Plenty of fun with hearts...even after Valentine's Day!

   Ok so I am a little bummed that my plans for the classroom Valentine's Day party were ruined by yet ANOTHER Snow/Cold Day last Friday!
   I was all geared up for some fun...Check out how cute our bulletin board was!

   But my preschoolers did get a very small taste of some Valentine fun with heart themed activities, earlier in the week.
   I added hearts and gems into our rice sensory bin for the munchkins to work on their fine motor skills, as well as counting skills:

   They also worked on measurement & size in our Playdoh Center, with pretty pink playdoh and different sized heart cutters:

    I had quite a few Valentine activities prepped and ready to use but with the snow day, we never got a chance. So I tweaked one activity for my munchkin to have some learning fun at home too!
   She has been working hard on CVC words and she played a fun word building game:

 I found this great FREE resource on Vowel Sorting from Make, Take, Teach.

And I found these fun mailboxes from Target.

    We also hit up the after Valentine's Day sales for some candy to have some Math fun, which I will share next time!

Mad Science Monday!

    So what do you do with leftover Valentine's Day candy? Have fun with it!!
    The one candy that we have leftover from Valentine's Day that no one in the house particularly likes are Brach's Candy Conversation Hearts. (The other Conversation Hearts that I prefer are the ones made by Wonka SweetTarts.)
   I had seen several ideas on Pinterest (of course) of different experiments that can be done with a few simple ingredients and some candy hearts. I knew it was something that my little munchkin might enjoy. So I took a stab at two different experiments.
     Both experiments called for 4 simple ingredients:
     Baking Soda, Vinegar, Candy Hearts and water.
     The first idea came from Preschool Inspirations.

 Fizzy Candy Hearts

Each heart in the ice tray was filled with some baking soda.

She dropped a candy heart into each heart mold.

Then using a medicine syringe (a dropper would be easier to use but I couldn't find one in the house), 

she dropped in some vinegar with some help from daddy. 

The result was quite a bit of rising bubbles in each mold...and we had Fizzy Hearts!

The second experiment was called:

Dancing Candy Hearts

The idea I found came from  Inspiration Laboratories.

This one started as it was supposed to and then my son got involved and made it more interesting!

For this one, we needed the candy, a bowl (one with a bit of height), baking soda and vinegar.

We mixed the baking soda and water in the bowl.  

She then tossed in some candy hearts.

 There was a little bit of fizzing. 

.

She wasn't thrilled so she added in some more baking soda to get a little more fizzing and bubbles going.

(She was excited, looking more and more like a little mad scientist!)

    And then things got a little more interesting as the little munchkin added in more vinegar from a cup to see what would happen.

    The result was the candy hearts were bopping up and down and flipping over in the bowl! They really did look like they were dancing! The pictures I took do not do the experiment any justice.
    If you vist the link from Inspiration Laboratories, there is a video posted of the Dancing Hearts.

    Then big brother joined in and added a whole lot more vinegar and baking soda and really got the excitement going! 

Check out the looks on her face! 

Pure amazement!!

It was so much fun! 

Here is the step by step procedure that we followed, as posted on Inspiration Laboratories:

1. Mix 1/2 tablespoon of baking soda in 1 cup of water. Add to container. Add enough baking soda and water solution to make liquid level at least a few inches high.
2. Measure out 1/4 cup of vinegar.
3. Add few candy hearts to your baking soda and water solution. Observe the bubbles.
4. Slowly add 1/4 cup of vinegar to your baking soda, water, and candy hearts.
5. Watch the candy hearts rise and fall. (They appear to dance around the container doing flips and all sorts of fun stuff.)

Inspiration Laboratories has some very cool ideas and I am actually thinking we might do more fun and exciting science experiments like this and create a Feature Post called:

 Mad Science Monday!

Yummy Chocolate Playdoh for some Valentine's Day Sensory Fun!

  Yesterday was such a busy day.... a few hours at work, my little munchkin's Valentine's Day party at school and then the mad rush to get her to take a nap before the sitter came for a few hours!

   So I hope that everyone had a nice day yesterday...

    I was really hoping to have time to get a Freebie together for all of you but the week went by so quickly. I am now working on, not one-- but TWO Freebies for next Friday! 

      So, I don't go over the top when celebrating Valentine's Day, but my husband and I did do a small gift exchange.

     He brought home some delicious cupcakes from my favorite Cupcakery....AND he brought my two favorite flavors: Red Velvet and Peanut Butter Lover... YUM!

    And he received some sweets from me.

    

     And then our sitter came over for a few hours so we could go out to eat at a Greek restaurant that I have been dying to check out. 

    All in all, it was a busy day with the little one and a nice, low key evening with my love, especially since I haven't been feeling well...it was exactly what I needed.

    Oh, and I made some great chocolate playdoh for the munchkin earlier this week and left it out for her to explore last night while we went out to dinner. I threw in some cookie cutters and two Valentine Heart candy boxes, for some added fun. The texture came out really good! And it smells awesome!

    I used the recipe from Beth over at  123 Homeschool 4 Me. 

    Here is what I used:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup salt
• 2 cups water
• 2 tbsp cream of tartar

  The sitter said they had a fun time, making different shaped hearts and smelling the playdoh! I plan to keep it out on her tray for the rest of the month because she loves playdoh!
   It is a great hands on sensory experience and once I toss some scissors and other playdoh tools on the tray, she will be getting some fine motor practice as well!

   So, what are you waiting for? You know you want to go make some!  It's a simple recipe that will provide hours of fun!

Lots of Love for Math!

    As Valentine's Day approaches us, bags of candy have been sneaking in my shopping carts at the store and making their way into my house! I know if I put them in candy dishes around the house, they may or may not be eaten. And I know I am not sending tons of candy for my little munchkin's Valentine's Day party at school.
   So of course, we need other ways to use the candy! So, we used Hershey Kisses to practice counting on ten frame mats.

These mats are available FREE from Amanda Pauley at Mrs. Pauley's Kindergarten.

    Some activities that the little munchkin and I have done lately has been from her February Binder. This is just a a binder where I just place a few worksheets that she can do independently, as she pleases. Most are just a mix of worksheets I have made or have downloaded somewhere for free.

    Annie Moffat of The Moffat Girls creates some very cute and awesome packets. I have purchased  a few of her products and have a ton more of her products on my TPT wishlist! 

    We have been using some worksheets from her Valentine No Prep Packet this month!

    I have chosen a few sheets that I feel are at her level and put them in her lovely pink binder. Then when she want to, she gets her binder and then chooses which sheets she wants to do. If it seems too overwhelming for her (since it is a Kindergarten packet), I find ways to make it more fun and engaging.

    For example, she used sticker hearts for this "Let's Make 10" worksheet. And she chose which problems she wanted to do. I do this because it allows her freedom in choosing what and how much she wants to do. When she says she's done, she is done and we move on.

 Although I want to encourage her to see it through to its completion, I do not want to make her finish it all and overwhelm her... that just causes way too many unnecessary issues! 

And plus, she's only four and a half (almost five) and I want her to enjoy what she is learning.

Here, she did some literacy work and did really well-but after two pages of CVC words, 

she wanted to move on.

    We needed to getting active, so we played a game we called "Collect & Count". I put heart shapes all around the house with numbers or heart stickers on each one. (We worked up to number 25)

   She walked, or ran actually, around the house looking for the hearts (some in obvious places like on the cat scratcher) and  placed them in her basket. But before she could put them in her basket, she had to say the number or count the number of heart stickers. If she was incorrect, she had to leave it where it was at.

    We continued to play until she found all the hearts and correctly identified the number or correctly counted the heart stickers.

    It was just a fun and active way to practice number identification and practice counting. She had a blast with it!

    Tomorrow the hubby is taking me out somewhere and I made some chocolate playdoh for the munchkin and the sitter! It smells yummy, and I know she will love it. I haven't made scented playdoh in awhile so I know she will be excited!

My First Crafty Tuesday post!

    Yay!
     This is my very first Feature (weekly) Post titled Crafty Tuesday!
     Thanks for stopping by to see what fun Valentine's Day crafts that the little munchkin and I have made!
    I have not one-- but three fun crafts to share with you today!!

    The walls in my house are quite bare. I am odd and I am not a big fan of hanging pictures or portraits on the wall. But art work... that's a different story. I have taken a liking to wall art sometime within the past year. Specifically canvas arts and prints.
    In honor of Valentine's Day, I wanted to create a Heart Mosaic on canvas. I had seen many awesome ones on Pinterest, and it was on my Craft To Do List. One morning, I sat down with my materials (canvas, shredded cardstock paper and modge podge and went to work.

 I used a wooden heart shape and traced it onto the canvas.

  I used a paintbrush to sweep on the Modge Podge and then placed blue squares inside the heart. 

This was a little tricky at first because I found that the modge podge dried fairly quickly, so I had to do small sections at a time.

 And once the heart dried, I continued on with the rest. 

 Note: I used the Glossy (not matte) Modge Podge and put a coat over the entire canvas when I was all done to give it a sealed and glossy look.

    I have to admit---it doesn't look very mosaic like but any little white spaces drove me a  little nuts, so I covered it all up!

Still looks good though, right?

The next crafts, the little munchkin and I did together.

We made some homemade Valentine's Day cards to send to our family in Chicago!

We found this cute Jack Skellington Valentine craft at Spoonful. 

You can go here  to download a template and make your own.

And we also made some cute Puppy Valentine crafts to send to our family too!

Something about Valentine's Day makes me extra crafty. 

I took a look back and found some other crafts from last year:

And there you have it... a few simple paper crafts and a few crafts that can serve as home decor! 

Happy Crafting!

Falling in Love with Sight Words!

   What's not to love about sight words, right?
    There are SO many activity ideas and fun ways to teach children sight words. And I am having an awesome time teaching my little munchkin sight words. I am waiting for her preschool teacher to send home another set of sight words. I like to try and work on the same sight words that she is teaching in the classroom. It has been over 2 weeks since we received a set...The little munchkin has already mastered the first 14 sight words that she has been taught and she is ready to move forward with another set.
   In the meantime, she has been "falling in love" with her sight words. When we read books at bedtime, she always wants to go back and look through the book to find any sight words she knows.
    And we had a funny moment at mass this past weekend. She pulled out the song book and was flipping through the pages and when she spotted the word "the", her eyes opened up so wide and she whispered loudly, "Mommy, my sight words are in here!" It was PRICELESS.... she is discovering a whole new world full of words and is excited by it all!
    Anyhow, with Valentine's Day coming up, we needed some fun Valentine activities to practice sight words. I found these oh-so-cute felt envelopes at JoAnns the other day. I took the last five they had and I would have liked to have more. But.... I did some research (ok, ok, I just looked on Pinterest) and found out just how easy these are to make. But I didn't have the time or energy to make some more. So I made a little game with what I had.

     Each envelope had 2-3 sight words that she had to identify and then color the heart with the matching sight word.

 Everyday Celebrations, has super easy directions on how to quickly make your own felt envelopes!

    Although I can't figure out a sewing machine if I tried... I am sure a glue gun would work just fine too!

   Aside from making sight word learning lots of fun with a variety of games, I also made a little flip book from a photo album I picked up at the Dollar Tree. Each page has a card that contains a sight word that she is able to identify. It has been a portable way for her to learn her sight words on the go... and she loves to flip through it and shout out the words.

   We have used the flip book album on many occasions and in many different ways.
    She used it to name the sight word and them counted out the number of hearts she needed to spell the sight word. She wrote each letter on each heart and glued them together.

    *Here is the best part: When I taught Kindergarten (way back in 2007), this was one of the activities that I did with the students! And here is my little munchkin- 4 years old and in preschool- doing the same activity with alot of confidence. It makes me such a proud momma!

So,yes, as you can see, we are in love with sight words! 

They are so much fun to learn and teach!

Stay tuned tomorow for my first 

Crafty Tuesday post!!