the winner has the most unique names.

 For the price is right we actually purchased the items listed and had them displayed.  You do not need to do this.  You can just give them a list and let them know where your prices came from (ex. walmart, target, amazon,)  Check your local store for prices to get your grand total.

  

Game and tag Download

Of course we had to play the classic guess how many are in the jar.  I found this cute one at Walmart-it was in their Pioneer Woman collection.  You can use any kind of jar, I think a mason jar would be really cute.  I made this one with out the elephant theme so it can be used for any girl baby shower or other parties.  

and if you don't want to do kisses leave off the tag and you can still use these cute cards.

Guess how many cards download

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Preschool Theme

I'm so excited to share our first preschool post of the new school year.  We are going to be doing a letter a week and once we finish up I'll share all of our fun activities in one giant post.  If I get a little antsy I might share a few fun downloads a little early.   We joined a little mommy and me group so on my weeks expect a ton of activities and ideas.  On our off weeks we will still be doing our own preschool at home but on a much smaller scale.  Also sometimes my older girls and little guy like to join in so there may be a few grade school and tot school activities or modifications thrown in.  

Now that all of that info is out of the way our first theme was based on the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.  I went with a general introduction of the alphabet with an emphasis on the letter in her name.

To start the week we read the book, pointed out letters, and sung our abcs.

I found this fun Board Game here.  Its editable!  I used the letters from her name and we identified upper and lowercase.  It was played over and over.  Also a good way to practice numbers and counting with the dice. 

Coconut Tree Number Mat (Find our post & download here)  This was a favorite.  We used tongs (great for fine motor skills) but you don't have to.

Introduced our Coconut Tree on our Preschool Board (found here)

Hand print Palm Tree.  There is nothing more exciting to a 3 year old then getting to paint her hand.  

Paint hand and wrist

Then stamp on the paper.  Paint and stamp hand a few more times to create the branches.

Dip finger in brown paint and and use fingerprint fro coconuts.  Decorate with Alphabet stickers.  They chose to stick them on the bottom but anywhere on the tree would be cute.

Alphabet puzzle.  I bought this alphabet puzzle a while ago at the dollar store. I love that it helps her learn to recognize the letters and the order but its pretty overwhelming. There are too many pieces (obviously 26) and difficult shapes. To make it a little easier and so she can be a little more independent I wrote the letters on the board. This will give her some help while she is still learning how to put a puzzle together and the Alphabet. I will eventually change the letters to lowercase to give her some additional practice and eventually erase it all together. Right now this is working for us.

Letter Hunt and Dot Page (dot page found here almost at the bottom of the post & Letters are included in the mini download at the end of post).  I hid about half of the letters and sent her on a number hunt. We did the other half the next day.

She the found her letters on her dot page and stamped them with her dot markers.

Letter Sensory bins using puzzle pieces.  If you don't have a puzzle you can use the letters from the activity above.

Even this guy had fun scooping and dumping.

Mystery Letters (idea from here).  This was such a fun activity and so quick to put together.  I wrote the letters in her name on a white piece of paper with a white crayon.  She used some water colors to uncover the mystery letters.

I love her face when she discovered a new letter.

Color Match Game-(Download in mini pack below) Print two on Cardstock

We played ring a round the rosie but substituted the words.  We would sing part of the ABC's then yell chicka chicka boom boom.  On the last boom we would fall down.  (we did A-G, H-P, Q-Z)  It was a big hit.

Practice Rhythmn-  slap (hit knees), slap, clap, clap or slap, clap, slap, clap.  increase and decrees speed.  We said chicka chicka boom boom over and over.  

We watched this YouTube video found here.

Download the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Mini Pack here

Additional ideas I found and love but didn't get to

Stem idea found here

Number Bingo found here

So many cute ideas on this site.  This is my new go to for ideas.