Mommy and Me Activity - Fairy Shoes!

The beginning of spring heralds the arrival of things amazing, things wonderful!  Raindrops of color, fresh breezes whispering of new life, puddles begging for a good splash, and of course the mystery of little leprechauns and fairies caught in the middle!

As I was wandering through the incredible world of Pinterest searching for some spring inspiration, I came across some shoes that reminded me of what a fairy might wear.  They appeared to be made of flowers and earthy things - I imagine they were only beautiful for a very short amount of time if they were indeed real.  But of course my mind began to spin, and I thought of a pair of Miss A's shoes I was about to put away because they were more of the kind one would wear in the winter.

Why not give them a new life as well?  After all, it is spring and we did just spend a week on leprechauns (shoemakers for the fairies).  So I pulled them out...

Yes, definitely in need of a spring touch!  So, I snipped a bit here and a bit there...

I presented these to my daughter and we set to work.  Paint and glitter quickly lent a magical hand to turn these into something a fairy might consider stepping into.  But we weren't done...

Leaves and small flowers from the dollar store as well as a few paper flower accents we had left over from another project quickly took center stage as we worked together to bring about a very pretty transformation.  (BTW - I manned the hot glue gun while she pointed out where she wanted flowers, and I offered suggestions, etc.).

A few finishing touches - more glitter (think fairy dust) and we had a pair of slippers even Tinkerbell would be proud to wear!

NOTE:  I had to specify that these were special outdoor shoes (because of the glitter) and to keep away from any water which might mess up the paint.  Other than that - the only real limit was how far her little imagination could carry her...

Now the only question that remains is:  what potential fairy shoes do you have hidden away in your closet?  ;)

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Homeschool Theme of the Week: St. Patrick's Day!

Happy early St. Patrick's Day!  Here are a few fun activities from our week so far...

A lucky snack!  The pot in the middle is full of yellow jello - GOLD - surrounded by a rainbow of fruit (think pot of gold at the end of the rainbow).  The muffin cups are filled with "clouds" of greek yogurt and shredded coconut.  No, Miss A did not eat all of this herself - this was a huge snack for sharing with little brother and Mommy.  

Hide the Leprechaun Activity:  print a picture of a leprechaun, buy some stickers or use some shamrock cut outs, roll two dice, add the numbers together and add that many stickers to the leprechaun.  The goal is to help the leprechaun by eventually "hiding" him under the shamrock stickers.  For younger kids, just roll one die and add that many stickers to "hide" the leprechaun - for older kids, use two dice and multiply, etc.

We've been practicing the numbers 1-100 in school this year so I wrote some of these numbers on slips of paper.  I purchased some pretend gold coins and piled them on the table.  Miss A and I pretended to be leprechauns and the goal was to see who was the luckiest leprechaun.  

We each took turns drawing a number - the one with the largest number won a gold coin.  At the end of the game, we compared our gold stashes and the one with the most was the luckiest leprechaun!  But the fun didn't end there.  The luckiest leprechaun then had to jump up and do a little leprechaun dance!  :)

This activity was based on a short story I wrote for Miss A titled:  Magical Shamrocks!  The basic idea of the story was that Miss A overheard two leprechauns talking about magical shamrocks.  When gold was placed inside the leaves of a magical shamrock and the shamrock was closed, one would find the gold had doubled when the shamrock was opened back up.

After we read the short story, my daughter took some yellow paint and a cotton swab and put dots of yellow inside one half of each of the paper shamrocks I had given her.  We then closed each "magical" shamrock briefly and when we opened each one again - we found that the "gold" had indeed doubled!  Then she wrote number sentences corresponding to each magical shamrock.  

NOTE:  You may want to put a limit on how many "gold coins" your younger child can add to the shamrock if you are wanting him/her to be able to count the final results well or make simple number sentences, etc.

I had seen this idea on Pinterest before - a writing activity asking children what they would do if they found a pot of gold.  I just added a leprechaun to the mix because chances are that is how you would find said pot of gold on St. Patrick's Day, right?  :)

This was a rhyming rainbow Miss A made.  I had seen the idea before using math facts, and thought this twist would be fun too!  

I wrote some words on a large sheet of white paper in rainbow band arcs.  Then I wrote a word that rhymed with each on pieces of colored paper.  Miss A had to match the words up and glue the colored word on top of the word it rhymed with.  Thus - a rhyming rainbow!

More fun with shamrocks!  Miss A would pick a shamrock, turn it over, and then had to come up with a number sentence that would equal the number on the shamrock.  THEN, if the shamrock happened to be a glittery one (she loved those the best), she had to write the number word next to the number sentence as well.

Of course we have had some visits from our house leprechaun, doling out plenty of green mischief this week!  We've been victims of the traditional turn-the-milk-green caper and the not-so-traditional trick of putting green grapes in the bottoms of socks and leaving stickers (very lightly so they could be easily shaken off) stuck to our dog!  

My daughter has been thinking of a way to trap the little fellow so stay tuned - come Saturday morning, we hope to be the proud recipients of a pot of gold!  :)

And should you need to leave a few books out for your own little house leprechauns to read (might keep them from mischief if they have a good book in hand to distract), here are a few that graced our shelves this week:

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Homeschool Theme of the Week: Penguins & Polar Bears!

For the past couple of weeks, we have been covering the topic of penguins and polar bears.  Here are a few of the activities and crafts we worked on - enjoy!  :)

Miss A made a penguin from a cardboard container in the kitchen.  I poked a hole in it for the mouth, and she fed it fish based on the numbers from her addition facts.  

For this activity, Miss A colored two penguin pictures I had printed out.  I left one untouched and covered one with a layer of vaseline in order to illustrate how a penguin's feathers work to keep it from getting terribly wet and cold.  Miss A had fun discovering what happened when water was poured on each.

Uh-oh!  Penelope Penguin found herself encased in a block of ice recently!  Miss A had a great time figuring out the best way to free her.  This was a great problem-solving exercise, and I was pleased with Miss A's suggestions (which we tried).  The one that worked best was to use the hose to pour water on it and watch as the ice quickly melted, and Penelope was free at last!

For anyone with a Cinderella loving daughter - this is a fun version of that much loved classic!  We used a giant Venn diagram to compare the Disney version of Cinderella with Cinderella Penguin.

LOVED this cute idea and had to include it in our week!  Here is where you can print out your own copy of Penguin Pie!

We helped penguins populate an iceberg today - well, not real ones.  But as you can see - still pretty adorable! 

To populate your own iceberg...

1.  Draw an iceberg on a piece of paper. 

2.  Roll a couple of dice, add the numbers together and add that many fingerprint "penguins" to the iceberg.  (for younger kids, just roll the dice and add that many penguins to the iceberg.)

3.  Keep going until you have filled it up!

4.  Add the fun details (eyes, tummies, etc.)! 

Using equal parts of shaving cream and white glue, I mixed the two together to make a puffy paint.  My daughter used the mixture to paint a polar bear picture I had printed out from a place online.  (Just another great idea found on Pinterest!)

This was an estimation activity:  guess how many cotton balls it will take to cover a polar bear picture and then glue them on, keeping track so you can check your answer against your original guess!  :)

ICE PLAY!  Simply freeze water in different sized containers to make icebergs and set them afloat in a tub of water.  Add miniature plastic animals and PLAY!  Found this idea on Pinterest which led me here.

I purchased a baby polar bear figurine from our  local Michael's store and a Toob of ocean animals which contained a penguin.  I have posted links below to some other great Toobs for those who might be interested in obtaining more penguins or an entire bunch of arctic animals.  

Note:  You may want to point out to your kids beforehand (if you plan on giving them penguins AND polar bears to play with at the same time) that polar bears and penguins don't actually live in the same place.  This would be a great time for a mini geography lesson - pull out a map or a globe and show them where these creatures live!  :)

I have posted links below to a few of the books that we used this past week.  If some contain too much information for your child's age level, just pick out the parts you want them to learn about and read those!  :)

Linking up to:
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www.diyhshp.blogspot.com
www.delicateconstruction.blogspot.com
www.abcand123learning.com
www.cleanandscentsible.blogspot.com
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www.polkadotsonparade.blogspot.com
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www.amommysadventure.com

Homeschool Theme of the Day: Dr. Seuss!

NOTE:  I am participating in the Circle of Moms Top 25 Creative Moms and would loooove a vote.  You don't need to be a member and it only takes a few seconds.  Simply click the badge on the sidebar, find my name on the list (I am currently in the #60's area) and click on the vote hand.  Thanks for your support!  :)

Now on to what you really wanted to see....

A very happy Dr. Seuss birthday!  :)

Here's our fun snack and snack details:

Hat:  peanut butter sandwich with marshmallow cream and strawberries.

Muffin cups 1 & 3:  colored goldfish (think One Fish, Two Fish...) and Cheez-it letters for making up wacky words.

Muffin cup 2:  "Green eggs" made of cheese and an M&M center.

Details:  Nutella lettering and blue M&M's.

And a fun activity of course!  So easy - just let your kids design their own Seuss-like creature!

My daughter's finished product.  Kind of hard to see the creature, but it IS there.  :)

If you are needing a Dr. Suess "fix" for the day, you might want to check out this site:  http://www.seussville.com/

Linking up to:

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http://www.toysinthedryer.com/

www.tatertotsandjello.com

www.michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com

http://diyhshp.blogspot.com

www.abcand123learning.com

www.gingersnapcrafts.com

www.cleanandscentsible.blogspot.com

www.enchantedhomeschoolingmom.blogspot.com

www.momontimeout.com

www.bearrabbitbear.com

http://www.betweenuandme.com

www.houseofhepworths.com

Homeschool Theme of the Week: Valentine's Day!

As you can see, I am still running a bit behind on the posting - but better late than never, right?
Here's the fun Valentine snack my daughter enjoyed recently!

Snack details:

Nutella and strawberries in heart cookie cutters.

Red muffin cup 1:  vanilla yogurt with heart sprinkles.

Pink muffin cups 2 and 4: raspberries and dried cranberries mixed together.

Red muffin cup 3:  yogurt covered raisins and heart sprinkles.

Garnishes:  candied hearts and heart sprinkles.  

Our Valentine's Store was a sweet success!  My daughter thoroughly enjoyed selling and even purchasing Valentine packages for members of the household.  People would come to her and tell her what they wanted to send and dictate a message.  She would add up the cost on her little receipt form, give it to them, check the payment or help them come up with the correct amount, and then we would package it all up and set it on the shelf to await delivery for Valentine's Day.  Oh what bliss when the heart-filled event finally rolled around, and she delivered all of the packages!!!  It was fun for her as well as for the rest of us, AND it gave her practice with life skills, money, and writing (the dictated messages).  

To download your own deluxe store setup (there are two designs in the deluxe version as well as some fun extras not available in the free version) for only $1.50, head over here (I also have a smaller free version in my TPT store)!

Window clings are so much fun - but I wanted to do something extra with them so I glued some rhyming words to a few of the hearts and cut them apart.  My daughter then had to match the pairs that rhymed.

We were also working on compound words a bit this week, so I wrote some compound words on heart doilies, cut them apart, and let her match them up correctly.  Unfortunately I seem to have lost the photos of this activity.  :(

This was a fun matching symmetry lesson using mittens.  I saw this idea on Pinterest and decided it would make a cute winter or Valentine activity.   I drew a design on each of three mittens and then my daughter had to try to copy the design on another mitten to make a matching set.

For some handwriting practice, I had my daughter complete each "You are" sentence with the words from a candy message heart she randomly picked from a small bunch I had given her.  She would then write the words on the line to complete the sentences.

We graphed some candy hearts by color and.....

by message.  

And I leave you with a fun craft that is a great companion to the book "Guess How Much I Love You!"  I think these pictures show what we did better than I could tell in a bunch of words.
My daughter decorated this to look like herself.  We glued traced cutouts of her hands to the accordian fold sentence strip arms.  I wanted to make handprints and cut those out instead to attach, but it didn't happen.

She brainstormed her own way to say how much she loves mommy and daddy ("as fast as I can twirl"), and we wrote that inside the paper.  I loved her response  - it just sounds so much like her.  :)

BTW: I am participating in a blog contest for the top 25 creative mom blogs and would LOVE it if you would cast a vote for me!  :)  The button is on the sidebar and you don't have to be a member or sign up or anything to vote - just click the button which takes you to the site and cast your vote.  You can vote once a day so if you feel extra generous and want to cast a vote on another day - I would LOOOOVVVVEEEE it if you would!  Thanks so much!
(Note:  Since I posted this, I have been informed by some that they are unable to cast their votes for some reason - I contacted someone from that particular site, and they suggested trying a different browser which seemed to do the trick for at least one person that I am aware of.  Sooo, if you attempt to vote and it will not allow you to do so, it could be a browser issue.  Thanks so much to those who have tried and let me know!)

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A Friendly Friday: Missing Our Friends "SNOW" Much!

Remember these yummy guys from my earlier winter activities post here?

Well, I had something special in mind for them.  I wanted to let our church family know how much we would miss them so my daughter and I made bundles of these snowmen cookie faces and some hot chocolate mixes (see below), and using my daughter's crayon resist painting as a background, I set up a little area in the church for our gifts where I knew they would be found on Sunday morning.   The sign I posted above them stated: We will miss you "SNOW" much!  And we do...

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Homeschool Theme of the Week(s): Winter!

I have not been posting as much lately, but I hope to catch up and get back into a routine soon!  Here's some of what we've been up to over the past few weeks with winter being our main theme...

A fun winter themed snack!

Snowman face:  peanut butter and marshmallow creme sandwich with a carrot nose, raisin eyes, and chocolate chip smile.  The scarf was made of kiwi and mini tomato slices.

Muffin cups 1 and 3 (sides of plate):  yogurt covered raisin "snowballs".

Muffin cup 2 (top):  vanilla yogurt "snow" with a dried cranberry snowflake design.

Muffin cup 4 (bottom):  More kiwi slices and dried cranberries for decorating the snowman further as desired.

Garnish: gumdrops.

One of our activities consisted of playing roll a blizzard!  To do this with your own child, have him/her draw a snow scene (or any sort of outdoor scene).  Throw two dice and add the numbers together to see how many snowflakes you will add to the picture.  Keep going until the picture is covered in snowflakes!  For younger children learning to count or learning about numbers, you may just want to roll one die.

For our blizzard picture, we used snowflake stamps and silver ink but using foam snowflakes, snowflake stickers, etc. would be other great options as well.

We also enjoyed some hot chocolate math with real marshmallows - I saw this idea on Pinterest (here is a link)!  To play this game, simply roll a die or draw from a stack of numbers to determine how many marshmallows you may add to your cup.  Then do it again and write a number sentence to show the problem and the solution.  (Optional:  eat one of your marshmallows after you finish each problem).

You can't go wrong with a classic, right?  I think the same holds true for classic school activities like practicing one's spelling in shaving cream "snow". 

Speaking of snow, we explored real snow (saved in our deep freezer from the last big snow) and made a miniature snowman indoors.

We also attempted to make an igloo out of ice cubes and snow outdoors (attempted being a key word).

At least if one does not do so well in the igloo building department, one can always explore one's strengths in other areas such as baking and decorating cookies.  These little snowman cookie faces (more on what we did with those later on a Friendly Friday post) were "snow" fun to make!  ;)

Snowball fight anyone?  Too cold to go outdoors?  Wellllll, then why not have one inside instead!  Simply gather up all your white socks, roll into balls, aim, and fire!

Needing a little winding down activity?  Try a crayon resist painting!  My daughter drew her snow scene with a white crayon on white paper and then painted over it with blue watercolor.  It was neat seeing the white snow scene pop out suddenly on the paper when blue was added!

One of my daughter's favorite activities for this theme was to open her own hot chocolate shop!  Great for reviewing money, practicing interpersonal skills, dramatic play and more - a pretend and play store is a wonderful hands on learning experience.  Sandwich shops, beauty salons, pet stores, mechanic shops, etc. - the sky is the limit for the different kinds of stores your child can own and practice running.  :)  I know our  family members were very willing to visit my daughter's store and to participate, purchasing their hot chocolate drink of choice and enjoying each sip.

And speaking of shops, here is a sneak preview of one activity we have planned for Valentine's week - a Sweet Shop where family members can come and secretly order some sweets for someone else and/or send a message or purchase a coupon for helping someone in the family (doing dishes for one night, etc.).  My daughter will help keep track of the orders and will be in charge of delivery on Valentine's Day.  Judging from the success of her hot chocolate shop, I think she will really enjoy this new venture!

Love this idea and want to make a Sweet Shop of your own?  I have posted a very simple version for FREE on my Teachers Pay Teachers website here.  The free set includes a customizable wording sign and matching write-in price tags.  A deluxe version is available here for $1.50 which includes TWO designs (hearts and one with dots which is more general for everyday use) and items such as sale signs, frequent shopper cards, receipts, and coupons (heart design only for the coupons), etc.  I hope that one of these sets (free or deluxe) will provide hours of fun and learning for you and your child!

So what do YOU have planned for Valentine's?

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