A couple weeks ago I invited some friends to kick off the summer with a busy bag swap! What better way to get ready for summer travel than to stock up on new activities? If you've never heard that term before a busy bag is a self-contained activity or project for kids. For this swap the activity did not have to be reusable, it just had to have all the pieces and instructions needed for kids to complete. There were 6 moms who could make it so … [Read more...]
Naked Mole Rat Play Dough Activity
This month's Virtual Book Club for Kids author is Mo Willems. We love Mo Willems here and ended up reading, and rereading, 4 of his books last week--The Pigeon Wants a Puppy, The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog, Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed, and Pigs Make Me Sneeze! Such great reads, we definitely recommend all of them! Once of the most reread books was Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed. It's the story of a naked mole rat who likes to wear clothes. In fact he … [Read more...]
Tinkerlab Creative Challenge: Flower Projects
It's time for another Tinkerlab Creative Challenge! The kids love these challenges so much that sometimes I will find them "hosting" their own challenges for each other or their friends. And I adore watching each of their creative processes. Seeing how they create and modify and recreate until they are satisfied is fantastic. You can actually see how they are thinking. This month's creative material is flowers. I have to say that for me this … [Read more...]
Caterpillar Puppet and Song
We have been caterpillar and butterfly obsessed around here! We ordered caterpillars from Insect Lore and have loved watching the the caterpillar life cycle in action. We have lots of caterpillar books, but the favorite this year is A Caterpillar Grows Up by Melvin and Gilda Berger. They love the photos and one of their favorite facts is that caterpillars have 12 eyes. So when we were making our caterpillar puppet the first thing we added were the … [Read more...]
Mother’s Day Card and a Money Flower
We have been busy making gifts and cards around here with both Teacher Appreciation Week and Mother's Day falling at the same time. Originally we were making a handprint banner for the kids' grandmother's, but it got way too large and I could not figure out what I wanted to do with it. To simplify things the kids traced their hands on scrapbook paper and we made them into flowers on these cards. Much cuter and easier! We had a gift we made for … [Read more...]
Practice Reading with a Whisper Reader
One of my kindergartener's favorite ways to practice reading is with our whisper readers. A whisper reader is like a little "phone" kids can whisper read into and hear their words amplified in their ears. It is a great way to build fluency and it lots of fun to use! Yep. That is PVC piping you're looking at! Whisper readers are super easy to make--all you have to do is connect two 1 1/2 inch corners together. Re-reading text helps kids build … [Read more...]
Upcycled Soda Bottle Planter
Earth Day is coming up and everyone is looking for cute planet-friendly crafts to do. One of our favorites is this upcycled soda bottle planter my 6 year old made for school! It's Earth Week at her school and each grade had a different upcycled project to make. The kindergartners had to make planters and she decided to make a "girl planter" -- of course. She liked the idea of a see-though planter so I cut the top off of a soda bottle for her to … [Read more...]
Egg Carton Computer and Jelly Bean Toss Game
It's time for another Tinkerlab Creative Challenge! The item this month is an egg carton and we definitely have lots of those in our craft cupboard right now! Last Friday the big kids each got an egg carton to create something with. The almost 4 year old got right to work cutting even though he wasn't quite sure what he wanted to make yet. After he had cut the cup section into 3 parts he announced he was going to make a game and would know … [Read more...]