I am so excited to share with you the latest preschool centers we are using in my classroom. The students in my classroom vary in levels of fine motor skills, so a lot of our new centers focus on fine motor work along with the academic theme. Easy Clean TraysFirst things first, I needed to make sure our new centers could be contained for little hands. Oriental Trading has a great set of Easy Clean deep trays for any craft. They come in a rainbow of colors and are very durable. They measure 16" x 12" with a 1" lip, which is perfect for accommodating a variety of projects. Apple LinkingOur September theme is apples so I took these apple number cards, copied them onto cardstock and laminated for durability. I then punched holes on the bottom and gave our students large links to clip on the appropriate amount of links. The links are from Oriental Trading and work fabulously. After they have completed the centers my students often like to make color patterns and necklaces with the links. Light Table CupsMy students LOVE our classroom light table. I recently discovered some translucent neon shot glasses on OrientalTrading.com and knew they'd be a perfect addition to our light table. They're the perfect size for little hands, they can stacked into towers and students can also see how the cups change colors when stacked on top of each other. The set comes with cups so there are plenty to use for other centers. Alphabet StewWe play a letter sound review game in class called 'Alphabet Stew'. Together we sing "Bippity boppity boo. Let's make alphabet stew." In the past I've had small alphabet cards in a bowl for students to pick out but I wanted to find something they could scoop out with a ladle. Oriental Trading has foam letter sponges which worked great! They are 1-2" tall and fit perfectly into a ladle! The set comes with all the letters of the alphabet and two sets of numbers 0-9. These stampedes are also great for paint stamping. Name Formation BagsEvery day in class we work on name recognition, spelling, and formation. One of the ideas I had stemmed from our paint bags used for letter formation. My students love tracing letters on top of ziplock bags full of paint. I wanted to take this further and put clear hair gel in a bag with letter beads. The goal is to have students move around the beads in the bag to find the letters in their name and put them in order. I ordered these beads from Oriental Trading and am excited to try out this idea! These beads also glow in the dark so it could be a fun extension to use on our light table! **I haven't created this center yet, but as soon as I do I will take photos. You can find these items and tons of other goodies at Learn365 from OrientalTrading.com! http://www.learn365.orientaltrading.com/curriculum/math-a1-555425.fltr
These items were provided complimentary as part of the Oriental Trading Brand Ambassador program. All ideas and opinions are strictly my own.
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I stopped by my favorite place, the Target Dollar Spot, and found some new accessories for my classroom light table! My store had Glitter Kittens & Puppies, Safari Animals, Unicorns & Ponies, and Dino Figures (that includes glow-in-the-dark pieces!) When introducing the new pieces in the classroom I also included some neon translucent shot glasses from Oriental Trading, which the kids loved! Some made the pedestals for the animals, while others used them as cages. My favorite pieces are the Safari Animals, although the giraffes were hard to stand up (I spread out their legs and they stood up better). The kids loved the glittery Kittens & Dogs, as well as the Unicorn & Ponies, but like the giraffes, they were difficult to get to stand on their own. Overall they are a great purchase and addition to our light table manipulatives!!
Since I only teach Pre-K during the school year I don't make any income during the summer, which unfortunately doesn't leave us with a family vacation budget to visit grand places like Disney World, Disneyland, Hawaii, a cruise, etc. However, this does allow me to get creative with local and nearby attractions to make our summer fun! When you're smack-dab in the middle of the country you're somewhat limited on options for family vacations. Don't get me wrong, the options we have are wonderful, but you pretty much have the choice to either drive a few hours to various amusement park or make a longer drive to the National and State Parks. These are the options we've considered: South Dakota: Black Hills & Mount RushmoreHeading north for 8 hours we would arrive in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I have been here several times and it's always breathtaking. There are also several fun stops along the way, Wall-Drug anyone?! If you drive along you'll see the countless signs for it. Plus we always make a stop along the way in Valentine, NE to see Smith Falls. If you have extra time you can also tube down the Niobrara to add to your experience! Once in the Black Hills we drive through Custard State Park, ride the Alpine Slides, Tramway Adventures, visit the Crazy Horse Monument, and of course visit Mount Rushmore, I especially like to hike the trails surrounding Mount Rushmore. Colorado: Estes Park & DenverThe Colorado border is a little over five hours from our home and the first stop would be Estes Park, an additional 3.5 hours away. We could also journey down to Denver (3 hours from the border) which has a ton of kids activities, or go down south to ride a train through the mountains, which is on our travel bucket list. Wyoming: Yellowstone National ParkIf we were to make a longer drive, we would head northwest 14 hours to Yellowstone National Park. I've never been here so I can't attest to all we would see along the way nor what fun attractions Wyoming itself might hold, in addition to the majesty of the park. This trip is absolutely on our travel bucket list, but at a later date when we have more days to travel. Missouri: Worlds of Fun & Kansas CityNow we're getting closer to home... Three hours south of us is Kansas City (Missouri or Kansas depending on what venue you're at). Both Worlds of Fun and Kansas City over a ton of options for our family. Crown Center alone has Legoland Discovery Center, SeaLife Aquarium, Union Station, Model Train Experience, Fritz Railroad Restaurant (your food is brought to you on a model train!), Crayola, and more. Great Wolf Lodge is also nearby for a fun indoor waterpark option. Worlds and Oceans of Fun is a great Midwest amusement park offering roller coasters, thrill rides, a waterpark, and Planet Snoopy for kids. Planet Snoopy is what makes Worlds of Fun a big contender for our vacation. Within Planet Snoopy there are 15 attractions dedicated to the littles in our family. It features classic kids rides like boats, airplanes, mini roller coaster, balloon ride, etc. One area I know my kids will love is the Peanuts Playhouse, which is an interactive foam ball play area designed for children with foam targets, cannons, and slides! Ocean of Fun features lots of water slides, wave pool, lazy river, kids splash areas. Daily tickets to Worlds of Fun (for 2017) vary depending on the day of the week, time of the day, how many days you're visiting, and whether you're buying tickets ahead of time online or at the gate. For us, buying two-days of tickets online would cost us $59 each, plus a $30 for 2-days of parking, totaling $266. There are a lot of options including inclusive dining, VIP parking, etc to make your visit more enjoyable Iowa: Adventureland & Des MoinesLastly we come to our closest attraction Adventureland in Des Moines, which is only 2 hours away. This amusement park is family-owned and features lots of rides for adults and kids. They don't have a dedicated kids area, but there are kiddie rides scattered throughout the park. It is a very quaint amusement park with a cute main street as you enter. Your park admission also gets you into Adventure Bay, a wonderful water park with slides, wave pool, lazy river, and a fantastic splash zone area. Two days of tickets for 2017 run $67 for adults and $62 for kids 4-9. Parking is $10/day unless you stay at Adventureland Resort which provides a free shuttle. So for our family it would cost us $276 if we stay off-site, or $256 if we stay at their resort or campgrounds. Decisions, Decisions...All of these are excellent options and provide unique, educational, and fun experiences for our young family. For us, we were working on a limited budget and only four days, so all the national park options were out.
Our vacation is between Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, or Adventureland in Des Moines. Check back soon to see what we pick! Summer is time for sunshine, swimming, family vacations, and for me, A LOT of downtime to entertain my kids! These new books from Parragon have provided great summer entertainment for my kids, especially on the road and in the hotel on our family vacation to Des Moines! MoanaMoana is HUGE in our house and these two Disney Moana books are packed full of fun activities to keep my kids busy. Some activities they need assistance with, but mostly they like to work on their own. Plus they include tons of stickers and a free digital book download! Choose Your Destiny Is very colorful and filled with coloring, word searches, mazes, matching, and stickers. Born to Voyage feature matching activities, counting, coloring, stickers and push-out pencil toppers. Marble ManiaMarble Mania has got to be favorite item from this set. I love seeing unique and engaging games, especially when they are hands-on, which Marble Mania certainly is! Inside the box are pieces to build 3 board games, 25 marbles, and a game book. I really appreciate that everything can be stored back in the box! With the Marble Mania contents you can build 'Extreme Pinball', 'Marble Maze', and 'Awesome Archboard'. The 'Marble Mania' was easy to assemble, but probably the most challenging game because it takes a lot of balance to pull it off. It makes a great quiet time concentration activity for kids! 'Extreme Pinball" was the hardest to assemble because you make the shooter, but it's a lot of fun once assembled. My boys especially liked this game. 'Awesome Archboard' is a very easy game to set up and play and it was a lot of fun to teach my boys the classic game of shooting marbles across a surface. Overall, this game set is a ton of fun a provided A LOT of entertainment for a family game night! 4000 Stickers Under the SeaMy youngest LOVE stickers so it's no surprise that his favorite book is 4000 Stickers Under the Sea! The stickers are adorable and range from fish to sharks, mermaids, sea turtles, penguins and much more! Each page has an activity kids can complete like adding fish to the scene and finding hidden objects. He loved this book during our downtime on our vacation. Doodle and Draw Spots, Stripes, and SquigglesTo wrap up our new summer collection from Parragon we have Doodle and Draw Spots, Stripes, and Squiggles! This book is great for kids who like to draw but need some direction on what to draw. Hey get to draw toppings on cupcakes, decorate the sails on boats, give dinaours a patterns, and lots of fun doodling ideas! No compensation was received for writing this post, however the books featured were provided complimentary from Parragon. Each summer my kids and I make our summer bucket list and we try to cover each letter of the alphabets. You can be specific with business names or vague with activities. I'm stumped on Q, X & Y. This is the list we have made for 2017:
A- Alpaca Farm, ArtWorks B- Bowling, Baseball Game C- Chalk Art, CWS Game D- Des Moines (our family vacation!) E- Eugene Mahoney State Park F- Farmer's Market, Fireworks, Fontenelle Forest, Fun Plex G- Gene Leahy Mall Slides H- Hydrant Party I- Indoor Playground J- Joslyn Museum K- Kids Skate Free L- Little Free Library Donation M- Morrill Hall, Minion Water Balloon Fight N- NP Dodge Park O- Omaha Railroad Days, OPPD Aboretum Hike P- Platte River State Park, Planetarium, Play dates Q- R- Red, White & Zoo event S- Splash Park, State Park T- Total Eclipse U- Captain Underpants movie V- VBS W- Wildlife Safari Park X- Y- Z- Zoo My kids LOVE bubbles, I'm sure it's hard to find any that don't love them! We decided to try a new type of bubbles, we made snake bubbles! Bubble Snake Ingredients • 1/2 Cup Water • 1-2 tablespoons of dish soap • 1 teaspoon Karo Syrup (optional) • Empty pop or water bottle • thin cloth or old kids sock ** We used small plastic pop bottles and kids socks in our experiment.
First, cut off the bottom of a plastic pop or water bottle. Then place a small kids sock over the bottle or attach a small, thin piece of cloth with a rubber band. Mix the solution and top the fabric end of the bubble blower into the bubbles. With the cap off, begin blowing and watch a series of connected bubbles come out! We call them snake bubbles because of how long the bubble chain can be! Karo syrup is an optional ingredient that helps the bubbles adhere to each other better. It's often used in solutions to create giant bubbles. Spring is FINALLY here and my family has loved spending all our time outside in this beautiful weather. When my busy boys want a break they take their pick from new spring themed books from Parragon. Disney PrincessesWe start off with three Disney princess books: Springtime Wonders, Daffodils & Dances, and Spring Sunshine. Springtime Wonders features coloring, activities, stickers, and a free Disney digital storybook download! Half of the book is printed in color with corresponding stickers to complete the story. The rest of the book is black and white full of various activities like coloring, mazes, fill-in-the-blank, counting, and more. The Princesses included in this activity book are Aurora, Cinderella, Ariel, Tiana, Belle, Snow White, Rapunzel, and Jasmine. Daffodils & Dances includes four crayons in a crayon keeper, sticker sheet with over 30 stickers, and a free Disney digital storybook download. The princesses featured in this activity book are: Belle, Rapunzel, Snow White, Aurora. Cinderella, and Ariel. Activities range from coloring to mazes, word searches, hidden objects, and connect-the-dots. Spring Sunshine might be the smallest of these books measuring in at 8x8, but it's packed full of activities including reward stickers, puzzles, mazes, fill-in-blank, spot the difference, and even a press out woodland scene with Belle! This book also comes with a free Disney digital storybook code. The princesses features in this book are: Rapunzel, Belle, Cinderella, Merida, Ariel, Tiana, Jasmine, Snow White, and Aurora. Awesome AdventuresMy oldest son loves to draw and color, making his favorite book Awesome Adventures where he gets to draw, color, and create. The book features seven Disney•Pixar movies: Finding Dory, Cars, Inside Out, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Good Dinosaur, and Toy Story 3. Each page invites kids to color and draw additional elements of the story on the page. Finding Dory and Inside Out are the largest sections of the book, both totaling 56 pages. The Good Dinosaur features 38 pages, Toy Story 3 has 17 pages, while Cars and Monsters Inc. both have 16 pages of activities. There are also two full (detachable) sticker sheets at the front of the book. A wonderful bonus is that with this book comes a free Disney digital storybook download! Press Out and PlayBeing a preschool teacher I have a deep appreciation and love for all Eric Carle books, so I was very excited to see a new take on his books--a Press Out and Play option. Kids have the opportunity to color in and make seven 3D animal models! I don't have any colored examples because I'm actually saving this book for a long roadtrip we're taking in a few weeks. My youngest son loves puzzles and building so I know this book will be a big hit with him. I tested out the caterpillar cut out and it was very simple to assemble. The pieces all pressed our precisely and fit together tight. It's a great book for Eric Carle fans and anyone looking for a new take on activity books! Peppa's PuzzlesPreschoolers will especially enjoy completing fun activities with Peppa Pig and friends in Peppa's Puzzles. Lead Peppa through colorful mazes, along a muddy path, color in costumes, connect the dots, help collect groceries, finish illustrations, and much more. The book even comes with a cute Peppa straw! Marshall Saves the Day!The last book to feature this month is from our favorite pups, Paw Patrol! In this storybook Marshall Saves the Day! There is a contest going on for the Fastwst Fire Pup, br Marshall isn't feeling very confident, but with the help of the Paw Patrol and town members Marshall learns that in the end all that matters is that he did his best. The book includes a cute Marshall bag tag! Overall, #ParragonSpringTimeReads offers something for everyone, whether girl or boy, young or just young-at-heart. :)
No compensation was received for writing this post, however the books featured were provided complimentary from Parragon. It's no secret that I love creating sensory bins, but I have to admit I had sooo much fun finding fillers for my Easter sensory bins! All of these items came from Oriental Trading and will provide so much texture play, sound, and fine motor development for my students. I will introduce these bins to class tomorrow and update you on how they liked them! The fillers include pastel perler beads, porcupine eggs, "chocolate" bunny and egg rings, crosses (taken off necklaces), peep-style bunny rings, fuzzy chicks, and large "chocolate" bunny eggs, and these gorgeous bright colored transparent eggs. The large eggs create a kaleidoscope effect and I can't wait to see what my students think! Here is a preview of all the items: You can find these items and tons of other goodies at OrientalTrading.com!
These items were provided complimentary as part of the Oriental Trading Brand Ambassador program. All ideas and opinions are strictly my own. My kids are currently obsessed with Disney's Moana, anyone else in the same boat? Speaking of boats, this Easter we are theming our Easter egg hunt at home around the ocean and Moana! I will upload more pictures of all our goodies on Easter, but I couldn't wait to share these adorable ocean creature eggs I got from Oriental Trading! The shark set comes in a variety of colors and the ocean creature set includes an octopus, sea turtle, jellyfish, and sea horse. Seriously adorable!!! You can find these eggs and tons of other Easter goodies at OrientalTrading.com!
These items were provided complimentary as part of the Oriental Trading Brand Ambassador program. All ideas and opinions are strictly my own. Easter is upon us and at home and school we have been doing activities that embrace the story of Easter and also the fun traditions that go along with it. To introduce the Easter story, we have been using this banner from Oriental Trading Company. It has provided a great visual reminder to my kids of each event. To begin the Easter story we started with Palm Sunday, moved onto The Last Supper, discussed Jesus Praying in the Garden, explained the sacrifice of the Crucifixion, and celebrated the Resurrection. The banner provides a brief narration and visual for each significant event. We split the Easter story into five separate lessons at school to really emphasize the importance of each day. For Palm Sunday each student had a roll in the story and we used Palm leaf fans from Oriental Trading for the kids to place on the ground as Jesus rode in on a donkey. For the Last Supper we discussed the significance of Jesus washing his disciples feet and what the breaking of bread and drinking of wine represented. To make the story stick the kids washed the of our baby dolls, aka "mini disciples". We painted a garden scene while we discussed Jesus praying garden after his Last Supper. During the activity we talked about what Jesus prayed for, what Judas and Peter did, and talked about what we would have done. Next week we will talk about the main events, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. I will add another post with those lessons. You can find tons of Easter goodies at OrientalTrading.com. Some items in this post were provided complimentary as part of the Oriental Trading Brand Ambassador program. All ideas and opinions are strictly my own.
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