Free Valentine's Day Bingo

There are a few games my kids LOVE and Bingo happens to be one of them.  We had such a great time with our Christmas Bingo that I knew a Valentine's Day one needed to happen.   It's a fun addition to any family fun night, class or family party, etc. I used it at Activity Days and the girls had a great time. I included 10 different boards so you can have multiple players.

We used Valentine M&M's for markers and have fun eating them as well!  I printed mine on cardstock for durability.  Laminating would be a good idea if you have that option so they will last for years.

There are 2 pages of calling cards as well.  Print on cardstock, cut, and your ready to play.

As a bonus you can always print 2 sets of calling cards for an adorable Match Game.

Download your copy here.

Adorable graphics from My Cute Graphics, Z is for Zebra, Creative Clips, P4 Clips Trioriginals, and Hello Literacy 

"Put God First" Free Printable

 Happy Sunday!  Today I wanted to share one of my favorite quotes with you.  I still remember the first time I heard it and it has stuck with me for years.  I have this quote displayed in my kitchen where I can see it daily but the style of print was looking a little out of place.  I knew I wanted to keep this quote in the same place but update it to fit more in with my style.  I love the simplicity of the black and white and it has just a touch of rustic/farmhouse with the wood background and hand drawn elements (from here).  You can find your free printable below.  I'd love to know if you use it :)

To Print:

Click on the picture.  Right click to save to your computer.

Print at home or send it to your favorite place to print pictures.

If printing at home I like to insert the picture in a word document.  Size and print on cardstock.

These are formatted as 5x7 but can easily be resized to fit your needs.

Mini Farmhouse signs using 2x4s

I absolutely love farmhouse style decor and you can see more and more of it showing up in my home.  One of my favorite things are framed signs.  There is just something about a great quote or saying mixed with a rustic wood frame and I'm in love!  However I've found I don't have quite as much wall space for the quantity and size of signs I would love to have haha.  I have a few shelves that needed a little something and thought why not make some mini farmhouse signs.  I searched for some and they are really hard to find.  So I got to work and these little signs are the perfect shelf sitter.  The best part is they are super cheap...I used 2x4 scraps and some cheap 1x2s for the frame. 

 

Start  with your 2x4 cut the length to desired measurements.  Use your favorite technique to paint the front of your sign.  I like to paint mine the word color.  Add vinyl, paint sign color and once its dry peel of the vinyl and distress.  You can find a full tutorial in this post.

If you don't have access to vinyl this post has some great tips using the pencil method or you can use carbon copy paper for a similar effect.

 Once your sign is dry its time for the frame.  Cut your 1x2 the same length as the top and bottom or your sign. 

For the sides leave your top and bottom frame pieces in place and measure from the very top to the very bottom of the 1x2s.  Cut and stain your boards.  Once dry use wood glue to attach in place.  For extra stability you can use a nail gun as well.

That's it!  I love the endless possibilities of this project.  If farmhouse isn't exactly your style changing  the color of the frame and font style will make a huge difference. 

Groundhog Day Treasure Hunt and Crafts

This was one of my favorite "preschool" days ever.  Reagan loved everything.  We colored, went on a treasure hunt, and made special treats.  This was from a couple years ago and I'm pretty sure she doesn't remember any of it.  This year we are keeping it simple and repeating the treasure hunt. 

Popup Groundhog Craft- (idea and printable from here and link to printable here)

Paper bag Groundhog puppet-We found the idea here.  Link to the printable is in the middle of the post under Groundhog Day crafts.

 This puppet was her favorite.  She said it was her "baby Tyler."

Groundhog Treasure hunt- Found here.  She followed clues that lead to the treasure.  Along the way we learned about groundhogs...how much they weigh, what they eat, where they live, etc.

Our next two activities I forgot to take pictures of the finished product...oops.  The first one was a paper plate groundhog found here.

Image from Crafty Morning Blog

Finally we made our groundhog pudding cups.  They were tasty.  It was pudding, smashed up Oreos on top, and teddy grams for the groundhog.

23 Fun Holiday's to Celebrate with your Kids in February

We had so much fun with our January calendar. We didn't celebrate every holiday and many we did celebrate were quite simple.  I loved that it was a fun reminder to spend time with my kids, to slow down and create some memories.   I was putting this post together this morning and my 9 year old  was pretty excited we were continuing this new tradition. It works for a wide age range.

February is full of some fun and kind of quirky holidays.   I found some kid friendly ones that I think will be perfect to incorporate into our preschool plan or use it as a fun way to connect with my kids (I'm really excited that my older school aged kids can join in as well).  Simply download a copy of the calendar, print, and display.  You do not need to celebrate all of them (we probably won't) just pick and choose what works for you and your family.

Download your copy here

I'll be posting ideas as I finalize my plans and also as we celebrate some of these holidays.  My hope is that this will be something fun for your family and a way to create some special memories.  I'd love to hear your ideas and see pictures of your celebrations!

Holiday's came from here and here. 

Amazing graphics from

 Little Red, Teaching Happy Hearts, Lita Lita, Miss Pickle's Graphics, JB Designs, Elementary Lesson Plans, Speech Doodles, Creative Clips, Ta-Doodles Illustrations, Reading Teacher's Backpack,  Prettygrafik, Z is for Zebra, and fonts from Hello Literacy

Pete's Dragon Movie Night

Pete's Dragon is such a sweet story.  I loved the original as a kid and this one is different but so cute.  My kids enjoy it too so it makes a great family movie night choice.  

We often watch a movie over the weekend but this time I wanted to make it a little extra special.  When my kids got home from school I gave them their own movie pass and mini popcorn box.

How cute are these!  I'm not sure if you can read it but it says admit one and free popcorn on each ticket.  I printed them on cardstock.

 This is what your popcorn box printable will look like.  Fold on the white lines and tape.  They look small but they are actually a great size for popcorn or candy.

 We've been working on the Letter P during preschool so we also had pizza and punch with our popcorn.

While we waited for the pizza to bake we played one of my kids favorite games...Don't eat Pete.  However I changed the tittle just a bit :)

If you've never played here's a quick how to:  Print off the board game...cardstock works best.  Place one piece of candy (candy corn, m&m's, Cheerios, or whatever you have) on each dragon.  Send one person to out of the room and quietly decided which one is going to be Pete's dragon for that round.  Lets say you pick the one in the center.  Have the person come back into the room and eat one of the pieces of candy off each character UNTIL they pick up the one chosen as Pete (in this case the one in the center).  When they pick up this candy everyone yells "Don't eat Pete!" and their turn ends.  Add candy to the ones taken on the last turn and play as many times as you want picking a new Pete each time. 

Besides making the printables it didn't take much time to plan, print, and set up this fun movie night.  With our busy schedules its nice to take a break and just be together.  Adding these few fun printables made it a little extra special and something they are still talking about.

You can download your free Pete's Dragon Printables here (tickets and game) and here (popcorn box)

Adorable graphics from Prettygrafik design, clipartland, eudanedigital, and Instruct and Inspire. Fonts from Hello Literacy

Letter P preschool mini pack

Here are a few fun ways to teach the letter P.  I like to do these three activities with every letter I teach.  They do not take much time but are great for review and I find having some consistent activities work well for my little one.

The first activity is a Mini Letter Book.  Print in color or black and white.  Cut across the line and staple.  Cover page is included.  I keep all of mini books together for review and my little one loves that she can "read" her books.

I usually print the black and white to save ink but also it makes a fun coloring book.  It a cute way to make their book just a little more personalized.  Don't worry there are no watermarks on the downloads.

Here's our letter poster.  I print and leave this out all week.  We go over each picture and say the letter sound.  For example parrot-p-p-parrot.  This also comes in black and white (makes a really cute coloring page) and a color but no boarder version to save on some ink.  Just print what you need.

Download the mini book and posters here

The third activity is our tracer page.  I don't really do a lot of worksheets at this age but my 4 year old thinks its pretty cool to have "homework" like her big sisters so this is perfect.  You can also laminate and reuse it.

Download the tracer page here.