First Friday Q&A : Make Handwriting Practice Fun and Playful! | Not Just Cute I’m taking a little break as we welcome our fourth son to our family. Enjoy this First Friday Q&A from last year (also available at YouTube here). Here are some ideas for helping children build handwriting skills in novel and playful ways. Watch the video and then add your ideas in the comments section. (Bonus for those watching carefully during the mirror segment: You’ll see the pile of clothes my boys dropped as they raced out to the Slip ‘n Slide.) Handwriting Helps Build Small Motor Skills: Fine Motor Skills Page {PreKinders} Tons of ideas here! Handwriting {PreK Pages} Tips through the whole writing process – from FM skills to putting pencil to paper. Letter Formation: Tactile Letters Kit Wikki Stix Alphabet Fun Cards for Learning Pencil Grip: Preschool Song: Teaching Proper Pencil Grip Pencil Grip: How to Teach Your Child How to Hold a Pencil Properly Fun writing tools and surfaces: Chalk and Chalkboard Magnadoodle Whiteboard Markers On Sheet ProtectorsOn Picture Frames On Windows On Mirrors Salt
Learn to Draw Animals Print and enjoy our Learn to Draw Animals pages for kids of all ages. Kids can use our step by step illustrations to discover how to draw all sorts of animals and build up their skills and confidence in the process...plus they are just good fun! You could build up a whole folder of these printable pages for rainy days - teachers might even want to laminate them and keep them ready as a time-filler or reward. By special request, save yourself a lot of clicking and grab all our learn to draw animals, birds, bugs and sea creatures in one easy download! Learn to draw this cute chimpanzee just by following the steps and copying carefully. Whether you are looking at African animals, primates or even Ancient Egyptian Gods, use our learn to draw a baboon guide to add some fun. Have you ever wanted to learn how to draw a badger? Whether for Halloween or any time, kids can learn how to draw a bat with our fun step by step tutorial to print and copy. Bees are favourite summertime project.
How To Make "Clean" Play Slime Home Hacks | Apartment Therapy Ohdeedoh Previous image Next image We have yet to meet a child who isn't into slime. Icky, sticky and awesome is where fun is had and this version keeps kids and surfaces both, clean along the way. It only takes pennies to create and is liquid one moment and solid as a rock another! What You Need Materials:1 1/2 cup Cornstarch1/2 cup Tap WaterFood Coloring (optional)Liquid Extracts (optional)Empty Container Instructions 1. 2. 3. 4. Additional Notes This mixture can be "eyeballed" in any amount. (Images: Sarah Rae Trover)
Play Dough Rangoli Mandalas | NurtureStore By Cathy James on June 14th, 2012 Yesterday’s Play Dough Pizza Parlour was all busy activity and co-operative playing. Today’s Play Dough Pledge idea is very different. It’s quiet and gentle and sensory and mindful. My 5-year-old has been ill this week and play dough has come to our rescue. Play Dough Mandalas On offer we had: orange play dough made using our favourite no cook play dough recipe :: bottle tops and lids :: a selection of added extras including pearl barley :: brown, orange and puy lentils :: cumin and caraway seeds The colours and textures and scents of the pulses and spices bring lots of sensory elements to the play. L remembered how we’d used pulses to make Rangoli patterns for Diwali so we decided to see how this would work with play dough. To make the rangoli mandalas she took a blob of play dough and pushed it into a bottle top. The addition of some fancy sugar tongs was popular. She came up with a variety of designs for her play dough mandalas. Get the book!
Little Apple Yarn Favors These cute little apples just fell from our tree, or so we like to think! They’re super easy to craft and make a fun decoration for my Fall kitchen. Supplies for Yarn Apples: craft yarn – red, green, or yellow (the cheap yarn will do, $2 a skein)pipe cleaners (or chenille stems) – brown and greenpiece of cardboard – 2 in x 5 in First find a piece of cardboard to help you with the winding. I tore off a piece from a box we had lying around. Take your yarn color of choice and start wrapping it around your cardboard. Cut your brown piece of pipe cleaner in half and slip one through your winded up yarn. You now put the other cut half brown pipe cleaner through again and twist it up on the opposite end of the yarn, creating the round apple and looking like the little bottom end of an apple. You can be done here or add a little leaf to the apple. You’re done. Tagged as: apples, pipe cleaners, yarn Written by Marie LeBaron
AMAZING PRESCHOOL ACTIVITIES Paper Plate Rainbow This Paper Plate Rainbow is a perfect craft for preschoolers. Paper plates are just the right shape for rainbow-making, add some clouds and you've got one fun craft! Ages: 3 and Up Here's what you'll need... • Paper plate • Scissors • Paint and brush • Cotton balls • Glue Here's how you make it... 1. 2. 3. Most paper plates have a glossy finish on the "eating" side of the plate, the back does not. Sign up for our FREE Newsletter The Busy Bee BUZZzzz You'll get the BUZZzzz on our new crafts, featured crafts for up coming holidays and seasons, AND learn some fun and useful tips for doing kids crafts - all delivered to your inbox from busybeekidscrafts.com. Your email address is totally secure, it is only used to send you the Busy Bee BUZZzzz. Find more Bible Crafts like this Paper Plate RainbowFind more St Patrick's Day Crafts for KidsFind more Paper Plate Crafts
Paint Chip Phonics I found a great idea on The Snail’s Tail. She really does a good job of explaining it on her site, but I’ll try to do it here too. The idea is to practice the consonants, blends, digraphs and common word families. I have to admit I was a tad intimidated to walk into Lowe’s and grab a whole pile of paint chips, but the lady was talking to me the whole time and didn’t seem to mind. Shopping List: 13 long cards (6 colors to a card) or 26 short cards (3 colors to a card) for consonants, blends, and diagraphs34 cards that have the hole cut out…12 if there are 3 colors on a card. Here is a sample of the families, blends and digraphs (you can click on the images to see them larger): Consonants and cards in action: Since I had cards left over, I decided to make a “Shades of Color” game with them for my preschooler. These word families go on the cards with the square cut out on them: agab ailainackakeamanankapallatayeedellestewickightillineinginkipobogoreotoutowuckumunky Consonants: Blends: Diagraphs: