Ladybug Freebie Frenzy!

Our soon-to-be four year old daughter is very frightened of bugs.  Mostly, she will run for her life if there is anything with wings buzzing around her.  It often makes her not want to stay outside and enjoy the outdoor activities she is engaged in.  So, I decided I would try to desensitize her to bugs.  First, I had to see exactly how fearful she was under various circumstances.  I discovered that if the bug is on the other side of the window she is fine and will look at it and study it with some level of curiosity.   When we are outside, she is also fine with ants (worms too) and caterpillars.  So basically, I have it narrowed down to bugs buzzing around her - big or small.  My first attempt at helping her get over her fear is ladybugs.  We have been learning about life cycles, so this is the perfect time to introduce them.  We took out several great books from the library.  One of my favorite non-fiction books so far is Starting Life: Ladybug by Claire Lleewellyn.  


I purchased the Lady Bug Land by Insect Lore and it is so awesome!  It has a magnifier at the top of the dome so you can observe the ladybugs closely.  It is also pretty neat looking:) Next, I had to find some live ladybugs!  Now, the Lady Bug Land comes with a certificate to order lady bugs and watch it through the life cycle, but I was more concerned with having our daughter exposed to the bugs as opposed to watching the life cycle.  So I chose to order ladybugs.  I was surprised that I could not find any locally; I ended up having to order them online through Hayneedle!  I didn't think they would be alive since they shipped from California and took four days to get here.  However, they arrived today and they were alive!  There are about 1500 in the tub.  

We put a handful in our Lady Bug Land and left the rest in the tub and put them in the refrigerator.  I had no idea you could do that, but that is what the instructions said to do.  Our daughter was so excited!  It was awesome to see that look of fascination that is priceless on a child!

Naturally, I have a ton of ladybug themed activities for us to work on :)  The best part is they were all FREE!  So, here is a glimpse at what we did and a list of fabulous freebies I have found.  First, we played a cute little math game using this great math mat freebie from Jennifer Hier.  I made the spots using black foam and a craft punch, but Jennifer provides spots in her freebie :)  I also used a dice popper that we had from Burger King a while back.  It has 1,2,3 and -1, -2, and -3.  We each got ten spots and each had a wing/side.  The first person to get rid of all of their spots won :)

Next, we colored this adorable little non-fiction reader by Michelle Griffo at Apples and ABCs.  It also comes with a color, gut and paste sequencing activity!

If your kiddos are working on matching upper and lower case letters there is a great freebie from Book Fairies and Garden Gnomes.

Another great freebie for preschoolers is Ladybug Counting by Stacey Jones from A Moment in Our World.  

Preschoolers are sure to love this Five Little Ladybugs song by Rita Galloway!  Just click the picture to download :)

TouchMath is a popular multisensory mathematics program that uses specific points on numerals to assist students.  This adorable ladybug themed touch point math cards are a great tool for preschoolers who are growing in their understanding of 1:1 correspondence and numeracy.  This freebie is by TpT seller Krystie Bithell.  Click on the picture to grab your own :)

Another book we took out from the library had a ladybug theme, but the focus was on prepositional phrases.  The book is titled Look for Ladybugs by Dana Meachen Rau:

Jessica Finch's Where is Little Frog? is a great alternative or supplement to the book.  It is a story about a ladybug looking for Little Frog.  Click on the picture for this freebie!

Hope you found something you can use!  Thank you for stopping by!

C is for...

Crafts!  With our daughter off from school this week I have had the pleasure and challenge of keeping her entertained while trying to keep things educational.  I am so proud of all the things she is learning in school and beginning sounds are really starting to click for her.  I have been focusing on the letters that have a capital letter and lower case letter that are nearly identical.  This week we have been working on Cc.  We started out with some jewel counting use this great FREEBIE from Edlah Preschool Resources.  We talked about how the word CROWN starts with the /c/ sound as does the word COUNT.  Then she picked out the number of jewels needed for each crown and glued them on.

Next, we went on a letter C scavenger hunt in her playroom!  She came up with some great ones.

We have carrot, cake, cupcake, crayon, cup, camel, cow, caterpillar, car, cucumber (Larry!), cookie, croissant, cat, camera, and Cookie Monster ~ of course!

Tomorrow we are going to SHOP for the C items using alphabet money that I purchased from The Moffatt Girls.  This will be great because I can incorporate literacy AND math.  I will put price stickers on each item and she will have to pay for her items using her letter C money.  

Please share if you have some favorite initial sound activities!

Time to Learn with Interactive Wrist Watches!

I am really excited about my newest products: Wrist Watches!  Let your students get up and moving around the room looking for their "Watch Match" as they seek out what others' watches show.  So far, I created a Rhyme Time edition and a Beginning Sounds edition.  I also have a FREEBIE for you so you can check them out and play with them to see what it is like :)  The FREEBIE is designed to supplement the book There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Rose by Lucille Colandro.  If you are using the book as Valentine's Day approaches, stop by my shop and check out my products to supplement this fun book!

CLICK ON THE PICTURE BELOW TO GRAB YOUR FREE COUNT AND MATCH WITH GRANNY WATCHES!

ENJOY!

Corinthians 13: 4-7 Countdown! FREEBIE

Valentine's Day has become so commercialized.  It can be difficult to get your children to see beyond the candy hearts and valentines shared with friends and family.  There is nothing wrong with these things ~ they are so much fun!  But we may also want to focus our child's attention on LOVE and the real meaning as this term can be thrown around much too cavalierly.  I created a Corinthians countdown to help our family focus on the popular Corinthians 13: 4-7 verse/passage in the Bible.

I printed ours on magnetic printing paper, but you can print it on card stock and use Velcro as well.  We also found a great book for children titled Love is...

The illustrations are beautiful!  More importantly, they display acts of TRUE Biblical LOVE :)
Use the week leading up to Valentine's Day to break down this passage in the Bible and discuss ways to put it into action.  When your child displays LOVE toward another - add a candy to the heart!  

CLICK ON THE PICTURE ABOVE TO GRAB YOUR FREE CORINTHIANS COUNTDOWN!

Education Eggs ~ Engaging Hands-On Learning!

I am EGG-tremely  EGG-cited about this new center activity!  Sorry for the lame EGG-spressions ;)  So, let me introduce you to Education Eggs:

The first edition I have created is the Initial Sounds Set.  It comes with six Carton Cards with eggs depicting something that begins with each letter of the alphabet.  You will, of course, need an egg carton as well as a dozen plastic eggs.  The set also comes with "Egg Yolks" with all the letters on the alphabet.  You can use a craft punch (1 and 1/2") to punch these out to save time (and this is less tedious).  I glued my "yolk" onto a wooden craft chip, but you can just laminate it if you prefer.  Here is the best part:  You can differentiate the activity!  So, if you have a student who is a novice with beginning letter sounds you can place your yolks/eggs in the order matching the Carton Card.  Then each egg becomes a self-checker.  

If you have students who are developing the skill you can mix the eggs up in different places so they must open the egg and discover that the wrong letter is in the spot!  Now they must find the egg with correct letter.    

A recording sheet is included as well.  Take a look on my TeachersNotebook shop HERE!

Don't forget the BIG sales on Superbowl Sunday!

Teaching Children Gratitude

Our family is very blessed!  Don't get me wrong ~ we have our share of burdens, and heartache has not been a stranger to us, but overall, we are very blessed.  I do not want our daughter to grow up feeling entitled to all that she has.  This is something that weighs heavy on my heart.  I want my daughter to be thankful for what she has and to always give thanks to God.  What I am  learning is that this is a something that I must teach her and model for her.  In the beginning, I admit I thought my efforts were in vain and my words falling on deaf ears.  But I am starting to see the results.  Many mornings when we are leaving for preschool she will say "What a beautiful day God gave us Mommy!"  It warms my heart to hear her acknowledge the blessings around her and, more importantly, give the thanks to God.  However, she is onlt three and a half and there are so many moments when she is selfish and ungrateful. 

I came across a great resource from the blog Bible Fun for Kids and although I absolutely LOVE her idea and her generous free resource, I needed to modify it a little to meet our needs and added Bible verses that were relevant to the page.  One of my favorite pages she created was a page saying "Thank you God for my mouth."  Her child put on lipstick and put kisses all over the paper!  This is just too cute not to do :)  Our daughter LOVED putting lipstick on, although she wasn't quite adept at kissing the paper LOL!  After she kissed the page, we talked about the things she can do with her mouth and I wrote the things she told me.  I also taught her about uplifting people with our words. 

Another page that I thought was great from Bible Fun for Kids was the hand page.  We traced her hand and then we read the book One Hand, Two Hands by Max Lucando:

This book is PERFECT for little ones to learn to appreciate something they take for granted on a adaily basis ~ their hands!  It talks about all the wonderful things you can do with your hands such as hug, help, wash, eat, and pray!  I highly recommend this book!  After we read the book we talked about all the things she can do with her hands I wrote them on the page for her.

We did something similar for the page titled "Thank you God for me and all that I can do!"  We read the book God Gave Us You by Lisa Tawn Bergren: 

This is a delightful story about a mama and papa bear and their little cub who was given to them by God (no real discussion of how the baby gets into the belly ~ so it is perfect for younger ones!)  After reading the book, we wrote down all of things that she can do: count, dance, paint, sing, play, etc...

Another page that is very interactive is the one titled "Thank you God for all the creatures of the earth."  I cut out pictures of animals for her to glue on the page.  For this page, we read another awesome title from Lisa Tawn Bergren ~ God Gave Us the World: 

 

The prayer page: "Thank you God for hearing my prayers" is not interactive, but I think it is one of the most important pages.  Notice I did not make the title "Thank you God for answering my prayers."  Most children are not mature enough to understand that God is not a giant Santa Claus who will give them everything they want; I certianly don't want my daughter to get the wrong impression when her prayers for incosequential things go unanswered, so that is why I worded it that way.  A great book to read about prayer is This Little Prayer of Mine by Anthony DeStefano.

 

There are many other pages in this book/journal that I created, but the last one I want to share is the page titled "Thank you God for my clothes" just because it is fun!  Another blogger, Stacy from Share and Remember posted the most adorable project!  Please click on the picture below to go over and read about her Cozy Sweater Collage!  this is what I plan to do for the clothing page!

 

I hope this FREE Gratitude Book and Journal blesses you are your child(ren) and helps you build up their Gratitude muscles :)  Grab yours by clicking the picture below!

 

 

Angel Ornament for Victims in Newtown, CT

Like most Americans, I am heartbroken over the shooting that took place in Newtown, CT.  As both a teacher and a mommy I just can't wrap my mind around it.  I find myself weeping at random moments throughout the day. Church was my refuge this morning.  As is the case when any tragedy befalls. people cry out and question how God could allow such evil to happen.  One thing I know for certain is that God uses ALL for good and He will use this tragedy for good.  

All I can do is pray ~ ceaselessly.  There is power in prayer.  I made an angel ornament with the names of all of the victims.  I applied an idea from Pinterest by printing out the names with their DOB and cutting them into thin strips  Next, I curled the paper around a pencil and then placed them into a clear ornament.     This ornament will help me to keep these victims and their families in my prayers this Christmas season.