Still Playing School: October 2014

Sensory Spider Hatching for Kids

We watched spiders emerge from totally cool and creepy "egg sacs" for sensory and fine motor fun spider hatching!


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Sorting Skeletons on the Light Table

Holiday themed activities are motivating for kids and easy to set up. As an engaging Halloween math activity we sorted skeletons on the light table!

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Books for Grieving Siblings

One of the most difficult parts of being a grieving parent is supporting my other children as they miss their sister. When your baby or child dies you attempt to navigate your own grief as you struggle to explain to your other young children what happened to their brother or sister. I always reach for quality literature to assist me in explaining difficult concepts to my kids. This book list is for grieving siblings to understand the loss of a baby brother or sister.

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Sewing Spider Webs

Sewing requires a lot of precise fine motor work! Our preschooler was thrilled with this Halloween themed introduction to sewing for kids. She sewed a spider web!

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Tips for Kids with Clothing Sensitivities

By Devany | Labels: , 4 Comments
All children have sensory needs. Our four year old daughter has clothing sensitivities which we handle with an understanding and patient approach. From our experience in dealing with a child who is picky about clothes here are our Tips for Kids with Clothing Sensitivities.

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Road Construction Pretend Play: The Importance of Stop and Go Games for Kids

Our preschool theme this week is community helpers. We took the opportunity to play a Stop & Go Game as we pretended to be road construction workers. An added bonus is that learning to stop through pretend play games benefits children in many ways.

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Five Little Pumpkins on the Light Table

Five Little Pumpkins is a favorite Halloween poem to retell in our house! We've already shared our Fine Motor Five Little Pumpkins so for this activity we used recycled materials to make dry erase jack-o-lanterns for the light table.


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Celebrating While Grieving: Ideas for Birthdays After Your Child Has Died

By Devany | Labels: , 4 Comments
When a baby or child dies, their grieving families can be unsure as to how to celebrate their birthdays. We should be planning a party and instead we are anticipating one of our most difficult days. How do we mark the years by celebrating the birthdays of the children who are no longer here to blow out their candles? 


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Hide and Seek Spiders in Play Dough

Hide and find spiders in this play dough activity for preschoolers and toddlers! Kids will love digging out and re-hiding the creepy crawlies in the sensory dough for Halloween.

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Fizzy Dinosaur Sensory Play

This sensory invitation to explore was a favorite for both our preschooler and toddler. We created colorful frozen baking soda dinosaurs to put in vinegar for fizzing dinosaur sensory play!


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Monster Hands Color Matching Activity for Kids

Our kids had so much fun matching monster claws to the correctly colored monster hands! We worked on sorting, color identification, patterns, and more!


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Personalized Books for Kids from I See Me! Books

If you are looking for the perfect personalized and educational gift for your kids you will love I See Me! Books! Our kids are thrilled by these bright, colorful, fun stories that contain their names and photos.


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Halloween Shapes on the Light Table

Get into the spirit of Halloween with fine motor sensory play in the light table! These sticky clings are the perfect reusable material for endless not so creepy scenes.

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Room on the Broom Sensory Bin

Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson is the perfect book for Halloween! We are joining up with the Virtual Book Club for Kids to create an extension activity to retell this popular story. We created a Room on the Broom sensory bin! 


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Nocturnal Animals Preschool Unit: Using a KWL Chart

We love KWL Charts to inspire, organize, and introduce a new unit of study for our homeschool preschool. Here we used the graphic organizer to discuss and record what we want to learn about nocturnal animals.


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Light Table Play on the Prism Light Center by Alex Toys

We love light table play! The soothing, sensory platform for learning activities is at the center of all the educational invitations we create for our preschooler and toddler. We have recently fallen in love with the Prism Light Center by ALEX TOYS so we are thrilled to share why we recommend it for your child's wishlist for the upcoming holiday season.

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Fall Math: Pumpkin Hunt for Kids

Counting the pumpkins in our neighborhood was a great way to introduce ten frames to our preschooler! We discussed many ways to count on our pumpkin hunt.

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Jack-O-Lantern Geoboard

We used our homemade geoboard as a festive fine motor way to create jack-o-lantern pumpkin faces while reviewing math concepts!

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Day of the Dead Sugar Skull Craft for Kids

A super simple way to celebrate Day of the Dead or Dia de Muertos with kids is to craft DIY sugar skull lollipops! The treats were a colorful and creative way to learn about a holiday from a different culture.

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Sensory Fall Colors Water Mixing

Autumn colors are all around us! Red, orange, yellow, green, and even brown are so pretty and fall festive.

We explored autumn color mixing with water for seasonal sensory fine motor practice


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