Still Playing School: August 2014

Go Away, Big Green Monster Cloud Dough

Presenting our children with a bin of colored sensory cloud dough led to a retelling of the story Go Away, Big Green Monster!

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Building Word Families with Bread Ties

Spelling with bread ties is a fine motor literacy activity that reviewed the word families our daughter has been learning while reusing a material most people throw away! We've furthered the learning with a math game with bread ties


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Toeprint Acorn Keepsake Craft for Kids

Create these toe print acorns with your kids for a Fall keepsake craft you'll cherish every Autumn!


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Paper Roll Acorns

Our toilet paper roll stamped acorns were the perfect fine motor fall craft for both my preschooler and toddler! 


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The After School Attitude: Why Is My Child Acting Out at Home?

By Devany | Labels: , 43 Comments
Yesterday a friend mentioned that her daughter has been coming home from preschool this week with a terrible attitude.

I started explaining why and giving tips about how she could help when I realized that this advice needed to reach more parents who are struggling with the dreaded After School Attitude

Your child recently started back to school and you are seeing a behavior fall out at home but here is what is really going on.


The After School Attitude What can parents do about kids' behavior after a long day at school?
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Window Math

My preschooler has been so incredibly interested in math. (Thank you, Math Seeds!) The theme of this month's activity for the Light & Reflections series is motor skills. We did a few window math games with a gross motor twist!


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Marshmallow Sensory Bin

After our invitation to build with marshmallows we dumped all the different types and sizes of marshmallows into a bin for sensory exploration! We created a marshmallow sensory bin for our preschooler and toddler.

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Fine Motor Fun with Water Beads

Water beads are irresistible! For this invitation to play we provided lots of ways to explore the water beads that involved using fine motor skills.

Ideas to practice fine motor skills using water beads for kids!
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Building with Marshmallows

Our preschooler has a renewed interest in building and construction. I point all the credit for her new passion to Korxx blocks for giving her the confidence she needed about her engineering skills! For this invitation I presented her with every size and shape of marshmallow we could find and let her imagination do the rest.

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Tips for Tantrums: Why Parents Need a Hand Gesture

By Devany | Labels: 13 Comments
Please tell me I'm not alone in dealing with stressful, embarrassing tantrums and physical fits from my toddler in public. After talking to friends I've realized how much one simple hand signal or gesture might help us all!


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Painting Sugar Cubes

This fine motor painting activity involved color mixing, absorption, solid dissolution, building construction, and the light table!


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10 Tips to Ease the Kindergarten Transition (from a Kindergarten Teacher!)

By Devany | Labels: 16 Comments
I was a kindergarten teacher in both public and private schools before I became a mom. These are my top tips for starting kindergarten on the right foot and setting a positive tone for the whole school year!


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Beach Vacation Small World Play

We created a beach vacation small world for dolls that was extra fun with the addition of some drink umbrellas!

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Alphabet Slime

Clear sensory slime and transparent letters on the light table created an irresistible fine motor literacy invitation!

A fine motor invitation to explore letters in slime is the perfect sensory literacy activity for kids!
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