Tell Your Peeps

This afternoon the girls and I put together a tasty treat to share with our friends at school.  In honor of spring and baby birds everywhere....

TO MAKE NESTING PEEPS:

• 1 pkg. (1 ½ lb.) chocolate almond bark*
• 1 bag pretzel sticks**
• Whoppers Robin Eggs (3 per nest, just over 1 bag)
• 60 chick Peeps

1. Melt almond bark according to package directions.

2. Coat pretzels in chocolate, drop into small bunches on aluminum foil.

3. Working quickly, nest on Peep and three robin eggs on each chocolate-covered pretzel cluster.

4. Allow to set, then seal in air-tight containers.

Yields 60 nesting Peeps.

*Alternatively you can melt chocolate chips, or any flavored chips: peanut butter, butterscotch, etc.

**Chow Mien noodles can be used instead of pretzels.

You could also add coconut flakes to give the nests a little extra pizazz!

Peeps actually has a website with Peeps recipes: http://www.marshmallowpeeps.com/recipes/?type=recipe&tpid=9d9a48bf-9d21-4a7c-ba4b-85ffb885ba51.  The nesting peeps are surprisingly not featured, but they do have an option to submit your ideas.... get the ideas flowing, peeps!

Stacked

Another great snowy day activity.  The best part is I didn't come up with the activity.... they did!

{Trophy Stacked}

{Collapsing the Stack}

{Piled}

{Stacked}

{Twin Stacks}

{Little Stacks}

{Stacking to New Heights}

{Abby's Castle}

{Creativity Abound}

It All Adds Up

We are now on our second consecutive snow day.  The rain has ceased and the snow has taken its place.

But what to do with the kiddos?  I decided a delicious math activity was in order, so I quickly made up an addition fill-in-the-blank worksheet on Word and busted out the Valentine's M&Ms.  Abby has been working on this concept in school, so for her it was review.  For Lauren it was a chance to sharpen her counting skills, and since I kept the numbers in the ten local, I didn't have to worry about Lauren's absurd, yet all-too-cute counting skills getting in the way.... twenty-eighteen, twenty-nineteen, twenty-twenty, you get the idea.

Supplies:

• Worksheet {I created my own on Word}
• Pencil
• M&Ms {two different colors}
• Coordinating crayons

I filled each bowl, then let the girls do the drawing and filling in the numbers.  When they added them up I sent them to the refrigerator where I had taped a 100s Chart to find the answer on the chart.  They loved it!  Once they mastered the concept I set them free to fill the bowls themselves and complete the problem.  They loved that even more!

Of course their favorite part was eating all of the M&Ms when they were done.

For the Birds

A skein of yarn, some Cheerios, cranberries, a needle, and a few little hands yields a snow day project for the birds....

And the cardinals enjoy!

Gingerbread Man Hunt

I loved Kindergarten!  I have such fond and vivid memories of the activities we did in Mrs. Heath's class.  Everything was an adventure, so I ceased the opportunity with my own girls this week to bring to life an activity I loved when I was five.

Abby and I mixed up the dough for our gingerbread men, and Lauren helped to roll and cut it out.  The real excitement came when shortly after we removed our large gingerbread man from the oven he vanished, leaving behind a trail of clues.

{On the Cooling Rack He Left This Message}

Silly Abby. Silly Lauren. While you were busy, I was exploring.

I’ll give you a clue. I’m somewhere in the house. You’d better be clever; I’m quick as a mouse.

I’m hiding somewhere kind of low. Find me by the toilet bowl.

You’d better run, run as fast as you can. You can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread Man.

{On the Floor By the Toilet the Next Clue Read}

I was in the bathroom, then out in a flash. Now I’m hiding by the railroad tracks.

You’d better run, run as fast as you can. You can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread Man.

{On the Railroad Tracks He Hinted}

On your trains I went for a ride, but by the movies is where I shall hide.

You’d better run, run as fast as you can. You can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread Man.

{Tucked in the Movies He Noted}

Too many movies here for me to choose, I opted to hide out where you keep your shoes.

You’d better run, run as fast as you can. You can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread Man.



{In the Shoe Basket the Message Read}

Your tongue is red, your guest room is blue. I’m off for a drink from a mammal who says, “Moo.”

You’d better run, run as fast as you can. You can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread Man.

{The Milk Jug's Handle is Where They Found This Tricky Clue}

My body is brown, your body is white. It’s time for a slumber where you do at night.

You’d better run, run as fast as you can. You can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread Man.

{And on Each of Their Beds They Found This Note}

Dear Lauren/Dear Abby,

How comfy your & your sister’s beds look. But before I choose one to climb in, I must first pick a book….

You’d better run, run as fast as you can. You can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread Man!

Found!  By Abby.  Asleep in the bookshelf.

The girls made their way back downstairs to the little table to dig into their gingerbread man and a glass of ice cold milk.

I took the recipe I had gotten in kindergarten, which turned out to be a big hit with the girls, and with their friends at school, with whom we shared our bounty.

The recipe is simple to make, and not too strong and spicy.

It can be found our sister blog: www.feedingthelovelies.blogspot.com/2010/09/gingerbread-men.html

Building Words.... Building a Reader

As kindergarten approaches, it is time for us to start thinking about reading. Abby already has a solid foundation that she has gained from preschool, story time, and watching programs like Word World. So naturally, it is time build on that and teach her how to put sounds together to create words and get her started as an independent reader.

I put together two categories of cards: beginning sounds & base words, each in separate colors so they are easy to distinguish.

Starting with the basics, we take one base word at a time, then go through the beginning sounds to form words.

Not only is this a great way to teach reading and spelling, it is also an easy way to introduce rhyming words. The activities can be as simple as putting words together, or it can be expanded to include writing the words on paper.

{Sample Words}

In a Word document I created a page with three columns typing the lists below in an easy-to-read font (I used Comic Sans MS, 72 font size). This size is perfect because it is large enough to see easily, but small enough to lay out on a single surface area. The most time-consuming part of the project was cutting out the individual pieces.

Beginning Sounds (yellow)

a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
p
q
r
s
t
u
v
w
x
y
z
sh
ch
th
sp
cl
sm
fl
br
sn
fr
dr
qu
pr
sk
kn
tr
gr
sw
an
pl
st

Base Words (red)

Short a:
ack
all
am
an
and
ap
at
ar

Short e:
ed
ell
en
est
et

Short i:
ick
ig
ill
in
ing
ink
ip
it

Short o:
ock
og
op
ot
ook
ool

Short u:
uck
ug
un
ut

Long a:
ail
ain
ake
ay

Long e:
eat
ee
eep
eet

Long i:
ice
ide
ine
ite
ive
y

Long o:
oat
old
one
ose
ow

Shape-Up Treasure Hunt

Today I put together an activity for the girls to shape up their minds and their bodies: a treasure hunt of shapes.

You will need:

• Card Stock (at least two colors of your choice)
• Printer Paper (for the worksheets)
• Scissors (to cut out the card stock shapes)
• Tape (to tape the shapes up around the house)
• Crayons (to correspond to the card stock colors)
• A Computer (with Microsoft Word or analogous program) & Printer

Getting Started:

I opened up a fresh Word document and created two pages of shapes. I simply inserted the shapes I wanted to use and enlarged them to the size I wanted. I had 13 shapes total, spanning two pages. I chose two different colors of card stock (yellow & orange because they were easy to spot) and printed, then cut out each shape.

I then copied and pasted each shape into a new Word document (see printed sheet on the left of picture below), shrunk each shape, and listed the shape's name next to it. Each hunter got her own worksheet.

{Left: Worksheet, Right: Card Stock Shapes}

Directions:

1. Show each shape-hunter all of the shapes they are looking for so they are familiar with what they are to find.

2. Hide the shapes around the house (I chose the main level of our home), in an easy to spot, eye-level position.

3. Go over the worksheet, looking at, pointing to and saying the name of each shape.

4. Each hunter should choose one crayon to correspond with the color of the shapes they are searching for.

5. Leaving the worksheet at a table, desk, etc, the hunters should begin their search. With each find they are to return to the table to color in the shape they have found with its corresponding color.

{Lauren & Abby Coloring Their Shapes}

Objectives:

• Shape recognition
• Learn shape names
• Tone memory skills
• Locate said items
• Fine motor/coloring skills
• Following directions
• Exercising Patience
• Exercising their bodies

{Lauren Proudly Displaying Her Completed Worksheet}

The great thing about this treasure hunt is that once you create the documents on Word, it is very easy to reprint worksheets, or even print the shapes again on varying colored paper. I started out very basic with the girls on our first try, but after a few times I will probably make it increasingly more of a challenge to keep their interest and foster learning.

Variations:

• Use a variety of colors for the shapes
• Hide shapes in more difficult to find locations
• Print out only the shapes' names on the worksheet and have the children draw and color each shape from scratch
• Instead of hiding printed shapes, have the children find items in the house that correspond with the shapes on their worksheet. (You will want to make sure that each shape on the worksheet has something in the house to correspond to it.)
• Play as a timed competition

When we were finished with our treasure hunt, the girls were excited to collect the shapes from their hiding spots around the house. This not only helped to reinforce memory skills, but it also taught them the importance of team work and clean-up responsibilities.

The possibilities are endless, and no doubt this activity will be added to our treasure box of games & activities!