Indoor Fairy Play Invitation

I made some furniture for the fairy garden outdoors. But the kids decided they wanted a chance to play with them first, inside.

They wanted me to "surprise" them. We went though the house together looking for some of the components together. And  I set it up for them to play with some new things for the surprise element. Unfortunately, I could not resist playing with it myself, so there is no picture of just the components of the play invitation separately :)

This is what my two super-heroes came up with - an enchanted schoolroom in the middle of a magical forest. A moss sheet from Michaels, loose moss, fake flowers help set up the forest. The ceramic houses are candle holders. There's one for Spiderman, one for Batman, and one for me (my felted toadstool house)

 

The whole place is in a party mood. Batman told me we are having an "open-house" at the schoolroom. (Hmm, wonder where he learned it from). We have plenty of benches and wooden blocks for seating if you don't fancy the grass.

We are having a tea party. For seating, the super-heroes provided the guest with mushroom buttons, upside down flower pot, barrel, butterfly stones, and some low stools made of shiny smooth glass with small pebbles on the bottom. Batman made the stool with me.



If you don't like it picnic style on the ground, there is always the seating area. The chairs are the latest in style -  smooth shiny glass pebbles hot glued on corks, with polished shell for back support. 
(A tiny disclosure for others who are thinking of branching into fairy furniture: I made a few chairs with shells for both the seat and the back. Batman and Spiderman told me those look like "potty chairs". So use them for the fairy bathroom!)

There is a tiny book basket (a shell) with fragrant books made out of orange peel.
The table seen here is smooth polished river stone mounted on cork. Someone left some food on the table. There is a gazing ball near the seating area as well.

There is also a dance floor. The small tiles are glued together to make the dance floor. We have some lanterns for later in the night, and of course, some string light bulbs hanging from the branches.

As you can see, lots going on. Tinker Bell is visiting us, along with Bambi. There is a rose trellis (upside down, I think). We are still cleaning up, and getting everything ready.
 

Do join us for the party. 

Fall Cutting Strips

Happy Tuesday!

Does it feel like Fall where you are? Still feels like Summer in Southern California...

To get in the mood, I created some Fall cutting strips.

Spiderman wasn't sure what months are in Fall. He knows that Fall comes after Summer, but not the months. And the answer of course depends on where you live. But for the U.S., there isn't much confusion. So, some fine motor control, some learning about seasons and months, and lots of fun! These clip arts are great conversation starters, or writing prompts.
Spiderman told me it would be "awesome" to jump on a pile of leaves. He thinks he would like to gather them the first time. But after gathering, jumping etc, he would be "too tired", so I would have to gather the leaves the second time :)

The one for September is free. Get it here.
Please Note: This is for personal use only. Teachers, please see my TpT store.



The pictures inspired him to hunt down Pumpkin Soup , and Delicious , followed by Leaves (a wonderful book meant for a somewhat younger crowd. In my house, Batman reads it, and Spiderman turns the pages), and Big Pumpkin , with more books being gathered. 

Spider-man's list (for right now):
1. From Seed to Pumpkin
2. Curious George Goes to a Costume Party
3. Quite a few Dora and Diego Halloween themed books
4. Spooky Bunny Tales (Max and Ruby)

Batman's list looks more like this:
1. Calender Mystery #10 - October Ogre 
2. Flat Stanley and the Haunted House  
3. Ready Freddy! #11: Pumpkin Elf Mystery 

We are still adding to the list...

I had made Halloween themed A to Z Cards. After cutting the clip-arts, and taking a look at the cards, the two super-heroes were happily (read no fighting, screaming and whining)  engaged in creating fall themed cards of their own...

For the other two months, take a look here. These are great to associate events with months. Halloween is in October, Thanksgiving in November etc. I will add more as the seasons change.

Find my post and other awesome ideas here.

Back to School We Go....

I just came back from KG orientation! Seems like I am more anxious than my Kindergartener! Batman seems to be taking it all in stride!

But Spiderman is feeling a bit left out. So I created these fun patterns in back to school theme for him.

Please Note: The file here is intended for personal use ONLY. Teachers, please see my TpT store.The one in the TpT store has more patterns, and has more complicated ones, like ABCD patterns. 

In addition to patterns, you can sneak in some fine motor skills. The child cuts the answer cards, and chooses one (or more card, depending on the pattern and the question) to complete the pattern. You can also laminate them or put them in sheet protectors, and have them write down the right answer, by getting them to write 1, 2 etc underneath the card in the right order!

You can see some samples right here.

Download the file from here. Have fun!

Ten Frames Fun

Please check out my TpT sale on all products. You can net a 28% savings :)


Now on to some free and on sale stuff on the store....

Spiderman has gotten interested in ten frames all of a sudden.

Ten frames are great visual tools for helping students to not only "see" the numbers and count - connecting counting to cardinality, but it's great with quick mental addition and subtraction, gaining understanding of place value, start composing and decomposing numbers into tens and ones etc. All in all, good stuff, and aligned with the Common Core Standards!

So  I decided to capitalize on this, and made some printables with themes I know he will like...
He has already played with the Pirate Themed Ten Frames previously, posted on my TpT store. You can read more about the fun "10 Doubloons" game it contains here. The game is fairly easy for Batman, so for him, it is purely a review. It also has the frames, of course. Spiderman has been working on his "spidey-fingers" by cutting out all pirate-y pictures to fill his frame.  

But then he requested something "different". So I made the space themed ten frames, which are free to download from here!
It has an empty ten frame for 10 and 20, space-y pictures to fill up those frames with, and for some great scissor fun, and it has the numerals from 1 through 20, along with their spelled counterparts.

I also  made some "I have-Who has" card games - three to be exact - for cardinal numbers and ordinal numbers, with the same space theme. Please find them here.

Batman has been making various jokes - about how he is 'having a blast with them', and 'these are outta this world mom'.

Well, at least all the jokes are complimentary. Spiderman does not get it yet....

The two games are definitely a bit of a challenge for Spiderman, and Batman is getting a decent amount of workout with these. Spiderman can't read yet, so he can't play the ordinal game. So please keep that in mind if you are downloading the games.

It targets the following Common Core Standards.

Counting and Cardinality

• Know number names and the count sequence
• Understand the relationship between numbers and quantities; connect counting to cardinality.

Number and Operations in Base Ten

• Work with numbers 11-19 to gain foundations for place value 
• Compose and decompose numbers from 11 to 19 into ten ones and some further ones
• Understand that the two digits of a two-digit number represent amounts of tens and ones. Understand the following as special cases: 10 can be thought of as a bundle of ten ones — called a “ten.” The numbers from 11 to 19 are composed of a ten and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, or nine ones. The numbers 10, 20, and 30 are composed of one, two and three tens and zero ones.
  

Game 1: I have – Who has?

This game helps your little astronauts review their numbers from 1-30. The numbers are made up of yellow “ones” units and “tens” units. 

Game 2: I have – Who has?

This game helps your little astronauts review their numbers from 10 - 100, skip counting by 10. The numbers are made up of blue "tens” units. 

Game 3: I have – What comes next?

The astronauts start with the first ordinal number, and have to find the card that comes next. Astronauts may also practice placing the cardinal number cards in order from first to thirtieth.

You can find the games here.

I am hoping Spiderman and Batman gain (and build upon) a strong sense of numbers with all these fun tools! It is an added bonus that they are working towards the Common Core Standards as well!
If your little pirates, or astronauts find these useful and fun, please do leave me some comments and feedback :)

Sanity in the car - backseat games

Mom, he is kicking me. 

He is being mean to me. No I am not.

He is being a baby….

I don’t want that song. I want to listen to the one that we just heard again….

Why does he always get his way? It’s not fair!

Ah, the joys of backseat bickering. Not that sibling bickering is limited to the car by any means, but in a car, there are no avenues for escape!! Anyways, deep breaths. In and out.

I am sure parents with preschoolers (or older kids) have this scenario playing in their head even while they sleep lol! 

So how DO you keep your sanity in car rides? 

On very long drives, I might succumb to electronic gadgets, but otherwise, I try not to...

When I pick up the kiddos from school, we talk about all the fun (not so fun stuff) at school. What was their best moment, worst moment, what new things did they learn that day etc etc. Or if I have some special expectations that day from them or vice versa. Negotiations for privileges usually not granted also takes place during that time.

Of course, it does not last the entire ride. 

Being a working mom, I try to engage them in fun ways and sneak in some learning and teaching; reinforcing concepts never hurt!

Counting games generally causes more ruckus than not. If I say count all the white cars, one always misses something, and other takes great delight in pointing that out. Not very peaceful. If I have only one child in the backseat, then we do counting games with school buses, concrete mixers, and other fun manly stuff. 

So I get my math fix other ways. 

• For 5.5 year old Batman: 5 ways to make 5. All odd numbers till 30. Or even numbers. Skip count by 5s. You get the gist.
  Read the speed limits. What happens if you add 10, or take away 5.

• For 3.5 year old Spiderman – it is simple word problems. If you have 3 candy, and you eat them all, how many is left? Of course, this only works if they don’t demand candy later, lol! Start with birds maybe, if there are 2 birds sitting in a tree, and one more joins them, or one flies away, yada yada…
  What shape is the Stop sign? How many sides does it have? Can you look for a triangle sign? How about a diamond?

 Other fun ideas:

• Try to read all the road signs. 
• Or identify the makes of cars. Batman is getting better at it than me. Almost. Or play a game by trying to come up with makes and models of cars from A to Z. 
• Or try to pick up hybrids or electric vehicles.
• Too difficult? Or maybe the kiddo is not into cars. Well, let’s go with stuff that we can find while on the road - A to Z. It is hilarious the way they try to justify some of their answers. Like refrigerator. How would you see one on the road? Well, if it was being transferred in a pickup truck, you could totally see it. How about ants? Well, just  because we can’t see them when we are in the car driving does not mean it is not there…
• Or 10 manmade stuff they see around them, and 10 from nature….
• Same trend, living and non-living.
• 5 things/vehicles that go in land, air and water.
• Identify the plants and trees around you.
• Ask them to look for big landmarks on the way. And get them to draw a map with those landmarks later.
• Names of animals. Start from A.  Go. Spiderman made it to J in 6 minutes or so, with lots of hint for I from big brother. Ant, Bee, Crocodile, Dog, Elephant, Fish, Gorilla, Horse, Inchworm (he got lots of clues and hints) and Jelly Fish.  We reached our destination by then. Added benefit – one engaged child, and one very empowered big brother who helped his little brother succeed!
• One day, my two would not stop with potty humor. They are boys, what can you say? So we decided to make it more challenging my coming up (or trying to come up) with gross stuff/bodily functions from A to Z. Needless to say, we did not succeed, because Batman and Spiderman just could not stop laughing after every new word that came up with every 5-6 minutes or so in between their cackles and chortles and snorts….

My favorite game: Place a bubble in your mouth. Be absolutely quiet, so the bubble does not pop. Whoever keeps quiet longest, wins!!

Here’s to peace and quiet in the car.

What are your brain waves for sanity in the car? And no, ditching the kids don’t count.

Monstrous Fun with Hard and Soft C Card Game

I love all the Pixar/Disney Animation movies, perhaps a tad bit more than my kids :)
 
Have you seen Monsters University yet? I am still trying to convince Spiderman that it is NOT going to be scary and super-fun. And of course, there will be popcorn. It is slow going so far.

In the meantime, to pacify Batman (who is starting to get the hang of Uno, and wants to play card games), I thought it might be fun to make a monster themed card game with some learning!

Hence our Soft and Hard 'C' Card Game. The monsters need some help with their C sounds at school. Think you can help them out? Well then, get ready for some "Monstrous Fun at  School"!!

 This is a a freebie. So just head on over to my TpT store and grab it. Just print on card-stock, laminate, cut, and you are all set.  

 

There are 18 cards with hard 'c' sound...

  
18 cards with the soft 'c' sound...

6 cards with both soft and hard 'c' sounds...

12 gotcha cards that make you lose a turn or draw again...

 and 12 empty cards.

And if your little monsters are not quite ready to read yet, no worries. The cards all have the pictures in them. So pre-readers and emergent readers are good to go. Everyone can join in the fun.

Long and Short Of It - Vowel Sorting Cards

Spiderman has mastered the short vowel sounds. He consistently identifies the beginning sound, is nearly perfect at the ending sounds, and is getting quite good at the middle sounds...

I thought it might be fun to introduce him to the long vowel sounds, although it is a lot to remember for a 3.5 year old!  I explained to him the concept of long and short vowel sounds. Then we decided to sort the cards by their sounds. Control cards made the column headers. If the vowel says its name, it goes in the column for the long sound. I was quite amazed that he took to the concept so quickly.

 My most rewarding moment was Batman trying to teach Spiderman the concept of Bossy E. How the Bossy E makes the vowels say their name. It was hilarious, and quite rewarding...

                
For Batman (5.5), sorting the cards according to their vowel sound, long or short, was not much of a challenge. He wanted to make his own cards. So this set has empty cards for those who are up to the challenge. Batman was  quite happily occupied drawing, coloring, and then figuring out the spelling of the words.

With 110 cards and 20 blank cards, it is sure to keep the kiddos engaged!  There are 22 cards for each vowel, with 11 each for the short and the long vowel sounds, along with one card for each vowel sound. The cards have the vowels on them in the bottom left hand corner for easy sorting.

But the fun does not end there. There are over 20 cards with CVC words, great for beginning readers. There are some blend words, and plenty of bossy e/magic e words as well. It was a great exercise for Batman, trying to read the labels. 

The set is great for pre-readers, because although the labels are there, you don't need to read them. Just say the word out loud, decide what vowel sound you hear, and sort!!

Check out the cards here.




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