coffeecupsandcrayons

Rock Kids Activities and Crafts

Megan Sheakoski — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 11:00:51 +0000

Rocks rock! They are a cheap, plentiful, natural material that can be used for so many fun kids activities. Here are 18 ways to learn, create, and play with rocks from The PLAY Group…rock on!

Rocks can be used for just about any activity and can be an addicting material once you start using them! There are tons of learning, art, and play activities that you can so with them and I’ve rounded up 18 awesome ones from the The PLAY Group for you today!

Learn with Rocks

30 Playful Ways to Teach Kids About Rocks

Color Matching with Painted Garden Stones

Ladybug Math Game Busy Bag

Rock Demo Science Fun

Books About Rocks for Young Kids

Play with Rocks

Magic Fairy Painted Rocks and Storage Tower

Make Your Own Rock Band

Create with Rocks

Now grab some rocks and get playing and learning! (Right after you pin this post to come back to of course!)

And visit all of The PLAY Group members for even more great ideas!

Who is The PLAY Group?

Train Up a Child ~ Growing a Jeweled Rose ~ In Lieu of Preschool ~ Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas ~ ~ Mess for Less ~ Housing a Forest ~ B-Inspired Mama ~ Coffee Cups and Crayons ~ Bath Activities for Kids ~ Parent Teach Play ~ Twodaloo ~ Fantastic Fun and Learning for Kids ~ Plain Vanilla Mom

For the the absolute best ideas for PLAY and LEARNING and to be sure you don’t miss a single idea from The PLAY Group follow our Pinterest Board.

How can YOU get involved with The PLAY Group? We have a G+ community for parents and teachers who love hands on learning and PLAY. Come join the fun! Jump right into the discussions, share posts, and get inspired! The PLAY Group is determined to bring you the very best in PLAY and LEARNING.

Healthy Kids Snack: Watermelon Popsicles

Megan Sheakoski — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 14:53:56 +0000

Watermelon + Popsicles = an awesome summer kids snack!

One of the items on our “Old School” Summer Bucket List was to make our own popsicles and it was a total success! Instead of using juice we can up with our own popsicle recipe that is both healthy and yummy!

How to Make Healthy Watermelon Popsicles

1. Blend chunks of fresh watermelon in the blender until it is smooth and juicy.

2. Pour the juice into popsicle molds or small paper cups. Place a small pile of mini chocolate chips on top of the watermelon juice.

3. They’ll stay suspended at the top and you can spread them throughout the popsicle container by pushing them into the juice with a knife or the bottom of a spoon.

4. Then stick them in the freezer until they’re frozen completely and enjoy!

They were a big hit with the kids (and my husband)!

We are having a blast doing the activities on our “Old School” Summer Bucket List! Make sure to read Pool Party Games: Marco Polo and stay tuned for even more old school fun this summer!

Babble/Disney Virtual Summer Camp

Megan Sheakoski — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 12:00:28 +0000

Summer. The word itself makes me happy. Life slows down a little and we have more time to play and create. I enjoy the lazy pace and am excited to get the chance to do some of the projects and crafts that we don’t always have time for during the school year.

That’s why I’m so excited to be taking part in the Virtual Summer Camp series that Babble/Disney has going on right now! I’ll be sharing one of the kids crafts on our “Old School” Summer Bucket List…but you’ll have to check back in July to see which one!

Each week in June and July we will have a camp counselor (in other words, an awesome blogger) share a project with us. At the end of each project you will have the opportunity to link up your own projects. And at the end of the month, some of our favorite projects will be featured.

Our fabulous and lovely Camp Counselors are:

Melissa from Mama Miss, Jenae from I Can Teach My Child, Lauren from Tutus & Tea Parties, Jodi from Meaningful Mama, Asia from Fun at Home with Kids, Megan {Me!} from Coffee Cups and Crayons , Mari from Inspired by Familia and Vanessa from See Vanessa Craft.

How to join our Summer Camp Challenge: Do all three or just choose one:

1. Stay connected and join our FB group Summer Camp Online Community. All you need to do is click on the right hand corner where it says “Join group” and you will have access to our private community! It is already active and there are LOTS of fun ideas for summer being shared there!

2. Follow our Summer Fun Pinterest board where we will be pinning all summer long ideas to inspire you to make memories and connect with your family.

3. Link up and you can get featured on Babble/Disney! Each week stop by and add/link up below all of your family fun: summer fun activities, recipes, crafts for kids, summer fun learning activities, traveling and day trips….

By linking below you are giving us permission to feature you on Babble/Disney and our Summer related activities: Summer Camp FB Community, Summer Fun Pinterest board…

We would love for you to follow our camp counselors if you’d like! Just click on their blog pages above and follow along.

Link up your projects, recipes, crafts… here:

Language Experience Stories {Get Ready for K Through Play}

Megan Sheakoski — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 14:16:40 +0000

Starting Kindergarten can be both fun and overwhelming for kids {and parents!} To help make the transition as smooth as possible a bunch of kid bloggers and educators have teamed up to bring you Get Ready for K Through PLAY!

During this weekly summer series we will be sharing simple, hands on learning activities that will help your child develop the kindergarten readiness skills they need in a FUN and playful way. We’re kicking things off this week with language activities!

Thank you to My Cute Graphics for the use of this superhero kids graphic.

A language experience story is one of my favorite activities to help primary age students build language skills. I used to do them all of the time when I was a teacher and with my older daughter. The best thing about language experience stories is that they are naturally motivating and can be done after any type of shared experience–no special supplies needed!

How to Create a Language Experience Story:

1. Create a shared experience. We exploded a bar of Ivory soap in the microwave, but you can go blueberry picking, start a campfire, make homemade jam, anything that would be interesting or novel for your child.

2. Prompt and encourage conversation during the shared experience to help your child remember what happened. Incorporate your senses into the experience. Talk about how it smells, feels, etc. Discuss their feelings about the activity and note anything particularly exciting or memorable. Paying attention to these types of details during the experience helps you child develop observation, comprehension, and oral expression skills that are important in school.

3. Gather supplies to write the story. I like to use large chart paper, but poster board, craft paper, construction paper or whatever you have on hand will work.

4. Have your child recount the shared experience to you and record their words on the paper. Use proper mechanics when writing, but record your child’s sentences word for word even if they are not grammatically correct. It is more important for your child to feel ownership of his or her words and experience than it is to have a perfect sentence. You can prompt them a little if necessary, but don’t worry about it being comprehensive at first. Make sure they create a title for their story too.

5. Read the language experience story aloud. Do this more than once and encourage your child to join in and read any words he or she already knows. At this point you can do any editing/revising that they request to get the story the way they like it.

Ivory Soap Explosion Language Experience Story

Exploding a bar of Ivory soap in the microwave is a super easy, hands on activity for a language experience story. We began by exploring what the bar was like when we unwrapped it–how it felt, what it smelled like, how heavy it was, what it looked it, etc.

Then we cut the bar in half and set it on a wooden cutting board and placed it in the microwave. We set the timer for 2 minutes and watched it “explode” in the microwave!

While we waited for it to cool, we made some observations about what it looked like after the explosion. Then the kids dove in to explore how it felt and smelled.

After they had played with it for awhile it was time to grab our chart paper and record our story. We have done language experience stories before so my 5 year old was ready to tell me what we had done with just a little bit of prompting. You may need to say things like, What happened after that?, the first couple of times you write one.

When the language experience story was finished I read it to them and then we took a turn reading it together. My 5 year old joined in with the words he knew and soon was able to read it all by himself. Since they were his words and his experience he had all of the background knowledge he needed to figure out the words he didn’t know (even ones that are still too hard for him to read in isolation.)

But even more importantly he was able to have fun using language to narrate the exploding soap experience! Narrating a personal experience and sharing ideas using complete sentences are important Kindergarten language skills and practicing them in a fun and playful way in the summer helps build the confidence needed to take chances in the classroom.

Thank you to My Cute Graphics for the use of this superhero kids graphic.

Creating a language experience story it just one way to build the language skills needed for Kindergarten.

Check out the Kindergarten readiness activities shared by the other Get Ready for K through PLAY! hosts:

Developing Kindergarten Language Skills from Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas

Create a Story Box with Free Printables from Mess for Less

Using Puppets for Language Development from Toddler Approved

Play to Promote Language Development from Mama Smiles

Next week we’ll all be back sharing activities to develop social and emotional skills!

In the meantime be sure to follow our Get Ready for K Through PLAY! Pinterest Board for a huge collection of Kindergarten readiness activities!

Acts of Kindness for Kids: Chalk Messages

Megan Sheakoski — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 20:08:47 +0000

Leaving chalk messages for people is one of our favorite kindness acts and is perfect for summer! The only supply you need for chalk messages is sidewalk chalk so they are the perfect random act of kindness for kids.

We have had so much fun leaving chalk messages for people that we know and don’t know. You can brighten a neighbor’s day by drawing on their driveway when they aren’t home or write a note at the park or on the sidewalk for strangers to find.

We have always left ours anonymously, but it would be fun to leave a birthday message at a friend’s house or a congratulations message for a big day too! The sky really is the limit when it comes to chalk messages!

More easy acts of kindness for kids:

Acts of Kindness for Kids {and You!} Pinterest Board

Send a Thank You to a Service Member

Acts of Kindness: Give a Cup of Coffee

Kids Crafts: Acts of Kindness for the Earth

Teacher Appreciation Gift: Summer Relaxation Bucket

Megan Sheakoski — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 21:07:11 +0000

Looking for a teacher appreciation gift idea? A summer relaxation bucket is easy, cute, and can be customized to fit any budget! A fun gift to show your teachers just how thankful you are for all of their hard work!

The summer relaxation buckets we put together were a class group gift for our preschool teachers. We filled them with fun things that they could use to relax and unwind during the summer. You could add anything you like, but we used a bucket and flip flops from the Dollar Store, spa gift cards, a magazine, and a lollipop.

The flip flops double as a card/autograph book! Kids can use Sharpies to sign their name or draw a little picture on the flip flops so the teachers end up with a personalized pair that they can wear or save as a keepsake.

Relaxation buckets are great for the end of the year, teacher appreciation week, or even the holidays! You could get a red or green bucket, a Santa hat, and some candy canes and you’d have a great Christmas gift!

For more teacher appreciation gift ideas read:

Act of Kindness: Give a Cup of Coffee

Teacher Appreciation Week Ideas

How to Make a Money Flower

ABC Activities: Fun with Animal Flash Cards

Megan Sheakoski — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 19:09:37 +0000

Preschoolers and toddlers love ABC activities that involve play! Traditional letter cards often contain animal pictures that add to the fun. Artist and graphic designer, Julie Rustad, took ABC letter cards to a new level when she became a mom, she painted a series of animals that he son could actually see where he lived in Arizona!
I have know Julie for years and became obsessed with her Desert Dwellers series when she first announced it, in fact I was her very first customer! We not only love doing ABC activities with her letter cards we also enjoy learning the information and facts about the desert animals so I am so excited she is here today!

I’m Julie and I’m so excited to be here today to share the fun ABC activities you can do with my Desert Dwellers animal flash cards! I had so much fun creating each card and love to see preschool and toddler kids across the country playing and learning with my alphabet cards. There are tons of ABC activities that can be done with the cards and I’ve collected some of our favorites to share with you today.

A is for Activities!

Use the cards to read stories and facts about each animal. Either you or your child(ren) can make up a story about that animal or a group of animals.
Hand each child a card and have them act like the animal on it. Children can give clues and facts about the animal to try and get others to guess which animal it is.
Put up an animal of the week and have additional activities related to that animal.
Match each card to an object that starts with that letter.
Choose a card and give clues and facts about the animal for others to guess which animal it is.

Group animals by how they move, their color, if they have fur or feathers, etc.
Compare sizes of a couple animals. Measure the length of the animal outside and mark with sidewalk chalk. Compare animal lengths and your length.
Trace the letters by placing tissue paper over the cards.
Work together to arrange the cards in alphabetical order.

Places to Play with the Desert Dwellers ABC Cards:

Car
Restaurants
Classroom
Doctor’s office
Home
Outdoors

U is for Unicorn? – History of the Desert Dweller Flash Cards
When my son was one, we really got into learning about the A, B, Cs. Like any Mom, I bought books and flash cards. While we were playing with them I realized that most of the animals weren’t relevant to our area or don’t event exist. For example, U is for Unicorn? I suppose they exist in Gabba Land, but not in Arizona!

This shortcoming presented itself as an exciting opportunity for me to create artistic flash cards of purely southwest animals from A-Z. I channeled my fine art, graphic design, and business talents to create the Desert Dweller Flash Cards. I painted each animal with bright acrylic paints on canvas, starting with A and finished with Z. I posted many of them on my Julie Originals blog as I was working on them. They include winged whimsical creatures like Anna’s Hummingbird, to slithery Diamondback snakes, to the smelly, but iconic Javelina.

Once I finished painting the original artwork, I designed 4×6 cards with the painted animal and letter on the front and facts & stories about the animal on the back.

I loved designing the packaging for them too. They come in a handy little box that sits nicely on any bookshelf or fits into a diaper bag. I wanted to make sure that the cards always had a home. Don’t you just love being able to put your kiddos toys back into the spot they belong?

Desert Dweller Flash Cards are available for $20.00 with free shipping at www.JulieOriginals.com.

Busy Bag Activities for Preschoolers: Ladybug Math Game

Megan Sheakoski — Thu, 30 May 2013 09:15:52 +0000

Preschoolers love hands on math activities and need many opportunities to try out and practice new skills. That’s why busy bag activities for preschoolers are so effective, they give kids a chance to play and have fun with math concepts. This ladybug math busy bag lets kids work on number identification, counting and more.

Ladybug Math Busy Bag Supplies

10 oval rocks

red and black acrylic paint

black Sharpie marker

Mod Podge acrylic sealer

hot glue

googly eyes

green cardstock

How to Make the Ladybug Math Busy Bag

1. Paint the rocks with the red acrylic paint and let dry.

2. Add black dots onto each rocks representing the numbers 1-10.

3. Seal the rocks with the Mod Podge.

4. Hot glue on the googly eyes when dry.

5. Cut out 10 leaves and write the numbers 1-10 on each one. Laminate if possible.

How to Play with the Ladybug Busy Bag

Count the dots on the ladybugs.

Match the dots to the corresponding number on the leaf.

Put the numbers in order.

Compare ladybugs to see which one has more.

Add or subtract the ladybugs’ spots.

Kids can help you paint the ladybugs which is helpful if you want to make this busy bag for a Busy Bag Swap and Moms’ Night Out.

We are hosting our own online form of a Busy Bag Swap every month with our Busy Bag of the Month Series!

Each month Making Boys Men, No Twiddle Twaddle, The Educators’ Spin On It, The Pleasantest Thing and I are teaming up to bring you 5 fun busy bag ideas! Each blog will link to a new one so you can follow the links and see all of our busy bags!

You can also join in the fun! If you are a blogger who has a busy bag post leave it in the comments for us and we will pin it to our Busy Bags for the Kiddos! Pinterest board.

Now hop over to Making Boys Men and check out her Busy Bags with Magnets! I can’t wait to make them for my kids!

Pool Party Games: Marco Polo

Megan Sheakoski — Wed, 29 May 2013 12:11:40 +0000

One of my favorite pool games when I was younger was Marco Polo. When we were making our “old school” summer bucket list I realized we had never taught the kids how to play! So this weekend we taught them the rules to Marco Polo and had lots of fun playing in the pool.

How to Play Marco Polo

1. Choose one person to be “it”.

2. That person closes his eyes and counts to 10.

3. The rest of the players swim away from him.

4. The person who is “it” keeps their eyes closed and yells Marco!

5. The other players have to answer Polo! (Unless they are underwater.)

6. The person who is “it” uses the sound of their voices to try and find them in the pool.

7. Whoever gets touched first become “it” next.

Fish Out of Water Variation: The person who is it can call “Fish out of water!” and anyone outside of the pool has to jump back in.

We played for hours this weekend and I look forward to a summer full of pool game fun! My three year old liked it so much that she even got the kids to play with her in the house. Although try that one at your own risk…kids running around inside with their eyes closed is not necessarily an idea I’m recommending if you have lots of breakables!

Marco Polo is on our “Old School” Summer Bucket List and is part of a weekly series I will be sharing this summer as we introduce our kids to some of the fun games and activities we remember from our childhoods.

Check out the “Old School” Summer Bucket List for all the activities we plan to do!

Acts of Kindness: Send a Thank You to a Service Member

Megan Sheakoski — Mon, 27 May 2013 20:35:34 +0000

We wanted to come up with an act of kindness that would help support the troops in some way. Our Daisy girl scout troop was doing an upcycling art project and we decided to combine the two ideas and make a thank you note for our service members.

After the meeting my kids made even more cards and I have packed them all up to send to A Million Thanks who will deliver the cards to our service members in time for the 4th of July!

The deadline for this year’s 4th of July delivery is June 1, 2013, but if you miss it don’t worry! They deliver cards year round for many of the major holidays.

You can’t send anything edible or use glitter and they encourage you to include a note with any drawings.

Send your military thank you cards to:

A Million Thanks
17853 Santiago Blvd. #107-355
Villa Park, CA 92861

Check the A Million Thanks website for full details and send a card to a service member! It’s a great kindness act for both kids and adults!

For more acts of kindness ideas for kids check out:

Acts of Kindness for Kids: Make and Donate a Toy

Acts of Kindness: Give a Cup of Coffee

Kids for Kindness: Happy Notes