Educational creativity

     My daughter got this bunny gumball machine in the mail from my mom for Easter.  I really had no intension of filling it with gumballs for my daughter to just empty.  I saw this cute idea to use a gumball machine for a center game.      So, we made it into a game I could use to help my kids at school and to push my daughter to the next level of reading without using the paper flash cards she came home with.  We put letter sticker, number stickers, and some site word stickers on these little glass beads found at the dollar store.      They fit nicely into the gumball machine, so when you pull on the lever you get a bead with a surprise letter, number, or word on it.  The children have to find the symbol on a pre-made letter, number, or word list.  They could use a stamp or sticker to cover the symbol, but I decided to get some hand muscle strengthening work in, too.  They have to use t...

I would like to make an ABC Book using the children's hands so here are some of the ideas I've collected. If you have anything you would like to add, leave a comment.  I will add a link to your page to the post. A-Apple, Angel B- Butterfly Footprints, Bunny   Eric Carle Butterfly C-Carrot, Chick They used hands and feet for this one. D- Dog E- Eagle , Elephant F- Fish or Flower , Flamingo G- H- adorable heart with a cute poem , Horse I- Ice Cream Cone Yummy! J- K- L- Lion M- Monkey N- O- Owl P- Penguin and pig , pumpkin , peacock Q- R- Rocket , Reindeer S- Santa, Sun T- Tree (Christmas) U- Unicorn , Umbrella V- W- X- Y- Z- Zebra Here  you'll find a calendar of hand prints Here  you'll find lots of other ideas for hand and foot prints, too.

     Rainy Days come as such a surprise down here, for a state that never has enough rain.  So, I needed a back up plan to replace the hours worth of outside time we miss.  Most of the time children enjoy spending more time in centers.  This give me more one on one time with the children, but sometimes children need a little physical activity.      With the help of Childhood 101 , who has amazing activities, I made this movement box.  I used a square tissue box and taped the body shape pictures on it.  On another square tissue box, I taped the numbers we are working on. Body shape printables from Childhood 101      I gave the most active child the job of throwing the box like dice.  We made our bodies look just like the picture that was rolled and counted to the number that was rolled.  After Mr. Active had enough time with the throw, I let everyone have a turn. Tir...

We can not celebrate holidays at my school, so that leaves all the fun stuff for my daughter at home.  Kids love to crack eggs.   I have exchanged the experience of cracking a real, messy egg, for one with an art project. Last year we used cascarones to make a fun confetti collage.  Check out the fun on this previous post . They are colorful, real eggs that have been cleaned out and filled with confetti.  We used glue on paper to catch the confetti to create a collage. Because it is a real egg, the sensory experience of hearing and feeling the cracking is as real as it can get. I loved the Easter Egg painting by Teach Preschool .  This year we tried it.  First we did some predicting.  What color paint could be inside?  Then my daughter tapped the egg on the table, like I do with real eggs.  When they opened she giggled and yelled the color that was coming out of the egg. When she was finished using the eggs, she stacked them up....