Sunny Days Classroom Kit

Brighten up any classroom with our printable kits

Lotsa Dots Classroom Kit

Colorful Printable kits help to cheer up any classroom

Sunny Days Classroom Kit

Organizational printables help keep your classroom functional and easy to manage

Back to School is a HOOT!

Colorful owls help bring an organized theme to your classroom

Lil Sprouts Educational Outreach: Lorax Party

Simply Sprout offers educational outreach to preschoolers using our classroom printable kits

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Fun with food!



While surfing the web I have noticed a new trend in kids lunches, whether packed for school or eaten at home they have gotten quite elaborate! I've seen an octopus made from a  hot dog. Owl sandwiches, Rainbow lunches...the list goes on and on! So we rolled up our sleeves and had some fun in the kitchen making an owl sandwich and a cucumber carrot tree! I must say Kaitlyn really enjoyed it because when lunch was over there was nothing but some cucumber rinds left on her plate!
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Here are a few ideas I found around the web

Lots of mamas are making muffin tin meals, great concept to get kids interested in what they are eating. Each tin follows a theme and presents a small serving perfect for growing toddlers!
This is a great website I found with some super cute ideas, so I hope you find something that inspires you to have some fun with your little ones at lunch time!




Monday, September 26, 2011

The Letter O is for Owl! Hoot Hoot!

Today we learned about the letter O

We started out with a sensory activity. I squeezed some different colored paints ( blue, purple, black, light blue, glitter paint) onto a piece of construction paper. Kaitlyn practiced making her o's by moving the paint around with her finger. When she was all done we sprinkled on some glitter and set it outside to dry.


While it was drying we went out to the front yard and gathered some fall leaves and found a nice branch for our picture.

I used the hot glue gun to attache her branch and her leaves onto her painting.
I then traced the body of an owl onto some construction paper and asked Kaitlyn to color him brown.....I look over a few seconds later and see that she drew feet onto the owl ( this was a first for Kaitlyn) She is starting to become more accurate in her depictions of things. We made some handprints for wings and added them onto her picture!

We discussed today how owls are nocturnal animals and how they fly quietly at night to hunt for their food. We read several books today about Owls, Kaitlyn's Favorite was Owls, by Gail Gibbons

 
 
Letter O, Practice


Kaitlyn practiced her letter O's today on her mats I made. She used pom pom's to make the shape of the letter O. She also used her dry erase crayon board to trace the O's

Hoot Hoot! It's Orange Owl Cupcake Time


Kaitlyn and I had some fun in the kitchen this afternoon cooking up some orange cupcakes. Kaitlyn and I decorated them to look like owls. We used oreos and little green candies for the eyes. She then decorated the bodies with almond slivers and cocoa pebbles cereal to mimic the feathers. The finishing touch was a goldfish cracker as a beak. They were so much fun to make! Now to find a small army to eat some owl cupcakes!

Kaitlyn loves "school" time and loves practicing with her learning puzzles. This is a great one that we actually got as a gift. Kaitlyn matches the color or texture to the object. It is a great way to learn about describing words. When she is all done she practices reading the cards by pointing to the words and saying the describing word and the objects name.....a great way to develop those early reading and decoding skills.


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Saturday, September 24, 2011

Fun on the Farm

Old "Mack"Donald turned one last weekend and we celebrated with a barnyard bash!

The food table. Please excuse my misspelling of y'all. My South Georgian husband calls me a Yankee all the time, and he loves this error.


My Daddy has taught me to love all things green!

Cousin Kole loves 'em too!

Cousin Ellie rather have baby dolls than tractors!


He's a natural...



Mack's guest made pig mask and sheep out of their hands.

I love my Papa



Nothing better than eating boiled peanuts with your Great-Granddaddy.

One cute, but worn out farmer!


The birthday boy!



Let them eat cake. And he did. The WHOLE thing!




Thank you to the Publix bakery for creating two adorable cakes that they had never done before.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Fall Suncatchers


We completed our suncatchers today and they look oh so cute hanging in the kitchen window!
Step 1 Trace a Fall leaf onto Orange construction paper, Step 2 Cut out center of leaf, Step 3 Trace leaf onto colored wax paper ( made previously see below for directions) Step 4 Glue orange construction paper leaf onto the wax paper leaf, hole punch and hang by a ribbon in your favorite sunny spot!
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Wednesday, September 14, 2011

It's Finally Fall & The Letter L


This week we have been working on the letter L. Kaitlyn has been using her letter flash cards and puzzles to practice all of the letters we have learned so far. we start each day out with a review.

Letter Play

Today Kaitlyn used her pom poms to trace the letter L, she also used her homemade fundough to make her letters. We practiced her handwriting and trying to stay on the line while tracing her L's.

Another fun way to review letters is by using a paint tracing bag....Fill a ziploc bag with some paint, close it tightly and get all of the air out while sealing it closed. Have your little one use a q-tip to trace the letters onto the bag, the letters disappear quickly and are a great way to practice using some different materials.




Cooking up some patterns in the kitchen


We had fun cooking up some patterns in the kitchen this week. We made some sugar cookies and separated the dough into three bowls. kaitlyn and I read a book about Fall trees so I asked her what colors we see in fall she chose, green, red and yellow so we used some food coloring to dye the dough. Kaitlyn rolled it out and flattened it with her hands. Using some small leaf cookie cutters she cut out three different types of leaves one type for each color.

When the cookies were all done we practiced making patterns using the three colors of leaves....I must say Kaitlyn had fun with this activity....only hazard is the leaves started disappearing mid activity :)


Colorful Circles & Fall Suncatchers

All week we have talked about colors. We have learned about fall leaves and how they change colors. This activity is a lot of fun and illustrates how mixing two colors can make different colors. First you take a large piece of wax paper, then you squirt some hand sanitizer onto it. Then take some food coloring, we used red and yellow, add a few drops of each. Then fold the wax paper over covering the colors. Kaitlyn mixed the colors by practicing her circles. She drew large and small circles with her finger mixing the colors as she went. Tomorrow we will be using this to make some Fall sun catchers.....so check back to see pictures! we set it out flat to dry over night.


Our L Page 

We made our L page for our ABC Book. Kaitlyn made a leaf rubbing using several leaves we found outside. I found it helpful to use double sided tape to stick these onto the table so they wouldn't shift while she was doing her crayon rubbing. I wrote the letter L using a sharpie marker and had Kaitlyn glue her smaller leaves onto the L.

All week we have been getting ready for fall we have enjoyed nature walks and many books about the changing of the seasons. Today we worked on some colorful and very messy art projects to get the house all ready for fall!


Get three large bowl and fill with 1/4 cup of paint we used red, brown and orange. I also mixed some bronze paint in with the brown to give it some shimmer. Then I added some water to dillute the paint. We took our containers outside and Kaitlyn took coffee filters and dipped them into the paint bowls, after she dipped them she wrung them out and then we set them out on the deck to dry. Setting them on wax paper works best for easy removal after drying.

Mommy's naptime craft project

While the kiddos were napping I put my crafting skills to work, I heated up my hot glue gun and got busy!
Step 1: Take a cardboard circle ( I use cake rounds) and cut out the center. Then take the painted coffee filters and bunch them up at the middle. Hot glue them onto the cardboard circle.
Step 2: Go around the whole circle in teh same fashion.
Step 3: Add som ribbon, loop it through the wreath and hot glue together, hang in front of a miror for a dramatic fall look!

I had some left over coffee filters so I added them onto some twigs we collected on our nature walk. They made for great table decorations in the dining room! The house is all decorated, the cinnamon candle is burning in the kitchen, my favorite sweater is hanging in the closet.....now if the cooler temperatures could just arrive!