Finger Paints

Recently I tried a finger paint recipe that worked rather well. 

It was easy to make, quite colorful and 

fun for the littles to paint with.  

I found this finger paint recipe over at 

Easie Peasie. 

Check it out. It's a good one!

~Christie

Ocean Sensory Bin

It's no secret that I absolutely love the ocean.

How could you not possibly just admire it?

With school starting and preparing for a preschool curriculum,

I decided to put together an ocean sensory bin. 

I used lentils for the floor and 

seashore items that we had previously collected.

I think it will be successful because 

my 4 year old caught me putting it together

and wouldn't stop following me around to 

see what that bin was all about. 

Curiosity fuels learning.

Obviously these items may be used for 

discussion, exploration, and 

discovery of what ocean life is all about.

~Christie

Rainbow Ribbons

 Oh, I love this one. 

I've been looking for creative ideas to use in music, movement and rhythm fun for the 

upcoming school year. 

I've seen ribbon bracelets where there is one large ribbon connected to a fabric bracelet. 

I thought it would be fun to make a ribbon bracelet that reflected a rainbow. The bracelet, white, like a cloud. The ribbons, one of every color, like a rainbow. I think it turned out really cute and my girls were quite thrilled. 

Here is how you can make your own Rainbow Ribbon.

  I used white satin cut into a 19"x7" rectangle. One 3/4" elastic cut into a 7" long piece. I also used 1/4" Polyester ribbon cut into 24" lengths.(One of each color of the rainbow.

First stack and sew the ribbons in rainbow order .

Then iron your rectangle in half and fold up the ends 

so that you can sew down the side 5/8".

Make sure you pin your rainbow ribbon at the end of your rectangular strip so that you can sew it in place.

 Reinforce stitch the ribbons in place. 

                 Carefully trim the edge of the seam.                         

Turn out the satin piece, thread the elastic through and

sew the elastic ends together.

Then over lap the satin ends, pin and then sew into place.

Basically, it's like a scrunchie with ribbons flowing out of it. 

Super simple!!!

Finished!

Gorgeous!

 

Ready for some music.

~Christie

Multi Purpose Teaching Board

I have been sporadically getting things ready for the upcoming school year. 

One thing on my list was to

make a flannel board. 

I decided to use what

I already have. 

 So, I grabbed an old foam poster board and covered one side with flannel. 

The flannel board side will definitely be 

used for picture

stories and such.

  On the other side I covered it in blue card stock 

and then in contact laminate. 

The laminate side will be used as a dry erase board. 

  I measured, cut and pressed some red 

with white polka dot fabric. 

I then hot glued it all around the foam board.

I edged it in Ric Rac and ribbon. 

I came out really cute and tidy.

A great teaching tool for visual aides.

It's lightweight and easy to store...

and I like that... a lot.

The ABC's of Fishing

The iconic

fishing game. 

Played everywhere and altered for many different purposes.

I just had to put my take on this

whimsical wonder.  

I figured that I really need an activity this summer to inspire reading and letter recognition. 

I decided to make an alphabet of colorful fish. 

This would definetly reinforce letter recognition

as well as letter sounds. 

"What letter did you get?

Flip it over and let's sound out the name of the fish. 

K for King fish." 

*Players take turns fishing and naming their catch. 

*You could also make a second set of fish names and 

put them into a basket. 

Players could draw a fish name and try to catch that fish. 

*You could also roll a die and have 

the player catch that number of fish. 

This would be more challenging. 

More fish...more letters and words to read. 

My kids loved it.

  How did I do it?  

I made 3 fishing poles out of wooden dowels. 

I wound colorful yarn around the base of the pole then loosely wound it up to the top and glued the yarn in place. 

I then knotted the end of the yarn twice loosely 

and hot glued it to a ball magnet. 

This made it look like a bobber. 

  For the fish I printed out capital letters 

of the alphabet on colorful paper. 

I then printed out the names of the fish on white cardstock and cut out the shape and glued them together.

For durability I laminated each fish with 

contact laminate paper. 

I used a circular paper clip as the fish eye. 

This was my magnetic catch.

 Here is the list of fish names I used alphabetically. 

Angel fish

Bass

Catfish

Damselfish

Elephant fish

Frogfish

Goldfish

Halibut

Ice fish

Jaw fish

Kingfish

 Lionfish

Marlin

Noodle fish

Oarfish

Puffer fish

Quill fish

Ribbonfish

Sardine

Tuna

Unicorn fish

Viper fish

Wrasse

X-ray tetra

Yellow tang

Zebra fish

Hope you catch lots of fish this summer!