Autumn/Fall Items w/FREEBIE

FREEBIE!!

A great pre-writing worksheet for children to work following a curve and practicing letter formation on the word PUMPKIN.

New File Folder Game just added to TPT!

At it's core, a simple color matching game. For children with more advanced skills, also included is shapes, counting 1-12, shape words, color words, and number words. The shirt manipulatives can be divided in half for additional game play opportunities. For older students, math facts equal to the button quantities can be added.

I purposefully placed similar colors together to work observation skills and logic/reasoning. 

$1.00

Tags: free, printable, pumpkin, halloween, fall, autumn, coloring, crayon, drawing, writing, fine motor, fine, motor, pencil, kids, child, children's, child's, preschool, daycare, care, kindergarten, math, shapes, colors, center, reading, sight, words, sight words, number, color, shape, word, matching, scarecrow, file, folder, game, file folder game, 

Seeds, Seeds, Seeds! Book Activity #2 Plant Sequencing

Seeds! Seeds! Seeds! 

by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

This ended up being the most requested book of our Garden Theme/Unit. Buddy Bear receives a package of five bags from his gramps that contain garden related activities, all of which we did in some capacity. 

THE SECOND PACKAGE Buddy received had a set of seed growth sequencing cards. We used my GARDEN SEQUENCE CARDS. Feel free to print the one(s) you want. Both are available to print with and without word labels.

CARROT

FLOWER

I put hook tape on the back of my sequence cards and use them on the flannel board in conjunction with my ORDINAL NUMBER CARDS.

SKILLS
Math: ordinal count, sequencing, left/right convention, logic/reasoning
Language: reading ordinal words, reading plant words, vocabulary
Science: life cycles, plant physiology
Observation
Science: life cycles, plant physiology
Tags: sequencing, math, science, garden, farm, plant, theme, unit, reading, vocabulary, printable, preschool, daycare, childcare, homeschool, flannel board, felt board, pre-k, prek, kindergarten, flower, carrot, ordinal, counting

Ice Cream Theme Already?

I've had a ton of hits on my Ice Cream Theme printables and a couple of special curriculum requests on ice cream items in my TPT store.

This FREE pre-writing worksheet has a few hundred hits on it. If you don't have it, feel free to print.

As I was reviewing the Ice Cream theme, I accidentally hit this song. The children started cheering. They hadn't heard this one in a while. It may SAY it's a calendar song, but we know it's REALLY the ice cream song. It's dorky, but the children just love it.



I finished my Ice Cream Thematic Unit and put it up for sale on TPT. It's 56 pages, 48 of those printables. As with all of my items, since I do multi-age childcare, the unit is good for early preschoolers through 1st grade. There is a FREE PREVIEW, so check it out. The preview gives a good idea of what's in there. 

It includes: 

• sequencing
• patterning
• file folder games 
• worksheets 
• puppet craft 
• games 
• manipulatives 
• calendar cards 
• sizing 
• sound/number cards 
• mini-book working number and color sight words 
• dot-to-dots: 1-30, uppercase, lowercase 
• flannel board 
• sentence and word walls 
• lacing 
• unit rulers 
• shadow match 
• word find 
• puzzles 
• bookmarks
• suggested songs/ fingerplays/ dramatic play/sensory/ games/ activities

Since all of my products are original, they are totally customizable. I can add items, alter items or re-bundle only those you want. 

I have created all of this for my own use, in my school, for a one week theme that I do every three years. I'm just making it available to others who may not be so inclined to put in the amount of time and effort it takes, which I love doing. 

I'm not really thrilled with my ice cream theme booklist. If you have suggestions of books you love for this unit, please share!
Tags: ice cream, theme, unit, preschool, pre-k, prek, kindergarten, thematic unit, worksheet, free, printable, pre-writing, summer, childcare, daycare, fine motor

Hand Print Flower Bouquet with Printable

These handprint flower bouquets turned out DARLING!

They were more teacher-assisted than I prefer for the under-4 crowd, but they make a cute keepsake of hand and finger print art. I believe 4 and over could do independently. 

We used them as a Mother's Day card on a 1/2 sheet of cardstock, but they would be a good craft for a Grandparent's Day card or garden, spring, or flower theme as well.

I loved the poem, but wanted a different font and pot design than the ones I found. So I re-did it in a 4 set to print out on the colored paper of the child's choice. I made the outside lines much wider to make it easier for little ones to cut out. 

My file has 4 different font styles and one page of blank pots. 

CLICK HERE TO PRINT OR DOWNLOAD

1. We did the handprint first, let dry 

2. Decided on the pot colors, printed out poem and cut out and glued on with a glue stick

3. Decided as a group on the flower colors we would use, and then stamped the flowers one color at a time using finger prints, let dry

4. Stamped the yellow centers using thumb prints

5. Wrote the child's name and the year at the bottom

I found the craft on Pinterest and followed the links to funhandprintart.blogspot.com and on to the poem from Tip Junkie.

SKILLS:
Social: following directions, taking turns
Math: counting fingers/stems, flowers, petals and centers; who has the tallest/widest/smallest handprint; left/right hand
Art: creative expression, color choice, mixed media, process art
Language and Literacy: poetry, headings, vocabulary, sentiment, writing name and date
Science: flower physiology
Fine Motor: hand and finger prints, cut, glue, writing
Tags: spring, Mother's Day, flower, garden, theme, unit, craft, art, handprint, hand, print, flower pot, bouquet, flowers, fingerprint, fine motor, daycare, childcare, preschool, pre-k, prek, kindergarten, first grade, 1st grade, paint, cut, paste, glue, poetry, poem

Cupcake Liner Garden Theme Craft

We did a cupcake liner flowers scene as a cut and paste craft for our spring theme. They turned out REALLY cute!

And the older one did another one, preschool level, for our Garden Theme.

Click HERE for printable.

For the first one...

We folded a piece of cardstock at the one-third mark to create a dividing line for the children to color the top two-thirds blue and the bottom one-third green.

I place a variety of green and blue crayons in the middle of the table for them to choose from. This is a good color recognition assessment. 

3 1/2 years old

2 1/2 years old

Obviously some skill differences between the ages, but even the just turned 2s were able to do blue on top and green on bottom for the most part.

Then we glued on the cupcake liners. As a fine motor skill, they helped in separating them out and placing them on the table. I asked if they wanted two or three flowers and then they counted out the spots to glue and number of liners to choose. Stick glue was best for this. School glue would have soaked up the liners.

In discussing flowers, it was decided they needed pollen in the middle, so a golden crayon was carefully sought out and utilized.

Then we added shelled sunflower seeds to the centers.

There was more fine motor dexterity involved than I had anticipated. Even the older girls had to work at picking up the little seeds and placing each one. It was an excellent fine motor activity.

Just turned 2 year old.

Since it is a CUT and paste activity, I let the 3 year old go at it with the scissors. I simply told her to cut a straight line to the end. She did REALLy well at it. If she had a piece too wide, I just asked her to cut it in half. We measured length on her picture and she cut them to size. 

She decided to cutting up one of her strips and ended up with a bunch of smaller pieces. So, she used these for leaves.

The younger children worked with me using teacher-assist scissors for their cutting.

One of them noticed the green crimped grass in the crafts bin, and wanted some. So, we added that to their grass areas. It made for a nicely textured art piece.

For the second one...

I printed out my template and folded the side and bottom back and let her paint blue, mixing the paint to her desired color.

Once dry, I folded it back and let her paint the bottom fourth brown. Then proceeded along in the same manner as the first one. However, I did draw out ovals for her to cut out for leaves, adding an additional fine motor skill of cutting on a curve.

For this one, she cut white yarn to glue on as roots. She got a little carried away with the glue, so I helped spread it out. Didn't she do an amazing job of getting the pieces the same size? I didn't tell her to do that. I actually wanted them different lengths, but hey, her project. We discussed how her yarn pieces were about one inch long and measured them with a ruler.

While I'm not into worksheets much, they do provide some good fine motor, spelling, letter recognition and writing practice occasionally, along with kindergarten readiness. At almost 4, she was able to sound out all these words, with me reminding her that oo says "oo" in roots.

We could have added a sun and cloud in the sky as an added science add-on. We just didn't. I used this to cover the parts of a plant, rather than what they need.

SKILLS:
Math: one-third, two-thirds, one-fourth, counting flowers, stems, seeds, length measurement
Science: parts of a plant, natural elements
Fine Motor: cut, glue, crayon grasp, painting, separating the cupcake liners, placing of the seeds/stem/grass/etc.  
Art: creative expression, mixed media, texture, 3D art, color recognition, color choice
Language: parts of a flower, fraction terms, 
Social: following directions
Tags: flower, craft, cupcake liner, flower craft, spring, mother's day, may, april, flowers, science, art, texture, mixed media, worksheet, parts of a flower, preschool, childcare, daycare, pre-k, prek, kindergarten, first grade, 1st grade, plant physiology, fine motor, skills, painting, cut, paste, glue, writing, spelling, word wall, printable, free

Number Cards - Activities and Printables

Here are some activities I use with my number cards. 

Notice that odds are red and evens are green. This is one of the activities that I do that preps them for later learning. They learn which numbers are red numbers and which numbers are green numbers. When teaching them later about odds and evens, they will remember this. When we start splitting things into groups to learn about odd and even, I will say, "Yes, GO it's even," or "STOP, it's odd and can't be split evenly." By them already being exposed to the red and green numbers, they will already have a foundation of knowledge to fall back upon for this concept. It is a type of learning that is absorbed through exposure, rather than taught.


These are 2 1/2 year olds. They can rote count 0-10, recognize 0-10 and are getting down method counting 0-10 objects. Method counting involves the child figuring out a method of counting objects that are not in a linear format. Before we move on to 11-20, I am working with them on the 0-10 number line. 

The first activity involves the children simply picking out the correct number and placing it in the number line position. Note that the cards are faced AWAY from the childrens work area, so their visual discrimination is worked to assess the numbers in an upside down capacity, or their logic/reasoning is tested as they move to better view them from the other side. There is also turn taking at work, and peer assistance.

The second activity has the numbers in order and the child does SEE & SAY before s/he steps forward onto the number. These are wonderful activities as they use so many senses at one time, reinforcing learning to the max. Sight, speech, hearing, feeling are all used. And yes, in learning, I consider speech a separate sense for children. It may be a feeling, but it encompasses so much more at this age. 

For the little ones (18 month to talking well), I'll have them pick up a card, and I'll tell them what it is. I'll also do the second activity, but hold their hands and walk through it with them, saying the number.

By clicking through my blog, you are granted permission to view, print and download my "Private Documents."

Number Cards 0-11

Number Cards 11-20

I have these cards laminated and stored in a clear plastic hanging zippered storage bag that a curtain panel came in. I think the size of the cards is just perfect for these hands-on physical activities.

 Tags: childcare, daycare, preschool, pre-k, prek, kindergarten, math, numbers, counting, count, number recognition, number games, games, activity, activities, printables, printable, number cards, cardsAGS: preschool, teaching, numbers, counting, number line, odd, even, math, rote counting, number recognition, childcare, daycare, pre-k, prek, kindergarten

Adventuring

Saw this poem on Play at Home Mom's status and had to create a poster. Girl's version is also included on print/download with a meadow background.
PRINTfree download

Tags: printables, parenting, toddler, baby, babies, preschool, mom, mother, childhood, poem, poetry

Happy President's Day!!!

 We made George Washington tricorn hats, more fun than you would think [surprised ME anyway!]

Free Pattern - click for link

Trace

 Cut 

(the stars are harder and may require teacher assistance for even older children)

Staple two sides

Fit for last staple

(she's happier than she looks, and it seems I didn't get all the Mexican from lunch off of her)

Glue stars over staples

Pretend to be George Washington crossing the Delaware and fighting red coats...

accessorized with a few dress up beads ...

The preschoolers did some money sorting, of course I didn't have any color ink to even print out my own printables in color. Oh well, black and white worked just as well. I provided 10 of each and they fit perfectly on the images.We only had 3 half dollars, and found them after I'd printed the other one, so when I get some ink we'll have a re-do.

  

 FREE - click for link

Skills:
Math symmetry, oval, ellipse, star, 5 points on star, 3 sides + 3 points = tricorn
Colors blue and yellow
Fine motor cut, paste, staple, placing stars

Touch on History and how they wore different things in the past than we do today, that stars in the military mean that you are an important person and the more stars the better, so they must be VERY special people given how many stars on their hats!
Tags: President's Day, printable, craft, cut and paste, money, sorting, dress up, dramatic play, math, preschool, pre-k, kindergarten, childcare, daycare, homeschool

Color Hearts Sorting

We've been busy this week, as we always do a full week of Valentine activities. One common activity is conversation heart sorting using heart color mats. The 2 1/2 and 3 year-old were able to do this activity solo, as it mainly just worked their fine motor skills since they have color recognition down pat.

For the ones, this was a major learning activity regarding the heart shape, color recognition, matching, visual discrimination, logic and reasoning, fine motor, and verbal skills. They are just getting their colors, so this was a more intense experience for them. Surprisingly, they really enjoyed it and worked a long time at it each time we did it. I am always surprised at the focus these children can maintain. It's much longer than normal for their ages. They got significantly, progressively better each time.

I created the Valentine Color Hearts  file [available for free on Scribd via link], cut my construction paper down to 8 1/2 inches wide with the paper cutter, printed them out, cut them out, and laminated them for years of future use. I made this to use only black ink since my printer is currently running dry on all colors, as usual given how many materials I print out. I may go back and create a set using corresponding colors. If I do, I'll post that to Scribd before next Valentine's Day.

I'm thrifty [cheap?], so I always cut away my lamination as much as possible for later use with little sight words or manipulatives.

They do have the Spanish words in smaller font, as I teach that early. If you would like a version without the Spanish or with another language, just send me an email.


Tags: Valentine's, sorting, colors, Spanish, shapes, heart, holiday, math, preschool, prek, kindergarten, childcare, daycare, homeschool