Stamping Christmas Patterns

If you need a quick and easy Christmas activity for kids, this works for one or two children or a whole classroom of students as a center! We worked on fine motor skills and math as we created and continued our holiday stamping patterns. 

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Turkey Pattern Sheet

Do you need a Thanksgiving center idea or an activity for kids to do while the meal is cooking? Our kids loved color sorting and creating feather patterns on our free Thanksgiving turkey printable!

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Bottle Cap Hundred Chart

A Hundred Chart is a fantastic  tool for children to naturally discover patterns in math. We recycled bottle caps to create a loose parts math invitation for the light table!

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Hundred Chart Patterns on the Light Table

During any creative play with math manipulatives patterns will emerge. We put a hundred chart on our light table to explore numeric patterns in a colorful way!

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Thanksgiving Turkey Geoboard

Our Thanksgiving Turkey Geoboard was holiday fine motor practice while we worked on so many math concepts! We discussed patterns, symmetry, geometry, and measurement during this fun and engaging homeschool preschool math lesson.

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Heather Moore, Jamberry Nails Independent Consultant Review & Giveaway

Jamberry Nail Shields are an easy, practical alternative to painting your nails.  They are applied with heat and adhere to your nail, but they are easy to remove with no damage and they never chip.  They are available in so many patterns making them much more creative and versatile than polish.

When Heather Moore, Jamberry Nails Independent Consultant contacted me about reviewing and hosting a giveaway for her Jamberry business, I jumped at the chance!  I have been a fan of Jamberry for over a year now, but I hadn't purchased out of the most current catalog so I was excited to try a new pattern.

I chose Turple Ombre, but End of the Rainbow was a close second choice!  I also recommend the sparkle collection because I love the glitter, but loathe removing real glitter polish from my nails!

The sheets arrive like this so as you can see there are enough shields for 2 to 3 complete applications (maybe more) depending on the size and length of your nails.  What I failed to consider was the fact that my nails are short, so the it was tricky to showcase the ombre well.  I put them in my toenails to get more color showing.  I alternated colors between turquoise and purple on the smaller toenails. 

Let me be honest with you guys, though: Feet are weird.  It was difficult for me to get a picture that I would share with you, because my nails look great, but the rest of my foot?  I haven't had a pedicure since I D was born.  And feet just look weird, don't they?  The more I took and edited the pictures, the stranger I was convinced my feet look.  Without further ado:

I also applied another pattern from my stash to E's nails for the first time.  While they make them specifically for children under the age of 8, we haven't purchased the kids' sheets yet.  (These would make a great gift idea for E if any family members are reading this!) We used the rice bag application method instead of the hair dryer for E as Heather recommended.  We still had several off soon after though, probably because she is a picker.  (An hour after a temporary tattoo application and she is ready to scrub it off.)  I'm hoping this will get better as she gets older!

  

They are totally cute on her, even if she did choose the most adult pattern I had in my collection.  It was a nice change of pace for our mommy/daughter nail nights!

In addition to the $15 gift certificate for one sheet that we are giving away to one reader using the Rafflecopter widget below, we are hosting a Still Playing School Jamberry Party on Facebook!  The details are all outlined by Heather on the event page, but basically if you invite friends or order through this party or post a picture of your Jamicure, etc. you are entered to win the hostess rewards. (This means free and discounted products for you!)  You can join the party without committing to purchasing anything just to get to know Heather and see what patterns and tips she posts for the next few weeks!

You can also find Heather on Twitter and she has helpful tutorial videos on YouTube!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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We received the Turple Ombre nail shield sheet for writing this review, but as always, all opinions and enthusiasm are completely our own! 

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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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Free Thanksgiving Printables and Activities for Kids

Do you need activities for the kids to do while dinner cooks on Thanksgiving? Maybe you're looking for fun and educational activities for the little ones to play and learn over Thanksgiving break. We have a great collection of free Thanksgiving printables for the kids!

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Fine Motor Autumn Leaves Sorting

We are celebrating Fall with fine motor autumn leaf sorting! It's a fun way for kids to play while working on early math concepts.

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Alphabet Woods Literacy Board Game

We love board games! When you can take literacy skills and pack them into a fun hands-on game for kids it makes the play even better. We tried out Alphabet Woods from SimplyFun to test how much early reading was built in to this new game.

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Transportation Math: Sorting, Counting, and Patterning with Vehicles

We love taking a theme that our children are interested in to drive our play and learning. We used vehicles to study math concepts including sorting, counting, and patterning.

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Spinning Straw Spellers

Make your own spinning straw spellers for word family work and fine motor practice! 

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Rainbow Bunny Play

There are so many ways to play with this simple rainbow bunny game!  As I mentioned before, E loves bunnies so I purchased this game at our grocery store for $3.  You stack the bunnies on the platforms, roll the die, then try to remove the color you rolled with the little carrot hook.   The game is now marked down on clearance since Easter is over so if you hurry you can find it for even less!  I had even more educational ideas for these rabbits, though!

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Valentine's Day Math Busy Bag

We made a Valentine's Day Busy Bag that would be the perfect quiet time activity for your kids! We love hands on math ideas! This invitation to play is adaptable for patterns, counting, number order, addition, and subtraction.

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Indian Corn Crafts and Activities for Kids

We love Indian Corn! It is so irresistible from the color to the texture to how versatile it is in for the fall season in the early childhood classroom. I've gathered several of the very best Indian Corn crafts and activities for kids plus included a free printable just for you!

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Indian Corn Patterns on the Light Table

We created festive fall patterns on the light table by making Indian corn with transparent counters! You could also do this off of the light table with regular colored chips.

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Tips for Kids with Clothing Sensitivities

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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Rainbow Sticky Wall Letter Formation

We love to brighten up our days with colorful rainbow learning activities! We created a sticky wall full of letters to practice letter formation for homeschool preschool.

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Frozen Inspired Winter Writing Salt Tray

We are a bit Frozen obsessed! Hearing E sing the soundtrack would melt anyone's heart! After the movie inspired us to build snowflakes on our light table, we next decided to make a Frozen inspired winter writing salt tray for fine motor practice.

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Paper Chains for Countdowns and Patterns

The concept of time is abstract so it can be difficult to explain to children. We use paper chains to count down to exciting events!

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