Happy Thanksgiving

Sorting Animals by Where They Live

Right now animals are the thing at my house! Since it's all about animals right now I thought we'd play Where Do I Live? 

This game was a hit!

I kept it simple for now with just two different types of homes. Farm and ocean. 

It was simple to gather supplies for this one and was free for me since there are so many animals in my house already. 

First I printed a picture of a barn and a picture of the ocean. 

Next I taped thes pictures to the inside of a small box. 

After I piled all the animals in front of the boxes my son started sorting away 😊

He sorted these rather quickly! So I found some animal flash cards I had and took them out and he put those in their homes then we took the animals and paired them up with their corresponding flash card. All in all it was successful. He now has these on a shelf and pulls them out for independent play. 

Remember Say No to Bunnies :)

Pretend Food

DIY Pretend Food/Donuts

So I love buying pretend food for dramatic play! 

My son LOVES to pretend he's cooking us up food, EVERYDAY. 

So I started thinking,

 I probably could make some of this myself too! 

I plan on making a few different foods for the next couple of weeks. 

Thinking this will make a great gift for the holidays! 

So here's my first venture into the pretend food realm.

Mini wooden donuts :)

First, I bought some wooden wheels. 

Get whatever size donuts you want! I was going for mini (I love anything tiny)

Then I whipped out my paints in whatever colors I thought I might use.

I wanted some cute packaging for them and when I saw these gift card holders I knew they would be perfect. They held six of my mini donuts perfectly!!! 

Here they are painted and in the card holder.

Yup, I'm in love with these. Hope everyone's ready to see these in their stockings this year. 

I figured the adults could tie a ribbon on them and hang them on their Christmas trees.

 I just picture little boys and girls having these at their little pretend tea parties. 

These are the perfect size for stocking stuffers.

The kids can take them anywhere since they're small!

Just wrap it up and it's ready to be gifted and played with =)

Sooooo happy with these! 

(Again, cause I love anything tiny)

And the best part is how EASY these were to make! 

I can't stand the cuteness!!!!!

Since they're in pairs they can match them up, they can talk about how smooth they are, and the shape they are as well. =)

Wonder what my next food item will be???

And no batteries needed here, woohoo

Say No to Batteries =)

Autumn Leaf Songs

Autumn Leaves 

The leaves are falling outside, yay.

 It's a great time to get outside and make a leaf pile for the kids, 

most kids love jumping in leaf piles! 

Also, let the kids take a bag outside with them and collect leaves so they may look at them later and observe how they've changed.

They may even collect other things on the ground to look at once back inside.

Here's a couple of songs to sing with the kids while the leaves are still falling from the trees.

Autumn Leaves

(tune: London Bridge)

Autumn leaves are falling down,

falling down, falling down.

Autumn leaves are falling down

to the ground.

Yellow leaves are falling down,

falling down, falling down.

Yellow leaves are falling down

to the ground.

(continue with red, orange, and brown)

When the Leaves Start Falling Down

(tune: When the Saints Come Marching)

Oh, when the leaves

start falling down

Oh, when the leaves

start falling down

They'll be red, yellow, and orange

Oh, when the leaves

start falling down.

(repeat)

Enjoy these leaf songs!

Say No to Bunnies =)

Helping Children

Happy Halloween

Wishing everyone a fun and safe Halloween. 

Halloween Storytime

Halloween Storytime

Here's some of the books I truly enjoy reading during Halloween.

 I usually start reading these a week or two before so we can enjoy them and the kids get to know the stories better for story related activities. 

1. Shake dem Halloween Bones by W. Nikola-Lisa

 

2. Five Little Pumpkins (this one has pictures by Dan Yaccarino)

3. That's Not My Monster - Usborne touchy-feely books

4. Goodnight Goon by Michael Rex

5. Where Is Baby's Pumpkin? by Karen Katz

6. Go Away Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberley

Where is Baby's Pumpkin? and That's Not My Monster are good books for infants and toddlers.

 The rest of the books are good for toddlers through preschoolers. 

They all lend themselves well to be extended into activities.

I'm going to share what activity we did for Shake Dem Halloween Bones:

After reading the book three days in a row I made a musical instrument to go with it. 

I sing this book when I read it so it's always musical, maybe one day I'll have the nerve to record myself singing it and post my hip hop version ;)

but for now press HERE to hear a version of the book being sung.

During the chorus of the book is when we shake our bones.

Here is how we made our bone rattles:

I used a Voss water bottles (the plastic ones), because it has a wider opening for bigger items.

Skeletons and hand skeletons I found at the dollar store

I took the skeleton apart and cut the arms off

Then I placed all the body parts in the water bottle. I hot glued the lid shut. Put a black ribbon around. And THATS IT!

We had our bones to shake!

This is really one of my FAVORITE books to read! I love it! 

It was so much fun to dance and have bone rattles to play during the chorus!

Now I said "shake, shake, shake dem bones now!"

Seriously, I LOVE this book, or maybe I just love singing it!

Say No To Bunnies =)