"Holy Cow" End of School Year Printable Tag and Gift Idea

 "Holy Cow" End of School Year Printable and Gift Idea,

This was quite a year!! I think our kids, teachers and parents have been remarkable. With being on three PTA/PTO boards this year, I've heard about a lot of the struggles and all I can say is, Holy Cow, we all made it!

A Fun Graduation Gift Idea and Printable: Graduation Hat Jars

 A Fun Graduation Gift Idea and Printable,

This year, my nephew is graduating from High School, he's the first one, so it's pretty exciting. I also, have a bunch of girls that were my Young Women a few years back that are graduating as well. So I wanted to do a little something for them.

Say, "Thank You" With These Fun Colorable Cards: Great for School Groups and Church Groups

 Say, "Thank You" With These Fun Colorable Cards,

For the past few years I have been over our PTSA Student Reps at the junior high and high school. Which, means each month I get to help plan activities to help the kids be involved and make their school and community a better place. Basically, to spread goodness. For April, at the junior high we just did an activity that I labeled, Twinkies and Thank Yous. For the activity I made these thank you cards. They really could be used in so many circumstances. Print them off just to have on hand, use them in the class setting, use them for a family activity, for a church activity or for a school group.

Super Fun St. Patrick's Day Coloring Pages

 Super Fun St. Patrick's Day Coloring Pages,

It's so funny, every time I share something related to St. Patrick's Day I get such mixed opinions! So, I'd love to hear, do you do anything for St. Patrick's Day, or do you treat it just like any other day. My hubby is one that never did anything for St. Patrick's Day. My mom always made it magical for us. I remember waking up to little black or green paper footprints that usually led to a treat.

10 Super Fun Valentine’s Day Coloring Pages You Must Have

10 Super Fun Valentine’s Day Coloring Pages You Must Have,

Valentine's Day!! What do you love about it? What do you not love about it? For me, I think Valentine's Day has always been a day of excitement. I remember as a child getting a special knock on our front door, with Valentine's with each of our names laying on the doorstep. Both my grandparents and my parents tried to make the day special. I have strived to carry this tradition on with my own kids! Who doesn't love a surprise on the doorstep?!?

The Cutest New Year's Coloring Pages: A great way to keep kids entertained New Years Eve!

The Cutest New Year's Coloring Pages: A great way to keep kids entertained New Year's Eve!

Every year we throw a New Year's Eve party at or house! It's fun having a house full of kiddos, it's also nice to have something for those kiddos to do!! 

Teacher Appreciation Ideas 2015

Ninja Turtle Valentine's Day Box

This year I only had to help make one Valentine's Day box, it was for my youngest and it was his first.  We decided on the Ninja Turtle, Raphael.

Here is how we put it together :)

Good Friends "Stick" Together Valentine's Day Printable

This year I found the cutest boxes of stickers and thought they would be a fun thing for my kiddos to give to their classmates for Valentine's Day.  I made this fun little printable to go along with it.  Printable can be fastened to stickers with glue or double sided tape.

Valentine's Day Free Printables and Crafts....

When February hits, the snowmen get put away and out come the hearts.  With a home full of boys it is probably the only time you will see so much red an pink in my home!  I think it is just a fun holiday. I day to show the people we care about that we love them.

Here are some fun Valentine's Day printables... best part, they are FREE!

Click her for this fun Bee Craft: Bee Printable

Smiley Face Valentine's Day Craft Printable

Each year I love to come up with some little craft that my kids can do for Valentines Day.  I thought these smiley faces would be super cute and fun to make.

Shake, Shake, Shake Maracas...Homemade Maracas!

My son's class had a fun FIESTA party!!  My job was coming up with a craft to do. After scouring the internet for ideas I came upon some cute maracas.  There were several different ways to make them.  I needed an idea that I could do for over 130 kiddos in 20 minutes of time.  Here is what I came up with:

Day 12 of the 12 Days of Halloween Fun: Halloween Wrap UP (Crafts, Treats and Fun)!

Happy Halloween!!! Here is a wrap up of all the fun Halloween ideas posted the past 12 days as well as some new ones. Click the link to go to the full post for each:

Day 9 and 10 of the 12 Days of Halloween Fun: Halloween Games (Cake Walk, Bingo, Halloween Character Swat)

After a crazy day of Field Trips, Presidency Meetings, shopping for primary and trying to get this post in...it didn't get finished yesterday. So, I am combining Day 9 and 10 and posting some fun Halloween Games that would be fun for School, Church or Family Parties.

Day 9 and 10 of the 12 Days of Halloween Fun: Halloween Games and Printables

Day 7 of the 12 Days of Halloween Fun: Halloween Finger Print Fun & Cards

Most children that I know love to use their creativity to make things.  One thing my children always love to do is make cards. Every holiday & birthday we make our cards, rather than buying them. So, why not make some cute Halloween cards also, to give away with little goodies to family and friends.

Day 7 of the 12 Days of Halloween Fun: Halloween Finger Print Fun & Cards:

You can do this one of two ways. Either you can first do the finger painting and then come back when it is dry with a fine tip permanent marker and add details. Or you can draw some designs and then fill in with finger paint.  I actually used both techniques on the card above.

The bottom three designs were done by my kids. Each are unique and expresses their creativity. I don't know any grandparent who wouldn't love one of these cards!!

We used finger paints that I purchased at the dollar store. The black was normal craft paint. The finger paint was definitely easier to get off of the hands than the craft paint!

Day 2 of 12 Days of Halloween Fun: Fun Halloween Color and Activity Sheets

As a child I loved laying on the floor in my bedroom with a sheet of paper in front of me and an assortment of colors! It warms my heart when I walk into one of my child's rooms and see them doing the same thing. Coloring helps develop motor skills and encourages creativity. It also has been found to not only be beneficial for children, but also adults.  In an article posted by The Huffington Post, titled  "Coloring Isn't Just For Kids. It Can Actually Help Adults Combat Stress.", it discusses the distressing benefits that have been found when adults color. In the article, psychologist Gloria Martínez Ayala states, "The action involves both logic, by which we color forms, and creativity, when mixing and matching colors. This incorporates the areas of the cerebral cortex involved in vision and fine motor skills [coordination necessary to make small, precise movements]. The relaxation that it provides lowers the activity of the amygdala, a basic part of our brain involved in controlling emotion that is affected by stress." So, to put it plain and simple coloring is beneficial for anyone, regardless of your age!

For day 2 of 12 Days of Halloween Fun, I thought I would post some Halloween Coloring and Activity pages :

This is how the below printable will look when put together

Making Animal Drawings Out of Shapes Worksheet

My son's class asked for volunteers for career day.  Everyone in our family was working, so I signed up to talk to the kids about being a stay-at-home mom, blogging and how I use creativity when I design worksheets and such for the blog.  I wanted to make it fun for the kids so I came up with this worksheet of how you can use basic shapes and make animals out of them. The plan is to give each of the kids their own worksheet and let them use their creativity to make their own animal designs.  Thought I would share the worksheets.  These would be great to use for preschool, elementary, or just fun summer activity with the kids.

Printing Tip: Click on the image and save it to your computer. Then you can print it from your computer, just like any other image.

Worksheet: Instruct the children to use their imagination and create an animal out of the given shapes.

Here is an example that I did on the computer of how they can use the given shapes to make an animal. (I have one I drew in pencil that I am planning on showing them also.)

Preschool Shapes Worksheet

I am amazed at what all of these little kiddos need to know before entering kindergarten.  This worksheet is one that I made for my middle son a few years back, to help him get ready for kindergarten.

The idea is that you tell them the name of the shape and they draw that shape in the square. It tests them to see if they know the shapes and how to draw them.  

If they are not quite there yet here is a printable to help them get there.

The idea on this one is that they trace the shape and then draw it by themselves.

Ideas for Primary 1 manual, Lesson 12: I Am Thankful for Animals and Lesson 13:I Am Thankful for Birds and Insects

Aren't the Sunbeam lessons the funnest!  I was reviewing this weeks lessons (we missed classes last week, so we are combining #12 & 13 this week) and I had so many fun, cute ideas come to mind.

These would also just be great for preschool or kindergarten, also!

Here they are:

Bee Puppets:

I made these bee finger puppets a few years ago, out of felt.  I traced my finger onto some paper and then made it about 1/4 to 1/2 of an inch bigger. Then I traced them onto the felt, cut them out and sewed them on the sewing machine. For the black stripes I used black yarn and hot glued them around the felt. For the wings, I used black pipe cleaner forming them into winds by bending and twisting, then glued them on with the hot glue.  The eyes were just drawn on with a permanent black marker. And for the little antennas I tied a knot in some black button thread (it's pretty thick and stiff). Then with a needle I sewed it up through the top of the bee, tied a knot right next to the felt and then tied a knot at the end.  I did this for each antenna. Hope that all makes sense.  You could talk to them about what bees do, maybe have some flowers, and you could talk to them about where bees live.  Even sing the "Baby Bumble Bee Song" it can be found here.


Another fun thing might be a small Animal/insect bingo game.  You could use cereal, marshmallows, small candies like smarties or skittles, or you could just use paper for the kids to mark their spaces.

Here is a printable:
Printing tip: Click on the image and save it to your computer, then you will be able to print the image from your computer.