Red, orange and yellow. Bring out the fall colors with this fall painting project for toddlers. Best for children 2 years and older Learning Objectives: Explores a variety of materials. Names the colors. Affiliate links Make a Fall Painting with Your ToddlerToddlers are great at running and climbing. They love to explore the world and find out how things move. They need to make and create things with their hands, but are not quite ready for "crafts" in the traditional sense. 1 ... Read more...
Afterschool Express: Using Playtime for Writing Inspiration
We had a great time celebrating Halloween over the past week. Every story time seemed to involve books that are thematic to Fall and Halloween. My daughter has been running around with her costume and horse the past week pretending to be Jessie from Toy Story. I created a post this week about the Important of Dramatic Play with our children, please Check it out here! Making real life connections to literacy is so important at this age. Using all of this playtime experience, we took some ... Read more...
Wood floors and coffee cake – the Natural Playscape Way
Inspiring Creativity What I love about natural playscapes is that they are always changing. Bamboo rods can be turned into almost anything with the help of an amazing husband and dad.This is what their "house" looked like in the morning. But, by the late afternoon, things really got cooking!My daughter called me to help make her a broom from palm fronds. She said, "I must keep our hard wood floors nice and tidy!" I couldn't agree more and got to work right away. We cut 8 palm ... Read more...
Literacy Connections: Save Your Halloween Costumes for Playtime
Don't put away those Halloween Costumes yet! It's time to make Literacy Connections!My daughter had a very descriptive idea of what she wanted to be this year for Halloween. She wanted to be Jessie from Toy Story. I'm not sure where it started from, as we've only watched the movie a handful of times, but something in that character "Jessie" sparked her curiosity and imagination. Two things we encourage in our house!Costumes are great for our Imaginations It made me start to think about ... Read more...
The Humbug Witch – a reading and listening activity for K-2
I believe that a good teacher not only does great activities with children, but also shares these activities with others. The following is an activity that has outlasted the printing of the book, Humbug Witch, by Lorna Balian, and has been done by many teachers for many years.At one school, a team of first grade teachers rotates the book between classrooms as they only have one copy and all the children have a chance to create their witch.Witch Themed Listening Comprehension ... Read more...
Baby Time: Snuggle Up And Read
Set aside time for reading every day with your baby — even if it's only a few minutes.Babies love books with bright colors, baby faces, flaps, textures or simple activities. You might find yourself reading the same book over and over, which is normal and good, they learn from repetition. Babies love when you add facial expressions, sound effects and voices for various characters. My advice is to set aside a special time every day in your schedule for storytime as ... Read more...
Learning about Diwali with Kids
Here's a peek at our family learning about Diwali with our kids. These Diwali activities are simple and informational as your explore the festival of lights with your child.Happy Diwali!Learning about the cultures our parents come from is part of a bilingual family. My husband and I both try our best to expose our children to both our faiths, Hinduism and Christianity.My husband is from India where they celebrate Diwali along with many other festivals. Diwali , the Festival of ... Read more...
Halloween Story Writing
I loved Amanda's Afterschool Express Post last week about teaching writing with beginning writers. Her little one expresses herself so freely in writing, I love it!. My daughter is also in Kindergarten but is more reserved with her writing and needs a little encouragement. She really wants us to help her spell the words and we're working on her writing independetnly by sounding it out. I encourage her to use a little alphabet chart with sound pictures when ... Read more...
Fun and Easy Acorn Activities for Kids
When the acorns start falling from the trees - it's time to make Acorn Activities for your toddler to create and play. It makes a great learning theme for fall. Amazon Affiliate links Acorn Activities: Acorn Counting and Number RecognitionThis week was Acorns Everywhere. Both my kids thought this book was funny. They both just laugh out loud when the little squirrel cannot find his very obviously hidden acorns in the book and the of course have to point them out for him! I ... Read more...
Make your Own Blocks for Baby and Toddlers
Here’s a tutorial of how to make your own baby blocks that you can customize with images of your family or holidays too. An Eco-Friendly toy idea for baby.It’s block time at our house! One of the best investments you can make with toys is to invest in blocks for your little one. Fabric ones are available for the youngest of babies that makes fun noises for them to enjoy. Lighter plastic ones are a good choice as they are easy to pick up. Then there are all sorts of Peek a Boo blocks ... Read more...
