Free Calendar Printables

I stumbled onto a couple great free printable sets for creating a "calendar center" in a binder. When my son was 4 and 5 he loved the routine of calendar time and would have loved doing this project. Of course he's now almost 7 and "too big" and my little Queen isn't ready for this yet.
So here's to writing a blog post that I can come back to when she is ready! And in the meantime maybe it's of use to someone reading my little blog!
Cheers!
April

http://www.motherhoodonadime.com/kids/calendar-binder-free-printables/

http://www.homeschoolcreations.net/2012/08/calendar-notebook-binder-printables/

Solar Oven & English Muffin Pizzas

The favorite project this week at our summer camp was making English Muffin Pizzas in our Solar Oven! Here's the "how to" that is going home with the kids!

Sorry I can't rotate this picture in Blogger!

To Make English Muffin Pizzas

1.     Take English Muffins apart and lay on plate.

2.     Spread pizza sauce.

3.     Layer on cheese.

4.     Put into a solar oven (or toaster oven if rainy)

5.     Eat & enjoy!

How To Make a Solar Oven

1.     Save a pizza box and wipe it clean.

2.     Cut the lid so that a flap opens. Cover the opening with a piece of plastic.

3.     Line the inside of the box with aluminum foil and cover the flap with foil too.

4.     Lay a piece of black construction paper in the box. Place your English Muffin Pizzas on top of the paper and shut the bottom of the box & open the flap.

5.     Place the box in a sunny spot outside and wait until the cheese is melted!

6.     Check out this video online for more detailed instructions- http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/content/science-video/solar-oven-s-more

Learning to Tie Shoes!

My six year old can play chess, build amazing structures with Legos, make robots but can't tie his shoes!
Geezzzz....guess that should be a goal this month. I keep forgetting because he's only been wearing Crocs but this week getting ready for soccer camp he needs help with his cleats. I'm going to pull out my Pete book and use the free printables that I think be a motivator for him at this site:
http://peacelovelearning.blogspot.com/2011/09/pete-to-rescue.html

I know I haven't been posting much of my own...but we're having a lovely summer in sunny Vermont! Enjoying family time is priceless!

~April

Alphabugs

Just discovered a fun website. Their Alphabugs lapbooks and lesson plans would be great to make this summer....
http://www.lapbooklessons.com/AlphaBugs.html

Ten Frames

My daughter ( 3 years 1 month) is fascinated with counting. She showed the other day how many blocks she had and was able to count to 19 with one to one correspondence. Wow! When did she learn that? I certainly haven't been working on that skill with her.


I thought making some ten frames and working on some math skills would be a great summer learning project. My son (6 years 9 months) loves math and is eager to 'teach sissy' some new math things. So I envision printing the ten frames and then letting them play together with them.

I'm sure I can figure out how to make my own files that I can share via Google Docs, but every time I decide I'm going to make something I find a similar (or even better file) as a free printable somewhere on the blogosphere! Here's some great resources:
I love the free printable here - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Free-Printable-Ten-Frames
I know my daughter will love the stars because they look similar to the stars on Dora! I'm planning on coming up with some fun "Dora Counting Games" using these ten frames.

This link has free printable ten frames with some unusual dot themes (alien, lightning bolt, hearts, and ying yangs)
http://thelintonacademy.blogspot.com/2012/06/printable-ten-frame-cards.html
This article does a great job of explaining ten frames and ways to build number sense -
http://prekandksharing.blogspot.com/2012/05/ten-frames-and-number-sense.html

And thanks to all the bloggers that share free printables!

Milk Caps Math

My three year old loves to play with the growing collection of milk caps and lids. I am planning some sort of mural using the recycled lids, but until then we are getting lots of fun math skills in! So far we have used the milk caps for:

Ladybug Math activity

Milk caps make great math counters for little fingers.

Milk caps make great eyes in art projects.

I have made up a couple of Busy Bags for my kids that have a collection of milk caps with stickers on them to decorate. It's a simple but fun activity when you are waiting in a restaurant!

My older son is becoming a chess fanatic and it's frustrating to my daughter because he's busy and she can't touch the chess pieces. So I brought out a checkers board...and it didn't interest her at all. Then I sat our collection of lids next to the board and VOILA, instant activity. She slowly put the caps onto the board until every space was covered. At times she seemed to be matching the lids by color and size too. What a fun way to practice one-to-one correspondence. 

Later we sorted the collection by color and began to build a simple graph. Big brother stopped by to explain that they had to be lined up just so you could compare the number. She listened attentively and even helped him rearrange the graph. Ahhhhhhhh....I love having his voice in teaching our little girl.

Activity Popsicle Sticks

One of the blogs I follow, Activity-Mom (see link below), had a great idea about writing activities onto popsicle sticks for the kids to pick and then play. I am going to use these as independent play ideas for the kids to do together while I accomplish a task.


With my kids, we brainstormed a big list of activities they could do together (with little to no adult supervision) and that required no pre-planning on my part. So this required a lot of discussion but I found that explaining that we needed to already have the "stuff" around the house and that the activity would be safe for the kids to do by themselves.Therefore we quickly ruled out "Go to Chucky Cheese." or "Build an tree house."


I think making the sticks has built interest in toys that have been neglected and forgotten. It inspired me to clean up and get out some older toys and make nice displays to get the kids excited.

And yes, much to my son's relief, the kids can play with the toys any time and don't have to wait for a stick to be pulled out!

I color coded the sticks with green & red dots so that we could easily keep track of which ones we did. Once they all get turned over and are red, we will flip them and start over again.

 Here are the ideas we have written on our sticks so far:

Indoor Activities:
Crazy Fort Building

Domino Building

Straws-n-Connectors

Colored Wooden Blocks - build, then draw it

Play Dinosaurs
Tinkertoys

Gears, Gears, Gears

Pegs - build a high multi-layer birthday cake!
Marble Run
Frigits

Lego Challenge - build a bridge

Lego Challenge - build the tallest free standing structure

Play Doctor
Pretend Birthday Party
Mario Dress Up

Playdough

Water Colors
Beads
Bean Stick Making

Match It Math Puzzles
U.S. Puzzle
20 Puzzle Set

Candy Land
I Spy Bingo

UNO
Colorful Caterpillars
Diego I Spy
Diggity Dog
Mighty Mind

Mini Hockey Game

Pillow Fort: Bring pillows behind couch for reading & slumber party

Later on when we learn how to play together:

Super Mario Memory

Equilibrio
Snap Circuits
Checkers

Extra ideas for later in the summer!
Build a castle with blocks

Cardboard Blocks tumble down

Jigsaw Puzzles

Hide and Seek

Sticky wall

Do a Dot Painting

Yard Sale in the Playroom

Play Restaurant

Rubber Stamp Art

Indoor Obstacle Course

Body Tracing

Play Library

Dance Party

Balloon Bop - keep the balloon in the air as long as you can

Build a fort with blankets

Outdoor Activities: (kept in a separate cup!)

Sidewalk Chalk

Water Table

Sand Box

Sensory or Water Table

Pretend Cooking

Obstacle Course

Water Painting with Brushes & Spray Bottles

Bubbles

Make a pretend campfire

Play donut shop in play house

Build a fairy house

Soccer shoot out

Balance beams with 2x4's on the grass


Hot days required:
Water balloons
Wigglin' Water Sprinkler
Clown Sprinkler

Inspired by this post:
http://www.activity-mom.com/2012/06/activity-day-idea.html