Penguin Puzzlers and Cookie Baking

I forgot about these matching cards that I used in my classroom until Mr. Two pulled them out of my January box yesterday morning.  I originally had my kindergarteners play concentration with them, but today, I had Mr. Two match up the number card with the corresponding number of penguins card. 

He loved doing this, and I was pleasantly surprised that, not only did he count correctly all the way to 15, but could identify the numbers 6 through 15.

A few tips for making your own card games.

Chart stickers are perfect for making math games, as they are inexpensive and you can fit lots onto a card.

When you are placing stickers on a card for your child to count, try and line the items up in rows, rather than randomly, so that it will be easier for them to count and keep track of which items have already been counted.

Laminate your cards so that you will get many uses out of them.

Want to add some fun penguin stories to this activity?  Go here for my list of favorite penguin books.

I also spent some time yesterday afternoon with Mr. Three (who decided not to take a nap) baking cookies. 

 

He loved dumping in the ingredients and helping mix them all together.

The best part? 

 

Eating one, of course!  It's exciting to have this little guy want to help in the kitchen.  What a sweet day!

An Arizona Snow Day

Yesterday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the kids and Mike had the day off.  We had our own version of a snow day here in sunny Arizona.

My brother and his family were in town with their two little boys, so we had some extra cousin time this weekend.  We had a yummy lunch of In 'N Out burgers for the dads and Ned's Krazy Sub sandwiches for the moms and kids at Grammie's house.  Then, we spent some time in the "great outdoors", indoors at the giant Bass Pro Shop.  The boys had fun exploring the tents and atv's, looking at the giant fish and stuffed animals and roaming around the store.

We also made snowmen, with play dough.  We made snow dough, using this play dough recipe, only I added some orange extract (Mr. Two wanted that instead of peppermint) instead of the kool-aid mix.  I also added some fine silver glitter to give it some sparkle.

I gave the boys carrot shaped buttons and round buttons, pieces of ribbon and wiggle eyes to make their own snowmen.  They started out making traditional snowmen, with three round balls for the body, scarves, carrot noses.

Then, it quickly turned into melted snowmen (by squishing them) then a giant mass of button encrusted playdough.  This turned out to be a great fine motor skill practice as I had them pick out all of the buttons from the dough and poke all the remaining dough out of the button holes with toothpicks.

 

Basically, the clean up took a lot longer than the actual play time, but they seemed to have fun with the cleaning too.  Well, maybe not so much for Mr. Three...

I found this idea on Pinterest and decided to adapt it to go along with our snow day.  I gave the kids a small container of water and sponge brushes to paint some foam snowflakes I had on hand.  Then they stuck the flakes all over our sliding glass door.

They loved this and stuck with it for well over half an hour (which was great so that I could fix dinner).  They had fun pretending they were looking out the window at a real snow storm.

That night, after soup and grilled cheese, we went to Bahama Bucks to have a tasty snow treat.  Mr. One and Mr. Two shared a shaved ice with cotton candy and strawberry flavoring, and Mr. Three had a great time eating Mike's and my shaved ice.  Yum!

We may not have typical snow days here in the hot southwest, but we can still enjoy them in our own way!

Looking for some snowy day good reads?  Go here for my list of snow favorites.  You can also try here and here and here for some favorite winter activities we have done in the past.

Happy winter!

Indoor Snow Day

Mr. One had a half day yesterday and I wanted to do something fun for the afternoon.

In truth, it is in the 70's here and perfect park weather, but I thought it would be fun to have a "snow day."

I told the kids to bundle up for our activities.  They looked at me like I was crazy and had to be persuaded to put on gloves hats and scarves.  Mr. Three was not happy about the hat and promptly took it off.

After gearing up, we poured on the snow.  (foam snowflakes and cotton balls)

We had snowball fights with the cotton balls and enjoyed examining the snowflakes.  It's not often I allow them to throw things in the house, let alone at each other or me.  Mr. Three loved picking up the flakes and shredding the cotton balls.  (I had to keep a close eye on him, lest he try and eat any of our snow.)

I gave therm tongs to collect and sort the flakes when we were through playing.  This was a more enjoyable (and a more challenging) way to clean up, especially with the big gloves still on.

In truth, I had intended to end our little snow day with a mug of hot chocolate and marshmallows, but I forgot not to let them have a dessert after lunch, homework and dinner preparation called, so we'll save that treat for another day.

I so often forget to stop and play with my kids.  Just a few minutes to get down at their level and be a kid myself is so refreshing.  I know they really appreciate it too. 

Winter Fun and Games Links

I wanted to share a few new links to more winter preschool activities that we have been enjoying at our house (besides the ones already under my winter tag).

 

Confessions of a Homeschooler's S is for Snowman post has lots of great printables.  Our favorite?  The prewriting skills printables.  I laminated, cut them into strips and hooked them together with an o-ring.  After adding a marker to the bag, I have a great activity bag activity, for home or on the go.

This winter fun packet from Musings of Me has lots of ideas.  My favorite?  The winter colors book.  This one is on our to do list for the week.  Also on the to do list, the Snowball Fight game.

We love penguins and goldfish crackers at our house, so the penguin fish cracker count from Making Learning Fun is a great fit.

Here are two more snowman activities from Making Learning Fun.

Collecting Snowballs was a big hit with my preschooler this week.  I love that there are two sets of playing cards to choose from, depending on your child's age and ability.   I would recommend using smaller counters for this game (the cotton balls are too big).  We used small florist stones as our "snowballs" or for a fun snack, use mini marshmallows.

This emergent reader, The Snowman Melting, is a fun little rhyme to teach your preschooler.  I plan on putting this story together with some o-rings, so the pages can be separated.  This would make it a great sequencing activity after reading the story.

Today's a half day for Mr. One, so I'm off soon to pick him up and have some fun together this afternoon.  

Penguin Art (with a little geometry snuck in)

Many of you may know by now that I love penguins, especially the Tacky the Penguin series by Helen Lester.  We've been reading a bunch of our favorite penguin tales and having fun with a wintery theme at our house.

Mr. One brought this adorable art project home from kindergarten last week, and I knew I had to try a preschool-friendly one out with Mr. Two.

Look at the adorable snowflakes in the background.

Looking at it, I realized how many simple shapes were used to construct it, so I turned it into a geometry lesson as well as an art project.

Here's Mr. Two's version.

Adorable, no?

Here's what we did.

You will need:
One sheet of blue construction paper
One 8 1/2" by 3 1/2" black rectangle
One 5 1/2" by 2 1/2" white rectangle
One 4" diameter orange circle
One 2 1/2" by 2" black rectangle, cut on the diagonal to make two triangles
One orange triangle, with approximately 1" sides
Two white hole reinforcement stickers
cotton balls
glue or glue stick

I wanted to include a little scissor practice into the project, so I had Mr. Two fold the orange circle in half and cut down the fold, then with one half, I had him fold it in half again (making two quarters of a circle) and cut on the fold.  This made the feet.

We then went through assembling the penguin one shape at a time, starting with our two large rectangles for the body, then the quarter circle feet, the triangle wings and ending with the circle eyes and triangle beak.

The cutest thing about this project was when we got to the end of making the penguin, Mr. Two said, "We need an egg!"  We had just read The Emporer's Egg, and our picture was incomplete without an egg resting on our bird's feet.  We added a white oval egg.

The last step was gluing on some soft cotton ball snow around the bottom of the picture.

linking up at ABC's and 123's Show and Tell and at Delicious Ambiguity's Tot Tuesday

Snow is Falling

Seriously, living in Arizona, our kiddos don't really get to see the real deal snow very often.  (Like they probably don't even remember seeing it...)  Last week, an especially cold and wet storm front moved in and we actually got snow here in the Valley!  Seriously, my hubby was at the shooting range with my brother and dad while the kiddos and Mom and I were out (grocery) shopping.  Mike called and said, "It's snowing here!" and then one of the Safeway employees got on the intercom and announced that flakes were falling outside.  Crazy!  I didn't really see any snow falling by the time we got out, but Mike got a great video of the snowfall on his phone.

Needless to say, now snow is kinda on my brain.  Here is a fun little snowflake project I did with my kids.  Thank you to my cutie sister in law for the idea.  You can see her original post here.

You will need:

iridescent or white sparkly pipe cleaners
white, clear, iridescent tri beads

Now, cut the pipe cleaners in half (I used 6).  Don't worry about getting them exactly in half, I kind of liked the irregular look.

Bundle the pieces together and take one of the pipe cleaners and wrap and twist it around the middle of the bundle.

Fan the pieces out to make your flake, and thread 2 or three beads onto each section.

Take deep breaths when your three year old insists on putting all of the beads on one section and just let him be happy with his independence. Use lots. of. will. power. to leave it alone and let it be.

If you're still up for more snowy day inspired activities, check out this post, this post and this post for more ideas.  (My Mr. Two loves the felt snowflake building activity).  Here are some great wintery reads here as well.

*linking up at ABC's and 123's Show and Tell and Delicious Ambiguity's Tot Tuesday.

Penguin Books

It's no secret to those who know me well that I adore penguins.  I have a massive collection (that I have paired down over the years) that usually comes out during the holidays in full force.  We have several fun penguin books in our home, and here are some favorites.

Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester

Tacky is an odd bird, but a very nice bird to have around.  See how Tacky saves his friends from some fearsome hunters who arrive at their home in Nice Icy Land.

This is my very favorite bird, maybe one of my all-time favorite children's book series.  Did you know there is a series?  There are, in fact, seven books about Tacky.  I won't summarize all of them for you, so you'll just have to take my word for it and assume they are all wonderfully fun and entertaining!  Helen Lester is a favorite author and has several delightful non-Tacky stories as well.  Here's the Tacky Stories list:

Tacky the Penguin
Three Cheers for Tacky
Tacky in Trouble
Tacky and the Emporer
Tackylocks
Tacky and the Winter Games
Tacky Goes to Camp
*Her website says she's working on a Christmas Tacky book.  I can't wait!

Little Penguin's Tale by Audrey Wood

Nanny penguin settles her grand-penguins around her to tell the cautionary tale of a little penguin who foolishly wanders away on a wild adventure, and the consequences of his actions. 

Penguin Pete by Marcus Pfister

Penguin Pete is too small to venture for a swim in the ocean with the others, but he manages to find lots of fun while he waits, learning to ice skate and making some new friends.

(There are a few more Penguin Pete books in this series as well)

The Little Penguin by A.J. Wood

 

This is the story of a little penguin who gets separated from his parents as they travel to the sea.  Worried as he begins to lose his soft gray "baby" feathers, he searches for his mother and father, not realizing he is just growing into his adult feathers.  This book has sweet and reassuring text, but the real reason I love it is for the beautiful illustrations.  The pages are embossed with details to add even more depth to the pictures.

The Emporer's Egg by Martin Jenkins

 

This is a perfect non-fiction penguin book for younger children.  It is written in a casual, easy to understand voice with simple penguin facts.  It explains how the Emperor Penguins take care of their eggs and then the babies that hatch.

Penguins ABC by Kevin Schafer

 

Great alphabet book featuring penguins.  Each page has a photograph and a simple sentence using the letter and accompanying word.  For example, "D is for dive" and "M is for Macaroni Penguins."  There is also a nice list of fun facts at the end of the book for those who want to learn more about penguins- a fact to explain each letter page.

Waddle on over to your favorite library or bookstore and pick up a penguin book or two!

*All images found on barnesandnoble.com*

Snowflakes

Here are several snowflake activities we have tried and enjoyed in our home for our winter theme.

Snowflake making:

I found this activity here and printed out the cards and instructions.  I gave my boys a sheet of blue felt for the sky and cut out the snowflake shapes from white felt.  I used an ice cube tray to sort the shapes (which my husband thought was very clever- ice cubes, snowflakes...).  If you have not been to www.makinglearningfun.com, they have some wonderful printable activities.

My boys enjoyed picking a card and copying the pattern to make the snowflake.  The most interesting thing about this activity was that Mr. Two (who is two) liked this more than Mr. One (who is four).  Although he found the patterns very difficult and needed lots of help from me, he loved naming the shapes we used as we made the snowflake.  I made it into kind of a game for him.  After putting the snowflake together, I had him name the shapes, then I would say, "Hand me a (hexagon or circle, etc.)" and he would give me the correct shape. 

Snowflake stamping:

I found some great snowflake stamps at Oriental Trading, so I let Mr. One stamp patterns in the pattern box strips I copied.

I had Mr. Two practice stamping in the boxes, but we didn't worry about a pattern.  This was good hand-eye coordination and fine motor practice for him.

Snowflake count:

We used some calendar numbers I had in my teaching supplies, then counted out the same number of foam snowflakes to match the number.  Because the calendar pieces are double sided (snowflake on one side, snowman on the other) we could also pattern with our numbers or just put them in order.

Snowflake Matching:

Mr. One and Mr. Two enjoyed this activity.  I pulled out another ice cube tray and put a different snowflake in each well on the top row of the tray.  I then had them find a matching snowflake and place it in the empty well below my snowflake.  It was so fun to see them really study the flakes to find an exact match.

* If anyone reading out there has ideas on some good snowflake books, I'd love to hear about them. I only have one story about a snowflake and it's quite cheesy.  If you'd like to see some of our favorite winter stories, go here.

The Snowy Day

I love this story from Ezra Jack Keats. Here is a fun activity we have done to go along with this wonderful book.  A perfect activity for a cold wet day (like we've been having this week in Arizona).

Melting Snowball Treats

When Peter tucks a snowball into his pocket to save for later, it "magically" disappears after his warm bath.  I thought a little science experiment/ treat would be fun extension activity for our book.  We re-read the story and talked about what happened to Peter's snowball.  Of course, in a warm house, the cold snowball melted.  Then we make our own "snowballs" (marshmallows) and folded them in a "pocket" (crescent roll dough) and let them sit in a warm "house" (the oven), where the "snowballs" will melt.  Here's the recipe:

Disappearing Marshmallow Puffs:

1 can refrigerated crescent roll dough

8 marshmallows (the fresher the better, stale ones don't melt all the way)

cinnamon

sugar

1/2 stick butter

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Spray a regular sized muffin tin with cooking spray.  (They'll probably stick anyways, but I figure it can't hurt...)  Mix cinnamon and sugar and place in a bowl.  Melt 1/2 stick of butter in the microwave in a microwave safe bowl.

Roll marshmallow in butter.

Roll marshmallow in cinnamon sugar mixture.

Wrap and seal a triangle of crescent roll dough around the marshmallow.  Make sure you pinch seams well.

Roll dough pocket in butter.

Roll dough pocket in cinnamon sugar mixture.

Place in muffin tin.  Fill empty muffin tin wells half way with water (to help the rolls cook more evenly).

Bake in oven for approximately 13 minutes, until golden brown.

Let the puffs cool a few minutes before serving (sometimes the marshmallows are not all the way melted, so this gives them time to melt down and to cool off the pastry).  Enjoy your "melted snowball pocket."

Interested in reading more winter time stories?  Go here for my list of favorites!