Colorful Fish Art !

    So, earlier in the week we stopped at Michaels to grab a few things to have an Art day dedicated to... guess??  FISH !

    But FIRST... I am so excited to share my Garage Sale finds!! I try to check out garage sales whenever I can but so far this summer, I haven’t done it too much. While I was checking out some stuff online about New York Teacher Certification, I came across an ad for a small child care program that was closing and first thing this morning, my little mucnchkin and I were out the door!

    One hour and $8.00 later, we came home with a Fishing Game, A Duck, Duck Goose card game, 8 books, 2 Sesame Street puzzles, 2 My Little Pony stuffed animals and 1 Unicorn doll!

The favorite of the day was the “Let’s Go Fishing Game”  =)

Perfect game for our Fish Theme!

    I often try to link a book with an extension activity that is either an art activity or a writing activity. Since it was Art Day, I opted for some fun and colorful art activities after we read “Rainbow Fish” by Marcus Pfister. There are so many different art activities that anyone can do with this book! TONS can be found on Pinterest alone!

    Here are the 2 art activities that we did:

    We made a Rainbow Fish with a CD disc and some plastic gems.      (This one I found on Pinterest) 

    And then I grabbed some colorful tissue from my art supply box and instead of using aluminum foil, I found some metallic tissue paper in my Christmas box! I cut all the tissue into squares and then cut a piece of cardboard into a fish shape. The little munchkin then used a paintbrush to spread glue onto the fish shape and we both covered up the entire shape with the tissue paper. (This one is an activity I do almost every year with my preschool munchkins)

Wa-La!  Rainbow Fish again!  =)

    And what is an Art day without paint?! Here is the fish we made using her handprint and some colored circle stickers, as bubbles.

    We ended our Art day by reading the book “Swimmy” by Leo Lionni, (one of my favorite Fish books) and then we ate a little Swimmy snack!

Fishy Math Fun plus * FREEBIES*

    Well, I have had quite the busy week! We had familly from Texas visiting this week and it was tons of fun! We went to Niagara Falls (American Side) and my husband and I literally walked across the border to Canada, with my cousin! 

    Then we went on a boat tour along Lake Erie. It was so fun to have famliy visitng because being out here without family and friends can get lonely, so we are more than ecstatic when we have visitors!  =)

    Now that the kids and I are settling back into our routine, I am back here blogging! I have some fun Fishy Math activities to share, and since Teaching Blog Addict is hosting FREEBIE FRIDAY, I also have 2 FREEBIES for you! =)

    My little munchkin and I do a lot of math activities throughout the day. She loves to count everything and she is very good at it! Here are a few activities that we did this week.

   We start everyday with our calendar, which gives her practice counting and I try to  focus on one number a day to help her with number identification. 

    I saw this bulletin board idea in this Mailbox Ocean Animals Theme magazine and loved it. 

    All you need is some fish cutouts, magnetic strips and a chalkboard or magnetic whiteboard. Everyday I change the amount of fish that I put out and I also put out 2 numbers that she can chose from. This helps her identify numbers and match it to the set of fish that are on the board. 

I absolutely LOVE The Mailbox magazines!

     Also using another Mailbox resource (Literacy Envelope Centers), I used these Fish Twins mats to help her with her visual discrimination and matching skills.

    

** FREEBIE ALERT! **

     Since I loved this mat so much and figured other moms and teachers might too, I created my own. I had a fishing set from Lake Shore learning and instead of having her use paper cards, I used the plastic fish that were in our Scoop & Play Fishing kit, from Lakeshore Learning.

(There are several other things that can be used, like other types of plastic fish, fish erasers, goldfish crackers, etc.)

    We took the learning fun outside on a warm day, and I poured some colorful gravel into  her water table along with the fishing set… Water Table Fun!

    Another thing that my little munchkin is working on is matching number to set. So I made another math mat, similar to the Fishy Twins mat. I gave her fish erasers and some magnetic numbers. I helped her identify the numbers and then she counted out the erasers and put them on the Fish Bowl mat.

Click either of the pictures below for your FREEBIES!

I also linked up with TBA's Freebie Friday! Click here or below for more fun freebies!

    Today we are heading to Michael's to pick up some arts & crafts materials to create some fun fish art! =) Stay tuned....

Ff is for Fish !

    “Fishy, Fishy, swimming in the water, swimming in the water”…. That is what my little munchkin has been singing in the bathtub with her new fish squirt toys.

    Since we just wrapped up our Flower unit and a mini Firework unit, I decided we could still work on the letter Ff. 

Ff is for fish right?   =)

       We reviewed the letter Ff on our Letter Chart and then had fun with our dot paint and our Letter Ff search worksheet from a Letter Land Alphabet Pack from Live, Love, Laugh Everyday in Kindergarten.

    I was doing some blog hopping and searching some of my favorite blogs and found some awesome Ocean/Fish printables.

3Dinosaurs has a wonderful Ocean Unit, 

It includes aTot Pack for younger munchkins. 

That’s where I found these cute fish puzzles. I printed them, laminated them, cut them out and put them in a little basket and had her put them together.

     

     I also referred  back to my Letter of The Week Curriculum purchase from Confessions of a Homeschooler for another kind of Fish puzzle. 

I will also be using other printables from this curriculum as we continue with our Fish unit. =)

     I had purchased 2 sets of these Letter Stencils from Lakeshore Learning awhile back (one for myself and one for the classroom) that can be used in different ways.                                   

   

    I am using my set with my little munchkin. The stencil is pretty big and so, rather than have her paint on the table or her small easel, I taped a legal size paper to the basement door (where our ABC Chart usually is) and had her paint there!

There is lots more Fishy and Letter Ff Fun to come! 

If you have any Fun Fishy Activities, PLEASE feel free to share!

Happy 4th of July...Some Red, White & Blue Fun !

Happy Birthday America!

And a HUGE thanks to all the men and women who have served in the Armed Forces…which includes my husband (USMC),

and all uncles and cousins who have served!

THANK YOU!

    Yesterday, I squeezed in a few Red, White & Blue activities!

 We enjoyed the spray bottle painting last week so this time we decided to use the colors Red & Blue. I love the way the water made the paint drip down, cuz when it was all done, she added some stars and it looked like the American Flag (as seen in the eyes of a 3 year old!)

    Then I made a quick graphing activity for the 4^th. The little munchkin wanted to munch on some star marshmallows I found at walmart, and I thought- let’s graph them and then eat them!  =) I know, I know….always trying to make things into a teaching activity! What can I say??

Click here for your copy of a Star Spangled Graph that you can use! 

(It can be also used with star stickers or any other star things you can find!)

    We also enjoyed a yummy Red, White & Blue snack!

(Strawberry Jello, Blueberry Jello, Whip Cream and blueberries)  

YUMMMY!

    And last night we enjoyed a Bisons baseball game, here in Buffalo. After a small rain delay, Bisons beat the Bulls and it was time for the Concert by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, followed by fireworks!

    Here is the little munchkin having fun and getting ready for the big show with her glow sticks! 

And here she is with big brother, all ready for the Firework show to begin! 

 Her face while watching the Firework Show...priceless!

It was a wonderful night!

Now time to get ready for a fun 4^th of July BBQ at a friend’s place! 

Getting ready for the 4th of July !

   For me, the 4^th of July has always symbolized the actual start of summer.  It isn’t necessarily after Memorial Day or even when school lets out. 

My official summer kick off has always been the 4^th of July!

     I love doing holiday crafts & such.... Yay! Lucky for me, the 4th ofJuly holiday is only 2 days away! 

    So of course, my mind is flooded with so many cute and fun 4^th of July activities!

Here is the tray of fun activities I had for her this weekend.

    Fellow mommy bloggers created a fun little unit just for the 4th of July! They also have tons of other fun units for little ones that I enjoy using with my little munchkin.

Hop on over to their blog or click here to download your own!

    Here we used the Spelling Sheet and magnetic letter tiles to spell the work FIREWORks.

And instead of dot painting, putting stickers or magnetic pom poms onto this paper, I chose to use glitter and glue! SOmething about tho of July screams: Glitter!  =)

    I saw this Firework Art idea on Pinterest , using pipe cleaners to paint fireworks, and so we tried it. I had to use a clothespin on the tip of the pipe cleaner though to allow her a better grip. She loved it! And she continued with different colors, 3 different times!

    There you go: FIREWORKS!

Tomorrow we will go see real Fireworks after a Buffalo Bisons baseball game! 

When we moved here last summer, we went to a baseball game….Seems it might just become a 4^th of July tradition out here!