ABC Scoops

I saw this over on Pinterest HERE, but she doesn't have a printable so I decided to make one up to share and to have for L-Pad to practice. Who doesn't love icecream, YUM!

DOWNLOAD HERE

**if you would like the blank templates for the scoops and cones, please comment here or go to the Facebook group to comment with your email. Thanks!!**
You could use the blank templates for:
~compound words (sandbox, applesauce, butterfly, etc - HERE is a list of some compound words)
~numbers and their "dots"
~or HERE is an idea to practice words that start with... A, B, C, etc

Cheerio Stacking

I found this from somewhere on Pinterest and loved the idea to work on fine motor skills and it's something I had everything on hand for so we did it this morning, it was a good 10-15 min activity, and L-Pad enjoyed himself and his towers.

Materials Needed:
~Playdough or other moldable clay
~Cheerios
~Raw Spaghetti Noodles

Farm Matching Mat

Print off 2 and cut one around each card and have a matching game. You can put it into a file folder to make it easily transportable or just have it has a table activity. Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD HERE

And just a little side note, if you are into sewing here are some ADORABLE "Old McDonald" Puppets with a free patterns.

A for Alligator

Alligator Paper Piecing

Photo and Idea Source: Meet the Dubiens

~Teasing Mr. Alligator - Paint or color a clothespin green and add 2 googly eyes for Mr. Alligator (or use sharpie to draw eyes). Print 5 monkey clipart images and cut them out. Laminate your monkeys.

Place a small ball of playdoh or sticky tack on the back of each monkey and “hang” them from a tree (a fireplace mantel, edge of a chair or table). 

Say the rhyme below and each time, have your preschooler snap or clip that monkey right out of that tree with the clothespin Mr. Alligator!

Five little monkey swinging in a tree

Teasing Mr. Alligator, “Can’t catch me!”

Along comes Mr. Alligator, as quiet as can be

And SNAPS that monkey right out of that tree

Alphabet Bingo

Materials Needed:
~printouts of the bingo boards
~markers for the letters (beans, bingo chips, etc)

Call out a letter and the kids put their markers on the letter if they have it on their card, first one to get a bingo wins.
(Oriental Trading has some awesome "prize" stuff in bulk)

Each board is missing one letter so not everyone can get a bingo. I have a boy so there are more boy cards then girl but I figured the animal one could count for both. Each will fit on an 8.5x11 page.

The download is of all of them, just pick which numbers you would like to download corresponding to the preview. Questions? Leave a comment or go to our Facebook Page.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Outer Space Mural

L-Pad would love this craft, not sure how well the spray bottle would work with him doing it but if it's outside, maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

Photo and Idea Source: I Heart Crafty Things

Materials you will need:
-Black sheet of card stock paper
-spray bottle ( Wal-Mart .97)
-white paint
-water
-a variety bright colored pieces of card stock paper
-glue stick
-crayons
-glitter glue
-star stickers

Put a small amount of white paint into the spray bottle and dilute with some water. Spray it onto the black paper, let dry (abt 10 minutes). Draw different sized circles onto the different colored papers. Cut out and glue the circles onto the black paper. Then add any details and goodies to the circles you want.

Storytelling Game

Photo and Idea Source: Chasing Cheerios

Get the wooden figures from Walmart, Michael's or Joann's, put them into a bag. Take turns pulling a figure out and start telling a story about that figure. Ex: Pull out a lion, "There once was a lion walking through the grass (pull out a butterfly) then a butterfly flew by" etc

Paper Plates: Sea Turtle

Photo and Idea Source: Sun Scholars

-Template found HERE
-small paper bowl
-small paper plate
-green paint
-paint brush
-green and brown paper
-scissors
-glue
-stapler
-black marker
-wiggly eyes

Directions:
1. Turn your small paper bowl upside down and paint the entire bottom of it with green paint. Let it dry completely.
2. While your paint is drying, print out the template. You can either print it out on green card stock paper, or you can print it out on white card stock paper and have your child color it green.
3. Cut out all the pieces from the template.
4.Cut out several small squares out of your brown and green paper.
5.Spread glue all over the paper bowl and place your small squares all over to make the turtle's shell. Let it dry.
6. Using the stapler, staple the head, arms, and legs to the paper bowl and plate.

Fishy Shapes

Photo and Idea Source: Little Family Fun

Materials Needed:
~Different colors of construction paper
~Marker
~Contact paper or laminator
~Paper clips

Go fishing for shapes, cut out a fish shapes onto the construction papers, then draw a shape-or you could do a letter, number, dots, sight words, etc- laminate, put a paper clip onto each. With a pole or stick with some string attached to it and a magnet at the end go fishing and as each one is grabbed say what's on the fish.

Foamy Windows

Photo and Idea Source: Art for Little Hands

Cut foam sheets into different shapes then using a bowl of water dip the shapes into it and put up onto the window.

Daniel and the Lion's Den

Tonight for FHE we're doing a lesson on Daniel and the Lion's Den and for the activity, I traced a lion stencil onto some computer paper and L-Pad will be using raffia (for the mane), markers, etc to decorate the lion.
Here's the stencil: (just right click and save)

Another idea I thought of doing was taking some lion foam stickers (from Walmart) and then drawing a "den" with office supply dots and having L-Pad connect the "dots" and color the den.

Bug Spaghetti

I have boys remember :) this is something I know L-Pad would love to play in at least for a little while.

Photo and Idea Source: The Imagination Tree

Materials Needed:
~cooked spaghetti noodles
~about 1 TSP veggie oil
~black food coloring
~plastic bugs or "buggy" things
~forks, tongs etc to play in it

Glow-in-the-Dark Spider

Photo and Idea Source: My Little Gems

Supplies:
Styrofoam balls (one large and one small for each spider)
glow sticks-the bracelet kind
necklace glow sticks (one for each spider)
Instructions: 
1. Make a hole in the large ball, in which you will insert the necklace glow stick. The ones I bought were whistles, and we just cut the whistle part off. 
2. Leave some of the stick out, and put the smaller Styrofoam ball on that end to make the head.
3. Next add 8 glow sticks for legs. Break the sticks and get them glowing, and then insert one end in the spider's body. 
4. Let your child play with the spider, or hang it up in a dark place for a decoration.

Mr. Chomper Game

Photo and Idea Source: I Heart Crafty Things

Materials Needed:
-Letter-size envelope

-gray marker or crayon

-large wiggly eye

-3 inch pieces of white yarn

-white felt

-glue stick

-hot glue gun

Directions:

1. Seal your envelope and color it gray.

2. Cut a triangle piece out of one side of your envelope to make the mouth. 

3. Take the triangle piece you cut just cut out, put some glue on the inside of it to seal it together, and then glue it to the back of the envelope to make the fin.

4. Glue on the large wiggly eye and the 3 pieces of yarn. The yarn makes the gills for the shark.

5. Cut out some teeth from the white felt and attach them to the mouth of the shark.

6. Now make some flashcards (mine are approx 2 1/2" x 2") and have fun playing the Alphabet Chomper Game.

And here's a download to go with Mr. Chomper. I took it a little bit further than just the alphabet. I did the alphabet (upper and lower), numbers (1-10, one-ten, and dots), and colors. There are 8 pages in all to printout.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Wheels on the Bus

Materials Needed:
~Styrofoam egg container
~People or toys

Cut the container in half and put the top half under the bottom so that it can slide easily across the floor. Make stops along the way to pick people up and let people off. Counting activity???? You could also make roads out of duck tape.

Photo and Idea Source: Toddler Toddler

Stay Warm Arctic Animals

What you need:

Large plastic tub
Ice
Water
Ziploc bags
Vegetable shortening

Fill your water table with cold water, lots of ice, and plastic Arctic animals. Let children put their hands into the water to play with the animals. Most likely, they will quickly tell you that their hands are too cold. Talk with them about how Arctic animals stay warm in the icy water because of something called blubber. Explain that blubber is a thick layer of fat beneath the skin of many sea mammals such as whales, seals, and walruses. To demonstrate how blubber helps keep animals warm, fill two Ziploc bags with vegetable shortening. Seal the bags and place them into another Ziploc bag. Have a child slip his/her hand in between the two bags of shortening and close the outside bag around his/her hand. Then have him/her place his/her hand into a tub of icy water. The shortening will act as blubber and keep the child’s hand warm.


Source: Twiggle Magazine

D for Dinosaur

L-Pad LOVES and I mean LOVES dinosaurs, and so not doing something with dinosaurs would end up with a disappointed Hedgehog so...

Start the day by having a dinosaur come to visit!! Just cut them out of posterboard. She gives some fun little measuring ideas too.

Photo and Idea Source: I can teach my child

Make a Dinosaur Alphabet Craft:

Materials Needed:

~2 shades of green foam sheets

~scissors

~googly eye

Photo and Idea Source: Meet the Dubiens

Apple Tree Game

Photo and Idea Source: Little Family Fun

Materials Needed:
~Construction paper-green, brown, and red
~Scissors
~Glue
~Dice

Cut out a tree out of the construction paper and glue the trunk and the tree top together. Then scrunch up pieces of red paper for the "apples". Take turns rolling the dice to see how many apples to put on the tree

Envelope Dog

Photo and Idea Source: Twiggle Magazine

Materials
Dog printouts
White business envelope
Brown craft paper
Black craft paper
Red craft paper
Crayons or colored pencils
Large wiggly eyes
Tape
Scissors
Black marker
Glue

Print dog patterns on heavy printing paper, laminate for extra strength if desired, and cut out. Trace onto craft paper and cut out. Fold envelope and cut in half (see picture 1). Place pieces together and tape one side together, using two pieces of tape (see picture 2). Fold and color the top piece of the envelope with crayons and decorate with ears, eyes, and nose. With a black marker, draw some dots beside the nose. To make the puppet talk, place four fingers in the top part of the envelope and the thumb in the bottom part.

Note: For younger children, have them place the entire hand in the top part of the envelope only.