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!!

Got Organization?

   Ok, so one of my goals this year besides keeping up with my blog, was to become more organized- in all aspects of my life. And thus far, I have to say I have been doing okay. Or so I like to think.
    But lately it seems as if time is moving too fast and I can't seem to find time to do the things I would like to do on the blog. I concluded that it was because, although I was trying to get things organized, I was still lacking in the Blog Organization area.
    And then I visit blogs and I see how everyone seems to have to all together and their blogs flow great, with great posts, ideas, organization and a good flow of traffic. It makes me a bit jealous.
    And I always think:

Where do bloggers find the time? 

    I am sure it's not THAT hard...IF you are organized! I attempted to be more organized a few times. I had even created an "Idea Box" sometime last year and it worked for awhile, until it seemed like I was trying to do too much and it left me feeling frazzled. So goodbye to my "Idea Box"... It will probably still be used to jot down ideas, but not for much more than that. 

    I started to look around for blog organization and planning ideas and even came across some very cute and useful planning pages. But many that were free items, lacked what I was looking for in a simple blog planner. And the ones that cost, had way too much that I didn't need. So I took it upon myself to create a few pages of my very own Blog Planner!

Here is a picture of a a few sample pages.

     After creating a few pages and filling them in, I looked back at it all and realized that this might work. It all looks great on paper- so now maybe that it is all in writing, I can stick with it and not go off track or lose track of what I have planned for my blog.
    I created a monthly page to write out the themes and learning goals I want to address. I tend to start planning in the general to specific mode... that's all thanks to 9 years of teacher lesson plans!

    And then I move into weekly planning and I can write the topics that I want to blog about and post throughout the week, along with a To Do List.

    I also created an activity planning page as well so that at any given time during the week, I know what activities I have lined up for the munchkin, that will be blogged in the near future. I know- Duh.... why wouldn't you think ahead, right? But sometimes I just wing it and I have found that going with the flow day by day, leaves me feeling rushed and sometimes I am out of ideas or can't find time to get it altogether. 

    So now I can try to plan a little more in advance and...well, be more organized!

    And then to keep myself on track and  be more consistent with my posts, I created a Blog Post Planning page where I can get into a little more detail on what things I need to get done to get the blog post up; along with a date of when I plan to post and where I plan to share my post.

    With these pages (along with a few others in my new Blog Planner), I can hope that maybe now I can be more focused and organized with my blog. 

    I am also thinking of doing Feature Posts every week. For now, I will have a Crafty Tuesday post and a Freebie Friday post every week! 

    After creating all this and filling out the pages for this week and next week, I feel less stressed and much more organized. It makes me realize how much I have missed the organization that has to come with lesson planning as a teacher. I have only been out of the classroom for 5 months, but it's time I pulled it all back together!

    If you are struggling with keeping your blog organized or are just looking for some cute Blog Planning Pages, click the picture below to purchase your own copy in my TPT store! 

    And be sure to let me know what you think! 

Iceberg Hop! - A fun way to learn sight words and get moving!

  So, I am sure that since I have been hibernating (since the holidays ended), I  have put on like five pounds. This winter is getting so depressing! Maybe it's because I am not teaching this year, but man... I have had a serious case of the Winter Blues. Seriously.
   I have been itching to get my butt outside for a little run... and today-- I finally did it!!
   It was 21 degrees outside and a little cold,  but it didn't matter. That one mile felt really good! Of course, now I am a bit sore and I am sure I will be more sore tomorrow... but that's ok... I really needed that run and that adrenaline rush!!

    The other day, the little munchkin was randomly dancing around the house, with a book in her hand.

   At first, I was like " What is this child doing?"  It took me a few seconds to realize she was just ansy as I have been and needed to get up and move a little more. And a lightbulb immediately went off in my head.
   I grabbed a few sheets of printer paper and cut out shapes that looked somewhat like icebergs. I wrote her sight words on them, laminated them and BAM-- a gross motor learning activity!
   We called it the Iceberg Hop!
   She shouted out each sight word as she hopped on it!

She LOVED it! 

Even our dog, Sox, wanted to join in on the fun!

    The whole game kept us busy for more than 40 minutes! (Shocker, huh?)

    I am going to need to find some more fun gross motor activities to get us through the rest of this very long winter!

Keeping Warm with Sight Word Fun!

    My new laptop is finally all set with files intact and everything! It took a few days and the most frustrating part was transferring all of my music and pictures from my iTunes library! But it's done!

    We are finally defrosting a bit out here...but that darn Groundhog has predicted 6 more weeks of winter! UGH! But I guess out here in Buffalo, it really doesn't matter because winter has been known to linger all the way into early April.

  Last week, when it wasn't so cold out, but there was tons of snow, we ventured outside and made a snowman!

    Isn't he adorable?? He's been hanging out in our yard for a whole week! Unfortunately with the slight warm up (yes, 20 degrees is a warmup for us after sub zero temps), he's slowly melting. 

   With all the accumulating snow and bitter cold temps going back and forth for the past week, the little one and I have been keeping warm with some Hot Chocolate themed sight word activities. She came home from school with a new set of sight words and I went right to work in creating a few activities for her.
   There are so many Sight Word activities and ideas out there that I would love to try, but since we do activities based on the list that her teacher sends home, I sometimes have to create my own printables for her. But I don't mind, it's alot of fun!!
   I still use a slight Montessori approach when presenting her activities. She likes to work on trays and it makes clean up much cleaner and quicker!
Hot Chocolate Sight Word Stamping

Hot Chocolate Sight Word Match

(Click on the picture to get your own copy in my TPT store)

Hot Chocolate Sight Word Spelling and Writing

(Click on the pictures below for your copy of the spelling mats and writing cards in my TPT store)

    These tracing cards include all the sight words that she has been learning during January- a total of fourteen!

    So far, she has been really enjoying these types of activities. I have other ideas planned to bring in some gross motor and sensory play, as well...because we love to have fun while learning! And I have plenty of Sight Word stuff packed somewhere in the garage and I have made it my goal this week to get in there and pull some things out, to place on her trays throughout the next few months.