Family Popsicle Stick Puppets

 

We are just finishing up preschool for the year.  Just one more week.  Our last unit is focusing on families and belonging.  Today for our art project, we made family stick puppets.  Are they adorable or what?  I designed and printed out a bunch of these blank puppets and had the children make a puppet for each member of their family.  They were really engrossed in this project.  My daughter was all about the details.  She drew each person with accuracy.  Down to the exact clothes they were wearing today.

 

Each child had their own artistic style.  It was so fun to see their personalities shine through.

I thought we would just focus on immediate families, but they wanted to add in grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles.

We just used crayons to add all of the details to our puppets.

 But depending on the ages of your children, you could cut out paper or fabric clothes or use other craft supplies (yarn, googly eyes, whatever).   Make it as simple or as complex as you like.  After each puppet was lovingly created, we added a popsicle stick to the back.

Popsicle stick puppets.  An oldie but a goodie.

I'm linking up with:

Homeschool Creations 
Toys in the Dryer

Paint Chip Color Match

I saw these paint chip cards at Wal-Mart, and had an idea.  I could use them in a color word recognition game!  (To go along with this one.)  This game is speedy quick to put together.  Don't let the number of steps fool you. 

Step One:  Grab a few paint cards.  I chose eight bright basic colors.  You can make it as hard or as easy as you like.  I may add some harder colors later on.

Step Two:  Pull some small envelopes out of your stash.  My envelopes were really small, but they fit the width of my paint cards perfectly.  These envelopes are the same ones you find in florist shops to house those little sentiment cards.  (Your envelope size is going to depend on the size of your paint card.  Just find something that the cards will easily slide in and out of.)

Step Three:  Seal your envelopes and label them with color words.  I used my alphabet stamps and an ink pad.  Whatever floats your boat.

Step Four:  My paint cards were too long.  They originally had seven squares of color on them.  As you can see, I cut them down to just three paint squares. That did the trick.  You want them just a smidgen longer than the envelopes.


Step Five:  Laminate your cards and envelopes if your heart desires.

Step Six:  Cut one of the sides of your envelopes off.  Just a sliver.  You want it to be open on one end.  This will make the "pocket" for your paint cards.  After I finished cutting, I realized that I should have cut the right side off instead of the left.  (Making it much easier for little right-handers to slide the cards in and out)  Don't be silly like me.  Unless you're a lefty.

Step Seven:  Punch a hole in the top of each paint card.  Raid your ribbon stash and tie the cards with a coordinating color of ribbon.   It will look very much like a bookmark.

Step Eight:  Punch a hole in the bottom corner of each envelope and slide them onto a ring.  

And you're done! 

Hand them over to your little one and have them match the paint cards with the correct envelope.  Fun.

Complete the Word Clothespin Game

 
Back in the fall, I visited my local teacher's supply store and purchased a book entitled, Reading First Activities Grade K  by JoDene Lynn Smith.  It has been a fabulous spring board for lots of good reading activities for my little one.  I thought I would share one of the games that we have enjoyed playing.  It's a clothespin word game.

You will need some clothespins and some word cards.  I printed and laminated cards from the book.  (A huge thanks to my older daughter for coloring them for me!)  But, I think it would be easy to recreate your own.  You could use simple free clip-art from the internet, or cut pictures from a magazine, or even draw your own.

You want pictures of simple objects that are identified with three or four letter words.  Type the word at the bottom of the card.  Leave a blank space for the beginning letter.  Then you will need to use a sharpie and write the beginning letters onto the clothespins.

To play the game, have your child clip the clothespin with the corresponding letter onto the card to "complete the word".  It's that easy!

Color Word Clips

I've been working with my daughter on recognizing her color words.  I wanted to come up with a fun way for her to practice matching the words with the colors on her own.  And that's how I came up with...

Color Clips!  

I punched out some squares of paper and laminated them.  (Actually I didn't feel like going to the copy store, so I just covered both sides with clear packing tape and trimmed)  I focused on the basic colors--red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white, and black.  You could obviously use whatever colors you want or start with the basics and add more later.  Then I gathered some clothespins and some small flat wooden craft spoons.  I wrote the color words onto the spoons with a black sharpie.  Then I glued the spoons onto the clothespins, using some E6000 glue.  This isn't totally necessary, but it allows you to use a little larger "font".  The clothespins didn't give me quite enough room to write.

All you have to do is have your child clip the color card with the appropriate clothespin.
 

I purposely wrote the words in black, because I wanted my daughter to actually read the words without any other visual clues.  But, there are at least two ways to make this game a little easier: 

1.  You could write the color words with colored ink.  In other words, use a red marker for the word "red" and a blue marker for the word "blue", etc.  This would give the child a visual clue as well as introduce them to the written word.

2.  Or if you just want a color matching game, dip the ends of the spoons in paint (or color them with a marker).  Your child would match the color on the clothespin to the color square. 

COLOR CLIPS are a fast and fun educational craft.  My daughter loves playing with them.  I love that she is recognizing color words.  Win.  Win.

*****

I'm linking up with:

Toys in the Dryer 
Homeschool Creations 
The Kids Co-op

[Game] Up Up Up With the Fish

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!  

Are you doing something fun to celebrate the day?  Did you print out the brown bag doodle and send it with your kids for lunch?  Well, I have another idea for you.

A while back, before I started this little old blog, we had a Dr. Seuss birthday party for one of my kids.  We came up with this idea for a party game.  It's a little game we like to call...Up Up Up with the Fish!  This is a great game for kids and families alike, because it is so versatile.  You will need fish and a "catcher" or two.

For the Felt Fish:
These are the materials you will need...

pink felt
white felt
black sharpie
beans or rice or something similar
sewing machine
fabric glue

Trace a simple fish shape onto your pink felt, twice.  You need one for the front and one for the back.  Cut around your shapes.  Sew along the top, front, and bottom of your fish as shown in the picture below.

I opted to put the beans in just the front part of the fish.  This allows for great fish flopping abilities!  Put your beans or rice into the little pocket that you have just sewn.  Hang the bean filled pocket over the side of your counter or table or ironing board, and pin the beans in place.  Now you will sew the fourth side of your pocket closed.

And now for the fun part...embellishing!  Use you sharpie to draw on your fish gills and mouth.  Cut two eyes out of white felt.  Draw a black pupil with your marker.  Glue the eyes onto your fish using a strong glue.  Finish off your fish with some long eyelashes.

You have just completed your first fish.  Repeat the steps above until you have as many fish as you want.  I would recommend at least three or four. 

For the Catcher:

You will need at least one catcher.  If you want to turn this into a relay race, you will need two or three.  You will need the following:

Dowel- 3/8 inch in diameter. 18- 24 inches long.
Wooden platform (we used a small rectangular piece of scrap wood 2"X3")
drill
wood glue or something similar
paper french fry container (I just happened to have some of these...a paper bowl would work well too)
staples and a stapler

Partially drill a hole into your wooden platform to accommodate your dowel.  Don't drill all the way through.  Glue your dowel into the hole.  Let it dry.  Once it is dry, staple your paper container to the top of the platform.  That's it!


And now for the fun part...embellishing!  This isn't actually a requirement.  "Naked" catchers work just fine.  But it's always fun to paint.  I decided to paint mine with red and white "Cat in the Hat" stripes.  I didn't take the time to tape and measure and make everything exact.  It seemed more "Seussie" to have them be a little bit wonky.  So, I just eyeballed it.  I used a foam sponge brush (one inch) and some acrylic paint.  You could add streamers or a bow to the bottom too.  Whatever you want.  The sky is the limit!  Oh the places you could go!

The Rules:

We played several versions of this game.  You will want to adjust the rules according to the age of your players.  The family favorite was to see how many fish you could catch in your "catcher" without losing your load.  I think the winner was able to hold five or six fish without dropping any.  It's also fun to see how many you can catch in a row without dropping any.  This is more of a "catch and release" game.  One person generally throws (a great option for little people) while a second person catches.  We also played this game in a relay format.  Which team can catch the most fish in a certain amount of time.  You will want to draw two lines on your playing field.  The thrower has to stay behind one line and the catcher must stay behind the other.  This evens things out a bit.

If you want to skip the "catchers" all together.  It's also really fun to play Toss the Fish.  This is a great way to involve the preschool crowd.  We used a round fish bowl and tried to see if the kids could throw the fish into the bowl.  You could play the fishbowl version as a relay as well.

I'm sure there are lots of other ways to play.  Just have fun!

*****

I'm linking up with:

Toys in the Dryer 
No Time For Flash Cards

Alphabet Beads

My five year old came home from preschool the other day with a worksheet.  It was a picture of stringing beads.  Some of the beads had letters on them and some of them were blank.  The idea was for her to sequence the alphabet and write in the letters that were missing in the right order.  It was so simple.  Why hadn't I thought of it before?

I had a whole bucket of wooden stringing beads.  What a great way to reinforce learning alphabetical order.  And it helps with fine motor skills.  And you can put those beads in all kinds of patterns.  And you can take it a step further and spell whatever words you want with them.  Genius!

So, I grabbed my bucket of beads and a paint marker and set to work.  I chose to use a white marker.  It seemed to show up better against the bright beads.  I wrote the capital letters on one side and the lower case letters on the other.  I decided to do one set on square beads and another on the round beads.

My daughter has loved stringing the beads.  She likes to make patterns (AB, ABBA, etc) with the different shapes as she sequences the alphabet.

I love them too.  They are so bright and happy!

*****

I'm linking up with:

Toys in the Dryer 
No Time For Flash Cards 
The Kids Co-op

More Phonics Fun!

We are taking our phonics up another notch.  The kids have mastered the previous phonics wheels and are ready for more.  Let's try some more consonant blends and some digraphs, shall we?  If you missed the first couple of posts, you will want to go here for instructions.  Basically, this is a double wheel, which allows you to change the beginning sounds and the ending word chunks.  Some of the words will not be found in Webster's Dictionary (wink).  But my experience has been, that the kids love to tell you which ones are "real" words and which ones are "silly" words.



For more phonics word wheels, click here and here.

*****

 I'm linking up with: 

No Time For Flash Cards

Brown Bag Doodles

Do you recognize this guy?

Give up?  You probably know him by his pen name.  Dr. Seuss!  And guess what?  March 2nd is his birthday!  I think we should definitely celebrate.  This is a big day in the world of children's literature.  I don't know many children (myself included) that didn't grow up reading his books and enjoying his illustrations.  He has such a fun and unique style.

I wanted to do something fun in honor of his birthday.  With Dr. Seuss on my mind, I started doodling and came up with this...

brown bag doodles!  But, in my case it's a white bag.  Whatever.

Do your kids take a bag lunch to school?  Then you are totally set up for this little project.  All you have to do is print out this little doodle on your child's lunch bag and you have an instant party in the cafeteria.  Throw in a little package of crayons and your child will be the envy of all his classmates.

If you want to be an overachiever, you could add a little package of swedish fish.

One Fish.  Two Fish.  Red Fish....swedish fish?

The hardest part to this little project is orienting your bag right in the printer.  You will want to print on the flat side of the bag.  Specifically, the side that does not have a flap!  You will also want to send it through your printer with the folded "bottom" of the bag first.  Not the open ends.  Not the" top".  That way, your bag won't get all bunched and munched.  If your printer requires you to send it through with the open end first, just carefully tape it closed.  Then remove the tape after.  I have the world's oldest and lamest printer.  Mine could not handle printing directly onto the bag.  Well, I refused to be defeated.  I just taped my bag onto a piece of card stock and sent that through.  Success!



Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

*****

I'm linking up with:

Blue Cricket Design

Skip To My Lou
Uncommon 
Toys in the Dryer 
No Time For Flash Cards 
Whipperberry 
Every Creative Endeavor 
I Heart Nap Time 
Today's Creative Blog

Phonics Phonics Phonics

So, my husband is quite disturbed by the fact that phonics is spelled with a "ph" and not an "f".  Can you explain that?  Me either. 

Anyway, my little preschool people are ready for another phonics challenge.  So, I whipped up another word wheel.  This time we are blending two consonants together.  You will want to refer to this post for another fun word wheel and for the instructions on how to put them together.  It is a double wheel, which allows you to change the beginning sounds and the ending word chunks.  Just a reminder...some of these words will be nonsensical.  But, it's fun practice sounding out words just the same.  Have the kids tell you whether it's a real word or a silly word.  My preschooler loves making up silly words anyway.  It's also a great exercise in defining words.  I usually tell her the meaning of the real words as she sounds them out.  She's getting quite the vocabulary.  We are having so much fun building words!  If you would like to make your own word wheel, just click on the printer icon below.

*****

I'm linking up with:

Toys in the Dryer
No Time for Flash Cards

Phonics are Fun!

I have a preschooler at my house.  If you ask her, she will tell you that she is "thhiiiss close to reading".  And she would be right.  She has mastered all of her letters and sounds.  She can blend sounds like nobody's business.  I am currently working with her to recognize "word chunks".  So, I thought I would make a phonics word wheel.  I wanted one that mixed letters and "chunks" all in the same wheel, to make it a little more challenging.  The catch to doing that, is that some of the words will be nonsense words.  But it makes for great practice--nonsense words or not.



Print out the wheels in the color that you desire.  I knew my daughter would want pink because pink and red are her favorite colors.  I also did one up in blue for the non-pink lovers out there.  Print them out on card stock.  Cut them out.  I chose to laminate mine, so that it would stand the test of time.  Stack them from smallest to largest and pierce the center points with a brad.  Spin the inner wheel to change up the beginning sounds.  Spin the outer wheel to change the word chunks.  Have your child sound out the words and then have them tell you whether it's a real word or a nonsense word.

Before you know it, your preschooler will be "thhiiss close to reading" too!

*****

I'm linking up with:

The Kids Co-op

Nativity Popsicle Stick Puppets

Mary and Joseph needed to go to Bethlehem to pay taxes.  When they arrived it was dark and late and there was no room for them in the inn.

That night the little baby Jesus was born.  Mary wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger.

Far out in the fields the shepherds were tending their sheep.  An angel told the shepherds that Jesus had been born.

The shepherds found Mary and Joseph and the babe and they knelt down and worshiped Him.

Far away in the East, the wise men saw a new star.  They knew that it meant that the baby Jesus had been born.  So they followed the star.  They brought gifts for the baby and knelt down and worshiped Him also.

*****

Normally for preschool, we put on a Christmas pageant with costumes and props.  This year we decided to do a puppet show instead.  We've been practicing for a while now with some felt hand puppets.  I thought it might be fun to use some different puppets for school tomorrow.  You know, to mix things up a bit.  So, I came up with these simple popsicle stick puppets.

I had my daughter make her own set.  She had fun gluing and drawing the faces on the sticks. (I love the eyelashes!  And I think baby Jesus has a pacifier-haha)  We used some velcro to attach the baby to Mary. 

Would you like to make some too?  Click here to purchase the file.

Christmas Countdown-UPDATED

There are two things that you need to know:

Number one:  I love love love advent calendars!
Number two:  I teach a co-op preschool.

I teach with another mother in my neighborhood.  We use this curriculum and I love everything about it.  I have done this with both of my daughters.  It's one of the best decisions that I have ever made.  It is so much fun to spend a couple of hours a week teaching these cute little people.  I highly recommend it.  (And no, that is not a paid advertisement--just my heartfelt endorsement of a really great program!)

Anyway.  Yesterday we started a new unit on sharing and service.  It coordinates beautifully with the holiday season.   To get things started, we made an advent calendar--a Christmas Service Countdown, if you will.  I wanted to do something a little different than what was suggested in the manual.  So, I came up with this:

Basically, there is a blank frame to showcase your child or their artwork.  At the bottom of the page, there are 24 little acts of service written on strips.  Each day (starting on December 1st) you rip a strip off the bottom and perform the service.  These are really simple acts that any preschooler could complete.  The idea is to help these little people focus on the true meaning of Christmas.  When the strips are gone--it's Christmas day!

Want to make one for the kids in your life?

Print out the page with the blank frame above, by clicking here.  Have your child draw a Christmas picture to insert in the frame.  I used an X-acto knife to cut around the points of the star that overlap the frame.  Then I had the kids color a picture of the nativity.  (They thought the night sky needed a few more stars.  Love it!)

You could also print out a 5x7 photo and glue it into the frame.

Then you just take a pair of scissors and cut between each service strip.  Be sure to leave the top of each strip intact!

I've got plans to make a version that could accommodate a little older child.  Watch for it soon!


UPDATE:

Here you go!  I replaced the preschool service acts with some that are more appropriate for older children.  To print this version, click here.

(This calendar was designed using products from weeds & wildflowers)